Kajabago-Ka-Rusoke
20 August 2008
opinion
What is Religion? And what is a school? In history Religion is looked at through three stages and phases (i) Idol worship (ii) Polytheism and (iii) Monotheism.
When technology was inferior to the extent that human begins could not easily penetrate their neighbourly geographical environment, such items like big trees, mountains, rivers, lakes, were thought of possessing spirits.
This made people fear them and therefore sacrifice food, which they would place by them so that such geographical elements could bless them in terms of human continuity along side them.
This is what is known as idol worship. When technology became more advanced, people looked into such a phenomena like stars, rain, the moon, the sun, linking them with their day-to-day economic activities which would result in either success or failure.
Success or failure led them to imagine that each such phenomenon had a mysterious image of power which could not be seen by ordinary eyes. This power was a "God". But since these respected phenomena were many, there emerged a tendency of imaging that each incarnated a "God" separately on its own. All therefore had "gods". This worship of many Gods is what is known as "Polytheism".
As technology developed further, people began to think that the physical universe must have only one type of power that gave rise to it. This one type of power is referred to as "one God." This is "Monotheism". This is what is dominating the world today through the teaching of either Christianity, Islam or Buddhism. Religion remains a belief.
A school teaches logic. Under logic there is reasoning. This raises a lot of questions. The universe is physical. It is made up of matter. Matter cannot be created and cannot be destroyed but can only change its form. It occupies space. Space therefore is a mode of matter.
It has no beginning and has no end. Could there be a power that would or, could, create space before space itself existed? If so, where is that power standing or seated in order to create this current space?
Was there therefore another space where this power was operating from before the existence of this particular space?
Then what materials did this almighty power use to create this particular space with all its material bodies? Was there prior material before the materials we see in space today? Then where did this prior one come from? Schools are bound to ask all these questions. This is because religion is based on belief only. Schools are geared towards science, where the subject matter of science is (a) observation (b) experimentation and (c) proof.
Where it is believed that matter cannot be created and that neither can it be destroyed is referred to as the philosophy of materialism. Matter therefore is considered primary and final. But where it is believed that there must have been a powerful Idea which cannot be seen by our ordinary eyes but which did create the universe is a philosophy called Idealism.
Yet there is another feeling and thought that neither a materialist nor an idealist may be all that correct. We all better wait and see. That school of thought is called Agnosticism. Those who hold it are called Agnostics. All these theories demand that religion be taught as a subject from the point of view of science and not as Belief.
This is because all terms used by human begins are earthly and secular terms and terminologies where the human being has lived only on earth and not any where else. Words like God, Angels, Heaven, Divinity, Gehena, Holy Spirit, are terminologies emanating from economic experiences affecting the human being from century and should be explained to children and students from a scientific point of view. Religion should not be banned, but should be explained by scientists and objective-oriented cadres.
Science is better where children, pupils and students can be taught History not as a story but a science combined with other socio-economic subjects leading towards logic.
Mohammed was born 570 A.D. and died 632 A.D. he was the one who introduced Islam with a social rule that it is compulsory for anybody to eat meat when the animal from which the meat is obtained has been butchered by a Moslem! Does that mean that people never ate meat, waiting for Mohammed to give such a ruling between 570A.D. and 632 A.D. could people not eat meat? Or would they die if they ate it before Mohammed was born in order to sanction it?
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 The Monitor. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
