Filius Conscientiae
Of all the things that can keep me up at night debating, perhaps religion interests me the most.
To me, religion is the blazing proof of the genius of human intellectuality; religion shows how brilliant mankind is in storytelling. The presence of a divine is covered with webs of doubt and lack of evidence, yet this fascinating art of storytelling has established its presence at the center of human existence for eternity.
For the people who don’t abandon these stories, they appear as a refuge when uncertainties and trouble flood the delicate, frightened human mind. No one is sure about the presence of the divine, and that debate has aged a lot, yet the stories survive even in this era of prioritizing evidence. It’s interesting how the human brain functions; it’s almost bewildering to observe the foundations of belief in the human heart. Mankind isn’t unaware of the exaggerations and falsehoods of mythology. However, the thirst for the divine and seeking protection in it goes on.
Even the touch of this modern era has failed to shake the pillars of the saying “Faith moves mountains.”
However, religion doesn’t escape the wretchedness of mankind either; we humans have conjured religions, cultures, and traditions from the depth of our hearts, perhaps the one true seat of the divine. We enrich it with all magic this heart has to offer, but we aren’t done until our darker aspects spill and pollute this cauldron, the harbinger of religion. Religion, which was ideally supposed to unite mankind with the supposed divine and peel all darkness off mankind, loses its path in the desert of greed, lust, and maleficence. It was humans who gave birth to religion, the light that could’ve guided them in times of distress but the very humans turned off the same light.
In this modern era, religion appears to be a tool for gaining power; from religious ‘teachers’ to politicians, all appear to be profiteering off religion.
Studying religion critically in the context of the modern age is a need of the hour hence; we need to know what religion actually has to say to debunk the lies of religious fanatics. We, humans, created religion to help us find a way to the divine, it’s our duty thus, to rescue religion out of depths of abuse. It’s time we discard the problematic aspects and embrace the wisdom of all religions, and march on towards the final frontier which is humanity.
