Faith It was in 1954 that Bertrand Russell said in his book “Human Society in Ethics and Politics” that faith may be defined as a firm belief in something for which there is no evidence. Where there is evidence, we don’t attribute it to faith. We do not attribute it to faith that the earth is round or that the earth revolves around the sun. We only speak of faith when we wish to substitute the lack of evidence with emotion. The substitution of emotion for evidence is apt to lead to strife since different groups tend to substitute different emotions which lead to a divisive society. In order to overcome such divisive emotions it was recommended for a society or a community to be guided by reason, informed by evidence and driven by compassion. Unfortunately for humanity, many parts of the world still continue to enforce or increasingly adopt a system of authoritarian rule where beliefs are imposed as laws using God as the basis of their legitimacy. In Pakistan for example, draconian blasphemy laws have become more frequent, often in absurd of circumstances, highlighting how a law intended to protect against religious intolerance is being used by politicians and clerics with political power as a tool of bigotry to keep their subjects in line and unquestioning of authority. The recent killings of Salmaan Taseer and Shahbaz Bhatti both ministers and governors in charge of minorities and the arrests of 68 human rights lawyers makes living in Pakistan a minefield for intellectual and independent thinkers for whom one wrong step can have life-threatening consequences. The end result of such a faith-based law in Pakistani society is a brain drain of intellectual political thinkers and a government completely lacking of intellectual debate or discourse for in all basis of discussions for humanity, when God is invoked, all arguments end and democracy is dead. When one group claims to represent God’s wishes, no one can argue any other point of view. In Malaysia and Brunei as another example, draconian hudud laws are increasingly being implemented by various groups of moral police currently empowered under the Syariah penal code. When authority is given to any group of law enforcers based on faith it becomes just a matter of time when such authorities start to morph into vigilantism and ultra-militarism for which there is no going back down a slippery slope. This implementation of hudud laws by vigilante groups in many Islamic countries is opening up a can of worms that is both chilling and nauseating to the conscience. The only end result of implementing such faith-based laws and giving full authority to religious groups in carrying out punishments on behalf of God is a society devoid of love, compassion, humanity and wisdom. The banning of the Malay version of “The Origin of Species” makes Malays in Malaysia the only ethnic group in the world to be barred from reading one of the greatest written works on biology and natural science. Such banning of science books would simply encourage the community already struggling to get into Science and Technological courses to totally reject reason and scientific inquiry as a way of finding the truth. Such mind-paralysing laws coupled with the fact that the Malays in Malaysia are not allowed to change their belief system ensures a steady stream of peaceful and submissive voters that would continue to keep the ruling party in power. In Sudan, such faith based laws are taken to the extreme. The recent death sentence meted out to a Christian woman for refusing to submit to the beliefs of the ruling political system shows how the priorities of taking care of citizens can be completely screwed up by religion. Amidst the enormous food scarcity and insecurity crippling the nation, the ruling party has chosen to focus their time instead on keeping their people in line by associating a change of faith with political treason. Force-faith laws such as these which in itself is an oxy-moron makes Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Malaysia, Iran and many other Islamic states seem so insecure of their hold on power and the tenets of their belief system; often wielding violence as a knee jerk response to suppress the freedom of belief and from belief which is a basic inalienable right of all human beings.
Posted on: Sat, 17 May 2014 14:39:05 +0000
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