Critical Podium Dewanand Religion
Human Brain and Religions part 1 by Md. Mahmoodul Haque
Sacrificer Md. Mahmoodul Haque
Sacrifice code wfor0242
Sacrifice date 25 march 2009
[To understand the philosophy of religion one must understand the animal
known as Homo sapiens or human. Human beings are basically future minded
animals. Their brains visualize, dream and create human imaginations.
It is known that where there is future mindedness there is hope and where
there is hope there is religion and religion are but institutionalised
dreams of Paradise. From the cave man to the present day commuters, the
human race has evolved through a testing period of gruelling transformation.
From the Neanderthal man to Pithecanthropus with their four limbs posture
to the erectus humanoids of the present time homo sapiens have grown progressively
through the passage of prehistoric times to become the most intelligent
animal on the surface of this planet. With the development of their intelligence
their brains transformed itself into the most advanced computer that may
be available in a long time]
Human Brain and Religions part 1
Md. Mahmoodul Haque
I have always found a visit to the house of worship most elevating and
had been to some very interesting places both in and outside the country.
Recently on holiday to Europe with my family I attended "Jumma"
prayers at Hamburg and Brussels where I was a bit unhappy to find a slight
hint of fanaticism in the tone of the Imams. A week later at a mosque
in London the "Khudba" in English was a heart filling experience
but the declaration implying that only the
followers of Prophet Mohammad (SM) will go to heaven and no one else quietly
disturbed me.
Coincidently at a Sunday mass in Glasgow that I recently attended at
the request of my Catholic sister-in-law, I found exactly the same intensity
in the tone of the clergy who amid some beautiful narrations said that
only the followers of Jesus Christ would go to the heaven. This brought
back memories of my wonderful experience at a temple in Kathmandu, Nepal
where amongst so many beautiful things spoken I found the same intensity
in the tone of the priest implying that only Hindus will go to "Sargo"
- heaven.
Each of these wise scholars and highly learned holy men were insisting
most sincerely and honestly in his own way that his religion is the best
in the world and only those who follow it would go to the heaven and the
rest to hell. If one believes in the Creator and his Messengers than what
these very learned men were trying to inculcate into the minds of their
listeners was far from convincing.
The Philosophy of Religion
To understand the philosophy of religion one must understand the animal
known as Homo sapiens or human. Human beings are basically future minded
animals. Their brains visualize, dream and create human imaginations.
It is known that where there is future mindedness there is hope and where
there is hope there is religion and religion are but institutionalised
dreams of Paradise. From the cave man to the present day commuters, the
human race has evolved through a testing period of gruelling transformation.
From the Neanderthal man to Pithecanthropus with their four limbs posture
to the erectus humanoids of the present time homo sapiens have grown progressively
through the passage of prehistoric times to become the most intelligent
animal on the surface of this planet. With the development of their intelligence
their brains transformed itself into the most advanced computer that may
be available in a long time.
The Human Brain :
Human brain has indeed taken a long journey from its primitive past to
its modern day versatility both physically as well as intellectually.
With the passage of time the human brain started to absorb more and more
logical explanations of everything that was happening around him. The
power of the mind to think in a logical manner and thereby acquire knowledge
from observation and from talking with people progressively developed
through the passage of time. Information acquired systematically which
proved to be true and real and from which conclusion could be drawn developed
the mental capacities and qualities of the human brain. The human brain
and human intelligence side by side began to develop and progressed from
the prehistoric period to the medieval period and finally to the modern
times.
The Pigmy Race:
The pigmy race gives a clear picture of what the human brain was during
those hundreds of thousands of years of human existence. These tribes
are unaware of all the developments taking place around them and how the
rest of the human race has progressed since enlightenment came to them.
The Pigmies also have religions of their own where good and bad are demarcated
in their primitive ways and godliness exists both in spirit and mind.
The Lord we believe in also subsists in this primitive society, in their
own ways, as the divine Creator and they surrender to His might with the
same intensity and devotion as we do in the present times. Because of
their inadequate intelligence, compared to ours, their logic is based
on what they see and feel
around them including fear of darkness of the night and of the unknown.
