The Quran teasingly demands from me the acceptance of the most obvious irrational similitudes and situations, here a, b, c, and d. Then it appeals to my rational self to think and ponder, here w, x, y, and z.

Indeed, I have submitted my rational brain to the most obvious irrational of all abstract notions: that there is one God, at whose doorstep all irrationalities (including the above similitudes) were subjugated. This one small step opens the door of my mind and frees it to explore everything and question anything, with the aim to seek the truth.

Throughout history, humanity has questioned life – its origins, its purpose, its legacy. Such an intellectual urge led to the birth of Philosophy (which hoped to explain the nature, rationally), and ultimately to Science (which endeavours not only to explain things around us but also to produce new truths and facts).

When I am busy, going through crests and troughs of life, this ayah alone is enough for me. However, an honest rationalisation of life (as above) helps me go through the troughs of life more easily.

Believers

I have no grudges against you O’ believers, of any and all faiths. You take comfort when the world’s leading scientists show honest humility.

Though the onus remains on us, as believers, to explain how we maintain our sanity by ridding the world of contradictions we grow up with.

Atheists

One of the products of philosophy and science has been the denial of the existence of God, for various reasons: cultural, religious, political, human progress.

In the ancient world, Lokaayat was one such intellectual group; even spectrum-based faith like Hinduism disowned it. Chinese, Greeks and Romans had their fair share of atheists too, but it is striking how few and far-between these groups have been in the past worlds. Innately, human mind gravitates towards contradictions, that needs constant course correction by rationalisation. Even great civilisations have succumbed to this innate pull of irrationality.

Today, in the affluent societies of the world, we have many atheists. What could be the reason? Culture and politics are at the root of it:

Christianity

By the time Europeans began unfurling their sails collectively, Christianity had been a closed system of a set of beliefs splintered into many sects. When the time of introspection came with Modernity, it dithered leading to large-scale wars: American Revolutionary Wars, French Revolution, Spanish (Latin) Revolutions and finally Russian Revolution. After its successive defeats, a juristic-Christianity was transformed into a multitude of faith-based Churches subject to high-reason of the Enlightenment Age.

Modernity has become a kiss of death for all religions and ancient cultures that seek to make friends with it. So far.

Globalisation

From the Age of Exploration to the Scramble for Africa, the New World was up for grabs. The only way to entice cheap labour into booming economies was to create a ‘melting pot’ where all religions had a level-playing field, though all were equally downgraded to faith-based individual practices. Immigrants were asked to upgrade their nationalistic fervour; while downgrading their religious beliefs was a pre-requisite.

• England began accepting migrants from the northern Europe (of various Protestant sects) in the early 1700s, fueling its navy with cheap labour to dominate the world.
• At its independence in the late 1700s, the US accepted Jews and Catholics within its colonies as equal citizens.
• Napoleonic France took anyone in its service in the early 1800s to resist the English domination. For the first time in Europe’s history, Jews became equal citizens.
• During the Wars of the 20th Century, Great Powers jostled to acquire manpower from any race to defeat their fellow rivals. The world had become truly globalised.

To accumulate bright minds on one platform required flattening of their religious zeal. More so because all religions appeared as bigots and living proofs of contradictions to practitioners of reason.

Progress of humanity

The final nail in the coffin of religions is phenomenal human progress – from the security of food/clothing/shelter to advances in human comfort and riddance of disease/pain.

During this era of rapid change, Religion did not contribute a single idea to the ‘system’ or the ‘process’ of great human progress. It tried to appropriate many of the achievements of science, only to appear as vile as ever in the eyes of practitioners of reason.

So to the non-believers, agnostics and atheist, I give no defence of the religion. However, I shall endeavour to rid contradictions in my life, aiming for continued human progress.