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Nairaland Forum / Nairaland / General / Religion / Religion, Faith: Why Humanity Can’t Exist Without It (a sociological POV) (708 Views)
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Religion, Faith: Why Humanity Can’t Exist Without It (a sociological POV) by emeka94(m): 9:58am On Nov 29, 2014 |
Article originally written by me and posted on my brother's blog: :owww.olivernwankwo.com/guest-posts/ I was having an argument with a colleague a few weeks back. Bored and unable to get him to view the bone of contention from my own perspective. I decided to let the argument die. But how was I to end the debate without beingthe loser and appearing not to know what I wanted to say? So I said to him: “We don’t know everything. God does and only he can explain things beyond the scope of our limited understanding” Of course the debate died a natural death without either one of us being the loser and our individual egos intact. This illustration shows, to an extent, how much dependent the human mind is on the super natural and why we cannot exist wholesomely without religion and all its tenets. At this point I will like to state that I am a skeptic -a baptized skeptic, if I might add. Regardless of how much doubt I have about the existence of God, I still agree, from a sociological perspective, that our existence is anchored on something which I cannot name, but for the purpose of this article I shall call it God and religion. As a rebellious first year student of social science, angry at the world for no just reason and dabbling in the sticky river of moral justice, perfect world and socialism (even communism), I formed a theory that I could neither substantiate or verify the accuracy. The theory saw religion as a system set up by a group of wise government men to control the people. To force the acceptance of law and subsequent relinquishing of certain parts of human freedom and action. Strangely in all my young wisdom buoyed by the writing of German economist, Karl Marx, I had failed to consider the ‘universality’ of religion and Its variability from place to place. No matter how primitive, salvage, backward or underdeveloped a society or country is, a form of religion must exist. And it serves to lubricate the wheel of the socioeconomic and political activities of each society. With some societies basing their laws, in totality, on the tenets of the religion they profess. Religion in itself becomes a social concept not just in its modus operandi but in its function which may include, but not exclusive to, bringing family and community together in spirit and in thought, serving as a source of law and social control, supposedly linking man to an ultimate being who hears, sees and cares for his children. An eternal bond between man and God. A bond that satisfies the longing of man and the sweet taste that someone, like big brother, is watching eternally. Because human life is inundated with uncertainties, that science in all its wisdom cannot dissipate or give a futuristic explanations, humanity has no option but to seek recourse to a being, who for all intent and purposes, His existence cannot be verified much less explain. Closing our eyes in prayer and in direct communication to heaven provides a source of security (being a basic human need) and although prayers may not be answered immediately, man become more confident that someone somewhere had actually listened -even though it cannot be proved. It becomes convenient to define religion as a communion between people who aspire for the same things bearing in mind the similarity of their societal values, norm, culture and community sense (which is more often than not influenced by the religion they profess). I take more liberty in saying that religion is the identity of every society. It becomes imperative to say that religion is a necessary part of a society, its development, function, future and maintenance. Due to its wholesome appearance hinged, more or less, on the doctrines of holiness and truth, religion becomes an important tool for social control. Serving to curtail the excesses of one’s thought and actions. And if peradventure, a thought or idea becomes ingrained in the subconscious, the fear of sanctions (both spiritual and physical) which will be imposed for such transgression keeps a person in check. The Igbo’s of south eastern Nigeria prior to the colonial interference in their mode of governance had a system of government that primarily resonated around God (chukwu) and the deities who were viewed as an mediators between man and almighty God (chukwu). The fear of the wrath of deities, who were believed to punish in terrible and swift ways like thunder strike, famine, drought, locust invasion etc- kept activities of errant individual’s in check. Communal decision revolved around the tenets of chukwu’s teaching through his priest and seers. “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people”- German economist Karl Marx wrote. Religious institutions such as the church, mosque, shrine etc becomes social institution and structure, which like democracy is built for the people and by the people. It does its function by being the conscience of the society and in a way making religion a veritable tool for control of human behaviour and society at large. Thus manipulate religion, which by extention is like manipulating the security of people, then you control the people. Because it is an accepted truism that human being is fallible and we cannot answer certain question dangling and taunting and challenging our existence, we begin to hope in something and have a change in the direction of the pointers of our faith towards God and religion. Thus we long for something larger than life in which we can lay our problems at its feet. A sign of hope that the unknown tomorrow will be blessed. Something to believe in as a sign of our redemption and something we can trust as the hope of the future. In his most darkest moment, when it seems his world is back pedaling instead of going forward, the most confirmed of atheist begins to believe in something ( Something superior and controller of all things and maker of all things). He may not necessary call it God, he can conveniently termed it ‘nature’. But he is afraid, frustrated and in need of a sign of hope and something to believe in. So he goes down on his knees in prayer. His being soon finds release and peace as he willingly embraces his new faith. The release comes not because of the divine but because the over burdened subconcious begins to relax as it upload or rather onloads its burden on something superior. Finally, in some ways, religion is the answer to the problems of mankind. Not that it explicitly states solution to the principle of projectile motion or other scientific, sociological and psychological problems rather it provides a solution by advocating its own version of don’t ask, just believe. And because man needs an answer to everything –and man mustn’t know everything-, religion cautions man not to tamper with what the Gods hasn’t made clear to him. Religion does this by making its message largely esoteric and wrapped in a huge foil of philosophical and theological reasoning that leaves the brain of mere mortals constantly afraid, in awe, and in respect of whatever it is that religion hides. An attempt to unravel this mystery -which may not actually be a mystery but an ordinary thing wrapped in mysticism to awe the human mind- leads to sanction by the religion and its representation. Despite the fact that we rejoice at being the dominant of all living and non-living things, humans find comfort at the thought that there is someone bigger than us. Someone watching over us and eternally on guard to protect us. Thus, religion came into being to fill this vacuum and religion will be here to fill the vacuum as a path to the creator, protector and lover of man and other things. |
Re: Religion, Faith: Why Humanity Can’t Exist Without It (a sociological POV) by saintvc(m): 10:08am On Nov 29, 2014 |
Atheist are anti-human |
Re: Religion, Faith: Why Humanity Can’t Exist Without It (a sociological POV) by emeka94(m): 10:20am On Nov 29, 2014 |
saintvc: So also is commenting without reading |
Re: Religion, Faith: Why Humanity Can’t Exist Without It (a sociological POV) by emeka94(m): 10:20am On Nov 29, 2014 |
Cc: Ymodulus |
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