Whatever seems to be awesome is god to them. This belief is religion in
its primitive form. They found the power and the existence of God in everything
that was beyond their capacity to comprehend.
This was the Creators method of gradually inculcating the concept of
God the Singular and religion to a brain that was evolving with age and
experience. Reasoning and intelligence in the present context came at
a much later stage of human evolution when logical explanation to everything
imaginable developed and analytical study became the order of the day.
The belief presently seen amongst the pigmies was no different to the
religions practiced hundreds of
thousands years ago by their more enlightened brethrens in different parts
of the world. To explain the philosophy of religion to a pigmy one would
therefore need to get down to a level that they can understand and relate
to both with fear and fantasy. The same was the case of the Messengers
of the Lord who had to blend their teachings adequately matched to the
knowledge of the civilization of that era.
Ancient Scriptures :
According to ancient scriptures of which the Old Testament is one, the
Creator sent over one lac twenty four thousand Prophets to mankind. Each
of these extraordinary human beings who appeared at different period of
the human history brought the Creators' message to mankind appropriate
to the period so that it was in the same level of intelligence developed
at that period and understood by the civilization of that era.
The philosophy of religion therefore had not changed since man appeared
on this planet although hundreds of thousands of years have passed between
then and now. All humans are equal in the eyes of the Supreme, be he born
before the birth of Christ or after. Do not cause harm to others, respect
your elders, be kind, live honestly the path of truth and rightness and
so and so forth. Each Messenger that the Creator of this wonderful world
had sent through ages to set right the evils of the society conveyed the
same philosophy and the same doctrines. It is only the rituals of each
religion, which is different, and not the message.
The Lord sent messengers in the form of extraordinary men every time
mankind strayed into the wrong path and was harming itself. Each time
a messiah's teaching became corrupt and twisted due to the greed of priests
and holy men to satisfy their selfish needs, the Lord sent a new Messenger
to Shepard them back to the Lord's way. The same 'Way' sent forth to mankind
since Adam and Eve. To a Muslim that 'way' is Islam, to a Jew it maybe
Judaism, but whatever the claim maybe the message is loud and clear that
it is the Lord's message for the benefit of mankind.
It is obvious that if the message is the same then why do we have so
many different faiths amongst us each claiming to be more modern and practical
than the previous religion. Since the prophets were sent to the world
during different stages of the development of the human brain, the message
carried by them contained only that much logic and intelligence that was
appropriate for the age so that the brain of the era could absorb it.
Each prophet in his own era brought the message of love, peace, rationality,
discipline and a social code of life that brought good to the lives of
the civilization of that period. What ever was harmful to the human race
directly or indirectly was bad and evil and was to be shunned. Therefore
what seems now to be an undirected form of aesthetic imagination inculcated
in the messages of that time and period were totally believable at that
era simply because the brain and the intelligence of the human beings
had developed that much to only absorb fan
tasy of sorts.
Unscrupulous Priests And Clergymen :
Then the factor known as power comes into play and most religions become
hostage to the more intelligent among men who manipulates and interprets
the teachings for their gainful ends. The pigmies even today reflect this
in their culture that replicates our own religious past. Like their more
enlightened brethrens the pigmies have unscrupulous religious leaders
in the form of witchdoctors. These predominantly greedy holy men by inculcating
fear of the unknown and terror of the mysterious consequences corrupt
the unstable faith
essentially for their own selfish ends similar to some priests, mullahs
and clergymen of religions of the present times. They insist that the
teachings of their adopted religion is superior to the rest and only those
who submit to their preaching will be awarded and the ones who do not
will be punished.
>From the man who observes nothing more than the minimum obligations
of his faith, to a person who is genuinely devoted to a way of life reflecting
a deep love of the Creator, faith has always been the essence of all the
religions. This is simply because religion is not merely a more or less
codified set of ideas concerning the final causes of the universe or merely
adherences to the tenets of one of the systems established for worshipping
the Creator, it is the totality of living a life of great tranquillity.
