‘Are religions responsible for our morality?’: Through the Islamic example
So rationalists are immoral they say
After I became an irreligious rationalist from an Islamic conservative, one of the most repeated statements about me in my Islamic society are,
- 'Now that he has no God and religion, he can indulge in whatever nefarious acts he wants.’
- ‘It is better that you don't have children because your children will also become Kafirs’
The second statement stems from the Muslim consciousness based on the Quran that aims to create the ‘Us vs. them’ binary by demonizing other religions. I have discussed this idea in my other articles.
The motivation behind this article was the first statement that nurtures the notion that religions such as Islam are responsible for the morality of humans.
So, does being an irreligious or a rationalist make someone immoral?
Brain and Evolution
Humans have giant brains relative to their body size in the animal kingdom, which has made us the most intelligent of them all. Our intelligence is our strength, and our brain is the sole reason for our success as a species. Our brain is so complex that we developed language, culture, and societal setup unique in the animal kingdom.
Phylogenetically, the brain is classified into instinctive, emotional, and logical. The instinctive brain or the basal ganglion is found in reptiles. Emotions developed with the development of the limbic system over the basal ganglion in mammals. Logic and reason developed due to the formation of the neocortex over the limbic system.
In brief, the human brain has three parts — basal ganglion, limbic system, and neocortex.
Fear, hunger, and sexual drive are characteristics of the instinctive brain that are crucial for survival. The limbic system is responsible for love, anger, hatred, and happiness. Logic and reason are domains of the neocortex. Since humans have the most developed neocortex in the animal kingdom, the dominance of humans over other organisms is a result of neocortex development.
But, the human brain has the limbic system to feel complex emotions and the basal ganglion that drives their instinct. The three-part brain of humans makes it a complex organism that forces them to go over multiple dilemmas in life.
The instinctive brain is primal and works only for survival, even if it is at the cost of other organisms. This primal nature is responsible for reptilians’ lack of emotions or loyalty. Food, sex, and shelter are what this part of the brain craves.
The emotional brain feels emotions hence organisms with well-developed limbic systems are not as primal as reptilians. For example, dogs are capable of feeling emotions which is the prime reason behind their loyalty towards their owners. Dogs also have basal ganglion that makes them fight for sex, food, and shelter or territory with other dogs.
Problem-solving capabilities and a calculative mind characterize the logical brain. Since humans have the most developed neocortex, they have the most logical and reasonable mind in the animal kingdom. They also have the limbic system that makes parents love their children and vice versa. They are also driven by the instinctive brain that makes them commit rapes on women, greedy for resources (money), and fear makes them seek safety or shelter from the stronger amongst them.
The genesis of religion
As they wandered as hunter-gatherers, ancient human societies had no time for rituals and lived at the mercy of nature. Their insecurity made them pray to nature or spirits. Their unorganized prayers were primarily for food and shelter. This kind of belief system can be called animism.
As humans developed agriculture, their prayers took the form of rituals, and slowly the concept of God started growing in the minds of humans. This concept of God took an anthropogenic form, and each God or goddess had its role. Roman, Greek, and Indian Subcontinent mythologies result from the advancement of agriculture and the formation of civilizations.
The development of monarchies paved the way for theism and casteism. In his book Republic, Plato’s defense of caste reflects the feudal or monarchical mindset of his time. Theism paved the way for Monotheism. The medieval ages saw the rise of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam due to Monotheism.
Islam's morality
In the Quran, Chapter 112 says that God is one and is not dependent on anyone. Quran's basic tenet seems to be for establishing the oneness of God. Prophet Muhammed seems to nurture a general hatred for other religions [2: 82–93, 4: 48] and even to other monotheistic ones such as Judaism and Christianity [Quran 2: 96, 113, 5: 80–82, 4: 46, 51, 52, 56]. A Muslim cannot marry women or men of other religions, and if that happens, the individual will be answered by hellfire [2: 221]. Quran has such hatred towards fellow human beings other than Muslims that many of the verses in most of the chapters seem like an angry rant of Muhammed than the commandments of an omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent force that the Quran claims God to be [2: 118].
