One of the wisest remarks, made by any man to date, was that by Socrates, when he said, “I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.”
In our daily conversation we rarely make, or have the pleasure of hearing an intelligent remark being made. Whenever I hear such a remark, it makes me think for days, sometimes months and keeps my thought faculty awake.
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| Galileo |
A very important Deputy Minister told me that, “Religion was invented by man in fear of death.” Italy being the citadel of Catholicism, I was taken aback by this remark. Unlike in most other countries in Italy there are no fundamentalists in every nook and corner promising economic salvation and then spiritual awakening by conversion. For example in my embassy, of the three Italians employed one is an agnostic, the other a Buddhist.
I met a Sri Lankan who had authored an Italian-Sri Lankan Dictionary. I was extremely pleased with the contribution he made to the learning of the Italian language and the immense contribution he had made towards the integration of the Sri Lankan and Italian societies. When I questioned him about the Italian education, he was quite happy to admit, quite contrary to the opinion expressed by other Sri Lankan parents, that his child was doing well as there is comparative freedom and less pressure, than in Sri Lanka for a child to develop his thinking faculties
Then I questioned him about the common fears expressed by Sri Lankan parents, not only in Italy, but all over the world, that Western cultures corrupt our children, as there was too much freedom. He said “My child has integrated so well that he has no inhibitions about having a girlfriend. He is studying very well, as he has freedom with little or no home work and no pressure of competition. In Sri Lanka we follow the Judaic Christian ethics combined with Victorian morality, which has been thrown overboard by modern Western culture many decades ago.”
He continued, “Sir, we are like the Taliban clinging to these alien morals which have no virtue at all. I am trying hard to liberate myself from these endemic cultural taboos, but my roots drag me to the mire of a culture based not on Sri Lankan values but on values imposed on us by the imperialist conquerors. My son, who is just 10 years old, has the freedom to work in an environment where the independence and the dignity of a child is respected.”
Yesterday I saw a film on euthanasia. I believe this is based on a true story. This was about a doctor who administered drugs on people who desired to die as they were suffering from terminal illnesses. Though the West condemns Sharia laws, our modern criminal laws are based on religious laws which are archaic and anachronistic. In the film, the doctor discusses, amongst other things, the religious taboos and amorality which prevents a man deciding about the time he should die than continue to live in pain. When chloroform, or anaesthetics were discovered, they were prohibited from being used for over 100 years, as it was argued, by religious scholars, that God expected such persons to suffer the pain and the agony of the illness forced upon the patient by God’s will. Even amputations were done without any anaesthesia while the amputee writhed and shouted in pain as willed by the Almighty. Even today, some religious sects forbid their followers taking medicine and teach them that recovery from illness is only through prayer.
Is religion the opiate of the masses, as said by Marx if not, as claimed by millions has religion brought peace and well being into society? Or, has it prevented expansion of knowledge? The agony and suffering of Galileo, was due to having discovered and announced the truth, contrary to the book of Genesis in the Bible, that the Earth was the centre of the universe and the Sun revolved around it.
Have the expanding middle classes contributed negatively to the advancement of science and made room for religious fundamentalism in the US and the Arab world.
These are questions we must ponder and answer with an open mind. |
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