Specific suggestions of an organised body of traditional doctrines are
reflected in a complex set of institutions in the form of Scriptures for
fostering these doctrines. But many religions such as the Christianity,
Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism and the religion of Essences have through
the passage of time put less emphasis on institutionalised tradition and
more on devoted adherence. Stresses on exact delineated outline of dogma
and doctrine generate, thus small or large divisions, even within a sect,
where doctrinal
differences are at issue take birth. Because of doctrinal discontent,
which is no fault of religion, odd sects spring up and bank on emotional
appeal.
The Christian Faiths
The New Testament is a book about Jesus Christ. It is the record of God's
new covenant or agreement with the followers of Jesus. The twenty-seven
books, which make up the New Testament, were written by as many as twelve
different authors over a period of some fifty years. Although the books
differ in content, a constant theme runs through all of them and joins
them into a unity. Jesus Christ had left no written records of his teachings
so his distinguished disciples preserved them by committing to memory
and transmitting them orally for nearly 300 years before it was written
in the form of the holy Bible.
The four Gospels tell the story of the life, teaching, deeds, death and
resurrection of Jesus. They are followed by the Acts of the Apostles,
which traces the spread of the Gospel for some thirty years, from Jerusalem
to Rome. The last book in the New Testament is different from all others.
It's teaching concerning the victory of the Kingdom of God and the lordship
of Christ is conveyed by means of vision, images and symbols, many of
which are very difficult for the modern reader to understand. But its
central message, which may also be taken as the theme of the New Testament,
is clearly proclaimed.
The power to rule over the world belongs to the Lord and His Messiah,
and he will rule forever and ever.
In the Christian faiths, clergymen are those who are authorized to regularly
preach the gospel and administer sacraments and lives in holy order. Their
lives are ritualized in hierarchic faith and distinguished by a tonsure.
Their ordination is symbolized by clothing marked differently from that
of a layman. These are the people who formulate and clarify the doctrines
and the thinking of the Christian faith. Notwithstanding that Jesus Christ
was a very simple person known to the Muslims as "Kamliwala"
the holy man with a blanket who was a personification of simplicity, yet
today in contrast, Pope John Paul-II live in total pomp and grandeur,
He lives in an air-conditioned house, travels in air conditioned cars,
wears golden ceremonial robes and other such formal attires - a life divorced
from the simplicity of the Christ.
The Religion of The Jews :
Judaism is the religion of the Jewish people, which is based mainly on
the Old Testament and the Talmud and is basically a collection of ancient
writings on Jewish laws and traditions. The Ten Commandments are considered
as laws given by God to the Jews in the Bible. It is believed that before
the world was created the Word of Life already existed. Jews believe that
The Creator gave the Law through their Prophet Moses and the Christians
believe that grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. The Good News
was promised long ago by the
Creator through His Prophets and written in the Holy Scriptures. The Sacred
Scripture is the speech of God as it is put down in writing under the
breath of the Holy Spirit and The Ten Commandments of the Lord written
by fire on slabs of rocks, which Moses carried to his people. Although
Jewish theologian like Maimonides influenced the Arius and challenged
heresies such as Arianism and Manicheanism Judaism is today unfairly associated
with Judas, a person who betrays a friend. Shakespeare portrayed the Jews
in the character of Shylock.
Hitler almost annihilated the race simply because of their digression
from the path of the Lord, which caused more harm than good to the German
nation and the world at large. So much greed developed from the misinterpretation
of the actual teachings of Moses by the greedy preachers of Judaism that
Jesus Christ was born among them to Shepard the Jews back to the path
of the Lord.
