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Religion And Reason The Conflict In Convergence
By: R.S. Mooshahary

Three recent news concerning three main religions were characteristic instances of religious irrationality. The first was the attack on Taslima Nasreen at Hyderabad by a group of self-proclaimed upholder of Islamic principles. In it, the religion showed its ugly influence on its self-aggrandizing zealots. Those who attacked Taslima had not read her book, and their ignorance distorted the essence of the faith they profess. The next was that Mother Teresa would have to wait for her sainthood because the second miracle was yet to come by. It showed that the church believed in things super natural more than in service for humanity. In ‘The Theory of Everything’ Stephen Hawking mentioned that in 1981 when he met the pope at the Vatican where he went for a cosmological meeting, the pontiff told him that the scientists could study the evolution of the universe but not the big bang itself for it was the moment of creation and therefore the work of god. The catholic faith does accept that the Mother was a saint personified who transformed a million hearts and provided succor to the abandoned and suffering through her love and care. This Nobel Laureate of peace was a living miracle and the Church’s insistence on some other miracle is nothing short of a continuing superstitious stupor of the age when it tormented Galileo for blasphemy for trying to correct them that the sun did not go around the earth.

The third news was the controversy over the government affidavit in the Supreme Court in the Sethusamudram project case wherein it was averred that the contents of Ramayana were not historical records. This shows that truth is not universal and in matters of religion, it is not reason that people care but belief, which transcends history, geography and science. Ram is one of the many gods that the Hindus worship and it does not concern them if he is a mythical or historical figure. He lives in their heart and soul and they believe it is the truth. This faith obstinacy is common to all the religions; gods are creations of man and they will disappear with man. Buddhism is possibly an exception because it does not regard the Buddha as god and he is a historical figure. It does not put man in the fear of god to be good; it aims to transform man through the principles and practice of nine-fold path of righteousness to attain moksha from the cycle of birth and death. Even so, it is not entirely free from superstition because it believes in the transmigration of soul and reincarnation. In the fore of religion is superstition because human beings cannot explain why and how certain things happen the way they do.

The invention of the wheel has not taken religion anywhere. It still influences people to believe the hocus pocus things like the statue of ganesha drinking milk, the suicide bombers being feted in heaven by dozens of virgins for killing the kafirs, the human race being meted out indiscriminate punishment for profligacy with disasters like tsunami, earthquake, typhoon, AID etc. On the opposite spectrum, it is intolerant of dissent and unjustly retributive. It was quite possible that 100 years ago if some one had said that man could land in the moon he would have been burnt at the stake like Joan de Arc for blasphemy by the guardians of religion. The problem is not with the religion really but with the religious. Victor Hugo observed that ‘there is in every village a torch – the teacher and an extinguisher – the clergyman’. Two books I have read this month are a contrast in approach to religion. The books are - ‘India’s Unending Journey – Finding Balance In a time of Change’ by Sir Mark Tully and ‘the God Delusion’ by Richard Dawkins. Sir Tully is an Indian born English who is widely known in India for his BBC reporting but not many know his deep insight in to Hinduism and his eclectic religious adherence. His abiding interest in the Hindu views of life, his ardent faith in the uncertainties of certainty of the Hindu ways of seeking the truth and his love for Indianness find lucid expression in the book. He has not become a Hindu for two reasons - his loyalty to the religion he was born in – the Roman Catholic - and his respect for the Hindu doctrine that there are many ways to truth and being a Christian is a way to it.

Richard Dawkins is not only an atheist but believes in converting others to his conviction. He says ‘if this book works as I intend, religious readers who open it will be atheists when they put it down.’ It is not a mere presumptuous optimism given his extraordinary scholarship and ability to reason and most likely the readers will think differently after they have read the book. To the believers he may sound heretical but his views are refreshingly original in the empirical perspective. He believes that ‘when one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called Religion.’ The group of South Korean Christians who went to Afghanistan to propagate their religion among the Taliban surely suffered from that delusion. What else could explain their irrational conduct that caused extreme embarrassment to their government and cost it 20 million dollars in trade-off for their lives, which the Taliban would be using to destroy the very religion they went to spread? The author quotes Sean O’ Casey in one of his chapters - ‘Politics has slain its thousands, but religion has slain its tens of thousands.’ Nothing in human history has wrought as much havoc with human life and society as religion because it has refused to accommodate reason as the basis for resolving disputes.

All religions aim at creating a moral man full of love, humility, tolerance, honesty and compassion, for which it puts the fear of God in the mind on man. But has it succeeded in doing so? On October 17, 1969 when the Montreal police went on strike, the Canadian authorities did not make any alternate policing arrangement. They possibly thought that the peace loving people of Canada known for their religiosity would conduct themselves morally. By 11.30 A.M., the first bank was robbed. By noon, most of the downtown stores were closed because of looting and as the day progressed, the city was in the grip of wanton lawlessness. There is also constant evidence of religion and god failing to make moral man. In our judicial process the oath to speak the truth and nothing but the truth is administered to the witness by making him physically touch Gita or Koran or Bible but does he always speak the truth? Not really. The same man for fear of physical assault will speak the truth during interrogation by police but on oath and in the name of the holy book he will tell lie in the court. Man needs policing each other more than fear of god. These are empirical experiences to prove that god’s influence on man is limited to serving his own interest alone. ‘I am a God fearing person’ is a much-used term to emphasize one’s honesty and good intention. The question is why should anybody fear God if his intentions are honest? To be good we do not need religion and fear of God. Being good is an intrinsic human value that comes out of one’s own perception of right and wrong, reason and compassion. The first lesson one needs to learn to be good is the principle of not doing to others what one would not want others do to him. This is the teaching of human religion.

Religion is primarily not by choice but by birth; people are born in to a religion and it makes them too emotional to study it dispassionately. There are also social and group compulsions that deter people from critical analysis of religion creating barriers within its affiliates. Civilization is likely to be destroyed not because there is no religion but because there is too much of it yoking the faithful to the cart, which refuses to move forward in the wheels of zeitgeist. Only religion with reason can prevent this apocalypse and transform the world in to a Ramrajya where people will not fight over whose god is mightier but create conditions for tolerance and continence, equity and plenty.

The writer, a former Director General of Police in Kerala and Director General of the National Security Guard and the Border Security Force, is currently the State Chief Information Commissioner, Assam)