Monday, February 18, 2013

A Saving Stampede in India?




Please be informed…it is not only Christianity that is deserving of constant criticism and persistent suspicion. Religion if it is going to be promoted as a means to save one’s soul and create a life of bliss, it is worthy of constant scrutiny. 


For me, I have always been amazed by the power religion conjures within people. Not a poised power of overcoming odds – but the power that should regulate people to the status of mentally ill if one does NOT remove the religiosity that brings forth bizarre, and for some peculiar behavior e.g. speaking in tongues, believing that a man survived in the belly of a whale, believing that 20 virgins in heaven await a delusional man, or believing that exorcisms are healthy alternatives to medical and psychologically healing. 


An approximate total of 30 million people –as tradition dictates- bathe in Sangam, the confluence of the Ganges, the Yamuna and the Saraswati rivers in India as a form of devotion - and the confident belief if done (bathe) he or she is washing away/removing their sins…transgressions…and frees one from the cycle of rebirth. The latter –fear of rebirth- is a telling example of what religion does to the mind of the individual who lives a life of preventable misery…as if returning to a human life form is that tragic particularly if the present life has been a self-induced problematic consequence. 


Nonetheless, there was an unusual concluding twist to the Indian tradition that’s performed every 12 years, 
 
36 Dead in Stampede at Hindu Festival in India


I encourage you to think on this for a brief moment…

You mean to tell me after bathing and having faith in their deed of devoutness and hopeful removal of sin, thirty-six of the devoted Hindu Believers were crushed to death in a stampede at a train station immediately following their religious act of conviction…? 

Was this their reward for opting to cleanse their souls…are they now heaven-bound…are the Hindu followers removed from potential renascence - or is this tragedy another disturbing occurrence that mirrors ‘God’s Work or God’s Neglect’ that we should mentally transport to the unexplainable category of 

Thou shall not Question…Thou shall not seek an answer via Seeing…
 
We must eventually examine religion without a faith lens…but with reasonable questioning and with intellectual –not emotional- veracity! 


If not, the Believers of any religious faith particularly the religions that if questioned with reason and logic would be considered a Flock of Foolishness; and the adherents would be committed to insane asylums. 


The Pseudo Preacher