Hinduism:
Unlike other religions of the world, Hinduism did not originate with
any single prophet or at a particular period of human history. It's uniqueness
lies in its being based on the super conscious experiences and spirited
realization of a galaxy of saints, sages and seers, each of whom could
claim prophet hood. The Vedas, which means knowledge or wisdom, is the
basic scriptures of Hinduism, which is composed of Shruti, Agama, and
Nigama. These were revealed by the grace of God the Supreme, to the 'Rishis'
or 'Sages,' Prophets or Messengers in the depths of their intuitive experience
and not created by any human agency. The 'Rig-veda,' which was composed
at least 8000 years ago, is primarily a collection of prayer hymns in
praise of the Lord.
Lord Sri Krishna in the Hindu religion had declared in the Gita that he
incarnates himself in this world whenever Dharma or righteousness declines
and Adharma unrighteousness gets the upper hand. Messengers time and again
restore the spiritual balance and bring mankind to the path of truth and
rightness. Though Hinduism concedes the existence of several gods or deities,
it accepts only one God, Naraiyan the Supreme. Out of these deities; Indra
and others are actually ordinary souls like us who acquired extra-ordinary
religious merits.
Buddhism:
The philosophy of Buddhism is simply of non-aggressive morals which demand
no blind faith from its adherents, expounds no dogmatic creeds, encourages
no superstitious rites and ceremonies, but totally advocates a golden
means that guides a disciple through pure living and pure thinking to
gain supreme wisdom and deliverances from all evil. Although Lord Buddha
had left no written records of his teachings his distinguished disciples
preserved them by committing to memory and transmitting them orally from
generation to generations.
The "Tipitaka" was compiled and written on palm leaves and
arranged in its present form in Sri Lanka in the year 83 BC which is nearly
550 years after the death of Lord Buddha. The voluminous Tipitaka, which
contains the essence of the Buddha's teachings, is estimated to be about
eleven times the size of the Bible. A striking contrast between the Tipitaka
and the Bible is that the former is not a gradual development like the
later. As may have occurred to all the known religions of the pre Abraham's
period both the cases exemplify
the possible distortion of the actual teachings of the Lord Buddha or
Jesus Christ.
Given that they were written 550 years after the death of Buddha and
300 years after the death of Christ the actual message written from what
had been told to them, gathered and remember by their elders may have
become corrupt and distorted from the actual message of the Lord. This
is evident from the thousands of large and small images of Buddha that
crowd the monasteries these days and the worship of these idols as gods.
Lord Buddha never asked his disciples to worship him like so many other
rituals and belief practiced by Buddhists, yet after his death they do
so most sincerely and devotedly. The
corruption here may not have been due to an eye on subjugation by priests
of the common believers of Buddha but out of overzealous devotion and
surrender to the faith. Whatever maybe the reason, distortion of the actual
message of the Lord brought to mankind by Gautama Siddhartha had taken
place.
The Supreme:
Belief in God is common to almost all the religions of the world. The
Hindus call Him Naraiyan, the Christian God, the Muslim Allah and so and
so forth all meaning the Supreme, the Creator and the Lord. Whatever name
His is called He is Oneness only, One without a second. His nature is
Sat-cit-ananda, the eternal Existence-Consciousness-Bliss. He is the Creator
of this universe. He creates it by His power out of Himself, sustains
it and then withdraws it into Himself. He is all knowing, all powerful,
all pervading as also the indwelling
Controller of all beings. He is the repository of truth, knowledge and
beauty, the perfect embodiment of all the great virtues that one can ever
imagine. Mankind through ages have cherished this belief in some form
or other, which are the very essence and the philosophy of religion.
Prayer or worship if performed with faith and devotion generates peace
and joy in our hearts. Scriptures through ages have assured mankind that
if they discipline themselves according to their directions under a competent
spiritual teacher and obtain liberation through the knowledge of the Atman
they will be blessed. But most of the unscrupulous priests out of greed
twist the concept of religion for achieving their selfish ends.
The caste system in the Hindu religion is an example. It has taken roots
firmly and deeply in the Hindu society and untouchable became a blot on
the Hindu social order due to the handiwork of selfish people with a myopic
vision and vested economic interests. Hindu religion had no hand in it
at all. The learned philosophical and well-reasoned approach of the Hindu
theologian Shan Kara brought sanity in many aspects of this ancient religion
that were created by the less intelligent Hindu priests of that time.
