Religion & Power

Always felt that religion had a sinister motive. The theory grew stronger today.

Read an article in the Hindu on the plight of Muslims in China. Later, on researching figured that Uighur Muslims are a disturbed lot, historically.

We also know that most of the Islamic political world is up in arms against the West. And, the Chinese find a strategic fit in aligning with the Islamic political world.

The drift is straight forward.

At an individual level, faith - irrespective of the religion you follow - is necessary. Especially, given the sine-wave nature of a mortal's life. And most of the human populace has faith in the concept called 'God'. Faith could be in yourself, your friends or family etc. ( A good amount of the rock literature is infact dedicated to - how having faith in yourself is the most important thing. How God has failed etc). Anyways, that is a tangential discussion.

Getting back to focus - Faith is a necessary & sufficient condition for an individual. In 80% of the cases, faith takes the form of god. Stories & paeans in praise of God form literature. Religion is based on this literature. That is the structural breakdown of religion.

The next logical step is most interesting. Freud said man is inspired fundamentally by - power or sex.

Religion provides a common fabric to gather large masses of people. Ab initio, there must have been some religious leader(s) who sniffed power. Once (s)elected, leaders can manipulate people in various ways - to provide mutual benefit, to an extent. And, hence, we see countries based on religion. Groups of countries based on religion. (Lets not get into sects - thats a fall out of power struggle).

Now, I have a logical basis for the formation of the Islamic world - around west asia. The western world wanted oil. So, it implanted Israel and befriended Saudi with military support.

Now, the Chinese want oil too. They also want to strategically position themselves against the west. Russia is pretty much a spent force. So, there was a space to be filled.

So, we know why they're supporting the Islamic world. Their perceived strength is so overwhelming that, the Islamic political thinktank is blinking the oppression on their brothers in Uighurs etc.

Not very difficult isnt it? You see politics, game of power - every day in your office, your locality, your family, your state, country and the world. So, what the Chinese & the US do are very natural stuff - for a rational perspective.

Not for an idealistic perspective. But, the religious literature which provided the basis for the concept of faith - stresses increasingly on the idealistic perspective. The contortion happened in between - by man, driven by power. Faith distorted by power. Hence, the necessity to have the greatest faith in yourself. Unless, you cheat yourself.