There's a comic sense of relief in that without fear, living organisms would just be indifferent to larger/smarter predators nibbling at their heads. For this reason and for more serious reasons fear has been encoded into genes. Not one species of any stratum of any ecosystem has been spared of it. At least not that we know of. But in my opinion, fear that serves the purpose of survival has shifted in a paradigm way.
Fear is the most natural of instincts and it often leads us to the most stupid of decisions. I declare that I'm fearful and don't wish to be excluded from this grand daddy of a club but my intention is only to make an observation and to satisfy a pretty useless and whimsical literary pursuit. Fear makes you obey your parents, agree with your crappy teachers, tolerate the bullshit that your peers concoct, eat up the lies that your friends sell you, take up a harsh career (when all you ever wanted was to settle into a relaxing occupation that didn't make you feel all goofy), not ask a girl you adored out, make a girl that adored you not ask you out, marry a person you didn't want to marry and ultimately not change your life one bit. With the exception of truly nutty, I fear that it's fear that makes people kill, cheat, rape and commit other perjuries. With such characteristics, it is important to postulate where such ramifications stem from.
From the time we're born, there's one thing that we have all been taught - how to fear. Parents would always go - "Don't touch that! You'll hurt yourself!", "Don't put that in your mouth, you'll fall sick or choke", "Don't run in the house! you'll trip and break your neck!" - among other rationales that have a finite chance of causing harm. These fall into the category of 'least potential life saving skills' a.k.a 'money saving schemes'. The other end of this spectrum is what I wish to express most about in this post - that something special about us that makes me want to take an intricate and delicately crafted ceramic pot and hurl it to the ground with all my might.
To see this as I see it I'd like to draw an analogy to a natural phenomenon. If I'm not completely wrong, cancer can be loosely thought of as unmitigated growth of some rogue cells. These cells don't care one bit about their neighbours, they destroy the whole of complex fabric surrounding them, killing themselves too in one final blaze. Cancer is prevalent not just in the body but in our minds and hence in the society. Religion is tantamount to that cancer. I cannot but surmise that religion could've sprouted only from something ill understood. It had to be a man firstly. No life giving woman would've liked to give credit to someone else other than herself and for good reason (Life may be technically created when a sperm meets an egg but a life has value in my opinion only after a few years of mother's care and nurture). However, it does make sense. Humans are good at learning and imitating and they saw that life was 'created' by procreation and this led to probably led to questions of their origin. Clearly evolution hadn't dawned on them and this led to wrong some wrong conclusions. But it is this innocent mistake that has snow-balled and scourged human civilization and progress. Religion fundamentally destroys human potential by breeding fear from the word go.
You belong to a religion because you're born to a family that follows a religion. Your parents and most of the society feed religious bullshit down your throat. You cannot question your parents' faith. You're never to question their authority as they drill you with empty religious values. You're born a sinner!! (Can you even come to terms with the absurdity of this tenet? All religions are so fed of up of mortal life they muse to reach god/heaven/salvation and pretend it's the thing worthy of striving for. Where does this bullshit come from?) You're taught about caste, race and creed and doctrines that make you distinguish brothers and sisters of your kind. You're filled with prejudice. You're taught to be very conservative. Forget sex!, No wanking off! This can only lead to desperation. You'll visit temples/churches/mosques/whatever. Pray. Sing praises for the holy ones. Cough up money. You're so sentimentally caught up with religion that by the end of it, at the slightest infringement, you will wage wars in the name of the religion, slit throats and burn the living. You judge people all the time. By the way they dress. They way they think. This breeds fear in you and in them. The list is pretty endless but I think at the crux of it all is the fear of god that dictates people to do the vile things they do. You're just a sheep. The lord is the shepherd and you're to be obedient and walk in line. He's the shepherd alright - no doubt. One day you'll be part of this.
Take a look at criticism and archaeological findings of the most popular religion in the world. There are virtually no grounds. Would you really believe in god if someone hadn't brought it up? Have you ever sensed god? (If you thought that the warm feeling you experience when you do or see good... its not god! Wait till you take a swig of good beer - you'll feel like a god :P). Many people go back to clamouring about the great things that religion has done for the world like morality and peace and care. Kindness and such traits are exhibited by animals too. It's just an animal response to look out for one another simply because it improves that the chances of it's own survival. To dumb it down - all living organisms are better off as groups. Animals have no idea about god or religion. Take a look at this for a quick digest of the evolutionary need for morality. On the contrary, religious institutions have, from time immemorial, tried to curb scientific progress because science is the one thing that's most likely defy their tales and explain the universe and its origins. Take a look at one of the best examples of what religious beliefs are truly tantamount to.
So what should we do? I don't want to preach something here! That may trigger a new religion!! (ok :P that's a bit too hyperbolic, I agree)I wouldn't want that. Every man and woman should think for themselves (and may be read a bit about some FACTS of our existence) and come to a realization of what's sensible. But with nearly 80% of world plagued by religion and accompanying fear, I have to think that realistically humanity has no chance. That we will go out in a final blaze thanks to a rogue few that started it all. I have to wonder though of possibilities of a world without religion and fear.
