Rationality & Religion, Are you Kidding ??

There are enough religions in the world today which are backed by logic,rationality etc. For example Buddhism,Jainism etc.Jainism defination of 'Pure Soul' is not a supernatural concept but a combination of tenets like Infinite Knowledge, Happiness and consciousness, Buddhism doesn't deny or approve the existence of god. Even Hinduism is considered a Way of Life rather than an oraganized religion.

Buddhism may not be a religion in a mundane theistic view but It is a religion, Faith like most non-abrahmic religions it is a way of life where people offer prayers, believe in life after death, it has commandments (rules), has its own scriptures, places of worship, Moksha(Liberation) and beliefs which people follow. Jainism does believe in GOD albeit in a very different way. It rejects the concept of an Omnipotent God 'The Creator' who demands to be worshipped or helps people in need. Jainism believes God as some 'Pure Souls' and that any soul can become a GOD by becoming a 'perfect soul'. Since Jainism & Buddhism propagated around same time , many of the tenets of these two religions are same.

Often Atheists denounce religion on the basis that it is illogical and irrational, I can cite as many examples of non-believers being illogical and irrational. Take for example Albert Einstein, So much for Rationale and stupidity of religions and Gods, God didn't create Atom Bomb, It was not even an irrational stupid religious man but a man with great rationale and wisdom, who didn't believe in the stupidity of gods and religions, cajoled President Roosevelt to build the BOMB just because he was convinced that Germany was making Nuclear Bombs.

I am not denouncing science or scientists but it is possible that Science' so called facts are fact only until someone proves them wrong (Ptolemy & Kepler come to mind), Nobody reads Lamarck's theory of evolution now. Even the greatest Scientist of the 20th Century Albert Einstein's theory of relativity has been challenged by many. Someone once said that 'General Theory of Relativity was the greatest scientific achievement' and if that can be proved wrong, anything science proves as 'fact' can be proved wrong.

Atheist fundamentalism is a possibility

I am not a proponent of relgion, I am not even religiously religious, I do believe in God though. I have nothing against atheism or atheists either. I strongly believe that athieists, like everyone else, have the right to believe what they want to. What I take exception to is when they blatantly try to deny me my right to believe or try to prove to me that they are somehow intellectually better off by not believeing in GOD. In their bid to badmouth religion some of them outdo the religious extremists, e.g. A noted Canadian atheist, psychiatrist and humanist Wendell Watters in his book 'Deadly Doctrine' writes :

"...religion - especially Christianity - hurts children's psychological development and thereby leads to mental health problems in society..... Christian church has formulated rigid sexual roles, forbidding all practices not leading directly to conception. By actually promoting sexual ignorance and irresponsibility, Christianity has allowed the proliferation of such social ills as rape, child molestation, and pornography....."

Generally athiests show no respect for religion or for those who follow a certain faith. They constantly, some explicitly and some through their inexplicit ways, try to reject god and convince that there is no god and that is truth. To me, this makes them no different from missionaries. They behave as if they own science and proclaim that "there is no Scientific evidence that god exists". Well may be Science is not advance enough (not yet) to tell that to us.We dont really know. Recently one of the prominent atheists of England Prof Antony Flew conceded :-

"...DNA research has shown, by the almost unbelievable complexity of the arrangements which are needed to produce life, that intelligence must have been involved........I'm thinking of a God very different from the God of the Christian and far and away from the God of Islam..."

In the aftermath of his atheist life Mr. Flew had to face lot of flak from various atheist groups. If we look at the history, there have been many instances of atheist fundamentalism e.g. Ba'ath Party regime in Iraq and its leader Saddam Hussain's rise to the power in Iraq was almost on atheist principles, Enver Hoxha who ruled Albania in Stalinsque style, Mao and Stalin just to name a few.

Like most religious people Athiests also want to bring up their children as athiest, marry their kids to athiests and are paranoid about the thought of creationism and Intelligent Design being taught in schools. Dont get me wrong, I am a great believer in science and I would never underestimate its power, importance and what it has to offer to this world, I dont advocate teachings of creationisms at the expense of evolution either although I dont have problem with creationist theory being taught in parellel with evolution . Anyways, I am quiet puzzled by the perseverance of atheists, why not educate your kids about everything and give them the freedom to decide like your religious parents did to you. How is it different from religious parents raising their kids as Hindus/Muslims ? Why cant atheists be happy with what they believe in ? I am not saying that all atheists are fundamentalists , but just like there are religious extremists, ethnic extremists, it is possible to have atheist who are extremists.

