The Measles of Mankind

Communists called it the 'opium of the masses.' The devout call it 'salvation.' I call it a mass delusion. Its a divisive, sectarian, exclusive, unreasonable,antiquated dogmatic doctrine that offers fairy tales as explanations for our existence. By now I'm sure my readers (i.e. the two of you who accidentally clicked on this blog) have all realized I'm talking about religion.

If you're religious you're probably shocked and pointing towards all the good that religion does like charities and homeless shelters and relief packages etc. But ask yourself ? Does all that need religion ? Do you only do good things because you want your karma count to be positive when either your next life form is decided or if you prefer - when you are judged to go to heaven or hell ? Isn't that fundamentally selfish ? A sin in itself ? Good people should do good because its right, because thousands of years of cultural evolution has shown that for survival we need to conform to societal norms. Do good because it's right not cause you want your own stairway to heaven.

With all the infant deaths and poverty and global disasters and . It disgusts me that people view disasters like earthquakes and tsunamis as God's warning or God's punishment. What a load of crap. What did all the children killed in those disasters do ? What did those poor orphaned children do to have their childhood wrenched away from them. Karma is a load of crap, every human interaction is so complex and so subjective, how do you attach a karmic value to it ? Don't tell me God or his lackeys have these incredible measuring devices that can translate all your actions into units of karma.

If you still argue that human beings are special and the 'appointed' rulers of the animal kingdom then you have to open a Biology textbook. We're only superior because of natural selection. Not random mutation, not luck, not serendipity, just natural selection. A process that took millions of years of evolutionary pressure that we managed to use to gain intellectual self-awareness. If it sounds incredible you should know that it is. But incredible doesn't need a God. It just needs time. Remember what the Biologist JBS Haldane said - 'If God exists then He must be inordinately fond of beetles,' as a response to his observation of a myriad of beetle sub-species. The multitudes of bacteria and their hardiness as compared to human beings speaks volumes about which species is more comfortable with nature and in fact dominates it. Mankind is special because we evolved into a species with massive cerebral lobes, no more no less.

Remember what Stephen Weinberg said - 'In a world without religion you would have good people doing good things and bad people doing bad things. But for good people to do bad things...that takes religion.' For too long have we been apathetic to these ideas. At the dawn of the 21st Century we have had these people in charge of our governments. Imagine a world where the people in charge of nuclear weapons believe that Armageddon is inevitable in the next 50 years or that they will get 72 virgins in heaven if they blow up the infidels i.e. anyone who doesn't agree with them whether atheist, agnostic or worshiper of some other God.

It is my sober opinion that religion is in humanity's list of possible extinction threats. Right after Asteroids and just before Global Warming. The problem is all the other problems can be mitigated by extraordinary feats of engineering and mass action. The problem with religion is that it is held outside the boundaries of reason and constructive criticism. As a species we have overcome threats from nature, wild animals, plagues, wars and vacillations of our complex ecosystem. The next threat to our survival surely comes from our most ancient relic. Its time to fight the demons within and amongst us, using Science, as the great Carl Sagan wrote about - 'as a candle in the dark.'

For the record my personal doctrine is rationalist agnosticism. I treat every event on rational merit and accept that our feeble and limited human minds will never truly comprehend what created the universe. I know that science has not and may never explain everything but that doesn't matter. The beauty of science is that it keeps trying allowing everyone a chance to come up with their own reasonable explanation , filters those that are incongrous with reality and improves on those that are closer to it. Religion from any angle exudes pure arrogance claiming to know it all. As if the reality of the quantum world or the mysteries of life could ever be understood by these dogmatic and inflexible doctrines. If you think that you can't bear believing in something or the other then remember the words of Douglas Adams - ' isn't it enough to say that a garden is beautiful with out believing that there are fairies at the bottom ?'

Update

Not a post just an update on the last one.

On Dec 16th 07, at the fag end of an arduous semester that hazed my GPA I was finally on my way home to Dubai. Not before a bunch of mishaps though. Lets rewind a bit.

2 weeks before my flight I got an email saying my flight was cancellled. This was good - I thought. It didn't happen at the airport this time. The downside was my updated ticket would now have 4 flights just to get to New York with 15 - 20 min stop overs in between. Even a normal person would screw up somewhere and as for me I may as well just stay back at Purdue since I would be lucky to reach NY by Christmas.

So feeling adventurous I decided to go to NY from Chicago. A few keyboard strokes later and a couple of hundred dollars spent and my ticket was secure..........Apparently not.

Back to the present - After staying up two nights in a row and fretting over the snowstorm during a 3 hour bus ride I made it to O'Hare on the 16th right on time for my scheduled flight. I arrived at the Jet Blue terminal with uncharacteristic confidence suppressing my indefatigable sense of utter doom that now accompanies me whenever I travel . Confidence was quickly handed its ass back to it by the attendant - " Going to NY ? Im awfully sorry your flight has been cancelled. " Due to repeated bombardment by such incredibly shocking statements I'm a seasoned pro at these situations - a quick nod of the head and a marathon across three terminals asking/begging/pleading for a ticket got me one 25 min before an alternate flight with United Airways. The last move against me from the airline industry in 2007 had been overcome !

PS. my return in 2008 was actually fairly smooth. Flight to NY was perfect. I had a 3 hour delay to get to O'Hare which made me miss my bus from Chicago but after a 4 hour wait I did actually get a seat on the blessed Express Air Coach to Purdue. Is 2008 the beginning of a new era or are the airlines going to make up for this reprieve.....only time will tell. WATCH THIS SPACE