Fear & Religion

"Fear is the mother of all religion"

Strange quote, the one above, isn't it. When you read it for the first time, you want to deny it. There is something inherent in the human nature I guess, which propels a person to deny what seems even remotely controversial . And in the current times, what is more controversial than religion? People rebuke the faith of others, venturing so far as to commit a murder for the same. Plots are hatched to wipe out races altogether, no one is barred, no one is spared. Religion is perhaps the most feared subject to be discussed publicly  today.

The topic, fear being the mother of all religion on a closer analysis, reveals  that there is abyssal depth in the notion. Dating back to early times, man attributed everything that he feared or could not understand to a divinity and quietly followed what would safeguard him from the wrath of the supernatural. Every God or its incarnation, every messiah or prophet who walked amongst the people had to resort to miracles to establish supremacy of the powers above.

Whether these miracles were conspired and well plotted to direct the intended message or if there is actually an iota of truth in people waking on waters and lifting mountains on the little pinky is I guess, a subject of a different discussion altogether (which again I do not intend to take, for being a mortal I too am scared to call upon the wrath of any God who does not quite appreciate my notions and decides to send me a bolt of electricity from above).

Anyway, talking about religion being borne out of the womb of fear, I am sure everyone has one thing or the other that one is scared of, be it exams, the idea of being given a hiding on a mischief, death, insects, height, water or simply the ghosts lurking in the darkness and everyone has his/her way of countering these fears,  most common measure being prayer.

A prayer is the act of summoning someone greater than your being and urging that super power to bail you out of the crisis. And of course once you are out of the difficult period, your wants and greed comes into play. A person might pray for food one day and then could be seen praying for gold (metaphorically)once his stomach is full.

If I were to summarize the origins of a religion or the purpose of having a religion altogether I think, it could fall in either of the following slots:

- Fear / Lack of understanding natural elements and processes: I have already put across the idea earlier. I shall try and take it forward with the example of the Egyptians which was one of the earliest civilizations. THE Egyptians believed in an after-life. This is well, just another way of stating that they did not quite understand death. For they did not understand what became of the dead, they constructed mammoth structures and filled them up to the brim with Gold and Honey and Jewels and what ever they could lay their hands on. Even slaves and animals were buried alive next to them. I am not sure if the slaves who were put in pyramids with the mummy of a Pharaoh actually sat inside idle waiting to die or just gobbled up the goats and camels that were put inside with them first before banging their heads against the giant walls and succumbing to a hemorrhage first than of dire hunger. Naturally what they did not understand, they revered; what they feared , they held supreme. Similar citations can be drawn to other civilizations in the history of mankind as well.

- The need to meditate and clear your thought process: This by far is the most promising need for having a religion. Faith gives you something to keep hopes alive when everything else fails. You tend to be hopeful that something is up just around the corner that will change things for good. In times most compelling, people are known to witness and perform miracles. Some unknown face in the crowd, becomes a 'Messiah' and saves the endangered mankind from annihilation. Survival of the fittest becomes will of the Lord. None the less, constant praying and meditation does give you a clear head and aligns your thought process to the need of the hour, and it is often the result of this oriented thinking that one finds an answer to the problem, the key to all solutions. 

- Laying down norms and Do's and Don'ts: Probably this is the result of gradual coming of age of religious practices. As societies continued to grow and develop and it finally dawned upon man, that he is after all a social animal, nothing else but a religious directive was better suited to implement the rules formulated for co-existence. Fear from the unknown became a dominant tool for making people abide by these rules. The concepts of virtues and sins were developed and worked upon and then garbed into an attire that everyone could agree with. Stealing is sin, telling a lie is a sin. Some religions have been even more descriptive and laid down strict rules about having illicit relations and all other things taboo including what is permissible to eat or drink. It is saddening to see that all these rules and norms being deformed to an extent that it has started posing a threat to the very existence of mankind and the idea of leading a civilized life.

And somehow if you look back at the history of mankind, the misuse of power by those who have been conferred the right to lay down rules based on faith and religious beliefs has always persisted and been revolted against. Be it Church wanting people to believe that the Earth is flat or orthodox 'pandits' banishing people from a lower caste from the temples or standing against rights of women (widow remarriages, education etc.) or the recent Talibanization of Islamic school of thought.

OK, let's not get lost in the jungle of ideas that are flowing now. I have some clear points to make when I collectively talk about fear and religion in the same breath.

1. Inheritance of Religion: The religion is handed out to an offspring. Sure, one can imbibe a particular faith and convert to a religion (and often for selfish motives as in case of Chander Mohan aka 'Chand Mohammed' and Fiza doing the round of news lately who took to Islam only to be wedded) but most likely you are born and then told what you would be following as a stream of faith to summon when you need the divine intervention in your life. So, in all probable cases, it is an accident of birth that determines what call you would cry out in case of distress and the way your last rites would be performed. And not to mention that once it is determined what religion you shall follow, you have to carry the burden of age old customs and keep your blind faith on some ritual that you simply do not understand or comprehend. Personally, I had a tough time in my early childhood to understand why there are all these idols in the temple and only a book in Gurudwara and why do we need to carry a sheet to the 'Dargaah' we so used to frequent those days.

2. Religion of Fear: I guess I shall not have to describe this in detail. The terrorization of a religion is not something unheard of in these modern times. 'Jihad' is a common term on news channels and other media. These things are much talked about and much discussed already and it would be wasteful for me to be spending time on them.  All I can say is that while once it was God who was feared, it is the people who claim to be propagating the name of the God who are the cause of fear now. I am at inability and loss to understand the end objective and outcome of all the fear that they wish to inflict upon people. Probably all they ever wanted was to be let alone in peace and have proper jobs and education and they could have been reasonable with the world. Probably if they had ample bread in their plates, they would not have been drinking blood. Maybe if there were enough pens and toys for their children they would not have picked up guns. The western world exploited a certain section for its own slimy oily greed and milked them till it could no more flex its muscles and now the entire world is sitting on a ticking bomb waiting to explode.

It's not that I have turned pro-Taliban or advocate/support in anyway the path that these people have chosen to get themselves heard. I strongly condemn all these merciless killings. An exploding bomb does not look for identification of people. There is no explicable reason that one should be allowed to go on a killing spree just to propagate that his faith is mightier than anyone else's.

Anyway, I don't intend continuing further on this topic. I guess I have gone astray a long way, riding on the wave of thought. The topic is getting heavier and tiring my eyes and brains out now.

Maybe, to sum up, all I can say is 'To each his own'. Follow what your heart says and have fun while this life lasts. As some one wiser has already put in, Enjoy your life, you ain't getting outta this alive, anyway....