Personal Freedom and Religion
05 Oct, 2007
A speech at University of Toronto, Mississauga
- I need to begin my speech with this statement “the more one distance from religion the more one can gain personal freedom”.
Historically human needed to create religion to explain the unknown phenomenon such as existence of life, reasons for death in order to provide comfort for the fear of unknowns. Religion also provides very simple answers “Only God Knows” to many complicated and complex questions and doubts. Despite the progress and knowledge in history, civilization and science, religion remains as a heavy leash on the man’s neck. The more mankind was able to explain the unknowns and the relationships of him to the nature, the more he was able to distance himself from religions clarification for the same phenomenon.
I believe a religious individual has no personal freedom as he surrenders himself over to a force that has no boundaries, no regulation and grounds. Philosophically and practically, those individuals do not value their influences in changing the world and they do not think they have will power to do so.
One may ask then how millions of religious individuals are in fact making some actual changes in the environment? My answer to this question is clear. These people in reality are not effectively religious during their actions they take to change the world. These individuals no longer expect their God to provide them with food, clothing and shelter as they take their own destiny in their own hand, they do not blindly follow most of the unreasonable commands from their religious leader; but despite the above mentioned facts, these religious individuals do not intend to make an effective change in their environment. As the result they hand over the control to their worldly Gods. In some cases because of their real life situation and their ambition to end the injustice that they experienced, these individuals are forced to act against their own religions rules and actually do enforce some reforms by pushing back their religious boundaries, by engaging against the current politically and socially.
Once more, I need to emphasize that despite the fact that the above question may always be a subject for the academicians, nowadays the same question arises in a much larger scale across the entire society. Not too long ago if someone would ask what is the relation between personal freedom and religion? The answer was very clear for almost everyone except for Fundamentalists and that was religion and personal freedom contradicts each other. It was in fact part of everyone’s knowledge as the above-mentioned question was answered during a long process of progress of science since the Reno sans. At that time people found no need to resolve these contradictions but today because the domain of religion globally has been grown substantially, the above contradictions need to be clarified once more, or even needs to be proven how religion limits the personal freedom, We also need to be reminded of struggle that humanity took part for centuries to free mankind from religions and religious dogmas. Due to growth of conservatism and their support to the religious groups for the past three decades, this already answered old questions need to be spelled out once again.
My personal approach is since the answer to the question is obvious; it is up to the religious groups to prove that the religions are not contradicting personal, civil, scientific and political freedom. And they are the ones who have to explain their aggression against human, women, children and civil rights for the thousands of years. It is time for them to apologize and condemn their act.
To make the philosophy discussion short, I must say religion has limited my personal freedom along with millions of other individuals. In fact I should say religion has destroyed many of individuals’ personal rights and mine too.
In countries, where religions run the state, the personal freedom has no meaning at all; the personal freedom of millions are scarified directly by religious rules and its horrific state system. On one hand the religious state denies the fundamental rights of woman as an equal citizen and recognizes women as a second-class citizen, practically women legally have become the men’s slaves in those countries. Before I explain how the personal freedom being undermined by religion we need to define the personal freedom first. In this discussion, I would use Islam as the base of my debate, mainly because I am more familiar with this religion in theory and in practice and also because Islam has not been challenged in any aspects. In addition I believe that all other religions would have similar and common elements.
The first and the most essential point I would like to discuss are about “personal and civil freedom”. My attempt is to provide a general definition of these rights.
In my opinion personal freedom is the one that provides the individuals to grow and enhance his ability. It also allows him to be distinguished and the same time to understand its unity with the society. An individual can demonstrate his talent and it empowers him to shape his destiny, at the same time the personal freedom is relative and it depends upon the stages of progress in the society.
On other hand religion basically defines human as being created by super natural power, where its essence has been ordained by God, as the result human being has no control over his destiny and has no rights, therefore he is considered to be a being who is obliged to obey the law of God in order to gain and enjoy his prosperous in the after life. The above definition can be explained by the following instances:
- The first instance is the right to live and be immune of any violence against body and mind, while in Islam execution, dismember, bloodshed and even assault on children are acceptable and allowed which is define as punishment of a crime in relate to blasphemy, rubbery and permitting marriage to children of 9 years old. As one can clearly see the right to live, Immunity of body and mind against any violation is simply being undermined in Islam.
