When Will Humans Apply Their Innate Rationality?
By
Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
10 April
2024
The whole
country is shocked after reading in newspapers that an educated Kerala couple
along with their friend were found dead in Arunachal Pradesh hotel room.
The
deceased were identified as Arya B Nair from Thiruvananthapuram,
and Naveen Thomas and his wife Devi Thomas, both residents of Kottayam. Their bodies were
discovered inside a hotel room in Arunachal Pradesh's Hapoli.
Belief in
the afterlife led to their death as they looked for YouTube videos describing
the life after death. Their suicide was part of this belief.
(L-R) Naveen Thomas and his wife Devi Madhavan and Arya Nair. Special
Arrangement
-----
This morbid
fascination for a terra incognita serves as a stark reminder that education
alone cannot inoculate against the seduction of superstition. Forsaking this
world for an imagined one shows the powerful grip of superstition on the human
psyche. All these superstitious beliefs are perpetually fuelled by religions with
their otherworldly promises.
Islam's
otherworldly promises have assumed legendary status. IIT-Guwahati student,
Tauseef Ali Farooqui, joining ISIS and intending to court martyrdom for a
perpetual life in heaven is yet another example of a superstitious belief,
strengthened by religion.
In fact,
all man-made bogus and murderous faiths institutionalize superstitions and
justify them. All superstitions are offspring and offshoots of faith. From
uttering a prayer before boarding a plane, train or a bus, to exploring past
lives through hypnosis, superstition has become pervasive in contemporary
culture.
Read Robert
L Park's 'Superstition: Belief In The Age Of Science.' Park sides with
the forces of reason in a world of continuing and increasing superstition.
Chapter by chapter, he explains how people too easily mistake pseudoscience for
science. He discusses parapsychology, angel therapy, Feng Shui and acupuncture;
he questions the existence of souls, the foundations of intelligent design, and
the power of prayer; he asks for evidence of reincarnation and astral
projections; and he challenges the idea of heaven. Throughout, he demonstrates
how people’s blind faith, and their confidence in suspect phenomena and
remedies, are manipulated for political ends. Park shows that science prevails
when people stop fooling themselves.
Everywhere
and in every culture, religions and superstitions are subverting the natural
human intelligence. Religions with their innumerable superstitions have
hijacked the human brain's innate capacity to think rationally.
We're still
unable to come to terms with the fact that science has answers to all our
questions and doubts. At the moment, science may not have the explanations to
all natural phenomena but sooner or later, it'll have the answers to all human
queries.
You've
glaring examples of two state-sponsored sanctimonious Babas, Ramdev and Jaggi.
Both the superstitious 'gurus' have eggs on their faces. Ramdev would claim
that Go-Mutra (cow's urine.....yuck!) could cure all diseases, even all
types of cancer! He'd sprinkle cow's urine on all things.
Hindus
thought that he was modern Hakim Luqman and god's personal physician. Now our
modern Hakim Luqman ji and his equally dubious Nepali partner are facing the
wrath of the Supreme Court for their outlandish claims which they have been
making ever since the current political dispensation came into power.
Jaggi (why
is he called Sadguru?) used to say that when body was in tune with nature, it
needed no medicines. He underwent emergency brain surgery and is now swallowing
all sorts of allopathic medicines!
We need to
develop scientific temperament and do away with all superstitions. But before
that, mankind shall have to dispense with two of its biggest superstitions for
thousands of years: Religion and god. Are you ready to jettison them?
Yuval Noah
Harari says that humans still require crores of years to evolve. But the human
civilization will end much before that. So, we all will die as unevolved and
crawling creatures, wallowing in the muck of irrationality, religiosity and
superstitions. It seems to be our inexorable and ineluctable fate.
----
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/humans-apply-innate-rationality/d/132113
New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism