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
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
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.
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.
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