As the world grapples with the ‘warming’ of the earth, peoples and societies are increasingly becoming hotter with more and more gunshots fired. The so-called civilizations are losing at least 100 lives every day. The latest from the civilized man is from Syria, where chemical weapons were supposed to be used. We struggle to control the pollution that occurs outside and succeed a little bit. But if the minds of man is polluted beyond repairs what to do? The men are out to fight to defend their faiths at any cost. If man is going to defend gods, and if he stands firm in saving him/her and protecting them from antagonist gods, we need not have any hope on the future of this humanity.
He says God is great. But he goes out on the streets to fight for his God. Throughout history these gods were the major reason for conflicts. Let us look at our rationalists ways of handling gods.
Rationalists are often irrational. For them if the educated prays inside a concrete room - a carved stone, it is worship and faith but if the illiterate does it before a rock, they mock at them and term it as blind faith. How do they differentiate? If the solution is offered beneath a tree in a remote village it is black magic. If the same comes via television, it is ‘cure’. What rationale is this? ‘Illiteracy is the root cause and people indulge in cheating’. No literate or educated ever has indulged in cheating fellow men! Only illiterates cheat and get cheated across the world!
Faith is a dark and narrow alley. Everyday thousands of guns spit bullets in the name of faiths killing and maiming millions. The conflicts that arise due to competing gods have taken the maximum toll in the human history. Why do the rationalists who target village huts hesitate to ‘transform’ the city villas? How do they conclude that city gods are ‘elite’ and village gods are ‘inferior?’
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science also refers to a body of knowledge itself, of the type that can be rationally explained and reliably applied. In contrast Faith is the trust in a person, thing, or an idea or concept including gods and religions. Since the arrival of man on this earth he has been quarreling on the matters of faith. He defends what is known to him and at times offends what is not known or familiar to him. The belief, proximity and the practice of certain ideas and rituals and rites takes him closer and hence a natural love for the things/ideas that are close to him. If we take Science as a philosophy that stands on tests and proof, naturally faith can’t be a partner to it. Religion or faith revolves around god whereas science relies on facts that can be tested or rationally explained. But the earth has got enough space to accommodate not just the proponents of these two diametrically opposite positions but an infinite number of ideas or concepts.
Here comes the superstition and the rationalism. It is true superstitions are superficial and artificial. It is well known that man fears the known and the unknown. We can’t deal with an emotional feeling of an individual unless the individual happens to be ‘self’. Hence the fight against superstition or blind faith and the idea of gods will be there as long as the humanity is there. Rationalists like Dr.Narendra Dabholkar targeted the poor and the vulnerable to impose their idea of science. The whole world is holding on to one faith or the other. The degree or intensity of their belief and the rituals they practice may differ seriously. The rationalists say they are against ‘blind faith’. How can be there a faith with blindness and the other with brightness? Faith itself is a hypothesis. They term illiteracy as a reason for the cheating indulged by god men. What is the percentage of violators among the literate and the illiterate? The literate and the educated cheat their fellow brethren scientifically and systematically. The most elite in the societies may treat the gods as their companions and the downtrodden may treat them as saviors.
The rationalists are free to believe that their convictions are based on reason and the others without any reason. But constitutions of nations of different nations and the invisible societies that have existed all these years have bestowed people to follow and profess the faith they like. The rationalists restrict themselves to reason whereas faith goes beyond reason. There is nothing amiss in holding to one faith as long as it gives him mental satisfaction and contentment. The believers do know how and when to obey or disobey gods. None is ready to reveal others how many times they have tried to question the existence of god.
| “Your temples are made of bricks and cement: ours are these hills, forests, leaves and streams. If you dig these we will die with our gods.” Bejuni, Village priestess of a Dongria Kondh tribal hamlet in Kesarpadi,Orissa, India. |
The campaign against superstition and unscientific practices or crude rituals may yield results. But man is ready with yet another set of beliefs or ideas that divide him. By nature he is possessive to things and concepts. Anti-superstition campaigns led by rationalists last long and will be lasting longer. As for as faith is concerned, there is no educated or uneducated; we know scientists who landed on distant and high spaces where gods are supposed to rest and rule us too have got faith on one or the other. The rationalists have no right to question others convictions unless they encroach their rights. The people who are close to waters worship waters and so do the people with hills, rivers and jungles. This phenomenon is seen worldwide and not restricted to Maharashtra or India alone. Almost all peoples who depend on jungles do believe and worship one or the animals.
The understanding of science by one doesn’t guarantee him a right to question others’ faiths. The world has got enough space for both the rationalists and the believers. They need not be in conflicts to impose one’s understanding on the other. Regarding the physical sufferings and the loss of lives in such rituals, one should recall how many lives and precious wealth is lost in defending nations or racial theories every day. Don’t the rationalists know borders shown in atlas books are imaginary and people fight for centuries to defend those imaginary borders? Aren’t they aware 90 % of wars are fought on these artificial lines drawn by a geography man? If the well educated can lose their lives and resources for a non-existing cause and reason what if a few hold on to their faiths that give them satisfaction?
Let these rationalists’ help leaders see reason and make them realize that none can own this land and only the land owns them. After all the machines invented by men who possess reason in abundance takes away the lives of a million men on our roads. The men with reason are not content with the speed the humanity travels today and sees his forays as development.
Let there be propaganda to spread what is truth. Let the people decide whether it is truth according to their understanding.
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