RELIGIONS VERSUS NUKES
(Part One)
PROF. BIJON B. SARMA
INTRODUCTION :
All on a sudden a man fell extremely sick. In solitude he can look for his cell phone and ask for help. A men in need of urgent information can collect the same by using his phone. Uttering any further word in praise of a cell phone seems unnecessary, because the users in real needs know of the essentiality, usefulness and positive contributions of this item. The ironic truth is, what a mere cell phone could do in the welfare of the mankind, all the religions in masse failed to do that. While this is one side of the story the other side is even grimmer. It has been established that those who now follow religions do the same because of reasons like, (i) congenital weakness to blind faith or parental teaching, (ii) lesser level of intelligence, (iii) recreation, (iv) exercise, (v) pass time, (vi) financial gain etc. While there is not much bad in these, the naked truth is, followers of a number of religions have caused damage of life and properties worth several hundred times of that caused by the Nuclear bombs.
RELIGION, THE CAUSE OF BLOODBATH :
They say religions act as source of peace. Some religions have even been named after the word 'peace'. But what we find in history about the activities of the followers of religions are : murder, blood bath, raping, torture and exploitation, all of which are vehemently against 'peace'.
They say, religions create "good men". In reality most of the cruel and hatred men, starting from Taimur the lame to Idi Ammen and finally, Osama were/are extremely religious persons. In this world there is no example that "Religions create good and perfect men". Even though some people claim religions to have been the blessings for the mankind, it has been proved that most, if not all, of the religions teach their followers to hate others. By that way religions should be considered as curse for the mankind. There are many communities and countries who live peaceful lives without following any religion. As a matter of fact, not religion, but (i) practicing democratic administration, (ii) honoring equal rights for all, (iii) ensuring human rights of the people, (iv) adopting scientific knowledge and technology, (v) disseminating moral teachings and fellow feeling etc. can create good persons and ensure peace in the society.
Religions are basically against Science and truth. While Science advocates for exploring, endeavoring and doing everything by themselves, religion wants them to believe that god would give them everything if he is gratified by non-material prayer and material contribution. The non-material prayer acts as a shield to hide the 'grabbing' intention of the preachers, while they enjoy the material contribution collected in the name of god. In one sense preaching religion can be considered as preaching untrue things, because the preachers narrate stories of the past (ranging from few hundred years to millions of years) none of which they saw with their own eyes. If lying is an offense then they are committing the same. Few decades ago the religious preachers endeavored to denounce and avoid everything invented or manufactured by science. Now they have abandoned that endeavor, which indicates their clear defeat.
Science is the sole subject of knowledge that is to be credited for the creation of our rich and wonderful culture and civilization. And it would not be possible for men to reach this stage unless they ignored religion and loved science. As of today, the countries who disregarded religion could reach the peak of achievement in point of science and technology. Human civilization started progressing forward only after the scientists disbelieved the sermon "only god has the power to do everything" and started believing that "there exists no god and men are capable of doing things".
USELESSNESS OF RELIGION :
The uselessness of religion can be easily proved from a simple mathematics. One person intends wants to achieve something. What should he do ? Men from various status might advise him differently. For example :
(01) An intelligent would advise, "Please do everything you can do for it". Let us abbreviate this advise by WORK.
(02) A religious man would say, "Do the needful (or WORK), pray to my god and / or contribute something for my religion (abbreviated by PRAYER). (No religious man in this age would dare to say, "only PRAY and you would get the thing".
In such a situation the man has got four options, (01) Work, (02) Pray, (03) Work and Pray and (04) Doing none. Now a man with minimum intelligence may arrive at the following derivations :
ACTION CONSEQUENCE
a. Only Work. May have success.
b. Work + Prayer. May have success
c. Only Prayer. No success.
d. None. No success.
From the above it is crystal clear that "prayer ( and / or contribution) has absolutely no role in achieving the desired item".
HISTORY OF RELIGION :
In order to understand what religions really are, we may go for their historical evolution. Any intelligent man do now know that all religions have been created by men. The purposes for which they created these are : (01) Selfish gain like grabbing wealth or power, (02) To give psychological consolation to the bereaved people, (03) To control the unruly people and (04) Combinations of the above. We mention hereunder the brief evolutionary history of some prominent religions of the world. It is obvious that these accounts (based on historical and archaeological evidences) will be quite different from the versions preached by the religious preachers.
