When Will Humans Apply Their Innate Rationality?

By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam 10 April 2024 The whole country is shocked after reading in newspapers that an educated Kerala couple along with their friend were found dead in Arunachal Pradesh hotel room. The deceased were identified as Arya B Nair from Thiruvananthapuram, and Naveen Thomas and his wife Devi Thomas, both residents of Kottayam. Their bodies were discovered inside a hotel room in Arunachal Pradesh's Hapoli. Belief in the afterlife led to their death as they looked for YouTube videos describing the life after death. Their suicide was part of this belief. (L-R) Naveen Thomas and his wife Devi Madhavan and Arya Nair. Special Arrangement ----- This morbid fascination for a terra incognita serves as a stark reminder that education alone cannot inoculate against the seduction of superstition. Forsaking this world for an imagined one shows the powerful grip of superstition on the human psyche. All these superstitious beliefs are perpetually fuelled by religions with their otherworldly promises. Islam's otherworldly promises have assumed legendary status. IIT-Guwahati student, Tauseef Ali Farooqui, joining ISIS and intending to court martyrdom for a perpetual life in heaven is yet another example of a superstitious belief, strengthened by religion. In fact, all man-made bogus and murderous faiths institutionalize superstitions and justify them. All superstitions are offspring and offshoots of faith. From uttering a prayer before boarding a plane, train or a bus, to exploring past lives through hypnosis, superstition has become pervasive in contemporary culture. Read Robert L Park's 'Superstition: Belief In The Age Of Science.' Park sides with the forces of reason in a world of continuing and increasing superstition. Chapter by chapter, he explains how people too easily mistake pseudoscience for science. He discusses parapsychology, angel therapy, Feng Shui and acupuncture; he questions the existence of souls, the foundations of intelligent design, and the power of prayer; he asks for evidence of reincarnation and astral projections; and he challenges the idea of heaven. Throughout, he demonstrates how people’s blind faith, and their confidence in suspect phenomena and remedies, are manipulated for political ends. Park shows that science prevails when people stop fooling themselves. Everywhere and in every culture, religions and superstitions are subverting the natural human intelligence. Religions with their innumerable superstitions have hijacked the human brain's innate capacity to think rationally. We're still unable to come to terms with the fact that science has answers to all our questions and doubts. At the moment, science may not have the explanations to all natural phenomena but sooner or later, it'll have the answers to all human queries. You've glaring examples of two state-sponsored sanctimonious Babas, Ramdev and Jaggi. Both the superstitious 'gurus' have eggs on their faces. Ramdev would claim that Go-Mutra (cow's urine.....yuck!) could cure all diseases, even all types of cancer! He'd sprinkle cow's urine on all things. Hindus thought that he was modern Hakim Luqman and god's personal physician. Now our modern Hakim Luqman ji and his equally dubious Nepali partner are facing the wrath of the Supreme Court for their outlandish claims which they have been making ever since the current political dispensation came into power. Jaggi (why is he called Sadguru?) used to say that when body was in tune with nature, it needed no medicines. He underwent emergency brain surgery and is now swallowing all sorts of allopathic medicines! We need to develop scientific temperament and do away with all superstitions. But before that, mankind shall have to dispense with two of its biggest superstitions for thousands of years: Religion and god. Are you ready to jettison them? Yuval Noah Harari says that humans still require crores of years to evolve. But the human civilization will end much before that. So, we all will die as unevolved and crawling creatures, wallowing in the muck of irrationality, religiosity and superstitions. It seems to be our inexorable and ineluctable fate. ---- A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several languages including Persian. URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/humans-apply-innate-rationality/d/132113 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism