This is the first essay in a series of three introducing the ‘Religion’ section.
Read the next essay in this series here.
“All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages…”
– Shakespeare
Reflecting on the above lines along with the rest of the passage to which they belong, it doesn’t seem that Shakespeare was merely trying to classify man’s entire life into seven stages in the scene. ‘They have their exits and their entrances’ contains an element of individuality and a sense of free will, not only in terms of personal liberties but also with regard to respecting the liberties of others by not attempting to choreograph their part.
Organized religion, on the other hand, has attempted to encroach upon these very liberties by forcing us to follow a dogma set by a chosen few. Much blood has been shed and many wars have been fought, all with an attempt to stage-manage the lives of people, strangers mostly, to dance to our tunes. Where did we get this liberty to intrude in the lives of others and obliterate them just because their script contained dialogues that were different from ours and required them to wear costumes that didn’t match our attire? How did practicing bigotry via acts like proselytism gain widespread acceptance as being one of the ‘pathways to heaven’?
In order to find answers to the above questions, we must start by first delving into basic questions like:
- how did religion become so deeply entrenched in our lives/why are we so religious in the first place?
- What motivates us to indulge in practices and notions that we don’t fully understand or find it hard to relate to, yet follow them with full gusto?
Let’s explore.
It’s Fear, My Dear
Why we do what we do? Well, two reasons primarily:
- ‘What’s in it for me’ i.e. the reward. Examples:
- working a 9 to 5 even against one’s wishes in order to pay the bills.
- pursuing one’s passion like writing, painting, etc. for personal growth and mental satisfaction.
- socializing with friends and/or family to unwind.
- ‘How will the consequences of my action(s) affect me’ i.e. the fear of punishment. Examples:
- adhering to the posted speed limit in order to avoid paying hefty penalties if caught. In the absence of a legal authority vested by the state in certain individuals to enforce traffic laws, would any of us abide by these rules? I know I won’t.
- avoiding to question a higher authority at work or elsewhere for fear of retribution.
- avoiding venturing into high-crime neighborhoods out of fear for one’s safety.
The examples as mentioned under the second point above are instances where we know what will be the consequence(s) corresponding to which of our action(s). For instance, if I go over the posted speed limit (the action), I will get a speeding ticket (the consequence), if caught.
Religion, on the other hand, is different. Here, the entity that hands out the punishment i.e. God is virtually unknown. Nobody has seen it and whatever little we know about it is through texts written centuries ago and/or through self-appointed experts in this field, like the padri in a Church, the rabbi in a synagogue, the priest in a Hindu temple or the imam in a mosque (henceforth referred to as priest irrespective of their religious affiliation). One can devise a plan to tackle threat from a tangible source, but what is one to do when the enemy opposing entity is the ever-elusive God? So we approach the priests from help, who explain to us how sensitive God is about religious rules and how we must conduct ourselves in order to avoid upsetting it, failing which we must be prepared for calamitous ramifications.
So the institution of the punishing authority i.e. God is blurry, what offends it is unclear and most of the consequences of our ‘transgressions’ put us on the road to hell. Fear is obvious.
NOTE: All places of worship will henceforth be referred to as temple irrespective of their religious affiliation.
But why Fear?
If religion was presented to us as a nonobligatory/good-to-know/nice-to-have idea, we wouldn’t have bothered following it, leave alone donating large wads of cash to protect ourselves from the clutches of God, who loves us all by the way. After all, if a scantily clad person at a traffic signal asking for food doesn’t move us enough to help them, then why in the world would we loosen our purse strings for an organization whose ideas are incoherent for the most part? So the “if you don’t follow these commandments you’re destined for hell where you’ll suffer till eternity and only I (the priest) can save you from eternal damnation if you do as I say” adage does the trick.
Why do we fall for it? It’s simple: who wants to suffer the consequences of their actions that are deemed sinful in one’s faith? More importantly, who is willing to defy these centuries old rules and risk facing the wrath of the divine? Isn’t it simpler to just bribe one’s way up to heaven by paying the priest to keep the God in good humor for all of our supposed misdeeds? Money probably can’t buy happiness, but it can surely buy us a place in heaven. Worth the investment if you ask me.
The Effects
Cerebrum is the part of our brain responsible for our ability to reason, which has been severely compromised due to the excessive fear mongering and indoctrination that it has been subjected to over the years. How else would one explain the following ironies:
- our houses and temples are both man made structures. Depending on the faith we follow, we are bound to have a religious symbol like our respective God’s photo/idol, prayer beads and/or a holy book in our house, much like the articles we find in temples. Questions:
- how does one concrete structure with some religious articles in it differ from another such structure with similar articles in it, except that I call one of them my home?
- indulging in activities such as drinking, smoking, having drugs, eating animal meat, premarital sex, using expletives, etc. is considered a sin in most faiths. If God is everywhere as most religions claim, then why do people refrain from such activities only inside temples and not elsewhere? Are we invisible to God outside of temples?