ARYAN RELIGION : The Aryans came to India (period 1800 BC to 1400 BC) from Asia Minor. For subsistence they started preaching a religion in which they took the name "Brahmin" (representative of "Bramha" mentioned in Veda) and played the role of intermediary and commission agent in between the gods (i.e. Indra, Barun, Agni etc.) and the common people (Dravidians). In this religion god was portrayed as "selfish", who would help men after if he is given offering of materials. The ritual, named as Jagga included giving the material offerings (Cereals, Cow meat, Somerasa etc.) to one god named, Agni (i.e. burning), where from another god, Barun (i.e. Wind) was to carry the same to the principal god, Indra (this was the name of the leader who led the contingent of the Aryans to India). This is the shortest version of the story of the Aryans that has been discovered, verified and recorded by the archaeologists, historians and scientists. The professionals, Brahmin and the ritual, "Jagga" were later incorporated in Hindu religion.
GREEK GODS : Greek artists created replicas of their gods (period 1000 BC to 400 BC) as per their imagination and then fabricated stories of their activities. Some of the stories were quite appealing, while some others were entertaining. The story of Prometheus says that Prometheus stole "Fire" from the heaven in order to save the people from distress. For this 'offense' gods used to punish him in a cruel manner. Every morning a crow used to come and eat his brain, which however was replenished during the night. The moral was, men should live peaceful lives in honor of great sacrifice done by Prometheus. There were numerous such stories. The Greeks created excellent replicas of their gods. The stories however could not give birth of any religion because of the logical explanations presented by their extremely intelligent philosophers, Aristotle and Plato (4th and 5th C BC). (Those interested to know further may go through the world renowned book "Republic"). Even though the Greek gods failed to give birth to any religion in Greece, some of their gods were later replicated in the Christian and Hindu religions.
(01) BUDDHISM : Gautama Buddha (period 500 BC) devised the way of giving psychological consolation to the bereaved persons by saying that everything was predestined (Niaty) and that good and bad deeds were to have been paid back in this world through re-birth in either affluent or poor families. His preaching acted as magic pills for the poor who suffered from inferiority complexes and could not discover any reason. The same also helped the wealthy persons to find the 'potential rogues' turn polite. Buddha himself did not say anything specifically regarding god. But after his death his close associates, who wanted to live on contributions from his followers had to portray him as god. The story of the Buddha has been proved by historical (writings of travelers) and archaeological (inscriptions) evidences.
(02) CHRISTIAN-ISM : The episode of Jesus Christ (period 00 BC) is based on stories narrated by some persons. Still today the stories have not been endorsed by any archaeological or historical evidences. When there are writings of travelers regarding Buddha (500 BC) or of Alexander (3rd C BC), nothing of that sort exist of an alleged story of much later age. There is a possibility that the story could have been one of the many stories fabricated by the Greek sculptors. Even in that age their stories could not turn to any religion because of the critical analysis of some world renowned philosophers. The inner spirit of Jesus's story that stresses upon men to behave properly and take shelter of a man (Jesus, who suffered from great pains through crucifixion) has got similarity with that of Prometheus. Jesus's story says that god (Jesus's father) would forgive the offenses of his followers because of his sacrifice. I have witnessed two different types appeals of this story. In the western countries, in general, the Christians feel the pains of Jesus in their hearts and endeavor to live pious lives. In Nigeria (I lived in Nigeria during 1982-88) many Christians feel encouraged to commit crimes because they believe, they would be relieved of those as soon as they would enter the church. Alike Buddha, the preacher of this religion also did not seem to have any selfish intention, even though the churches later accumulated huge wealth and some followers created empire.
(03) HINDUISM : Hindu religion (Place : India, Period : 200 BC to 600 AD) was formed by combining a number of faiths like Aryan (Jagga), Buddha (rebirth, predestined life etc.) , Greece (replica of gods) etc. A brief account of its formation is mentioned hereunder :
(a) Birth of replica worship : In the 2nd C BC a ruler of Chinese origin commissioned the Greek sculptors to create the replica of Gautama Buddha. Earlier to this what were crafted by sculptors were sthupa, gate, balustrade, symbols (elephant, rose, darpal, Jakkhi etc.) etc. related to Buddhist religion. When the Buddhists disagreed to accept this replica, the ruler declared it as the replica of Rudra. In Veda Rudra has been mentioned as dirty and howling god. Since the Aryans did not like the Dravidians they prescribed this god for them. The Dravidians were worshipper of "Phallus" of Shiva, which also was immensely hated by the Aryans. Taking the scope of the ruler's above declaration the Dravidians declared that Rudra was another name of Shiva. They switched on to Shiva worship from phallus worship and got popularity in the eastern part (Orissa, Bengal etc.) of India. In the 1st C BC another ruler of Chinese origin introduced the replica of Bishnu (after the Greek Sun god), that got wide acceptance in South India.
