Do we, the Mankind need a religion in the 21st Century?
Strangely, an incident of recent origin, in West Coast made me to blow up mildly.
Real details are withheld.
We were about to get into our car and three women one White, one mixed African descent and one of Chinese stock approached us, in reality bold incursion, wanted to recite the Bible to us.
They did not ask what our religion is, which should be the correct protocol of any bold incursion.
They kept on reading the Bible ad nauseam.
After a while, I said "It is time up" and we are Buddhists and we do not believe in God (did not say your God).
Then the Chinese one in turn, asked who is your God and I turned a sarcastic gesture and said, "I can be Nasty'' and they disappeared.
What had happened to “Freedom of Thought" in the 21st Century?
Are we still slaves to dogma, faith, belief, a mad conviction to a band of religion or War in the name of Pseudo Gods, in the Middle East?
Do we, the Mankind need a religion?
My simple answer to that is a big NO.
Before I enlarge upon this topic, I need to bare some neurological facts.
There is No Religious Center in the brain but there is a Language Center in the Cortical brain.
I tend to believe that the appearance of Hair on the Head (this is unusual compared to other mammals) and Language Skills and Prematurely Born Infant (needing prolong breast feeding) facilitated communication skills of humans from birth.
Brain is neuro-ectodermal in origin and association of hair on head is nothing but a simple association.
Religion divides people and it was a creation of mankind somewhere around 3000 years ago, in the rich and fertile Middle East.
The time scale of three thousand years is statistically insignificant, if the man’s current estimated evolutionary diversion, if we assume, it had taken place 50,000 years ago.
Drastic genetic change occurred around 3 to 5 million years ago and it took minimum of two and a half million years for establishment of humanoids.
In that sense 3000 years is nothing.
From the time man started counting millenniums, 3000 years had become historically important.
I believe it was the time of resurgence of the idea or the need for some form of arbitrary religion for human exploitation.
After 40,000 (10,000 years ago) years from that point, the agricultural civilization beginning to emerge (in which part of the world, I would not guess), man had ample time to create new ideas.
Religion was one of these ideas.
Agricultural adventures could have been anywhere, given the evolution of grasses to the present day grain producing wild cereals.
This estimation goes haywire, if we assume humanoids were galactic explorers, in the style of “Star Wars” and visitors from the outer space or aliens.
My classification during this period of 50,000 can be simplified.
1. Man hunted by the beast.
2. Man hunting the beast including woolly mammoth.
The woolly mammoth coexisted with early humans, who used its bones and tusks for making art, tools and dwellings.
This species was also hunted for food.
It disappeared from its mainland range at the end of the Pleistocene Era, 10,000 years ago, most likely through climate change and consequent shrinkage of its habitat or hunting by humans or a combination of the two.
My gut feeling is tuberculosis did intervene to decimate the woolly mammoth and the early humans.
The elephants contracted it from the humans.
Isolated populations survived on St. Paul Island until 6,400 years ago and Wrangell Island until 4,000 years ago.
3. Gatherer
4. Trader
Around 5000 years ago trading elephants hunted from North Africa.
They were supplying war effort of Romans before their decline.
These traders coming from Middle East, probably did not have a religion.
5. Current civilization was seeded around Egypt.
Sumarians laid the foundation.
6. Theory of God emerged somewhere around 3000 probably nearer Israel.
This may be after alien visitation and aliens were considered as Gods.
7. Explosion of religions in Indian subcontinent except in Russia and China,
It is also related to alien visitation.
The hidden literature in Vimanas is a living monument.
8. The current working religion is Money.
There is no place for any other religion other than Money.
Whichever way one looks this scenario, the final working philosophy is to Generate Money.
The concepts of Capitalism or Socialism does not mater, if they are weighed with money.
My analysis is based on right and wrong principle. It differs from the good or bad principle of all the religions. My definition is completely different.
Right is neither good nor bad or neutral.
Coming to current world, the might is right.
Its appropriateness is to the current needs and not to the past needs.
If a Muslim can kill another as an infidel and say it is godly thing and good, there is something radically wrong.
