IR #004

One of the major concerns I have been having with all the religious fanatics or extremists is the way they conveniently use their faith to spread ignorance. I mean.. look at it. None of the terror attacks so far, from the World Trade Center to the Charlie Hebdo incident, are acts of faith by any stretch of imagination. They are in fact just plain stupidity and ignorance.

I need to make one point clear here, I am not skewed towards any religion. A Hindu by birth, living in a Muslim country and studied in a Catholic environment. None of these factors have contributed to an inclination to either but developed an understanding and appreciation of the different faiths and their message. If asked what my my practicing religion is, I would have to say that I am a theist… I don’t call God by any particular name, I know He/She/It exists. Period.

Freedom of speech is a vital right that our forefathers have struggled to achieve after undergoing oppressive rule by kings, dictators or colonists. I am not willing to let that slip away just because some uninformed, idiotic a**hole has decided that he is offended and is ready to spill blood. It would be an insult to my ancestors, countrymen and stalwarts of history who has struggled and in some cases given their lives to grant us this Right.

Let us examine this concept of Faith v/s Ignorance and then decide if such retaliatory actions were necessary. We will go through a situation and compare how the faithful and the ignorant react.

 

Charlie Hebdo publishes a cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad.

Rationale of the faithful: That was not a good thing. Allah is all powerful and will punish these offenders for sure in his own way which is true and just.

Rationale of the ignorant: How dare they do this?? This has to be stopped. My God and Prophet must be so sad right now. I must do something to avenge their honor. Let me go and kill a few people to prove a point and please my God.

God’s rationale (Not making claims, only assuming): Oh look! Someone in France has drawn a cartoon of us. Let them have their laughs now. I am too busy trying to ensure all the people in the world are fed at least once today.

 

What I would like to say.

To the faithful: Good job. You are right. What goes around will come around and as your faith would have it, these guys will receive their due.

To God: You created us and probably expected us to behave this way. Since you are all powerful I am pretty sure you could have prevented this cartoon from being created in the first place if you wanted to.

To the ignorant: WHO THE F**K DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?? You are nothing but one of God’s billion creations on this planet. Who gave you the right to represent a community of over 1.5 billion people and spew your ignorant sh*t on the face of this planet? What makes you think that the all powerful God and his messenger needs you to uphold their honour and avenge their insult?

 

Yes. Think of it. The true faithful do not need justification or feel the need to interfere in God’s grand plan for the universe and the human race. They believe that sinners will perish and the virtuous will be rewarded. Simple as that. They do not try to punish or reward – that is God’s job.

The ignorant on the other hand, somehow have it in their head that their God is weak and easily offended. They feel the need to feel closer to God by taking on his responsibilities and pass out judgments. If you really believe, this is not how you would react. There has not been a single messenger or angel mentioned in any of the religious books who have come down on earth to avenge the honor of God. When required, God has taken matters into his own hands and dealt with the issue directly – either coming down in person or affecting natural calamities like earthquakes, tidal waves etc to express His wrath.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trust me.. He would not take the help of a puny human to guard his honour. If such a day should come that God needs a bunch of gun totting fanatics to avenge the insult dished out on his fragile ego, I would gladly give up faith and religion in totality. God would not be all powerful and divine in my eyes, he would just be a crying little b***h.

I would rather worship Superman or Morgan Freeman.