Religion, Reason and Choice (Part 1)

Hi friends

What started as a small, insignificant act from my side turned put to be a highly interesting chat on January 1^st this year, with Raman SP (formerly known as “Raman The Great”, now known by “Raman The Invincible”), former enemy (I literally hated competing with him at school) and now a good friend J We had a very interesting chat on religion (and other stuff), and all that triggered it was a small verse from the Bible.

I had seen “Revelation 21:5” in someone’s Gtalk Status message, which read “He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” (New International Version, 1984). And Mr. Raman was intrigued by this message.

I’ll try not to mention what each of us specifically said, but will surely give a gist of the insights from our conversation. I will mention it in a points-format so as to make it easier to read and follow (I will post it in two separate posts for easier reading)

1. What is religion? Religion, as we perceived, is a gimmick to keep the masses under control (something like a Government). Life, as we know it, is always about having the upper hand, about control. It is very similar to “Survival of the Fittest”, just that control is the parameter that determines power here.

2. Choice: When you look at Europe throughout the Medieval ages, you see so many churches and crusades and see how, in the name of religion, people have always tried to influence others views and force other people to look through their eyes. Where is the choice to seek and decide for yourself what you see fit as being good? As Raman puts it, “I guess peace is never without a sense of irony” J In life not everyone can be ahead of the curve, (which sounds very Darwinian), but the reason is because the curve was derived out the people aptitudes in the first place. There is an inherent discrimination to it.

3. What makes you act or react? We got the answer as “Faith”. According to Raman, “Only faith can prompt action. If you can see two sides of a coin, you can never act as it is very difficult to decide”. And I completely agreed with this assessment, because I have seen it happen to me. The reason why I am not able to act most of the times is because I tend to see both sides of the story – I may take a stand (purely for academic reasons), but I am never able to act on that. I cannot take a strong stand because I know the pros and cons of both.

4. Why reason? Even when you want to act, the most difficult thing is to get people to understand your viewpoint. That in itself comes with a sense of irony, because the more you try to reason the weaker will your stand become in effective delivery. The masses like statements not reason. The masses of the present look for reason for faith and are easily manipulated by smooth speakers who twist what is supposed to be good and virtuous into their agenda (Remember any recent examples, like November ’09?)

5. Ahead of the curve: Being ahead of the curve can lead to one of two things - Either you know everything and do nothing (like you and me in general) or you know everything and manipulate what you know for more power and control (like our modern-day leaders).

Part 2 of this post can be found at this link (click here)