Take a fan of Arnold Schwarzenegger or Sylvester Stallone, what kind of
person would he be? (Of course, the writer expects it to be a male), the type
who would be whistling delightedly while viewing Expendables 14… In India, you can take a fan of any
action star actor… say Salman Khan..
most of his movies he is a brawny, street gang leader, who harass women
and use violence at the drop of a hat… but he is the Hero, and all his fans
(they come by bus loads for his movies) whistle and dance around whenever he
appears on screen.
(this is not about narrow stereotyping, but beginning of a totally different topic... as important as the end of the universe.. that is, end of mythologies ;) Spoiler alert **this write up is controversial, hurting so beliefs and maybe too personal (editors)**
Of course, the fan boys, as the star trek fans are called, do pretty
much the same, and even are wearing costumes - How can you discuss something
with these over the top fans? What will happen if you told them your disagreement
about such an obsession? Can you expect
logical arguments in the form of words or…
Or take politics, and think of a rabid follower of a party. It could be republican, or democrat.. Or Congress or BJP or other 100 such parties
from India.. Or take any from any country. How would a party card holding person will
react to criticism or even probing questions?
There is a saying, ‘there are no atheists in a fox hole’... Fox hole as a trench in which you are hiding
from enemy bullets. It can be turned
around as, ‘there are no believers in an operating table’ – otherwise they can
pray and would not require anaesthesia.
Of course, the second saying is just an example. The point is, let’s continue with the earlier
1 paragraphs..
Take a religious believer, and would this religious fan be willing to
accept criticism about their god? Although most believers are non-believers of gods
from other religions, and would find other mythologies utterly unbelievable and
even funny.
But why do people become believers?
They are not very aware of future, insecure and require a god (parent)
figure to protect. The parents
indoctrinate the small children into this delusion. Initially the parents are portrayed as the
protectors and take-care-of-everything-people to the child. It might foster dependence, but without that,
there won’t be the love that they crave.
Parents wont feel needed, without developing the child to be dependent
and needy. Soon, this dependence is also
transferred into a god/s… Who will forever remain the father figures (or
parental figures to use political correctness).
But, why do parents, who instinctively and hormonally are so attached to
the well being of child, become willing to delude own children? Well, why do parents want children? Is it so
that they develop as superiors or is it because they want someone to give them
affection and someone who will be in need of them? It’s tough to give a brutally honest
answer. We all are conditioned not to
give a honest answer to such questions. There
is also the old age fear of patricide / matricide… its common among animals to
discard the old and the weak… so, better
delude the child than risk their independence.
Thus god as a creation could have happened somewhere else, but parents
have a major role in propagating that belief.
A tool to bring uniformity.. to
create factory production level standardization of human behaviour.. . through fear & love of a delusion.
In mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, the patient develops complex
stories to support their delusions. Of
course, the patient won’t think of them as stories, but as reality… One common
factor to such stories is, inserting aspects which cannot be disproved easily. How can this be done? One is to claim to see a dead person – who
becomes visible only to the patient. It
will be very difficult to prove / show that it’s a delusion. Another common theme in delusional story is –
being followed by CIA, KGB or some such secret organization. The patient will claim that, such a secret
organization is so skilled that they cant be seen by other people. Alien abduction is another claim, which cannot
be disproved using science & logic.
And in belief of God and religion – there are soul, which cannot be
disproved. There are gods who have
disappeared since invention of video camera, or cannot be captured by any human
created device. These also are so
subjective, that science and logic cannot be used to disprove it / them. And thus these myths get life in the minds of
religious people. There are already a
big group of people to fan these beliefs.
If its too small a group, then they end up called as a cult. For every fear, insecurity these believers
will cling on to these god figures for protection, care and cure.
And then it becomes a chicken or egg problem. Do you talk to these believers about religion
as a delusion first, or do you talk to these people about accepting an
unpredictable future and developing tolerance of ambiguity? If I am not hell bent on controlling my future,
then I won’t require a god or almighty to support me in that venture. If I am strong that way, then I won’t be
demanding my children, or that members of a human created family system must love
me to death (it can be wife, husband, father, mother, or any relationship, such
as cousin brother of maternal grand father’s neighbour’s dogs previous owner).
But I guess it happened to me through the other way – which is, first I
started to question this myth and as I realized the religious beliefs as a myth…
then over time, I had to accept that there is no god father in the skies or
wherever, and I developed strength to accept reality as it is. Our nature as a change process enabler, and
lost my anthropocentric attitude and that the earth is only as small as an atom
in a big huge universe… and all I will
leave after my insignificant life & death will be just this blog ;)
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