- The unconditional freedom of speech, expression and believes are the rights that have never been acknowledged in any religions, specifically in Islam. The only political party allowed is the party of God and that is Hezbollah. Any criticism to Islam or the holly book of Koran is considered heresy and punished by Islamists. Selman Rushdie and Danish caricaturist have not been forgotten. One does not need to remind you how Islamists treated Jews and Bahaeis and there is hardly any need to mention about the atheists. The Islamists ( the political Islam) saw the seeds of hatred against other groups. This is because in their view Islam is the last and the most complete religion in the world. And for the ones who do not intend to convert to Islam, the least punishment is to pay religious tax. All these violation can be multiplied when it comes to women and children’s rights in Islam. In Islam the rights to divorce for women has no meaning, men have the custody of the children. Women receive half of inheriting compare to men. The witness of two women is equivalent to one man. Beating women is permitted in Islam. Women will be stoned to dead if they have relationship out of marriage. In Islam men can have four wives, and abortion is heavily punished.
- In the instance of National sovereignty, Islam only recognizes one nation and that is the nation of Islam, therefore independency cannot be accepted.
- In Islam exploitation and slavery are not being condemned. All Imams and profits had slaves. Child abuse, child labour and child exploitation is permitted in Islam.
- When it comes to music and entertainment, there are many of restrictions or conditions apply, specifically where women are involved. Dancing is prohibited. Women involve in sports is strongly condemned in Islam.
- Where science and scientific advancement are concerned a huge conflict arises. The animosity of Islam with science cannot be exactly portrait, because within last centuries there were not many frontiers and scientists who brought new idea in science and advancement in order to see the reaction of Islamic leader. But this is the nature of all the religions and Islam not to accept any scientific theory. In this instance Christianity has darker history. Nobody, even the one who did not study the history knows the fate of Giordano Bruno and Galileo and the burning of witches.
One can add pages to this list in such way that at the end we will not see any light to the end of tunnel, as it was in the dark ages.
But human being found his way to persuade and guaranty the individual, social and political freedom. French revolution was one of the greatest and goriest example for people to follow, even in twenty first century the citizens of many countries are enjoying the fruit of this revolution. Experience and aftermath of the revolution suggest that we need to have such a radical progressive movement in order to up root the religious from the education, justice system and state. This is our task, the task of civilization to regain personal freedom, peace and comfort. And this cannot be possible without challenging the religion industries. Freedom seeker and we as a secular have enormous responsibility to unite and motivate the whole society toward this goal.
Name: al-ham-dull-ill-aahhhh
Date: Thursday October 04, 2007
Time: 22:09:17 -0700
Comment
al-ham-dull-ill-aaahhh very good.
Name: vbv
Date: Friday October 05, 2007
Time: 00:09:16 -0700
Comment
It is only the religions of the middle-east that are restricting individualism,freedom of thought,free speech,right to be critical of a religious dogma ,etc. Religions of the East such as Hinduism,Budhism,Jainism,Shintoism,etc,do not have such problems since they are tolerant,open to criticism/discussions,not imposing any dogma upon pain of death,they don't mind atheism,as the underlying principle in them is not blind faith in a particular barbaric deity,but righteousness,good morals,non-violence,tolerance and compassion to all living beings. They are not bigoted like the Abrahamicreligions which claim exclusive access to their God,Yahweh,Allah through a chosen "prophet" whose words cannot be questioned and who claim to have direct communication links to their God/Yahweh/Allah! In the eastern religions you can meditate and find the answer to any spiritual questions,or you may reject the concept of god ,or you may be free to worship a deity in any formor no form,etc. Infact you can get along with your worldly existence and religion does not poke its nose in what you should believe and what you should not. Religion is a way of life ,pluralistic, not intolerant and montheistic making dire threats to your life if you don't accept it blindly,unquestioningly! No one is burned/tortured because of a belief. So free speech and individual librty is guaranteed in India. This is not possible in the case of islam or Christianity .
