Value
of Western religions
In the age of today, religious criticism
is mainly completed, and the importance
of human life is rightly confirmed.
According to Western religions — specifically
Christianity, Islam and Judaism — God is
a supremely perfect being who is beyond
reproach. He is omnipotent, sovereign and
righteous. God stands above us, ordering
and judging our actions in life. In this
sense, God is a threat and we have strong
reason to stand opposed to the moral tyranny
and domineering power of God as conceived
by western religions.
As science progressed during the 19th and
20th centuries, the explanatory need for
God has diminished. Natural processes, rather
than religious doctrines, were deemed sufficient
to describe the world. There was a declining
need to call on holy books to interpret
natural phenomena. They were now considered
intellectually unnecessary.
For example, Marx came to believe that human
beings created religion and not vice versa.
Religion, according to him, is the opium
of the masses, a painkiller that treats
the symptoms but ignores the real disease.
Surely, religion arises out of legitimate
needs but it fails to redress the pain and
suffering caused by economic oppression
and social inequality.
Marx also rejected religious belief because
of the social carnage that has been committed
in the name of God. Likewise, Sartre rejected
belief in the God of western religions because
of the overpowering threat to human freedom.
When Nietzsche said, “God is dead!” he was
not trying to kill all perspectives of God
but the Christian perspective — as well
as other ones — because of the fear they
breed as a foundation for belief in religion.
Nietzsche wanted to evaluate not only the
religious values but the value behind those
values.
Freud also assessed the value of religious
belief. Standing behind every human action,
he said, is our natural “narcissism” — the
drive for pleasure. Narcissism creates the
God of western religions, in whom all humanly
desires are satisfied — albeit psychologically.
People, for Freud, simply find comfort in
the thought of a higher being, who would
cultivate nature, help us accept our fate
and reward us for our sufferings.
By using these suspicious interpretations
of Western religions, I am not trying to
offend the followers of status quo (In fact,
I believe in the existence of a higher being).
However, I strongly support the idea of
personalized faith, where faith is not institutionalized
— a.k.a. capitalized — into mutually exclusive
sects and denominations.
After all, it is irrational and inhumane
that people resent one another due to their
conflicting views on something as elusive
and private as faith.
Time and time again world events have shown
that Western religions are very successful
at alienating the human nature — both mentally
and physically.
This
is the reason why the doctrines of Western
religions stand opposed to humanistic principles,
which must be engendered strictly by the
human condition.
As intellectual beings, we need to acknowledge
that science and economics have justly undermined
religious belief, since the progress of
knowledge forced us in the direction of
“humanism”.
In this sense, the fear of afterlife should
no longer be the prevailing motive for performing
moral acts; instead, the sheer appreciation
of humanity — simply for being human — must
serve this purpose.
Humanism is not a mere doctrine but an attitude,
a philosophy of life that is centered on
human values and emphasizes an individual’s
capacity for self-actualization through
reason. The idea of humanism arises from
the simple fact that our existence — meaning
our survival — is mutually dependent because,
as my friend Awet says, “The choice of one
is the choice of living for all!”
Western religions put human life as a means
to a higher end, namely to God and his eternal
heaven, but humanism contends that human
life is an end in itself. In respect of
this, our fundamental imperative should
be to seek human flourishing in the here
and now, with the intention that we can
melt down all ideological barriers and simply
realize our essence in the presence of each
other.
Barlas F. Esin is a journalism major and
a philosophy minor at Cal State Long Beach.
He can be reached at besin@csulb.edu.
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