The Drivers of Good or Bad? Religion? Governments?

Religions have always used the argument about Good or Bad.  We are doctored on these philosophies from our early days and have reasons to justify as to why we are so inclined to put ourselves in Moral Dilemma. Is morals built into us, do we have an intrinsic ability to differentiate between Good and Bad? However, from the observations, it is very clear the concept is always applicable as to in what context?

The context should be universal, if there exists a universal God or Godliness. Why is that there are multitudes of it and in different parts of the world. The present push for a monotheist religion is driven by the fact that higher the numbers, the higher the number of adherents, the higher the number of countries ruled, the more the lobbying power to get things done their way. Though we are in a so called secular world, it is a general tendency to polarize the world based on religion (communism has every reason to be called a religion with Mao, Lenin or Marx as the Gods), a large Muslim Bloc, A large European Block, A poor though, highly valuable African Block and other Asian Bull Dozers. If you are wondering about the North American and South American cousins, many of them can be grouped under the European bloc , based on the racial profile of the majority. If we see the pattern, we can see a clear divide along the world countries,

We can start a  line drawing from Senegal in Africa , through Nigeria , the Islamic Arab African Countries to the Newly evangelized African countries like Uganda, Kenya and Southern Sudan... ( The big Hue and Cry over Darfur - where the majority Islamic counterparts subdue the Animist (Actively converted to Christiandom) south, whereas the minority Islamists in Uganda or Ethiopia suffer in the hands of Christians). The World Opinion is measured by Column Centimetres and Air Time Minutes than actual facts. Just like the WMD, as they say, if it is not the truth, bang the table and assert, eventually it will become one. So what is Good or Bad? Is the Muslim majority of Sudan is to blame? If it is looked earnestly, it is a matter of religion only when you want to control resources. Religion starts playing a role immediately, this is to drum up enough support for the veritable control of the resources. In the case of Sudan, it is a potential area of lot of Oil. Proven resources are on the rise, and a isolationist Sudanese Government does not help. Every opportunity is taken to  ensure they are as portrayed as evil as they can be. If a few more join together, it is like banding of brothers to take on a common enemy.

Good or Bad is always subjective and depends on who you are asking? Is opium grown in Afganisthan good for the locals, yes it is.. It is revenue for the farmer, Why should he give up a right to grow opium because of developed nation, legally or illegally imports such stuff. Is the maker of knife to blame, if it is used for killing instead of carving a nice sculpture? Is a family losing a livelihood good? Does not humans have a right to consume what they perceive as good or bad? If we can elect our Presidents, our rulers, do not we have the right to consume opium, or any other material. Is freedom restricting my choice? Some of these prudent values are cultural and are even from religion. Productivity is lost because of such substances, but that is not a reason for a ban. If tobacco is fine with the Governements, every substance in the world should be free. Think of all the locked down resources, and a set of happy psychedelic drug induced workforce, more reasons for control? the loss of productivity is loss of revenue and control to the masters at the echelons of power.  So i become the moral police , I guide people, just like you were guided when you were an infant, it is change of guard when you move out of your home. Your parents are replaced by the Government?  THE MORAL POLICE.

To continue my ramble soon

An argument for non existence of God!!

Lets take an apologetic approach to the existence of the God, it is interesting to note that all our mores are derived as a consequence of the existence of the higher being. As Immanuel Kant would say, the existence of knowledge is a consequence of the Christian god. Knowledge including arguments to the contrary are because of the fact, that god exists. It is inconceivable that God played dice in the creation of the Universe or the world within. There is decorum in the madness, and if that is the case, it proves the existence of the creator. However, nowhere is there an argument as to what , or who the creator is and they needed a middle man, the messiah, the king of the Jews, who lived some 2000 years ago.

However, when it comes to God, the caveat is  that E=K: one's evidence is what one knows, this proposed by Timothy Williamson is a statement made more in line with the Evidentialism, where every query on existence is to followed up with a clear definition as well as evidence to support the claim. This theory is interesting in many ways, as it helps us to understand the skeptic way of understanding phenomenon, including the existence of God. The fact that we need to substantiate every and any observation or claim may not always be possible and may become difficult because of the way we perceive evidence. It becomes that much more difficult to argue the case of existence of God or in case any subjective clauses. For example, would we argue on the fact a fact like someone is bald, there are two observers and both of them notice that the person is judged as being bald or not bald. However, in the absence of a commonality as to what constitutes baldness, it becomes that much more difficult to come to an conclusion as to whether the observation is valid or whether the fact can be stated. Similarly it becomes pretty difficult unless a commonality is achieved on the aspect of God and what constitues the evidence being collected and agreed upon. The reason for the same, is because of the major hurdle for the theists to justify their case, wherein the atheist does not bear the burden.

