The Unevolved Minds Will Perpetually Be In Need Of Religions And Its Totems
By
Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
4 October
2022
“So, too, the creeds of man: the one prevails
Until the other comes; and this one fails
When that one triumphs; ay, the lonesome world
Will always want the latest fairy tales”
Abu al - Alaa al- Ma'arri, the 11th-century Arab poet who discarded
Quran, Muhammad and all man-made faiths
Imagine,
what Abu al-Ma'ari stated a millennium ago is unfortunately still relevant.
Humans cannot survive sans religions and its associated totems.
Imagine,
what Abu al-Ma'ari stated a millennium ago is unfortunately still relevant.
Humans cannot survive sans religions and its associated totems. In fact, our
dependency on religion and god is increasing all the more in recent times.
Islam and Muslims could be favourite punching bags for many. But fanaticism
among the followers of all religions is fast getting intensified. A few days
ago, I met a young Sikh woman after a couple of years. She was wearing a turban
and carrying a dagger like her male counterparts. She became an Amritdhari Sikh
and stopped trimming and vaxing her eyebrows and body hair. " I'm on the
path of self-enlightenment and Truth and I'm a born-again Sikh, " she
solemnly declared. I got scared. I'm always frightened of religious people and
she was carrying a weapon to boot! That scared me all the more. A gorgeous
looking, well-endowed Sikh young woman is now a crusader of her religion. This
pained me no end. A scholar of Sikhism told me that this latest trend is pretty
common among Sikh young girls and women of Punjab. The fashionable religious
trend of Sikh women wearing a turban and carrying a weapon has increased,
following missionaries in rural Punjab converting poor Sikhs to Christianity.
Wahe Guru....Wahe Guru....
Hindus have
always been terribly superstitious. Now using religion as a fashion accessory
is integral to most of the Hindus.
Even
'educated' ones flaunting religious symbols and deities as their DPs during the
ongoing festive season is very common. You'll call it nitpicking but my point
is, why on earth should your deity or religious occasion be your DP? Why do you
require to wear your religion on your sleeves and emblazon it across on your 36
or 56 " chest? This is disgusting, to say the least.
In Poona,
even Hindu men are roaming around barefoot during Navratri! Men and women are
eating everything, yet calling it fast!
There's a
term in anthropology, Religious Recrudescence. According to social scientists
and scholar of religious studies, after the period of roughly 400 years, the
world witnesses a kind of religious recrudescence and explosion. Dr Edward W
Said, said the same thing in one of his last articles that appeared in The
Spectator, London and The Dawn, Pakistan also carried the same.
Humans cannot survive without these silly
religious practices because most of us are conditioned to believe in them.
There have been more than1000 religions, cults, sub-cults and groups from the
advent of human civilization. So many 'advanced' religions came and went and
their gods and scriptures vanished into thin air. New faiths appeared in their
place and they too will disappear, whether it's Sanatan Dharm, Hindu Dharm,
Islam, Christianity or Sikhism. Remember, every religion has an expiry date.
Humans haven't yet been able to live without these crutches which have
become mankind's inescapable necessities. When one religion goes, a new one
comes along and the same putrid bilge goes on. Humanity will have to ask itself
as to why can't it survive on its own steam and why on earth does it need the
psychologically comforting and self-deceiving support of god and religion?
Until you get the answers (and you'll never get), continue to wallow in
religious muck and stay deluded. Happy Dussehra!
-----
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
world's premier publications in several languages including Persian.
URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/unevolved-minds-religions-totems/d/128098
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