INDIA & RELIGION...Musings..

<ramesamvijaya@yahoo.com <mailto:ramesamvijaya@yahoo.com

             wrote:

                 I write here mainly spurred by the deeply thoughtful
                 comments of Dr. Srinivasa Rao Garu.

                 ____ __

                 Much of the spirit of what Dr. Rao Garu says is
                 incontestable.

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                 But the needle pointing to "religion" as the cruel
                 culprit for the ills does not look to be taking, IMHO,
                 our attention in the right direction.

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                 There is quite a lot of research going on the
                 "evolution of religion." I think it was Prof. Pascal
                 Boyer who published a book on this subject a few years
                 ago. There are many more recent research papers of
                 late from the fields of Psychology, Anthropology,
                 Philosophy etc. related to the Evolution of Religion
                 in human beings.

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                 Man is basically (and biologically) weak and fragile
                 in his ability to face all alone by oneself diverse
                 hazards in nature including disease, decay and death.
                 Man is forever concerned with the problem of
                 successfully combating all antagonist elements in
                 order to ensure his security, safety and perpetuation.

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                 Obtaining food and mate is a persistent struggle
                 especially when there is a scarcity of resources and
                 clash of interests (e.g. when what suits X endangers
                 Y). So he will devise some means or other to project
                 himself as superior to the other and try to establish
                 that he only deserves the coveted prize.

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                 It is always easy to fight things when there is a
                 reliable group to give support and a structure to fall
                 back upon in case of failure.

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                 There is also a research paper that says that
                 religious sects evolved because of newer and newer
                 diseases that a group has to cope up with. Geographic
                 distribution pattern of disease run parallel to the
                 proliferation of religious denominations. That means a
                 group's ability gets enhanced if those having a
                 particular disease stick together. The microbiom in
                 the individuals of different groups may be different!

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                 If religion is banished, man will find easily another
                 common denominational factor for knitting clanship and
                 promoting the formation of a group. That will be the
                 new religion. Haven’t we seen the havoc of some
                 political outfits?

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                 Do you know that the members of the most reputed
                 scientific associations constantly fight on the name
                 of their branch of science when a question on
                 conferring membership to new entrants arises? This
                 happens in the USA too as recorded by Dr. R. Feynman.
                 Chemistry or Physics is their religion!

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                 Do not we encounter an All India (or any other
                 country) Association of Professional Barbers (for
                 example) fighting for their profits as against the
                 Association of Wig Manufacturers or something like that?

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                 Religion is after all like the Indian Penal Code -- it
                 defines acceptable code of conduct for interactions.
                 It does not give the rationale of a particular
                 directive. It goes by belief. The rationale comes from
                 Philosophy behind or sometimes in Theology.

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                 If religion is banished, something else fills the
                 niche. Even language, ancestry, region of origin
                 educational level can become the criterion to carve
                 out a specific group for mutual advantage. That is how
                 man is made.
                 Some people on the list are hesitant to study and
                 investigate the meaning and implication of a word
                 beyond what a dictionary provides.  But I am
                 addressing the issue at a much more fundamental level
                 than that -- the psyche of humans.

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                 Dr. Rao Garu was kind to make a reference to Advaita.
                 I may be allowed to attest here that Advaita is NOT a

                 religion.It is a deep philosophical thought.Advaita is

                 a pointer to the Ultimate Reality. It provide
                 necessary tools to discover this Reality by each one
                 for himself. As he observed Advaita establishes that
                 All are One – God or Dog or its Poop. There is no
                 scope for violence in it. How can anyone be violent
                 when there is no "other" to fight against?

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                 Warm regards,
                 ramesam