The morality for the Quran is going for war and killing polytheists [9: 3–8] and non-believers (Kafirs) [8: 12–15]. Morality for Quran is beating your wife [4:34] and persecuting homosexual people [7: 80–84]. In Islam, transgender people and crossdressers are abominations [Sahih Buhari, Volume 7, Book 72, Number 772; Al-Buhari, 5885].
My realization of Islam’s toxic morality comes from my own experiences. I was always fascinated by female garments. When I was 13, I visited my ancestral home. With the money that I got from my grandparents, I secretly bought a lady's wig and some makeup. I wore them with my mother's clothes and modeled in front of the mirror within the privacy of my room. I enjoyed it. But soon after the episode, my indoctrinated mind with its twisted perception of morality made me feel guilty. The guilt caused me to throw the things away which a neighboring woman saw. She checked the belongings and reported them to my family. What followed was a traumatic nightmare.
Some men of my family verbally abused me, and I had just wanted to die after the episode. Some women supported them and searched my room like an inspector raiding a criminal's hideout. I became suicidal due to the treatment I received at that time.
I was called names in my school because of my feminity, but when even your family becomes a bully, that is enough to make you understand the society you live in. The trauma still haunts me, and self-inflicted wounds were a part of my life. Some months after the incident, I ran away from my home and was returned by a Thamizh Hindu who saw me wandering on his coconut farm. At first, he thought I was a child thief who came to pluck the farm's produce, so he shouted at me. However, my tears made him empathize with me and helped me return home.
Years after the incident, I realized that such abuses are given sanctimony by the Islamic religion I was born in. I have stopped hating individuals because their toxic religion justifies their acts.
Quran gaslights its followers by instilling fear of punishment and God's wrath [2: 153–157]. It blames humans for their unfortunate events and commands them to praise Allah for the fortunate events [4: 78–79].
Women are often portrayed as lesser beings with no sense of right or wrong that Satan invokes only females [4:137] [Riyad-us-Swaliheen, chapter 34, Hadith no. 273]. The Quran and Hadith seem to be talking to men always and never to women [4: 129]. Women are compared to farm produce, and menstruation is deemed impure that one should keep their distance from women who menstruate [2: 222–223].
Islam is a religion that forces women to wear dresses like medieval chastity belts (Burqa, Niqab, e.t.c) and justifies it by saying that a woman's beauty is for only her husband to enjoy.
According to Hadith, a woman must have sex with her husband whenever he calls; if she does not abide by his wishes, she will be cursed by Angels [Riyad-us-Swaliheen, chapter 35, Hadith no. 281, 284]. Another Hadith says that if Allah allowed anybody to prostrate to anyone among his creations, it would be a wife prostrating to her husband [Riyad-us-Swaliheen, chapter 35 Hadith no. 286].
Islam even commands Muslims to beat and punish their children if they do not offer prayers to Allah by age 10 [Riyad-us-swaliheen, 38: 301, 302]. A God who behaves as a demagogue that forces even children to worship him and punishes those who do not worship him also says he has nothing to gain from punishing his creations. This contradictory, child abusive nature of Islamic God reflects the corrupt nature of the Arab or Arabs who made the religion.
Quran manipulates disabled people with chapter 80 by showing that Allah cares for the blind. Yet, Islam is not ready to listen to the experiences of disabled individuals. The Islamic understanding of disability is from a non-disabled uneducated Arab who claims to be the last prophet of God. Islam sees disabled individuals as disadvantaged creations of God that need help and never as fellow human beings who have their voice and experiences.
Contrary to what Islam claims, the idea of right or wrong in Islam is different from the logic and reason of the human neocortex. And in many cases, it runs contrary to even the positive emotions of our limbic system.
Medieval religions such as Islam are narratives of archaic, patriarchal, conservative, transphobic, homophobic, and non-disabled men who thought themselves divine. They cunningly plotted a belief system to establish their control over the others.
Over the years, there’s a rise in liberal ideas amongst believers of Hinduism, Christianity, and Judaism. However, Islam and Muslims continue to destroy any genuine liberal space that sprouts among its believers.