Name: aja
Date: Friday October 05, 2007
Time: 11:41:36 -0700
Comment
vbv may be correct, but in India these Hindu fanatics are following the foot steps of islamic jihadists nowadays. The Hindu fanatics justify there deeds as India is much affected by Islamic terrorism. Religion is the root cause for all such calamities. Real freedom is freedom from religious dogmas. Unless we achieve this kind of freedom this planet has to face all evils.
Name: vbv
Date: Friday October 05, 2007
Time: 20:47:30 -0700
Comment
To aja--- The hindu fanatics that you are talking about are very few, marginal fringe elements in the society fomented by political parties for electoral gains. The vast majority are still maintaining sanity and peace in the country. If pluralism and tolerance is still alive in India it is because of the majority of the population being hindus ,not because of islam.You can see our neighbours Pakistan and Bangladesh as an example of islamic countries ,both fanatical,intolerant,violent and bigoted.
Name: Marie
Date: Saturday October 06, 2007
Time: 12:06:06 -0700
Comment
VBV are you an Indian Hindu. If so could be explain to me Christian persecution by some Hindu groups. I get news information about some Hindu groups persecution Christians in India and that some groups run terrorists training similar to ones the Muslims have, in order to terrorize and persecute the Christians. I am not accusing all Hindus of being terrorists, I just want understand why this is happening.
Name: Buka
Date: Saturday October 06, 2007
Time: 18:55:29 -0700
Comment
Marie, one of the main "fruits" of religion is, it can easily blind it's followers at different levels and that's why you see so many irrational things done by followers almost everywhere. Of course, not all followers will be the same type of activists for obvious reason just as same medicine does not work on every human body the same way - it is simple as that.
Name: vbv
Date: Saturday October 06, 2007
Time: 22:54:59 -0700
Comment
To Marie --- By and large hindus are tolerant and never spread hatred towards any religion.Christians in India are not persecuted at all,barring a few stray incidents which is a reaction against evangelical christians denigrating local culture as well as hinduism,by stating that Christ is the only way to salvation, hindus are pagans fit to go to hell, convert to Christianity or there is no redemption in this world or in the hereafter,hindus are sinners,hindus are backward,and so on. No christian church is attacked in India and also many hindus do visit Chuches,do not disrepect Jesus Christ or any of their saints. You know St. Thomas ,St.Francis Xavier ,etc,are all respected here. St. Mary's Church in Velangani in the state of Tamil Nadu is a pilgrim spot not only for christians but also many hindus.Christmas and good friday are both public holidays in India although christians are only about 3% of the total population. When Christian show disrespect to hindus or their saints ,it is natural for atleast a few strong believers to show their dissent rather vehemently. It is also not fair when Dalit hindus converted to christianity want the privileges accorded to Dalit hindus of reservations in jobs to continue, which clearly shows the failure of the christian faith to uplift their social status despite tall claims of better life,equality and opportunities after their conversion to christianity. The malady of 'untouchability' in hinduism seems to be unabated even after their so-called emancipation after conversion that they seek sops and crutches from the government meant only for the scheduled castes/tribes in the hindu religion. Ofcourse,this does give 'heartburn' to those who are affected if these sops are extended to "Dalit" christians. You should also know that Christian educational institutions have 50% resevation for the students of their community and heavily subsidize their education with substantial financial support from the government.The Hindu students wanting admission into these institutions have to pay hefty capitation fees as well as very high fees! These are some of the facts. Christians in India are not persecuted, but the enjoy all the fruits and liberties in practicing their faith and also nobody hinders their progress in any field. I hope this satisfies your curiosity about the staus of christians in India and dispels any misinformation about it in your country (USA?<Europe?Australia????)