Well , You might have wondered, why the argument is veering of course, but the idea of the article to have a well built case study as to existence of the creator, if he exists, what or who it is? Is it something that we think it is? How do we explain the esoteric pages of material we have accumulated over the years, to justify the case? However, more than the existence of God or his non existence, the idea behind religion or any communal set up is the same as in the animal world. Power is a consequence of how much of reserves are brought under a single fold, how many can be moved into this congregation. It is show of strength, Many a times it is a common banner that is a prerequisite for a successful society. In the name of religion or in the name of the king, resources are moved including the subjects , it provides an impetus for people to be herded, just like a shepherd brings together his herd. 

The fact of life in this world is that there is a wide range of people with different intellectual capacities, there is a limitation as to what can be understood by a lay person, the common man. Even if content can be dumbed down to a level that it is understood by all, not every one is interested. As I am not interested in for example baseball or School football, even though, I have the intellectual capacity to understand. I refrain from it. I cannot be force fed something I am not interested in it, same way there is a large population that cannot digest the information over load, humans to succeed as a society needed to resort to division of this labour, in whatever format it evolved, the class system evolved over time, based on the economic impact of the group. The thinkers moved up the ladder, as they knew best to shepherd the common class. However, the alphas of the society, inorder to restore order, and to justify the case of their economic class differences, needed a system for the differentials and at the same time restore order. Thus was born a super human, a judge, friendlier as he was in the same league as the men who he was ruling over, but an all pervasive big brother. We see this evolving in the form of technology, With Cameras, Internet, Key Loggers, the God in society, the Government is the de facto God. Secularism, Protectionism, are the new Zeus and Poseidon.

We are in a self serving world, the concept of even so called Philanthropy or the so called human traits are just self effacing and at the end, the need for charity is driven by self aggrandizing non profits. They feed on the common folks gullibility. In the name of God, (Most Charity) or Guilt ( You have fun, when the some of the Africans dont) and the so many cliches we hear. There is no reason as to the reason for the money and funds to flow to those community. It is the collective consciousness of a group of people to feel bad about their consumption patterns, and stripping the natural resources of other countries, just because the money raised could be used to feed millions or to satisfy the need to control the resources by consuming it.

However, I have belief, just like the old pantheon of Gods were replaced as required over time and as the society demands. People would replace these systems and dismantle governments, we would have outlaws, we would have people breaking away from Government. May be there would become people who do not want to be online, for the fear of being tracked, a new world evolves, those Networked and those that are not. 

Gods vs Cameras and Democracy

Thinking about the concept of God, it is clear that humans looked at something beyond them to ensure that there exists order in the society they lived in. This concept was paramount to the success of humans as a race and evolved into the civilization that nurtured into what we are today.

The concept worked fine as long as the various communities that were governed by a particular god served the purpose without much ado. The present conflicts can be seen in this context. As boundaries overlap, the concept of god overlaps and therefore the confrontation between various gods and results in conflict. Most conflicts are fought in the name of godhead. God heads might change to the concepts followed in various religions to the change of the god head into a generic term like democracy, at least the new god democracy is generic and representative of all the thousands of gods we have across the world.

God and religion are very important aspects in maintaining order in society. When the gods are invoked he becomes the authority to decide on the outcome. Misuse in the name is God is still prevalent and atrocities are committed in the name of God. The concept of god is needed to ensure participation of people in things that we evolve and do together. The civilization that have been built on ensures that we do not do things the way we want to do and the so called conscience is nothing but the concept of god imbibed in us that stops us in doing things that we would normally done.

Take the example of a child, the child's decision are based on the concept of what it feels provides it the maximum marginal satisfaction by the consumption of something, like a toy, a big bar of chocolate or more a thieving child that picks up a cookie and wants to let her mother that she never did so. The pattern of behaviour on the part of the child would be to deny it, as the consequence of the act of lying does reward her with a nice big cookie. On the same lines, the mother can counteract by saying that a omnipresent omniscient being was watching over the kid (the logical reason to believe that the kid has consumed the cookie) would work against the kid, as the being may let her mother know of the thieving child. The effect is as good when you say that the kid was looked at through a hidden camera in the room, it does not matter to her whether the being was the being or the hidden camera ( Kids with exposure to hidden camera,  television , movies know of technology as an enabler) that provides mom, with the ability to look at the video of the activities of the kid.

