Douglas Anele
20 July 2008
opinion
TRADITIONAL African religion, incidentally, has assisted in the preservation of the environment. There are forests, shrines, groves, caves, sacred plants and animals, etc., that are dedicated to the propitiation of indigenous deities. In his work, Igbo Philosophy, Uzodinma Nwala affirms that most mountains and hills, caves and valleys, rivers and streams are the dwelling places of deities and spirits.
They are usually the scenes of sacrifices, locations of shrines and supernatural occurrences. All these, because of their connection with the supernatural, were exempted from human exploitation, thereby contributing to the preservation of nature over the centuries.
Thus, certain ideas contained in traditional African religion can be usefully modified to promote the current drive towards environmentally sustainable development. Yet, religion has done a great deal of harm to the growth of human civilization in all its complex manifestations.
Professor Omoregbe in A Philosophical Look at Religion, writes that, "Religion has been the source of a lot of intolerance, feud, discrimination and devastating wars in different parts of the world, both in the past and at present."
Think of the caste system in India and some parts of Africa, the religious wars in Europe, the Jihads of Islam, the Inquisition and the general belligerence and intolerance among adherents of Christianity and Islam.
The root cause of all these, according to Omoregbe, is ignorance and narrow-mindedness, resulting in the claim by each religion - especially the Abrahamic religions, viz: Judaism, Christianity and Islam- that it is the only true religion revealed and sanctioned by God, the only divinely approved religion for all human beings.
Christianity and Islam are particularly guilty of this charge.
In John chapter 3 verse 18, for example, we are told that all those who reject the belief in Jesus of Nazareth as the son of God will be condemned by God. Jesus himself said that He was the way, the truth and the life, and that no one comes to the Father except through Him.
The Koran in chapter 3 verse 85, stipulates that Allah will not accept any other religion except Islam. It also alleges, in chapter 35 verse 33, that the fire of hell awaits all those who refuse to embrace Islam. Both the Bible and the Koran claim to be holy scriptures revealed by God to humankind. It follows that the scriptures of both Christians and Muslims contain explicit texts that encourage fanaticism, bigotry, intolerance and destructiveness.
The two texts are redolent with ambiguities, vagueness and contradictions. In this connection, if a Christian or Muslim decides to live peacefully with the neighbours, the person would find biblical or koranic texts that support peaceful co-existence with others. On the other hand, a believer in either religion who prefers intolerance, hate, war and destructiveness can cite portions of either scripture that supports intolerance, hate, war and destructiveness.
Therefore, to an unbiased observer, it is not surprising that the Abrahamic religions, both in the past and at present, account for the most ferocious and extended religion-motivated wars since the dawn of history.
This sobering fact cannot be explained away by pointing accusing fingers at "bigots," "fanatics" or "religious extremists" who "misunderstand" the teachings of the prophets. Judaism, Christianity and Islam, by their exclusivist, proselytizing and missionary orientation, are inherently belligerent, or, more precisely, contain doctrines inimical to peace.
Everlasting hell-fire
As a corollary, religion has fostered ideas which promoted cruelty, envy and wickedness. Of these, the most loathsome is the idea of eternal torment in hell fire. The notion of everlasting hell fire for sinners negates the very idea of God as a loving father, and is patently unjust and completely irrational.
Equally repugnant to humane sensibilities is the concept of original sin, with its associated self-abnegating and denigrating psychology. The twin conceptions of vindictive punishment in hell fire and original sin are extremely cruel doctrines which have inflicted wholly unnecessary fear and anguish on untold number of people around the world.
The idea of eternal damnation tends to justify vindictive punishment vastly disproportionate to the offence committed, while the belief in original sin obscures the fact that humans are, at all stages in their lives, products of "nature and nurture". Epistemologically speaking, religion has done more harm than good in man's quest for scientific understanding of phenomena. Religion is a haven for superstitious beliefs, and clearly discourages the spirit of free critical inquiry which is the lynch-pin of science.
As already indicated, religion sometimes encourages scientific research as an act of piety. However, there are explicit texts in several religions which suggest that certain things are "no go areas" for humans because they are secrets only known to God.
Also, the history of science contains irrefutable accounts of how hard and long religious bigots fought to stultify the progress of science. Galileo's epic confrontations with the Inquisition in the seventeenth century epitomize the various battles between science and religious orthodoxy.
It is instructive to note that in all these battles religion lost, because, as Omoregbe correctly observed, religion deals with belief not with knowledge. Paul Tillich, in his book, Systematic Theology, remarked that religion does not add anything to the totality of our ordinary knowledge of reality.
Innumerable unscientific, cruel and ineffective practices in medicine, agriculture, education, and in all aspects of daily life which are sanctioned by religion would have continued to wreak havoc on humanity had science succumbed to religion. Religion has encouraged racism and male chauvinism. This is definitely true about the Abrahamic religions.
Most times racism in religion appears in the belief that a particular race- the Jews, Arabs, Aryans etc- has been specifically chosen by God for a special purpose on earth. Russell asserts, in his work referred to earlier, and I fully agree, that beliefs of this kind do infinite harm, and it should be one of the aims of education to eradicate them.
Once a group of people believe themselves to be specially chosen by a duty for a particular reason, there is no limit to the cruelty they would unhesitatingly inflict on others, especially on unbelievers, since they consider themselves special instrument which God uses to put the divine plan into effect. In the Old Testament of The Bible, the Jews committed hideous atrocities against other nations on the basis of this kind of belief.
Islamic jihadists and fundamentalists maim, kill and destroy without remorse because they see themselves as Allah's instrument for executing his will.
That religion has served as an avenue for gender inequality cannot be denied. Apart from the fact that the highest deities in most religions are conceived in the image of a man, there are clear statements in religious scriptures which directly subordinate women to men.
In his illuminating work on the subject entitled Sex, Ideology and Religion, Kelvin Harris quoted extensively from scripture to argue the case that The Bible is consistently derogatory, condescending, patronizing and, on many occasions, insulting in its attitude to women.
He demonstrates that women are regularly portrayed as inferior to men- as chattels, sex objects, domestic slaves; in character silly, cowardly seductive and unfaithful- and ultimately as the temptress and source of evil. Islam also considers women inferior to men.
That is why traditionally women in Islamic countries can never be imams, and a man can legitimately marry four wives. Of course, there are texts in the Bible and Koran where women are portrayed in a good light. Still, the major impression created by the two scriptures is that fundamentally women are subordinate to men, because that is the way God ordained it.
For good reasons feminists have rejected this, because there is really no good a priori reason for believing that men are superior to women. The grievous harm and injustice done to women on the basis of uncritical belief in male superiority is simply incalculable.
The Christian belief in the incarnation of Jesus Christ predated Christianity by thousands of years. The noted British historian, Arnold Toynbee, claimed in Mankind and Mother Earth that the doctrine of the incarnation of God in man can be traced to ancient Egypt. It is one of the "pagan" ideas annexed by Christianity.
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