Name: vbv
Date: Saturday October 06, 2007
Time: 23:37:45 -0700
Comment
To Marie ---- There are no terrorists training camps in India,except the 'Maoists/communists' as well as christian terrorism which is rampant in the northeastern states of Nagaland and Mizoram supported and financed by some Christian evangelists groups from USA/Europe instigating them to secede from India on the basis of their religion.There are no hindu terrorist in the world with an idealogy to convert the entire world to hinduism or butcher the non-believer! Such things were never there in the entire history of India! Today there are very few individuals and groups that do advocate violence.But they are very few and just fringe elements in the society,inspired by the idealogies of islamists/muslims. I am a hindu but I am also an atheist. Hinduism allows atheism and does not persecute them. I openly declare that I am an atheist and no one bothers me here unlike in islamic or traditional christian countries where a heretic can even be brutally murdered by burning/stoning/hanging/life-imprisonment,etc. Indians have no hatred for christianity despite racial denigration and discrimination during the colonial days,but there is a lot of rancour against the muslims who partitioned India on the basis of religion and yet want to claim special privileges as a so-called minority community ,if can call 15% to 20% of total population minority-which is much higher than the population of the sikhs/Budhists/jains/parsees,etc. Most of these muslims show their loyalty to Pakistan/Bangladesh,get upset for the events in the middle-east to carry out terrorist activities in India by planting IED bombs,etc. So you are wrong to compare a few stray incidents with islamic terrorism,since we are far different,tolerant and peace-loving people, I mean the Hindus. We never militarily attacked any country to impose our religion,we never decried and denigrated other faiths to promote our own, we never went on conversion spree and we never persecuted anyone because of their belief/disbelief! The parsees came to India from Iran to escape persecution from the muslims,St.Thomas came to India in the 2nd century AD propgating his faith without being persecuted by us,what about Mother Teresa?(Could Mother Teresa have survived in a Muslim country?),etc. There are innumerable instances in the history of India to show that no one was persecuted because of their faith,except the muslim rule for over 7 centuries in this country. I think vested interests always spread misinformation about India.I think this has cleared your doubts.
Name: Bobby
Date: Sunday October 07, 2007
Time: 08:18:45 -0700
Comment
Hindus are the most peaceful tolerant people you will find on the earth. The leftist media like to pick stray extremely rare incidents and portray it as maintstream daily occurences reflecting the intolerance of the religion. It is as if you take the rodney king incident and paint the whole country with it - concluding that there is extreme persecution of blacks in america and america is the most intolerant of all countries. How do you answer that kind of criticism?
Name: aja
Date: Monday October 08, 2007
Time: 13:02:06 -0700
Comment
Mr vbv says he is an Hindu and at the sametime atheist. I think it would be nice if he says that he is an Indian and at the sametime atheist.
Name: aja
Date: Monday October 08, 2007
Time: 13:05:22 -0700
Comment
India is a great country. I am proud to be an Indian.
Name: UsKanna
Date: Wednesday October 10, 2007
Time: 07:22:26 -0700
Comment
To Marie, I am a proud Indian and and atheist. Now let me try to refute your allegations on the Indian Hindus. The first and the foremost thing that comes to my mind is that all Abrahamic religions are false, because they believe that their god is the ALMIGHTY, any other belief will guarantee you hell in the after life and you will go to heaven if and only if you believe in Christ/Mo, is this not true ? I do want to have a peaceful debate with you Marie, I mean no harm to you. Peace Be Upon Us all, not just the Pedo Mo.
