Saturday, November 6, 2010

Questioning Faith

I tried to explore the view that cultivating fear of an invisible external enemy usually serves internal purposes. Let us start with quote of Voltaire who had rightly remarked more than two centuries ago, “So long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom, those who wish to tyrannise will do so; for tyrants are active and ardent, and will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods, religious and otherwise, to put shackles upon sleeping men.”

Today, Islam, Christianity, Judaism and all organized religions are destroyed by the light of knowledge. Christianity in Europe have been diluted in their view due because once Greek and Roman civilization existed with thinkers like Aristotle, Plato and Socrates without faith based religion. Since church was not able to destroy the records of the past knowledge completely, renaissance and scientific thinking emerged from the fathoms of dark ages.

That was not the case with Islam. Islam is strongly dominated by morality derived from tribal Arab values dating from the time the Prophet. Today, extremist have been attacking whatever they consider ‘unIslamic’ according to their puritanical version of Islam. And the moderates defend Islam as pure and correct while pointing defects as old cultural norms. And this defunction of moderates to see nothing wrong with Sharia law and blaming every wrong laws on patriarchal society diminishes any chance of reform within Islam. Moderates doesn't realize that extremism does not rest after it has defeated its ideological opponents because then it goes on to destroy even those supporters whom it deems too soft or moderate.

In the end, the one who diverges from the correct path prescribed in religious scriptures have to suffer from the hands of extremist in any religion. And Islamic purist tends for stoning to death on the charges of adultery or apostasy to be punishable by death. Islamic Moderates are most likely a Taqiyya driven individual who may not commit acts of terror themselves, but will surely defend Islam and deny the problem within while Reformists will honestly see the problem within their own, do not defend Islam but attack the evil within and don't condemn anti-jihadists for pointing out the obvious. We need more Reformers not the moderates to fight evil within Islam.



Nothing that is observable in reality is exempt from rational scrutiny. Clear, rational thought, based on evaluating current circumstances and real-life issues in all their fluid complexities and contradictions, is always threatened by a stagnant dogma that single-minded sees all situations as excuses to reproduce itself in the minds of the young and vital.

No one is admitting that the fault is in the design of the Islam that is same with any other faulty religious doctrine. Religion is a minor part of the identity of an individual, not the vice versa. In the case of veil, most of us agree that women should be able to wear whatever makes them feel safe and beautiful. Still, we fail to see rules of 'Haraam' and 'Halaal' in Islam that takes choices away from an individual.

Religious scriptures didn’t articulate idea of God because they appeared true in their time and place. No. The ideas are true because Religion said them. Such is the logic. Thus, even providing correct information is no antidote to false beliefs of follower at later stages of education.

Followers of each religion attempted to transcend reality in order to fit religious doctrine, instead of transcending religious ideas in order to explain reality. If I didn’t understand what Religions were saying, it was because they were speaking to a higher truth that I couldn’t grasp with normal human mind. If their ideas were questionable, I can't remain silent spectator under such tyrannical traditions. Faith cannot exist without testing, and faith without doubt is superficial.

The distrust of other races and nations, often based not on personal experience but on conditioning and hearsay. Literalists distorted religion due to its unscientific and contradictory stands on the issues.  Religious people insist on literal interpretations of outdated dogma and thus deprive religion of universalism for the sake of purity. This has debilitated people's capacity to think, analyze and prioritize. Such religious education gives rise to unrealized individuality in a person and stultifies their reason. Thus, blind faith should be attacked and an inquiring mind for truth should be promoted at an young age of the person.

"Businesses may come and go, but religion will last forever, for in no other endeavor does the consumer blame himself for product failure”.

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