Let Our Humaneness Remain Unalloyed
By
Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
3 January
2024
“People are never so completely and
enthusiastically evil as when they act out of religious conviction.”
― Umberto Eco, The Prague Cemetery
" Humans are basically good. They're bad
when a fabricated god and a concocted faith eclipse their innate
goodness."
Albert Camus, Guilt and Innocence
These two
famous quotes have assumed far greater significance in these times when
inherently good humans have turned surprisingly evil, thanks to god, religion
and 'holy' books. By the way, January 4 is the death anniversary of the French
existentialist Albert Camus and January 5 is the birth anniversary of Italian
philosopher and exponent of Semiotics, Umberto Eco.
Just
ponder; those who crucified Mansur-al-Hallaj and Jesus were not evil. They had
no personal enmity against Jesus, Mansur or Sarmad Kashani. Yet, those 'good'
people tortured and killed innocent souls like these three and many more
because people were convinced that their religious tenets were infallible.
All those
Hindus, who demolished Babri Mosque, were not necessarily bad people. But they
turned evil and vandalised an old and abandoned shrine as they believed that it
was the place of their Ram. So, Muslims had no business in Hindus' scheme of
things.
All the
perpetrators and participants in the Holocaust and the Partition were normal
humans like you and I but they turned demons because of their religious
convictions. The widespread belief that Muslims are bad people has stemmed from
extremely turbid religious convictions of Hindus. Muslims also think in the
same manner and intensity. Our perceptions of 'other' people are always
coloured by our religious beliefs and convictions.
Galileo
said, "Despite knowing and being fully convinced that I'm right and these
Biblical fanatics are wrong, I'm having to say that I'm wrong because I'm aware
of the evil influence of scriptures that can turn sane people into insane
beasts." So very true.
Religion,
scripture and your fabricated god turn perfectly sane humans into insane
zealots. The problem with humans is that most of us still erroneously believe
that religion allows us to act in a rampaging and marauding manner and a god in
the sky approves of this evil behaviour. In other words, like alcohol, religion
is often an excuse for humans' collective sins and savagery.
Here, my
objective is not to spread atheism on this site which is principally an Islamic
portal that encourages free and liberal thinking sans any partiality and
prejudice.
My point
is: Don't let your religion, books and gods influence your basic goodness in
such a drastic manner that you cease to remain humans and become embodiments of
barbarism. Let our humaneness remain unalloyed by our religiosity.
-----
A
regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative
religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to the
world's premier publications in several languages including Persian.
URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/humaneness-muslims-hindus-religiosity/d/131447