There have been some constant pursuits for humanity ever since it moved into ‘civilization’ from being a hunter-gatherer society.
- The need to know. Intellectual curiosity of how certain things happen and why do they happen and such questions.
- The need for social order. When we (ok, most of us) moved from to a ‘civilized’ society there was a need for maintaining social order (whether it was just or not is debatable, in fact it was usually unjust). But order was required nevertheless, some rules of the game for living together. This part also includes morality and ethics.
- The desire for transcendence or can I say feeling ‘high’. That thing which goes beyond the mundane.
Historically, religion has played a largely successful role in satisfying these needs to humanity. Religion has also aided in our lack of humility. If one can be humble enough to accept one’s ignorance and boldly claim ‘I don’t know’ I think religion is irrelevant in this age. Let me try and explain.
We will take up social order first. Democracy and the related institutions like the law enforcement and judiciary have taken up this role and performed much more effectively than any religious code. For any liberal minded person there is no question about this. Of course there are a large number of folks who believe (rather blindly) that Sharia is a much better code but they don’t let anyone argue against it! Morality and ethics are secular and not necessarily religious. Even in ancient times either in Greek philosophy or in Tamil Purananooru ethics have been elaborated without any religious undertones. To think that only religion maintains a moral society is very naïve. In fact the evidence is entirely contrary.
The method of science is a far better system to satisfy our intellectual curiosity than religion. This is where the crucial ‘I don’t know’ comes into play. Religion becomes irrelevant if you can acknowledge ‘I don’t know’ for things you really don’t ‘know’. The standard retort against science is that it does not have answers for everything. Of course, it definitely does not have answers for everything; otherwise there would not be scientist anymore in pursuit of those answers. I don’t know why certain things happen or don’t happen, I would rather say ‘I don’t know’ than say that it is God who is making certain things happen or not happen. I am not resting when I say ‘I don’t know’. That admittance is the starting point for finding out that answer. And science seems to provide the most reliable method to seek than answer.
For transcendence there is art and sport. The high you get, unless aided my substances that alter the brain-chemistry, is usually due to that total ‘living in the moment’. Getting immersed in music or appreciating poetry or literature or enjoying a terrific game of badminton lets you have this pleasure too!
Religion definitely had a role to play in different stages of our history and filled in where institutions were lacking and provided answers where better methods for seeking answers were not discovered yet. But now it is only intelligent that we are not just creatures of habit and leave religion for museums.