Fear is the most natural of instincts and it often leads us to the most stupid of decisions. I declare that I'm fearful and don't wish to be excluded from this grand daddy of a club but my intention is only to make an observation and to satisfy a pretty useless and whimsical literary pursuit. Fear makes you obey your parents, agree with your crappy teachers, tolerate the bullshit that your peers concoct, eat up the lies that your friends sell you, take up a harsh career (when all you ever wanted was to settle into a relaxing occupation that didn't make you feel all goofy), not ask a girl you adored out, make a girl that adored you not ask you out, marry a person you didn't want to marry and ultimately not change your life one bit. With the exception of truly nutty, I fear that it's fear that makes people kill, cheat, rape and commit other perjuries. With such characteristics, it is important to postulate where such ramifications stem from.
From the time we're born, there's one thing that we have all been taught - how to fear. Parents would always go - "Don't touch that! You'll hurt yourself!", "Don't put that in your mouth, you'll fall sick or choke", "Don't run in the house! you'll trip and break your neck!" - among other rationales that have a finite chance of causing harm. These fall into the category of 'least potential life saving skills' a.k.a 'money saving schemes'. The other end of this spectrum is what I wish to express most about in this post - that something special about us that makes me want to take an intricate and delicately crafted ceramic pot and hurl it to the ground with all my might.
To see this as I see it I'd like to draw an analogy to a natural phenomenon. If I'm not completely wrong, cancer can be loosely thought of as unmitigated growth of some rogue cells. These cells don't care one bit about their neighbours, they destroy the whole of complex fabric surrounding them, killing themselves too in one final blaze. Cancer is prevalent not just in the body but in our minds and hence in the society. Religion is tantamount to that cancer. I cannot but surmise that religion could've sprouted only from something ill understood. It had to be a man firstly. No life giving woman would've liked to give credit to someone else other than herself and for good reason (Life may be technically created when a sperm meets an egg but a life has value in my opinion only after a few years of mother's care and nurture). However, it does make sense. Humans are good at learning and imitating and they saw that life was 'created' by procreation and this led to probably led to questions of their origin. Clearly evolution hadn't dawned on them and this led to wrong some wrong conclusions. But it is this innocent mistake that has snow-balled and scourged human civilization and progress. Religion fundamentally destroys human potential by breeding fear from the word go.
You belong to a religion because you're born to a family that follows a religion. Your parents and most of the society feed religious bullshit down your throat. You cannot question your parents' faith. You're never to question their authority as they drill you with empty religious values. You're born a sinner!! (Can you even come to terms with the absurdity of this tenet? All religions are so fed of up of mortal life they muse to reach god/heaven/salvation and pretend it's the thing worthy of striving for. Where does this bullshit come from?) You're taught about caste, race and creed and doctrines that make you distinguish brothers and sisters of your kind. You're filled with prejudice. You're taught to be very conservative. Forget sex!, No wanking off! This can only lead to desperation. You'll visit temples/churches/mosques/whatever. Pray. Sing praises for the holy ones. Cough up money. You're so sentimentally caught up with religion that by the end of it, at the slightest infringement, you will wage wars in the name of the religion, slit throats and burn the living. You judge people all the time. By the way they dress. They way they think. This breeds fear in you and in them. The list is pretty endless but I think at the crux of it all is the fear of god that dictates people to do the vile things they do. You're just a sheep. The lord is the shepherd and you're to be obedient and walk in line. He's the shepherd alright - no doubt. One day you'll be part of this.
Take a look at criticism and archaeological findings of the most popular religion in the world. There are virtually no grounds. Would you really believe in god if someone hadn't brought it up? Have you ever sensed god? (If you thought that the warm feeling you experience when you do or see good... its not god! Wait till you take a swig of good beer - you'll feel like a god :P). Many people go back to clamouring about the great things that religion has done for the world like morality and peace and care. Kindness and such traits are exhibited by animals too. It's just an animal response to look out for one another simply because it improves that the chances of it's own survival. To dumb it down - all living organisms are better off as groups. Animals have no idea about god or religion. Take a look at this for a quick digest of the evolutionary need for morality. On the contrary, religious institutions have, from time immemorial, tried to curb scientific progress because science is the one thing that's most likely defy their tales and explain the universe and its origins. Take a look at one of the best examples of what religious beliefs are truly tantamount to.
So what should we do? I don't want to preach something here! That may trigger a new religion!! (ok :P that's a bit too hyperbolic, I agree)I wouldn't want that. Every man and woman should think for themselves (and may be read a bit about some FACTS of our existence) and come to a realization of what's sensible. But with nearly 80% of world plagued by religion and accompanying fear, I have to think that realistically humanity has no chance. That we will go out in a final blaze thanks to a rogue few that started it all. I have to wonder though of possibilities of a world without religion and fear.