(b) Bringing the three under one umbrella : In order to resist the mass conversion of the Hindus (Dravidians) to Buddhism, the Gupta kings of Bramhan origin (Period : 3rd C AD to 6th C AD) introduced worship of replicas of gods. The Gupta kings invited some Greek sculptors to settle in Mathura and to make replicas. Along with the creation of replicas, they fabricated 'associated stories' also in the light of the stories of the Greek gods. Some of the gods they created were Saraswati (mentioned in Veda as a river), Krishna (mentioned in Mahabharata as charioteer), Lakkhi (from Jakkhi by the Buddhists), Ganesa (by using the face of the elephants, previously ordered by the Buddhist kings). These gods attained popularity in the central region of India. A three-faced figurine was discovered in Mohenjo Daro. In order to combine all the religious sects of India some preachers mentioned this replica to have been of "Bramha-Bishnu-Maheswara". By that way the Aryan Bramhanya sect (who alleged Bramha as the creator) of central India, Bishnu worshippers (who alleged Bishnu as the guardian) of South India and the Shiva worshippers (who alleged Shiva or Maheswara as the god of life after death) of eastern part India came under one umbrella.
(c) Later gods and bigger umbrella : In the 15th C AD, a number of saints under the leadership of Krishna Chandra Agambagish thought of a very strong god in order to save the Hindus from being converted to Muslims. They accepted the idea of a ferocious god (named Kali) of the Saotals. Replicas were created as described by the Saotals and worshipped. After goddess Kali became popular, in order to include her in the religious domain, she was told to have been the wife of Shiva. There is mention of Kartick, the local god of Bengal in "Ramcharitam". Even though this literature mentions Kartick to have been of 2nd C BC, other indicators say, it cannot go beyond 15th C AD. Now the bigger umbrella to include all was created by Surath raja of Barendrabhumi (present Rajshahi) in the 8th C AD in "Durga puja", where all the gods (e.g. Durga or Kali, Lakkhi, Saraswati, Ganesh, Kartick and Shiva in absentia) have been brought in one platform for yearly worship.
(d) Human gods and invisible umbrella : When the minds of the Hindus were ripe to accept almost anything (like, stone, replica, plants, animals, vacuum or air etc.) as gods, some shrewd men or their descendants thought of placing them(selves) in that position. The various groups in this category are : (i) Magic group : Saibaba etc. (they turned gods by dint of magic), (ii) Image group : Lokenath (they turned gods due to fabricated success stories preached by followers. The preachers later came to enjoy the income), (iii) Low caste group : Anukul thakur, Motua etc. (they became gods because the lower caste Hindus wanted to see their own people in that position).
What has been written above are no body's imagination, but facts based on historical and archaeological findings. The Hindus believe that they can get what they need or desire by praying and contributing to gods, where their gods range from stone, beautiful figurine, plants, animals, vacuum (Bramhya religion) and even men. A careful reading of the above account might enlighten any intelligent men to understand how baseless, unscientific and unnecessary 'god worshipping' is. Definitely it is a great wastage of wealth and time, of course with huge income for some people and some recreation for the common people.
(04) ISLAM : The story of Muhammad (Hazrat Muhammad SM, prophet of Islam, Place : Saudi Arabia, Period 6th-7th C AD) are recorded in the history, of course in a different way than what are written in the religious books. In history his life has been recorded alike any other normal men, who initiated life as a poor orphan, then formed group, fought wars at times with win and at times with defeat, surrounded cities asking the people to accept his preaching or face consequences (such letters with the Caliph's palm impression have been preserved in some museums) and finally to become the king (Caliph) of a large kingdom. The three strangest things about this religion are the following ;
(a) In general the religions portray the lives of their preachers with purity and greatness, such that they may act as ideal for the followers to follow. In this religion the preacher has been given some special privileges, which the followers have been asked not to follow.
(b) While most of the religions are ready to withstand criticism, this religion shows little tolerance to its critics.
(c) Even though this religion vehemently likes to accept converts from other religions, they have stringent measures (including killing) for those willing to convert to other religions.
(05) SHIKH RELIGION : Guru Nanak introduced this religion in order to resist the expansion of Islam in the western region of India. He visited the land of origin of Islam and studied its probable cause of popularity / expansion. Naturally he included the militancy, equality of the males, strong vow etc. Also he included carrying of weapon, song, men-women equality etc. With all these he succeeded to resist Islam in his region. Obviously his religion faced extreme resistance in which the last saint was beheaded. Born with militant quality and an intention to retaliate, some followers of this religion later turned to terrorists.
PROF. BIJON B. SARMA, ARCHITECTURE DISCIPLINE, KHULNA UNIVERSITY, KHULNA, BANGLADESH
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