To have a simplistic explanation, it is easier to say that the the God figure can be easily replaced with a camera. You might be wondering why this is an important piece of the blog. The reason we are moving into a society that is more and more material, that questions the existence of the all pervading God needs a replacement system that is universally acknowledged and respected. The camera which does not differentiate between religions, becomes the force de jour and helps in restoring a semblance of decorum and society is back on it's foot, it is a functioning anarchy as it was before the advent of God

The Growth of Monotheist Religions in the context of India

Christianity is a religion which wants death to be related to the wholeness or good that it brings. The religion itself is based on the fact that Jesus died on the cross and therefore the loss of him is because of the sins of man. To perpetuate the misery, all the edifices that Christianity has brought into this world is based on some one getting martyred for the cause. The idea is to perpetuate a feeling that is sympathetic to the cause.

We are not sure if St Peter and his remains are martyred under the St Peters Basilica in Vatican, same can be said about the lie perpetuated as St Thomas being interred in St Thomas Mount, Chennai. The idea behind the St Thomas being Martyred, does not go in grain with the fact, that no where in the written documents have there been a case of a human being martyred for espousing a cause in India. There is no history of the Christian Missionaries sent across by the Portuguese, The Spaniards or the British, French or the Danish having been received hostile. If they had, we would have some records of them having a tough time when they landed in India. Where does this story of St Thomas come from? , there is no evidence in any of the works (Christian or Non Christian) except for anecdotal evidence of the same. Anecdotes does not make them an event that took place. It is not even conjectural when it comes to the perpetuation of lies in the name of religion.

If seen from a evangelical perspective, it becomes clear, the idea is to sell a idea that was already present, something that has been there and the new evangelicals are repackaging it. And so is the Aryan invasion theory, this was also perpetuated continually so that it would provide the evangelicals a place for them to represent their new colonies. Once you are considered European, being a bretheren, it is easier to sell the idea across. When the Aryan invasion theory did not work, they switched to the Dravidans as having been opressed by foreigners and Chrisitanity is the force that would protect them. The idea was also to enforce the idea of them being superior and therefore the moral right to rule them over and to bring about economic and social emancipation to the masses. This seems to have worked as we see that the Christian denominations are more among the Fishermen folk along the coasts as well as the tribals of the North East of India.

One of the arguments for the progress (Material and Educational) of the Chrisitan community in India as an example of the beneficial effects of the evangelicals, of improving more than 2.4 percent of the Indian population (Rough percentage of Christians in India). But the other way to look at it, is the economic incentive given to them to convert would have moved them on the social ladder. To get the resources you need to move up the ladder, to get schooling, basic services, it is needed to convert to the religion of choice. This added to the fact that it was largely skewed in their favour before independence, most of the transformation happened when the resources were in the hands of the community that favoured one over the other. Given a level playing field, there would have not been much of a difference and as we all know resources targeted can atleast have the desired effect. Add to this the fact, the feeling of superiority because of religion as well as the language you attend your masses in, that is a heady concoction.The other argument is having brought together the down trodden, the lowest of low of society into a common denominator with quality. Well this does not sound that well, as we can clearly see in the Matrimonial Columns of any newspaper,does not say Christian, it says specifically Mudaliar Christian, Pillai Chrisitan, CSI Christian. The difference exists and not as claimed to the contrary.The various denominations within the Christian faith adds to the complexity of the various groups.

Some of the ways the evangelicals work is to enforce a sense of who is a better god and this works effective in among tribal populations. The idea is to bring medicine to the tribals and in the name of God treat them.One of the ways to do it is to have a medicine in front of a cross and one among the other gods and serving it to a sick to let them know as to who cures them. This is done with placebo calcium tablets versus say a paracetemol that helps them to recover from fever being an antipyretic.The effect is played out to perfection in similar moulds and you have a perfect way to convince somebody of the impotency of a God vs something else.

Money is power, to ensure that the flow of money is continuos into India, we see the evangelical organizations raising funds in the US. Since much of the money is based on the number of converts, India becomes a great place to peddle the wares. One of the ways, having talked to one of them, found that they buy a large tract of land and start a colony with a Church, the large tract is made into small plots and anybody converting to is provided a pieve of land and should visit the Church every sunday. This works great too, many do sign up for it and I also know of someone, who did this as the incentive was good enough for his to convert for convenience. There is a lock in period of say ten years, once they are done, you can dispose of the piece of lot and go laughing to the bank. The number though counts for the evangelicals, and they claim to have so many in their fold. The fact is though, it generates jobs , a bell ringer, a father at the Church all with Foreign Direct Investments. THe ultimate goal is to convert the billion heathens into God Fearing, Christians of their ilk and get salvation by getting rid of 1/6th of the population, towards salvation.