Killing or War is not the right way.
It is the beastly behavior in our gene makeup expressed at random.
In the 21st century we need our animal genes to be suppressed.
The religion originated in the name of God and Good but it has not delivered its key concepts to the current needs of the mankind.
Christianity and Muslim Divide started the Bible War.
Judaism in the Middle East and the Oil needs of America instituted the ongoing terrorism and War in the Middle East.
The way UNO drew lines in the world map quite arbitrarily after the World War II and made countries to it's whims and fancies of UK, USA and France (Italy, Germany and Japan, the losers were left out) and they left Palestinians to their own devices.
It is not rectified to this day.
So it is time for the UNO to declare “A day for People Without Religion” (in other words people without division) is timely and appropriate.
China did not have a religion for over 5000 years.
Buddhism reached there about 1700 years ago and was established there for nearly 1400 years and over the last 1000 years it gradually disintegrated.
For some reason or other, they hated Buddhism and MaO Se Dung did the finishing touches.
I reason this out on the basis that Chinese eat any animal species including dragons.
Does it mater to Chinese citizens?
Russia did not have a state religion for the last 150 years, after the demise of the Tsar and Rasputin, the devil in the Church of Russia.
Does it matter to Russians?
According to one of my Indian friends, there are 1 billion Indians and one billion gods.
Does it make an Indian free of abject poverty.
The whole African continent did not have a religion until Muslims from the North and Christianity from the South, almost by force (Belgium was the biggest culprit) converted them.
Does it mean now the Africans are liberated?
I suppose Nelson Mandela (astute vision) never declared his religious status.
For him humanity was more important.
The right thing is to decimate terrorism be that it may be, white supremacists, black activists, JVP, LTTE, ISIS, Mossad, Nazy Hitler or any other dictator.
In fact, we got rid of one dictator in Ceylon by popular vote but he is waiting in the wing for another fling, his God willing.
I sometime think, this tiny country was the breeding ground for radicalism and terrorism.
It is the minority in each religion who rules the majority.
Even in this country, Buddhism has fallen prey to politicians with ulterior motives and corrupt monks trading elephants.
This country would become a better place if we declare once a months a holiday for people without a religion, just like the Poya (including Satara Poya for Buddhists), Friday (for Muslims) and Sunday (for Christians).
Unfortunately there is no day for Hindus and they are all peaceful beings.
If one set off 12 days for the above and another four the Tamils we still have 14 days left.
We must reserve at least one day a month (before these 14 days are grabbed by various extreme sets of religious or political groups) in the coming Constitution for the non believers of religion and specially for the non believers of our politicians and politics.
On that day, the government should keep all liqueur bars open for only non believers (believers should be restrained in their own houses or in the Church, Mosque or Temple).
Come to think about and looking at the budget figures of alcohol sale, I am convinced believers (all religions combined) drink much more than the non believers.
The non believers although in the minority should contribute to the state coffers by enjoying a drink once a month.
For some in this country democracy is as sacred as religion but we find a way to send only the corrupt people to the parliament by default.
For me, it is one fool out 100 non fools who makes the decisive vote (49 against 51).
He is often the most foolish of the lot but ends up as the leader of the country.
This is why, I never registered for the vote (for over 40 years) come elections and feel proud that I am liberated from not only religion but also from DUD political leaders of this country.
In other words, I am emancipated by default, not out of convention, contention or context or conviction.
I suppose all the other guys and girls consider me gone nuts.
It does not matter to me, this country is full of nutty people and they are in one asylum called august assembly or the parliament.
There is a section in the Apaya International reserved for them when they demise. I wish I become the Director General there, since our Solicitor General always sees lines between lines in the interpretation of our law and set free all the culprits.
It is called transparency.
Our Minister for Justice say hooray to this mediocre guy in the name of non interference. Strangely, he happens to be the Minister for Buddhism.
I think he is trying to attain Sovan or higher sublime state during his term of office.
I hope he will give up the post when that happens.
An average citizen until then should bite his/her teeth (not in he courts of law, he will be prosecuted and charged).
