Imagine No Religion

Written by Ajita Kamal September 11, 2008 7:59 pm 4 comments

On the 7th anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, the two candidates vying for the most powerful job in the world are set to disgrace the site of the fallen towers in a political gesture. They will make speeches and call on the powerful emotions of patriotism and vengeance and they will proclaim again that they will not rest until the perpetrators are brought to justice.

Across the United States, people will remember the tragedy and mourn the loss.

But no political leader in all the democracies in all the world will utter the words that describe the real motivation behind the attacks that killed those people that terrible morning. RELIGION.

Forget about all the socio-political arguments. When it comes down to it, the one thing that makes an otherwise rational human being wish to leave this wonderful life for a fairy tale promise, is religion. 

The popular opinion is that we cannot blame religion; we can blame the individuals, we can blame their culture, we can even blame their particular religion, but no- we can’t blame religion in general! What is usually forgotten is that institutions can be worse than individuals. Benjamin Franklin was a good man. Jefferson was the kindest of persons. And yet, they both owned slaves. To quote Noam Chomsky (in a different context), “…you want to distinguish between the institution and the individual”. Slavery as an institution was evil, but the people who practiced it weren’t all bad. Similarly, people who practice untouchability are not inherently bad, it is the beliefs that organized Hinduism imposes on them that is the problem.

We could start changing things by recognizing the viral beliefs in our culture that lead to so much suffering. Let us hope that future cultures will look back at this period in history, in the same way we look back at slavery, and wonder how it was possible for such kind-hearted people to be tarnished by such an ugly institution as organized religion.

Share This Article:
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • StumbleUpon
  • del.icio.us
  • Reddit
  • email

Related posts:

  1. Terrorism & Religion
  2. A Comment on Religion and India’s Poor
  3. What’s Religion Doing in the 21st Century?
  4. “Defamation of Religion is not Racism” says U.N. – OIC Disagrees.
  5. Obsessive-Compulsive Religion
  6. Why Religion Endures

This post was written by:

- who has written 62 posts on Nirmukta.

Contact the author

4 Comments

  • Please. Zeitgeist is complete BS. While I am not saying there isn’t anything fishy about 9-11, I believe that Zeitgeist is complete bull-honky.
    For one…
    I challenge you to provide proof of any ONE claim from the zeitgeist movie. Show me proof of all these religious icons they say are so similar to this ‘jesus’.
    I’m an athiest. I am a rational thinker. I saw zeitgeist and it made me ask questions. So I went on the hunt for answers and found none. What I did find is a site that will give you CASH MONEY! for proof of any claims in zeitgeist.

    The problem is that you believe whatever you want, and so does everyone else.
    The problem with that is that people are too accepting of what we are told, especially by media and RELIGION.
    Wake up and learn. Educate yourself, seek truth. Don’t trust the media, trust wiki-pedia, the library and yourself.

  • Indian_the_patriot

    what ?

    ” Honestly…..do you really believe this had anything to do with religion…

    Any open minded person would see this was about money….not religion…in fact the above post seems like it was written by a close minded religious type..

    I personally remember watching cnn the morning it happend and welling up with emotion….until I saw the towers drop….then i was like???? buildings dont fall strieght down ….. then many videos have been produced since that back my thoughts….lose change 911…zietgiest…wake up…

    i agree many people have done many stupid things in the what the call call religion…. but people are people…and religion is religion….

    search for truth…
    and dont sweat the bullshit”

    woow………..9/11 conspiracy ? yes, its a conspiracy by deluded religious fanatics of al-qaeda, whom were the creation of imperialism for collapse of soviet. Though, imperialism, capitalism, fundamentalism are the elements for the root cause, religion is the explosive binding material of those elements.

  • Which part of the post “seems like it was written by a close minded religious type”?
    Having an open mind does not mean accepting every kooky idea there is out there. It means that you are willing to evaluate the evidence rationally.

    I have little patience for 9/11 conspiracy theorists. Their case has been soundly refuted by legitimate scientists. It takes a very cynical person to believe in such a vast, bloody government conspiracy.

    It is your irrational defense of religion that is closed-minded to the evidence. Don’t get me wrong, there are indeed peaceful religions out there, but anyone who claims Islam and Christianity are not full of hate, is deluded.

  • Honestly…..do you really believe this had anything to do with religion…

    Any open minded person would see this was about money….not religion…in fact the above post seems like it was written by a close minded religious type..

    I personally remember watching cnn the morning it happend and welling up with emotion….until I saw the towers drop….then i was like???? buildings dont fall strieght down ….. then many videos have been produced since that back my thoughts….lose change 911…zietgiest…wake up…

    i agree many people have done many stupid things in the what the call call religion…. but people are people…and religion is religion….

    search for truth…
    and dont sweat the bullshit

Leave a Reply


Comments are moderated. Please see our commenting guidelines

Trackbacks