Atheism, Agnosticism, Religion and Ideologies

When I read about the life of Jesus, the Christ (meaning the Messiah or chosen one and if any of us think that was like his last name as in John Smith, think again, buster), I wept.

His philosophy of life and living and his parablic teachings were simple, wise and full of love, compassion and antidotes for healing in everyday living.

As a man, he must surely count among one of the great philosophers of his time, one who died on the cross for the sake of his sorrowful passion.

The same goes for all great religions of the world. None teaches about doing evil and immoral acts. All preach on divinity, salvation and love for mankind.

Therefore, it is not the doctrine or philosophy that I am turned against. But the institutions and the beholders of the Scriptures who being mere mortals that I cannot have full faith and trust in.

Ever more so his flock. The Pharisees or the Philistines as quoted in the Bible. The sanctimousness and "so-there" bible toting and finger pointing highty-tighty better-than-thou false prophets. These are the "men" whom I fear and loathe.

I remember a woman I met some time back. She was a nun-to-be eons ago but broke her vows. She was a secretary turned hair-dresser and now care-giver to children in the community. Sometimes I really wonder at the state of our centres for learning at their various milestonic benchmarks.

They are staffed with many, in my opinion, caregivers who don't really care two hoots except themselves. She was taking her nephew along on what I suspect to be her "guinea pig" as proof of "ar there, you see, this corresponds so well with what the book says". She was doing her training on child-care education at the same time.

It was certainly a case of sticking to the textbook and a priori bias. Can you imagine our centres of learning being staffed with people like that? A child on her urging will probably turn out to be exactly what she expects him to be. Call this self-fulfilling prophecy if you must.

Charles Darwin when writing in one of his books, observes the same. He wrote against the people of religion who swore at him for his evolutionary beliefs, people who probably cussed him to hell. And to this end, they had a handle to their cuss. Darwin's favourite daughter did die on him. According to Darwin, these same "god-fearing" "men" were at the same time beating their moor slaves to death. He was personally witness to this gory thrashing .

Therein lies the paradox. Isn't it? Like the beam in your eyes and the wood in someone else's? Cast a stone from a glass house? A case of setting a thief to catch another thief?

In fact many of the ideologies and thinking were sound, benevolent and well-intentioned. But it was "men" who screwed them up, misconstrued them and used them for their own self-interested purposes.

Alfred Binet invented the IQ test to help academically weak children. The eugenicists turn it into a general intelligence test for all. Karl Marx's Marxism or commonly known as communisim similarly got turned on its head by Stalin and Mao. Remember Animal Farm by George Orwell and you know what I mean. Darwin to this day is being discredited for his Science versus Religion stance. But he never ever had such intentions. His belief was evolutionary biology not deterministic and therefore immutable biology.

So I think the cavemen had it easier. All they needed was to fill their stomachs, have sex and sleep. Don't forget they club their women and drag them into caves for slumber as well.

Or is this just my re-construction? Duh.