Many a times it is of importance to note that as a religion, the Christian faith though talks a lot about love, is but a religion built on feeling of guilt. It is obvious and a fact that the feeling of guilt, makes the person feeling the guilt to provide concessions in the way he sways over things that are material and spiritual. Every one is considered a sinner, a sinner that needs to report on their sins, the repurcussions for not doing so built on the fact that they are to rot in hell. The Government and Church being closely built this would have provided for a hand and the glove in maintaining order. When it did not work as was the case with witches or those practicing pagan beliefs, "death" by burning. Intimidation for not falling in line was effectively and ruthlessly applied by the Romans, when they embraced Christianity to the present day.

Evangelical work in India is a moot point of discussion, it is to be noted that India remains a bastion against the monotheist religions like ISlam and Christianity. Wherever the concept of Money and Military power could be exercised, these religions made sure that the population was swayed by the sword or economic incentives or pure genocide of the local populations. There are many cases in history that would vouch for this fact in Islamic or Christian literature (This is important from the fact that it is not written by the losing party or those slaughtered , but chest thumping by the victorious armies). Their success has been limited in Inda unlike the poor Africans, the Islanders, the North Eastern Indians or the decimated populations of the Americas (Where they were helped by Old World diseases). The reason most probably was that the Indian population has taken the onslaught of the Islamic marauders and the armies were far better than what they faced among the Africans and Americans. Once they ran over them, it was systematic murder of people - the cultural elite of the occupied nations and replacement of their traditional pagan religious places, with Churches and Mosques. This was systematic, because that was one of the effective ways the religions was built.

Visibility was important, Mecca had to be in a location where there was a pagan temple,so are many of the replacement temples that were converted to Churches in many parts of Europe. The destruction of old religious edifices to replace them with Christian/Islamic symbols is systematic and have been done over many hundreds of years. The Kapaleeswarar temple in Mylapore, presently is about a kilometre from the shore, this temple was destroyed by the Portuguese and the present day Santhome Basilica most probably sits on that spot. The temple is mentioned in many documents dating back to the 7th century AD , however, the present temple looks newer and most probably redone by the Vijayanagar Dynasties.

People tend to continue to congregate in older institutions. These institutions change their faces and replace the older ones. What is in a name? they continue their traditions with newer names, but the embodiment of the new faces are the old faith.

Religion as a mode of Power

Why did the Christian Church move to Rome instead of being in Jerusalem. If history is seen it is clear that the Church is the power to rule over its subjects. The Romans, manipulated the growing dissidence to the throne in a way that was detrimental to them clinging on to power and rulng over its subjects. Rome had to replace the edifices of its own religion with a different more effective system. This called for a god head, and a strict set of rules, that were put together and analyzed after the burning into something that would perpetuate and keep the Roman system as the central power and rule through rules written in the form of a holy book. The bible was sanctioned by the Romans and all the multitude of versions of the bible ensured that you perpetuate a system that questions the system or is in contrary are over time lost. This is a systemic model wherein any information that was available was destroyed and the material that had the sanction of the powers, ensured that a system was moulded in place and provided for a power system that is not disputed.

It is much more difficult to control a system by calling the King the god, this is because of the fact that the kind is identified as a common man, with all ails a common man, affecting the King and he being as mortal as any other. To ensure a better system that would provide with the needed control structure in place, religion plays a role. The king becomes the representative of the GOD and the god head needs the veneration of the public. To suppor the system you have a clergy that is appointed by the King, the system was perpetuated over time in a manner wherein Religion, King and the system started to evolve into a closely knitted system of power concentration.

The books that follow such a system, does require a system of systemic degeneration and rework to be in line with the needs of the society based on the King. This is a system in which Christianity was born. The books were written and the system of efficient distribution by copying a kingdom sanctioned version, ensured that the word that was out was the one that needs to be used for the perpetuation of the king, the protector of the believers.

We see from history, that with the break up of the Roman Empire, there was a slow and methodical change in the power centers, and they have their own set of rules and became the protector of the systems. This is a clear pattern , wherein religion was used as the medium to exert pressure and influence over the populace. A population indoctrinated over years to ensure that the powers are not diluted and provide undisputed access to the resources both the intellectual and physical.

We also clearly see the pattern, the Birth of Islam is a consequence of the fall of the Romans, if the ROmans had survived, the issue of a rise of a new religion with its own power center would have not arisen. The need was there , a power vaccuum always create an opportunity for another to fill that gap, and whether it is a spiritual one or one driven by the need of the day to ensure continuity in power, as well as the need for ensuring protection of the population or race, needs a system which would perpetuate the system and a new religion was born to supplant the weakness of the one that ruled in for 600 odd years.