Naznin Seamon
Religion for many is an obfuscated topic, and therefore,
they just take things for granted that are recorded in the scriptures. It
renders fear in our heart, and out of fear we designate our time and thought to
our creator without having been able to consciously decisive on the existence
of any super being, God per say. Our habit of questioning ‘why’ and ‘how’
becomes silent when it comes to the topic of religion, or God as religion
prohibits us questioning saying those exercises are equivalent to being
suspicious which is a sinful act. Religion teaches us to believe and follow
without questioning. It threatens us with severe consequences in case of any
doubt in our mind. So, the question is why and how we should, or should we
after all believe in something without being inquisitive?
Before even going there, the vital question is what is
religion? If it refers to a system of belief, the next question will be why do
we need a super being in that system? If religion simply means belief in
divinity, then this definition must fulfill our thirst about what is divine,
who it is, where does divine reside, which divine power do we believe in as
there are numbers of different types of religions around the world for
different groups of people, why there is not one religion and divine power
people can devote their heart to instead of numerous types. Why is this
confusion? Why do we believe in something that we can’t see, feel, hear, or
touch?
There’s a belief that religion helps people to deviate
from sins and wrong doings. True, to some extent it does, but by keenly
analyzing this statement we will see that religion is only 4.5 to 5000 years
old, but civilization started 4.5 million years ago. In that case, shouldn’t we
ponder about why didn’t the ‘creator’ send someone to guide those people who
lived before the beginning of religion? Was s/he lazy then? Or, didn’t think
that it will be required to send religion and its’ messenger(s)? In either
case, can we then conclude that God did not master the mastery of knowledge, or
is not that matriculate as we accredit him/her for? If God makes such faulty
decision, then is s/he really that credible after all? On the same note, did we
ever think why we don’t have messenger any more for century after century?
It is being stressed by every religion that its’ purpose
is to bring peace and harmony to the world. Well, then has it really
established a harmonious situation at all? There are different reasons for
people being killed, but religion is the prime one that killed and still is
killing people in numerous ways. It teaches us to hate and avoid, be
malevolent, in cases even to kill people with different religious affiliation.
It restricts us to see human beings with their humane, benevolent qualities;
instead, it forces us to categorize people based on their religious dogma.
That’s why, we see chaos amongst us. Being the beholders of the most complex
brain, we, human beings have failed to stand under a uniformed umbrella because
of the division engraved in our heads by religion. It not only infested and
contaminated our prodigy with extreme animosity and abhorrence coated
antagonism followed by egocentrism, but created a rigid wall amongst human
beings. At the same time, it coaches us to undermine humanity and embrace
atrocity, brutality, hostility, savagery, and so on.
For instance, 1971 is our proudest, yet wistful,
melancholic, troubled and disastrous time of all. It gave us independence, a
map on the face of the world that cost 30 million people of all ages, social
class, gender, religion, and the chastity of 2 million women. The reason lied
in socio political, economical injustice and aggression of Pakistan towards the
Bengali nation, but as it became intense, religion played a significant role in
it. Pakistani Govt. thought of the Bengali to be inferior in every possible
way, but religion was one of the vital causes behind such thought. They killed
innocent people because they were not Muslim, but killed Bengali Muslims as
well in the name of Islam. They wanted the then East Pakistan to be Islam
oriented only. The massacre they did is incomparable to anything in the world.
In the name of religion, people are brutally killed,
tortured and abused all over the world. It violates people’s rights to enjoy
freedom, make free choice, and have conscious decision. However, the most
affected group by it is women from the birth of religion up until now.