- if a friend of ours is polite to us because of the possibility that we may lend them some money while simultaneously mistreats others based on their social and/or financial standing, will we ever be able to trust them with anything? On similar lines, if we’re at our best behavior only inside temples and misbehave with others elsewhere, will God ever trust us?
- everyone is equal in the eyes of the Lord, yet the priests are more equal than others and are revered as being the interface between us and the God for their sole ability to parrot religious texts better than average humans. Does God’s love vary based on who can cram the most number of stories from these texts?
- why is religion so biased against women? For instance, why do certain faiths that permit polygamy only allow men to have multiple wives and not vice-versa? Why is it expected of women to serve men and not the other way round? Doesn’t this imply that the annals of such faiths were penned down by men in order to justify their ill-treatment of women? If not, then is God a misogynist?
- when religious texts authorize men to have a physical relationship with preteen girls, shouldn’t we use our better judgement and dismiss such edicts as being outdated in the 21st century or should we indulge in pedophilia in order to please the higher power? How can scarring an innocent little child for life ever be justified, and if these texts do have God’s blessings, then is God a pedophile and if not, doesn’t this prove that religion is a man made institution and its tenets reflective of the character of the person who wrote them?
But how does all this matter as long as we spend our entire lives following rules that were written thousands of years back dictating our dietary habits, our dressing style and the number of people we sleep with, all with an intent to go to heaven after dying? After all, life begins after death, who knew! So let’s just wade through our teens, fritter away our youth and spend our entire time on this earth giving unsolicited advice to people about what ‘the right’ thing to do is, for heaven’s sake. It’ll all pay off one day.
Now, how our phobias have spawned a new avenue for earning livelihood with outstanding perks, let’s explore that in the next section.
Religion Inc.
‘Hunger knows no friend but its feeder’ -Aristophanes.
Religion is an immensely profitable money minting enterprise that provides livelihood to millions of people. Business is the art of finding innovative ways to make your product sell, which in this case is insurance against God’s punishment that we purchase after listening to the priest’s sales pitch and trading in our rationality. What surprises me is not how millions of people can be scared into parting with their money, but why don’t more people explore a career in Religion Inc. Just look at the benefits:
- one doesn’t need to be intelligent or break their bank in order to obtain fancy degrees from universities (for the most part) to get a job in this field. All one needs is the ability to memorize ancient texts and then scare people into believing in them.
- it’s a recession-proof industry that’s completely immune from the vagaries of the economy. In fact, it’s when the markets tank or when people start suffering the divinity is approached via priests to intervene. So no lay offs and no downturn ever.
- most of these businesses are not taxed by the government and sky is the limit to how much one can make. Why stress over about trivial matters like retirement savings and 401ks when people are voluntarily willing to fund all your expenses right until your death?
- the immense respect that comes along with the job, not to mention perks like free lunches in disciple’s homes and all-expense-paid trips across the world. No dealing with pesky managers and rude co-workers anymore.
In my opinion, it’s a matter of time before more people start realizing the wonders of working in this field.
Then There’s the Snob Quotient
Religion has been presented to us as a virtuous entity, imparting the notion that following it to a T reflects on:
- our upbringing: if one is religious, it supposedly reflects well on our family and our background in general. After all, traits like obedience are still considered a virtue by our society.
- our superior moral compass: those of us who choose to blindly follow these statutes are placed in a morally superior bracket over those who dare to dispute/choose not to believe in them.
This thought process ties into our life long quest to continuously prove our worth to others around us by indulging in this game of one-upmanship over them. What constitutes as being ‘better’ is subjective and depends on what is perceived as an asset that one can be proud of. Some examples include smarting over having more friends than others around us, consistently faring better in exams over our peers or even running a website to blabber about all these issues ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
What drives this desperate need to continuously self-validate is beyond the scope of this article, though there is an important point to note here in all of this: if an activity is performed for the sole purpose of scoring moral brownie points over peers or to be that pompous braggadocio in front of an audience, will the said activity still be performed with the same fervor if this audience were to be taken out of the equation? In other words, will we still be religious if we don’t have anyone to share our self-righteous bounty with?
Conclusion
‘Life is a beautiful lie and death is the ugly truth’, and all that is in between is a giant man-made mess, including religion. If our faith teaches us to disrespect and/or extinguish another life, then it cannot be mandated by the power that created us all. Also, some of the happiest countries in the world are also the least religious, while some of the major acts of violence we’ve seen lately had religious overtones. Need I elaborate more here other than suggesting that it’s high time we revisit our understanding of what religion really is or better, look the other way altogether. If there is indeed a higher power overlooking us all, then it will surely give us a reason to find our way back to it, sans the middlemen and the bribes.
Namaste!
Read the next essay in this series here.
