The purpose of religion
By Justice Katju
Bill Tammeus ( wtammeus@gmail.com ) is my American friend who lives in Kansas City, Missouri. He came to India with his father, an agricultural expert, in or around 1957 and was my classmate in Boys High School, Allahabad. Later he went back to America and became a journalist. Having retired, he does social work, and is also a preacher in his Presbyterian Church,
Bill also has a blog called Bill’s Faith Matters Blog on which he regularly posts articles,
Bill’s latest blog has an article called ‘A foundational question : what the heck is the purpose of religion’.
Blll, being a believer in God, has his own understanding of the purpose of religion, and I being an atheist, have another.
I regard all religion’s to be superstitions, the truth being in science, which is never final but always developing, I have explained my view in the article below :
Although all religions are false ( being unscientific), yet the vast majority of people in the world are religious, Why ?
The majority of people in the world are poor. Their lives are so miserable that they would go mad or commit suicide if they did not have religion as a psychological support. So the purpose of religion for poor people is to enable them to remain sane and survive.
But it is not just poor people who are religious. Many relatively well off people also are. Why ?
That is because we are still at a low level of development of science ( compared to what it will be, say, after 100 years hence ). We plan something, but something else happens. In other words, we cannot control our lives. So we believe there are some supernatural powers like God which control our lives, and which must be propitiated to keep them benevolent and not turn malevolent.
In other words, the chance factor is still very powerful in our lives.
For instance, when a businessman starts a new business he cannot be 100% sure it will be successful, despite his best planning. There may be a recession, or some other unforeseen eventuality may intervene and cause him losses. So he also starts believing in some supernatural force like God which influences our lives, and to whom we must pray
As Shakespeare said in King Lear ” As flies to wanton boys are we to the Gods, they kill us for their sport “.
Apart from the above, the purpose of religion is also to serve as an opium of the people, and as a means to exploit the people by the rulers who often use religion to divide people on religious lines as part of their divide and rule policy
But say 100 years hence, science will have developed to such an extent that we will be able to control our lives. Also, exploitation of man by man will by then end
There will then be no need of religion, which will then disappear
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