Another example is the Christianity of the middle ages. Father Ralph
Wiltgen of the Divine Word Missionaries describes in very factual terms
how some ruthless group of clerics from the Rhine countries of northern
Europe gained control of the council and molded it to their own ends and
how they succeeded. After they had achieved their objective of removing
the orthodox and traditional preparatory documents the Rhine group of
bishops then gained control of the church and asserted their authority.
The famous murder of Thomas Becket the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1170
AD at the Canterbury
Cathedral during the reign of Henry II is a case of point. The same is
evident in other religions where unscrupulous priests out of greed distort
and corrupt the concept of religion for achieving their selfish ends.
Prophets or gods :
Not to forget, as written in our scripture, one lac twenty four thousand
Prophets were sent by the Lord to mankind. Each of them were extraordinary
men in their own rights Each of them have been idolized as gods by the
inadequate intelligentsia of the period and now found in different mythological
figures of the Greeks, Roman, Hindu, Mexican Latin American and so many
mythology that existed. Whether it was Lord Krishna, Ram, Durga of the
Hindu mythology or the Greek god Uranus, the Roman god Pluto, Egyptian
god Cambyses, the Inca god
Manco of the Pacific coast or the Aztec god Capac of Mexico and such other
mythologies, may have been prophets of that period. Each in his own right
was an extraordinary human, termed as gods by the intelligentsia of individual
faiths. Each could have been one of those 'One Lac Twenty Four Thousand.'
The First Human Beings :
The remarkable aspect here is that however musing the tales of these
lost and extinct religions maybe they narrate a similar story about the
appearance of man on earth, but in a primitive way. According to Greek
cosmogony of 900 BC or so, Earth (Erebus) and Love (Eros) were the first
beings. Eros, issued from the egg of Night, which floated on the river
Chaos was pierced by Erebus's arrow, vivified all things, producing life
and joy. The temptation and fall of man when the serpent, Ophion, allured
Eurynome (Eve) into tempting Erebus to
take the forbidden apple is also narrated likewise in the 800 BC hymn
of Osiris who according to the Roman belief was the lord of eternity,
king of gods, The same is the story of Adum (Adam) and Bibi Hawa (Eve)
in the holy Koran.
Although the ancient Egyptians believed in many different gods and goddesses,
they believed that 'Ptah' was creator god who spoke the words and the
world came into being. They believed that 'Atum' was the first god to
exist on earth and rose from the waters of chaos (Nun) and created all
the gods. They also believed that their creator god just appeared from
nowhere. It was thought to be very important to worship and please the
gods so that life continued smoothly thus worshipping the deities who
were representatives of the Supreme was a large part of life in ancient
Egypt.
The position is similar to that of Gautama Buddha who never preached
to be worshiped, yet innumerable statutes of Buddha adorn monasteries
in every nook of the Buddhist faith. Likewise Jesus Christ never instructed
his followers to worship him, yet his statutes embellish every Christian
church and home alike. Akin to other gods of numerous faiths, they were
normal human beings with gifted powers given by the Lord to bring to mankind
His message but instead were worshiped by man as gods. That was the mystification
by overzealous priests out of obsessive devotion to the messenger of the
Lord who appeared before them in the form of man. Soon those unscrupulous
among the priests
began to corrupt and distort religion for their greed and selfish needs.
Very few people were allowed to see the inside of temples said to be the
homes of the gods and goddesses whose audience only the priests was entitled.
Religion began to get out of the reach of the common man and became the
sole possession of priest, clergymen, and mullahs alike. Albeit, Islam
does not believe in inequality among man, yet entering the inside of the
Holy Kabbah House in Mecca by ordinary Muslims has been made off-limit,
not by God, but by mullahs
for centuries
To be Continued.....
Md.Mahmoodul Haque is a retired Tea planter from Sri
Mangal and now a businessman based in Dhaka. He can be reached at
news@bangladesherdak.net
***
Critical Podium Dewanand Religion
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