The Sunday Mail
Shingai Rukwata Ndoro Chiseling the Debris —
LAST week, the column presented an argument that religion is incompatible with truth and science. This means that by its nature, religion is made up of assumptions and suppositions, not facts and evidence.
An assumption or supposition is “a thing that is accepted as true or as certain to happen, without proof.”
In contrast, a fact is “a truth verifiable from actual experience or observation” or “something whose truth can be proved” and is “distinct from opinions, falsehoods, or matters of taste.”
For anything to be factual, it has to be in accordance with admissible empirical evidence and experience.
According to the Etymology Dictionary, the word “religion” was derived from 11th century Anglo-French “religiun”, itself from Latin ‘religio’ meaning “reverence or devout for the divine or the divinities, connected with a careful pondering of divine things,” – Lewis & Short, ‘A Latin Dictionary.’
“Religion” is derived from two Latin words, “re” and “ligare.” As a prefix, “re” means “in the matter of,” “back” or “again,” while the root “ligare” means “to bind, tie, fasten, unite, join or connect.” “Ligare” is also the root of the word “obligation” (“ob-ligare”).
According to the Platonist Roman philosopher-politician and lawyer, Marcus Tulius Cicero (106-43 BCE) in ‘De Natura Deorum’ (‘On the Nature of Deities’), a philosophical dialogue written in 45 BCE, the word “religion” was derived from “relegare” which means to “bind again, connect again,” from re- “again” + legere “connect.”
Together, “re-ligare” would mean to re-bind, re-connect, etc. “Religare” would mean “to bind fast,” “place an obligation on” so that it becomes a “bond between humans and a deity/deities.”
According to the Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary, “religion” is 1) the belief in a deity or in a group of deities 2) an organised system of beliefs, ceremonies, and rules used to supplicant a deity or a group of deities.
This is a human construct and fellowship around, “organised system of beliefs, ceremonies and rules” to relate with the deity/deities.
“Religion (has a three-fold division which) involves cognitive elements (what we believe), social elements (what we affiliate ourselves to) and behavioural elements (what we do)…” – Nick Spenser, The Guardian, June 9 2009.
To be religious is to 1) have affinity for a specific deity/deities, and 2) affiliate to human-made organisation and its dogmas, doctrines, processes and rules constructed to supplicant to the deity/deities.
A religion considers that a deity has a physical address somewhere in the universe although invisible, has humanoid or anthropomorphic attributes. Such a deity is also said to actively intervene, respond to and get involved in daily human behaviour.
It does so by requiring appeasement through endless petitioning, invocations and supplications combined with emotional admirations and fervent or relentless adorations.
The deity is assumed to have capacity to harshly punish and kindly reward. It is “enthroned in space, who dispenses good or evil, either according to his whim or fancy, or according to our desires.”
“When a human being grasps (a deity) as another being, albeit a more powerful than him/herself, then he/she relates with (a deity) as a dutiful slave, whose duty is to do his bidding. Blindly following a set of narrowly defined rules makes one (deity’s) prisoner, or rather, the prisoner of dogma laid down by humans for their own ends…” – Clara Szalai, “Holophany: The Loop of Creation” (2007).
“(Lowly developed) human beings need (a deity) in response to the loss of the sense of meaning or the loss of awareness of spirit force or receptive and present-centred awareness…The concept of (a deity) is a way of dealing with a world that is cold, alien and hostile. Life is considered as absurd and unnecessary. If (the deity) was overlooking the world, protecting people and arranging everything that is happening, then life will not be absurd and the world was not going to be completely indifferent.
(A deity) is a reaction to the sense of separation and incompleteness created by loss of life meaning. The belief that (a deity) is always present and watching over us is a defence mechanism against human beings’ sense of isolation and loneliness…(Lowly developed) human beings need to believe that there is an entity or entities who are always watching over them, who is always there, wherever they are and whatever they are doing (even if he is not actually in the world with them). If (a deity) was there, people are never alone.” – Steve Taylor, “The Fall: The Insanity of the Ego in Human History and the Dawning of a New Era,” (2005) paraphrased.
In conclusion, for an organisation to qualify to be a religion, its doctrines, tenets and statements of faith assume that a deity exists and it’s humanoid or anthropological. This means the deity has, “an appearance, character and attributes resembling that of a human being.”
Such a deity is further assumed that its located somewhere in the universe and ready to benevolently reward or viciously and harshly punish unless if fervently supplicated and unquestionably submitted to.
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A gallery of previous articles is found at www.sundaymail.co.zw/author/shingairukwata