The decadence
Muslims vehemently oppose the terrorist activities of the Islamic State (ISIS) and others. Still, they are largely silent or covertly supportive of the atrocities committed by the Taliban on Afghani women. They are agitated by Israel's atrocities in Palestine, but they seem consciously ignorant of the atrocities done by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in Yemen.
They are agitated by the oppression of Muslims in India. Still, they are silent on the oppression of Hindus and other religious groups in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh by respective Muslim regimes. The selective nature of Muslim agitation reflects their Arab supremacist religion and anachronistic medieval scriptures.
Muslim identity and their collective consciousness are driven by an exclusionary communal mindset that sees persecution only when Muslims are the victims, and their oppressors are amongst other groups. There is no thought of human rights but only Muslim rights.
The Islamophobia of many right-wing conservatives of the US, Europe, and India is real, but often Muslims tend to have victimhood pretension. They tend to take their oppressed status in these regions for granted and claim Islamophobia in every situation that they come across, even when they are the perpetrators.
All this points to the fact that Islamic morality is flawed and biased.
Humans and morality
In four separate experiments conducted after 2009, psychologists have found that babies as young as three months have a natural disposition for kindness. In one experiment, babies opted to look at selfless characters of a show than selfish ones. Researchers found a retributive mindset towards cruelty in most five-month-old babies in the second experiment.
In the third experiment, psychologists found that most one-year-old babies have a general dislike towards injustice. They preferred an individual who shared resources equally to those who were biased. In the fourth experiment, most one-year-olds were found comforting the victim.
All these points to the fact that morality is not a learned trait but an innate trait that developed in humans over their evolutionary course. Compassionate empathy is a part of the general human mindset, as demonstrated by the above experiments.
Many religious people, especially Muslims, do not understand that their religions do not bring goodness to earth. The objective of their religion is not to make humans virtuous but to make sense of the Universe and their role in the Universe.
In Islam, both Quran and Hadith speak of heaven for Muslims and hell for non-believers, people of other religions, and all those who sin. Allah and his prophet define Islam's sin, and it is not based on human morality [98, 1:8]. The Bible also floats a similar idea of heaven and hell [Book of Genesis, Chapter 3]. In Hinduism, the concept of Gnosticism upholds that we are part of divinity (Ishwara), and only by doing one’s duty (Dharma) can we be again part of Ishwara escaping infinite rebirths (Samsara) and sufferings [Bhagavad Gita-9, 28–34].
These religions talk of reward and punishment based on their perception of right and wrong, which might often go against human morality. Morality is not a fundamental part of any of these religions. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar discusses this idea in his book Buddha and his Dhamma and concludes that the only religion with morality and ethics as one of its basic tenets is Buddhism (Navayana Buddhism) [Buddha and his Dhamma, Page 363 to 370].
Morality is not a construct of God or religion; it is an innate evolutionary trait of humans. God and religion are not what we need for a moral and ethical society; it is humanism that we need for a society that nurtures compassionate empathy. Religion can help champion the cause of a just society only if it has morality as its basic tenet and none of the established or organized religions have that because of the flawed concept of divinity that the privileged among them made. What else can be expected from religions such as Islam that rewards some and punishes others based on a non-existent God and his divinity?
Conclusion
My religion was proclaimed Islam by Muslims, and I was given a Muslim name because of my birth in a conservative Islamic society; this might be the case for most humans.
My question is, what moral authority does such a society have to judge our character and morality when our life experiences, studies, and research proves that their religious belief system is wrong?
Logical fallacies such as Ad hominem seem to be an essential trait of religious societies because their religion and narratives indoctrinate them. When they fail to logically and reasonably justify their worldview, they revert to logical fallacies exposing their inner bigotry.
Ambedkar argues that a religion based on a non-existent God is a call for disaster, and what we need is an atheistic religion such as Buddhism or Navayana Buddhism. This idea is similar to Friedrich Nietzsche’s concept of the death of God and Baruch Spinoza’s Pantheistic Monism.
For a just society of morals and ethics, we need a flexible rationalist religion based on progressive thoughts and humanism, not monotheistic or theistic organized religions.
