Pirouz Azadi
Throughout my lifelong quest to find god, I attended sermons in Zoroastrian, Hindu and Buddha temples, Jewish synagogues, Christian churches and Muslim mosques of no avail… and then epiphany darned on me before I moved through the cosmos to find god in the “temple” closest of them all to myself: he was my conscience in my own heart…..
Epitomizing the sage old maxim in Persian, the name god literally states, “getting to know God (Khoda) is to get to know thyself (Khod) and one’s calling on earth (Be Khoda).”
Persian Poem by Rumi aka Molawi (13th century CE)
The universal human quest to search for, understand and believe in, and to worship and submit to “gods” and later a “god”, is as historic as their walking upright on the African savannahs and then beyond since five million years ago. Whilst the “objective” jury is still out as to proofs for, or against the (co-)existence of a universal god or goddess, proliferation of faiths and religions has since led to the current dozen religiosities, which persist today.
What is in retrospect most bewildering is how the number of such new religions (in the thousands) have dramatically dwindled as humans shied away from superstitions over time and after they understood mysteries of natural phenomena or even “wrath of gods” characterized as reckoning cataclysmic dictators. In fact, post Islam of 1500 years ago – currently “believed” by 2 billon – the subsequent religions that emerged such as Sikhism, Mormonism, Bahaism, Hassidism, etc. simply became a revision of one of the older “Abrahamic” tri-religions practiced by or simply born into by 4.5 billion human inhabitants today.
As to religiosity, especially the three major ones cited here, they emerged from the amalgamation of monotheistic Zoroastrianism of Persia as scripted in Avestha and Gatha but influenced in part later by Veda the Hinduism and Buddhism hymns, and inclusion of the 15 oral epic Aramaic poetries in Mesopotamia. And as if the original scriptures for each of these religions was not sufficient, the volume of piled on interpretations and justifications by each religious establishment with its socioeconomic and political underlays far outweighed its intent and in essence contradicted and complicated its initial “puritan” message.
Against the above backdrop however, one fact is crisp loud and clear: thence, mostly concerning. Each faith when introduced in history by a messenger may have as well played a role toward improving humanity and community at the time by setting forth a set of rules obeyed by all.
Nonetheless, most (perhaps all) soon deteriorated into a dogmatic and vindictive religiosity decadence for power grab of the elite class through accumulating capitals, property and wealth by resorting to any means justified including waging holy wars and violence or slavery.
Simply because the “(mis-)” interpretations and exploitation of a religious doctrine were pretty much left to or grabbed by self-righteous and opportunist class and cults, that it not only led to trampling over its founding ideals, but that the punitive imposition of the religion itself demoralized and consequently disenfranchised the followers to walk away from it or rise against it.
In fact, one could even go farther to assert that the pragmatic adverse consequences of any religiosity through inflicting pain and misery, and inequality and injustices, have far outweighed the fast dwindling initial progressive aspects of that same religiosity.
One might rightly argue that so long as a religion practiced by a small group may serve its platonic and soothing purpose of giving refuge and solace to god-fearing and after life horrifying constituents, all seem fine. However, this is not true when the same religion goes mainstream hand in hand with the ruling or economic elite class, or even worse coalesce with or supersedes it.
One could further argue that most religions must have first begun portraying god as an invisible, omnipotent and immortal concept. However, the self-anointed religious bosses fast portrayed such a god as a male in the physical wrathful image of a herculean man.
Even many of the two billion (20%) of the world population considered to be atheists or agnostics, are still pragmatic ecumenical and spiritual humanists who may deep down innately believe in an ultimate ultra-supreme genderless ubiquitous source of “infinite” power, energy and information. Could it be then that humans relied on their own conscience as the pragmatic drive to seek for, serve or preserve justice, i.e., one’s virtuous consciousness to differentiate good thoughts, words and deeds-from vices?
Could it be that the duality of good vs. evil-the struggle in one’s consciousness-gave rise to a conceptual god so to ensure that good always or mostly triumphs in everyday life chores, rituals, and activities?
After all, if god physically and not metaphorically existed, he or she must have been the perfect god who could have created a perfect orderly utopia universe with no chaos, no pains no miseries so its creatures live in an eternal paradise and with no day of reckoning in sight! Such god is then is excessively grand to exclusively fit into one religion! What was his/her/its ulterior motive then to wreak havoc on his creatures by creating and not eliminating Satan in a dystopia (read injustices) in the first place?
And why do some self-serving individuals or cults then ridicule when logic, rationale, facts and pragmatism, shake up their fallacies, dogmas, self-righteousness and self-anointed powerhouses, especially when the self-indulged make judgment on or crucify others while they themselves had preached that judgment is solely for god to make afterlife or on the day of reckoning?!
A modern secular, liberal and progressive society must, thence safeguard the belief in and practices of all faiths and social norms. Such society must not however provide tax or monetary incentives or divine immunity for any of such social activities, as they must all remain open to critique before the same set of the rule of laws. Simply put, nothing is sacred, no one deemed sanctified, or a criticism misconstrued as sacrilege. Respect for humanity and life on sustainable Mother Earth is crucially pivotal to human and life survival.
The Persian Poet Sa’adi has eloquently stated the role for a human in his 13th century poem:
All peoples, livings and the inanimate are members of one frame,
Since, they all from the same source essence came
If one member is then distressed [by an oppressor],
The other members should lose their desired rest
If thou shan’t feel for others’ misery,
The name Human is no suited name for thee.
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The author Pirouz Azadi was born and raised in a family rooted in Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity and Islamic beliefs; nonetheless, he pragmatically came to recognize the communal commonality among these faiths and beyond through serving humanity and safeguarding Mother Earth. His avocation has been serving as a professor of the physical and natural sciences for nearly four decades. He equally enjoys learning and sharing aspects of history and cultures, arts and literature, current affairs and policies and as they influence humanity and life.