Religion - Fiction or Fact?

"Gravity will not stop existing if one stopped believing in it. However, Gods will stop existing if one stopped believing in them."

Imagine this: Every human living on this planet suddenly wakes up one day, with no knowledge of any religion, its rituals, temples, mosques, churches, books, songs, hymns, and almost everything that is related to religion in any way.

What do you think then happens to the innumerable Gods and their eternal truths about life, to the idea of hell and heaven, to the beliefs of social stratification systems, to the myriad number of rituals?

It would not be an exaggeration to say that the so dearly believed ideas of religion will stop existing from that moment onward. Why? Simple, because they are beliefs and they exist only if people believe in them. 

To understand this, take for example, gravity. It exists not because we believe in it but because it is real and its existence can be proven by evidence - and even if we forget the concept of gravity, gravitational effects would not stop.

To further stress the point, consider the fact that homo sapiens (that is, our species!) have existed on this planet for close to 200,000 years now and acquired cognitive abilities (ability to think, imagine, create myths) only 70,000 years ago. And, during this time, many civilizations of sapiens were born and died, and along with them died many religions. Their Gods, their temples and their texts are now artefact - which we often look at with amusement. And even have contempt for their teachings as per today's values (e.g. Code of Hammurabi, c.1776 BC, says the following, "If a man strike a free-born woman so that she lose her unborn child, he shall pay ten shekels for her loss" and "If the woman die, his daughter shall be put to death").

Were religions and Gods of those civilizations not eternal? Were the values taught by them not universal and to be true always? The people who lived under those laws certainly believed so and followed them with sincerity. But, where are these so called eternal religion and laws now - some in museums, some still in ground and may or may not even be discovered.

Then, what of the eternal laws and beliefs of the religions of present we so strongly follow and live our life by. If the very existence of these religions is just based on belief and not in reality, then why are they being passed on as eternal truths? And, how is it even possible for these contradicting religions to be true at the same time? And, if these religions are eternal truths, then why are they mostly imposed during an impressionable age when a child is not even aware if he/ she needs to question? And, also why the followers of these religions use threat of violence to make other people stay in a religion or not say anything against their religion if they really believe them to be eternal truths? Do we ever see a scientist going out with an AK-47 to convince people to believe in gravity? No. We don't.

What if an asteroid were to strike earth in some immediate future and it leads to destruction of all of planet's life as we know, and in some distant future life begins again and one more time leads to evolution of cognitive and intelligent beings (who may or may not look like us), and they dig up our temples, mosques, find scriptures, study our religions in an objective way, what conclusion would they draw from our practices, about our "eternal truths"? Would they look at our religions the same way we look at the religions of the sapiens who lived before us?

Think!

Caste System

System of brainwashing people for centuries

Imagine an American or an European meeting two Indians for the first time. One of the Indian happens to be from a higher caste and the other from a lower caste. How do you think the foreign national will treat them?

I guess we can safely assume that he/ she will treat both of them the same way. But why would he/ she not treat them differently? What is it which does not let him/ her not see the caste of the individual and treat them as per the hierarchy of caste?

Well the answer is pretty simple, it is because the foreigner has not been brainwashed with the non-sense of caste. He/ she sees both of them as human beings belonging to the same human species of homo sapiens born the same way having the same potential and capabilities as every other human on this planet.

In India, we have this system of designating people to certain status in society just by being born. Caste of the family is passed on to the new born child. If he/ she is born in a Brahmin (designated as the highest caste) family then he/ she is as good as to have been touched by the hand of God and if he/ she happens to be born in a family of Lower Caste (Untouchables - not even allowed a place in the caste system) then he/ she is to be shunned like plague. As it is clear, "there is no merit" in these designations, they are as arbitrary as either winning a lottery or losing it altogether.

It is believed in the Hindu religion that you get birth in a certain caste on account of your actions in previous births. (This is such bullshit - which is evident from the fact that how come this system happens to be applicable to only the humans living in India or following Hindu religion - what about the rest of human population? Are they beyond these eternal laws? Why do they not get judged by these divine laws? How is it any different from the Bible which said that Blacks are to be treated as slaves? How is it any different from the Quran which accepts slavery?)

This inadequacy itself is a reason enough to discard this caste system as a practice which is not only disgusting but reduces a mass of population to sub-human levels. (Curious: Do the Hindus check for caste when they take blood donation? No.)

Just imagine this: A child who is just born will be treated like shit for the rest of his/ her life by the accident of birth in a certain family due to no fault of his/ her.

This is the Indian society we live in, which destroys the confidence and potential of its own people by placing them on a social ladder just by the accident of birth. Those who are placed on the top feel proud and those at the bottom or some not even on the ladder feel worthless - this is not at all adjudged by the capabilities but just by being born in certain families.

So, essentially, whereas in USA or other western countries, people would say that no matter where you are born you have the potential to be great and achieve big things, we in India say that certain people just by accident of birth are superior and others are lesser human beings - thus making some complacent about their capabilities and some told that they are no good.

In conclusion, people who believe in caste are no less brainwashed than those jihadi terrorists blowing up buildings. Here the only difference is that instead of blowing up buildings, these people are destroying the nation by dehumanizing their own countrymen/ women. And they do it daily.

Reservation and Merit

In order to counter the discrimination faced by the so-called lower castes and untouchables, the govt provided reservations as a part of its affirmative actions policy - which made the so-called upper castes forcibly accept them in their environment - where they were not once allowed access to educational institutions and govt jobs, where, if by any luck they got admissions they would be failed just because of caste - now had access.

It was never a question of merit, the lower castes and untouchables were not or even now are not welcomed and looked at with different perceptions by most people - merit does not even figure. Yet these so-called upper castes would say that compete on merit, why do you ask for reservation?

It seems that they are right on this point. Let there be competition on the basis of merit. Let there be a ban on caste names, caste itself, and let there be marriages on the basis of merit and not caste. The day this happens, then there would be no need for a reservation because there would be no caste.

But, is it really possible that the so-called upper castes would give up their privileges for which they had to "literally" make no efforts. What have they done to claim being called a Brahmin or a Kshatriya and demand respect from others? At least the so-called lower castes, in order to avail the benefits of reservation, have to achieve certain minimum qualifications, unlike the so-called upper castes. 

P.S: Have not the Hindus committed treason against their own country in the interest of their caste?