Name: vbv
Date: Sunday October 14, 2007
Time: 01:37:31 -0700
Comment
To Marie --- I think you are either flabbergasted at my reply to your querry of October 6,2007. Or are you also one of the prejudiced westerner who looks down upon the erstwhile colonial natives standing up to prove a point? Well , you should know an Italian Roman Catholic is wielding political power in India , I mean Sonia Gandhi. If we were as intolerant as muslims she wouldn't be alive in this country .You can see that although most of us resent a foreigner at the helm of affairs in our country ,we do express our strong dissent ,but never to the extent of butchering the entire family,which would have been the case in an islamic country. In the history of India ,except during the muslim rule, religion never interfered in the affairs of the state.One other exception is the reign of Ashoka the Great,who converted to Budhism after the Kalinga war, but even he , although he propogated Budhism,never forced his citizens to adopt Budhism,rather there was freedom to even practise atheism as was the case of the 'Charvakas'. Hinduism has grown organically with various beliefs/non-beliefs such as Vaishnavism, Shaivism,Shaktism,Tribalism, dualism,non-dualism,atheism,etc. and none of these variegated followers tried to forcibly impose their creed on others or cut others' throats to establish their particular kind of worship/belief. They all co-existed for centuries , which is unprecedented in any other part of this world. Certain belifes like Arya Samaj, Advaitins are monottheistic and also absolutely against any form of idol worship,but yet they get equal respect as any other sect of 'Hinduism'. As a matter of fact hinduism is not a monolithic belief system and it has no particular founder. It is as old as human civilization . You can find Mithraism , an offshoot of Vedic god "Mithra' in pre-historic Europe,which is now extinct after the the advent of Christianity ,which totally wiped out the so-called "paganism". As a matter of fact the 'Druids' are the descendants of the Vedic tribe "Druhyus" who were evicted from the northwestern part of India,which is now in Afghanistan after the battle of ten kings in which King Sudas was victorious ,sometime around 4000 BCE. In the ancient pagan world various cults and beliefs accross the world freely interacted without the rancour of exclusivity and 'holier than thou' complex of the Abrahamic religions or Islam ,and today I can find only Hinduism still has this ancient ,tolerant ethos. I am not impressing upon you to become hindu, for the concept of conversion never existed in hinduism which is inclusive and not exclusive,but just stating certain facts to dispel misinformation. Thats all.
Name: vbv
Date: Sunday October 14, 2007
Time: 01:37:32 -0700
Comment
To Marie --- I think you are either flabbergasted at my reply to your querry of October 6,2007. Or are you also one of the prejudiced westerner who looks down upon the erstwhile colonial natives standing up to prove a point? Well , you should know an Italian Roman Catholic is wielding political power in India , I mean Sonia Gandhi. If we were as intolerant as muslims she wouldn't be alive in this country .You can see that although most of us resent a foreigner at the helm of affairs in our country ,we do express our strong dissent ,but never to the extent of butchering the entire family,which would have been the case in an islamic country. In the history of India ,except during the muslim rule, religion never interfered in the affairs of the state.One other exception is the reign of Ashoka the Great,who converted to Budhism after the Kalinga war, but even he , although he propogated Budhism,never forced his citizens to adopt Budhism,rather there was freedom to even practise atheism as was the case of the 'Charvakas'. Hinduism has grown organically with various beliefs/non-beliefs such as Vaishnavism, Shaivism,Shaktism,Tribalism, dualism,non-dualism,atheism,etc. and none of these variegated followers tried to forcibly impose their creed on others or cut others' throats to establish their particular kind of worship/belief. They all co-existed for centuries , which is unprecedented in any other part of this world. Certain belifes like Arya Samaj, Advaitins are monottheistic and also absolutely against any form of idol worship,but yet they get equal respect as any other sect of 'Hinduism'. As a matter of fact hinduism is not a monolithic belief system and it has no particular founder. It is as old as human civilization . You can find Mithraism , an offshoot of Vedic god "Mithra' in pre-historic Europe,which is now extinct after the the advent of Christianity ,which totally wiped out the so-called "paganism". As a matter of fact the 'Druids' are the descendants of the Vedic tribe "Druhyus" who were evicted from the northwestern part of India,which is now in Afghanistan after the battle of ten kings in which King Sudas was victorious ,sometime around 4000 BCE. In the ancient pagan world various cults and beliefs accross the world freely interacted without the rancour of exclusivity and 'holier than thou' complex of the Abrahamic religions or Islam ,and today I can find only Hinduism still has this ancient ,tolerant ethos. I am not impressing upon you to become hindu, for the concept of conversion never existed in hinduism which is inclusive and not exclusive,but just stating certain facts to dispel misinformation. Thats all.
Name: aja
Date: Sunday October 14, 2007
Time: 18:22:48 -0700
Comment
very well said vbv.
Name: andros
Date: Friday February 29, 2008
Time: 19:03:04 -0700
Comment
won't you'll talk about mankind's future? what's about emancipation from religious chains?