Regardless of types of religions, it restricts them from having a normal life,
and gives all power to a man over a woman. This power shifts from that
individual female’s father/brother to husband and even to the males of
husband’s family. Some notable examples from Quran regarding the roles of women
can be as follows: it gives more rights to men than women regarding divorce,
while Muslim men can accept up to four wives fulfilling some basic requirements
(“It’s ok to have two, three, or four wives, slave or free” 4:3), women have no
such right at all, husbands have the power to beat up their wives as needed, a
man’s inheritance is twice than the female child of the family (“Males are to
inherit twice that of females” 4:11). Not only that, when it comes to witness,
two women are equal to a man (a woman is worth one half of a man. 2:282) which
undermines their judgment and intellectual abilities (“Women are feeble and are
unable to devise a plan” 4:98).
Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism don’t teach us different
regarding these views; of course, there are many more proofs of how it lowers
women as whole, and some are the extremes of the extreme. By looking at some of the quotes below about women
that reflect on their humiliated
position in Hinduism and
Christianity it becomes clearer how each religion had placed women under the
threshold of hatred.
“Father
protects (her) in childhood, husband protects (her) in youth, and sons protect
(her) in old age. A woman cannot be left unprotected” (Manu Smiriti 9.3).
“Lord Indra himself has said that women have very little intelligence. She
cannot be taught”
(Rig Ved 8/33/17).
“Women
code says that women are without energy. They should not get a share in
property. Even to the wicked they speak in feeble manner” (Yajur Ved 6/5/8/2)
“O
Husband protect the son to be born. Do not make him a woman” (Atharva Ved
2/3/23).
Not to mention, the
existence of “Sati Partha” was the cruelest of all where a widow woman had to
be burnt alive with her husband.
"When
[the women] came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the
Eleven... But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to
them like nonsense."--Luke 24:9-11
Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiple thy
sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy
desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee (Genesis 3:16).
“For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the
man. Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man.”
(Corinthians 11:8-9)
“Give me any plague, but the plague of the heart: and
any wickedness, but the wickedness of a woman”. (Eccless. 25:13)
“Of the woman came the beginning of sin, and through
her we all die.” (Eccless. 25:22)
“But I would have you know, that the head of every man
is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is
God.” (Corinthians 11:3)
One can easily be made bombarded by more quotes as the
above ones on various issues. Overall, religion confines women in the roles of
sinners, vacuous, greedy, source of misdeed and mischief. And, its’ purpose is
to make women docile, accommodating to men and their needs, but not limited to
those in any case.
Religion hinders us to have a free mind and soul. It
influences us negatively while paralyzing our rights to think, question, and
comment. It forces us to obey without any doubt, hesitation, and bribes us with
greed of rewarding in our afterlife though it fails to prove of its’ existence.
It is a poisonous tree that has spread its’ roots and branches, and can harm us
by its fruits and seeds. It has engulfed our days and nights with its verses,
and made us robotic followers. It made us less humane, while promoting and
nourishing an unsound arena of superiority complex in the context of religious
differences. So, it is up to us to decide what should we accept and how shall
we proceed. Should we blindly believe because religion said so, or should we
attempt to justify the statements within our limits? Shouldn’t we lay our eyes
on the contrasting factors of science and religion, and then decide which one
to choose? In the peak of scientific and technological era we can’t help but
being aided by them, but by accepting religious myths as facts, we are not only
undermining the contribution of science in our lives, but are taking a
hypocritical stand.
One of the 16th century’s most significant
philosophers Francis Bacon stated, “Knowledge is power”, but religion stops us
from igniting our thirst for knowledge. It offers us an illusion of the utopian
society up front, but the underlying current is ignorance, hostility, savagery,
division, spiteful behavior, and therefore, cruelty with blindness. It
navigates us to the world of unconditional submission. The tool is in our hands
to determine its’ effect. We are the ones who will decide if we should ride our
cars into the dark tunnel, or choose the radiant ones instead. Bacon also said,
“Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in
children is increased by tales, so is the other”. And, what is religion other
than tales that is being applied to frighten us using death and torturous
afterlife as the symbols of our destiny if the ‘God’ provided discipline has
been violated by us?
নাজনীন সীমন
নিউ ইয়র্ক
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