I've always had a tendency to relate knowledge acquired from various subjects and sources. Whether it be physics and chemistry or Compilers and algorithms. When I tried finding similar analogies between science and God, it led to tremendous contradictions. Science claims that the laws of physics and other sciences control the world. It says if you drop a coin, it will fall to the ground with an acceleration of about 9.8 m/s. The other line of thought says that that the universe is governed by this supernatural being who created the world over a 6-day period. I found it difficult to believe in both simultaneously and am firmly aligned to science.
I decided to think the other way for some time and will be basing my thoughts in this essay on the assumption that Gods exist and have powerful influences on human life. For some reason, God refuses to reveal himself to the common man. This God must have chosen the great spiritual and religious leaders and religion in general as his tools to guide people on how to go about their lives in the way that he wants. These people have been hand picked by him as the best to carry his message to the world, the others he apparently does not find worthy of any trust, nor does he find them capable to give the slightest evidence of his existence. So, we as common men must view this divine being through the eyes of the people who carry his messages. We must have faith and belief in scripts written thousands of years with no definite source.
If this were indeed the truth, the impact religion has on human life can be viewed as actions performed by the great lord himself. But, the impact of religion on human society seems extremely detrimental to me.
Religion - Arguably, the biggest single cause of human death ever.
Be it the crusades for Jerusalem or Hitler's concentration camps. More recently be it 9/11, the Bombay blasts, or the Palestine conflict. Religion is responsible not for hundreds or thousands of human deaths but millions and millions of them(Mostly innocent). I read this quote somewhere, "Surgeon General's Warning: Quitting Religion Now Greatly Increases the Chances of World Peace." How crude but how true as well. I am sure that I do not need to give more examples to convince you. You can think of tens of examples at a moment's thought.
A lot of theists will argue that these actions were performed by religious fanatics and is no reflection of what god wants us to do. But the fundamental problem with religion is the inability to question the rules laid down by authority. If you and I cannot question whether there is a god and what is the proof of his existence, how is the common Afghan to question the maulwis telling him to wage jihad against non-Muslims (Indians or Americans or anyone else). Neither should he under the assumption that our God has exposed his wishes in the great scriptures and to the great religious saints. This is after all from the holy Quran.
"2.39. But those who reject Faith and belie Our Signs, they shall be companions of the Fire; they shall abide therein."
"3.151 Soon shall We cast terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers, for that they joined companions with Allah, for which He had sent no authority: their abode will be the Fire: And evil is the home of the wrong-doers!"
So helping God by putting the Kafirs (Nonbelievers in Allah) into the fire should be a good deed indeed.
God - The obstacle to economic progress
These was a time in Europe around the 6th to the 10th Century AD when the power of the Church was unquestionable and supreme. This time is known in European history as "The Dark Age".
Closer to home I see a system where a person is not allowed to change their profession if her/her occupation has become obsolete. A quarter of the populace is treated as "untouchables" and we almost created laws banning them from changing their religion. An argument against this is that the caste system becoming rigid has been caused by corruption of the religion over several thousand years. I find this extremely hard to believe, as ours was possibly the most divided society conceivable in ancient times. It was to the extent that we had a separate language for the elites (Sanskrit) and another one for the commoners. We find in Mahabharata that a gifted child called "Ekalavya" was refused education from his teacher as he was not of the appropriate caste.
Besides there are numerous other bindings that Hinduism imposes on it's followers, though not followed in totality, the inabalility to travel abroad being one of them.
Religion - Severely hindering Scientific Progress
Galileo was banned from teaching ideas that the Earth was not the center of the Universe and his findings using his telescope. He was later subject to house arrest after getting to his knees and begging to be forgiven.
Around the year 1600, under instructions from the church, a man called Giordano Bruno had been kept in a dungeon for 8 years, later a nail was driven through his tongue, he was tied to a metal post, wood and some of his books were placed under his feet and he was burnt to death. His crime ---- he had said that the earth revolved around the sun, the sun is a star and their might be other worlds with intelligent beings on them and that Jesus did not possess god like power and souls can’t go to heaven.
This one kind of explains itself actually. Science and God have been totally contradictory, so God obviously does not want Science to progress. We must agree after our first premise that all science developed by mankind is some kind of a hoax actually so probably this point doesn’t even count.
Should we be religious fanatics?
For those who suggest that all the above was the result of religious fanaticism, and we must apply our heads before believing what we are told. I feel compelled to point out the double standards you are using. On one side you are wiling to believe that there is a super powerful super good God somewhere who is responsible for everything that happens in the universe. If you do believe in this you must honor his message whether it be to kill kafirs or to burn people who contradict the bible of treating a quarter of the populace as untouchable. If this god does not prove his existence to you directly and you religion is all you must rely upon, you must do all this or he shall punish you in your afterlife.