They also dont have to force their intellectual supremacy upon those who believe in faith and existence of God by coming up with silly arguments like Einstien, Edison, Ford etc were all athiests. Well what about rest of the world. I feel like telling them about the 'Newton and the Atheist' story but I just dont want to spoil their happiness. I want to respect their opinions and I am somewhat religious. :-)

MYTH - Religious fundamentalism begins with religion.

It's really funny that Atheists, who champion so much for facts over faith, are so quick to blame religion and god for the problems created by us Humans. I don't agree with the notion that Religious fundamentalism begins with religion. IMHO fundamentalism begins with ignorance, intolerance, bigotry, greed, jealousy etc , all traits of human behavior.

Even If we wipe out Religion from the face of this earth, I don't think fundamentalism will stop. Us Humans will find new ways to spread our dogmatism. Where did Mao's and Stalin's extremism come from ? They were not religious.Even Hitler's hatred of jews didn't stem from any religion but from 'Stab in the back' event during world war one.

Recently while discussing God's existence(and non-existence) one of my friend suggested:-

"...concept of a rewarding afterlife, as well as the concept of doing some kind of God's work, had a role to play in motivating the Sep 11 hijackers, or the suicide bombers in Israel, or the widow burners in India ..."

That was a shocker, not because I haven't heard that one before, but because it came from someone who really believes in facts and disapproves faith for lack of evidence. Frankly, we don't have enough facts(not yet atleast) to conclude that 911 attackers were motivated by 'doing work of god'. There are just too many conspiracy theories floating around on the issue. Hopefully one day we will get to know more on 911-gate.

On the issue of Israel I don't think suicide bombings are happening due to Religion, I would rather assume that Palestinian people are using it as their last and only resort to protest against Israel's brutality against unarmed Palestine civilians. Infact, LTTE (a Tamil Rebel Group in Sri Lanka ),an 'ATHEIST' organisation, was one of the first groups to use Suicide Bombers.

Widow Burning or Sati is more of a Social issue than religious issue. It was mostly in vogue among Warrior groups during the medieval India where Rajput queens would burn themselves up(i.e. perform 'JOHAR') to protect their honour from invaders. That 'Sati' has happened in the most backward part of India is further proof that Ignorance rather than Religion is the main driving force behind it. If nothing else, Sati is a symbol of Chauvinist male society. In my 32+ years of life I am yet to meet a Hindu scholar who has advocated the practice of Widow burning. And as far as my knowledge goes, none of the Hindu scriptures preach or advocate 'Widow burning'.

Not wanting to backdown, my friend came up with another shocker:-

"...Historically religion has been the best premise to define "us" and "them", and religion has been the best tool to motivate masses to commit mass atrocities against others..."

He couldn't be further from truth, I will never deny that Religious extremism exists and is growing but don't accept that religion has been(or can be)used as the 'best' tool to motivate masses to commit mass atrocities against others. Infact religion doesn' t even come close.

My knowledge of human history and religion is very limited. But from whatever I know I can safely say that historically the scale of ethnic and political mass violences easily dwarf the violence caused by religious extremism.Come April 2005 and we will be observing the 10th anniversary of one of the greatest human tragedy happened during my life time, in Rwanda, Africa and as I post this there is another one going on again in Africa, Darfur. As far as I know Religion is not the reason behind these two genocides.

Majority world doesn't know about this because media doesn't report massacres which have no glamour, after all who wants to see Hutus-Tutsies killing each other in Africa ? These massacres don't have fancy words like 'Islam','WMD' or devils like 'OBL' and 'SADDAM'.

Don Cheadle is also not a very glamorous name, he is just a fine African-American actor but not glamorous enough to win the best performance award at the Oscars.Dont assume that I am going to say that he didn't get the award because he is Black. He and His film went almost un-noticed at this year's Oscars. Do you know why ? Because, The movie happens to be 'Hotel Rwanda' , an excellent movie backed by excellent performance. But Academy doesn't hand out Oscars to movies based on the tragedies of black people of the black continet(it only nominates them, occasionally ), no matter how well made they are.

Here is something to chew on for the atheists, they say religion is the "best tool to motivate masses to commit mass atrocities" (it is beside the point that they can't prove it) and that is why they disapprove GOD and its existence. Let me go one step furthur,Even if I accept tjat Religion is, in fact, one of the tools to incite masses, are they right in rejecting it, if 'YES' how far are they willing to go ?? I say Science is the 'Real' tool (and there is enough documented proof) which has been used as the means by humans to kill each other and other species as well. Guns, Bombs, fusion, fission, Chemicals, Biochemical, fighter jets, bombers and even flying planes(which we know can be used as a weapon as well) are all here due to science, so should we get rid of science then , should we disapprove Science ??