God is Dead, Long Live the God

Scientists of European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva as well as world over are celebrating the successful research, which took nearly 50 year to discover ‘Higgs Boson’ – popularly known as ‘God’s particle’.

Peter Higgs was a British physicist who had discovered it some 50 years back and the complexities of this particle had been plaguing scientists ever since. In the Standard Model of Physics, the Higgs boson is the only visible and particular manifestation of an invisible force field – a cosmic molasses that permeates space and imbues elementary particles that would otherwise be mass less with mass. Particles wading through it would gain heft. 

While scientists may not be bothered that the media is describing it as ‘God’s Particle’, the fact is that it has only extended the already heated debate on the existence of God. Many spiritual leaders and self proclaimed godmen will justify their view point while philosophers will claim that God is no more now.

Philosophers, world over, have decried and rejected the concept of God and religion as exploitative and absolutely reactionary. Right from the very beginning individual dissenters have challenged the idea of organized religion even as kings and priestly class justified continued assault on human dignity and fundamental rights of human beings in the name of God.

The discrimination based on caste got sanction in religious texts and was justified through various treaties which the leaders called ‘direct’ ‘preaching of the God’ that every human being must follow with these distinctions, which God has chosen for us on the basis of our past ‘sins’. If we follow ‘God’s word’ in this life, the next life would be better and one’s social status would be elevated. The Godmen even decided that men and women are not equal and women cannot choose how to live their life. They want them to cover themselves fully so that the ‘culture’ is not corrupted and hence they decided everything on their behalf and subjugated them completely in the name of culture.

While scientists will continue with research on Higgs Boson, the religious preachers will continue to claim knowing everything and call their philosophy as ‘science’. They would claim that it is a conspiracy against religion and that such researches are false. The fact is that scientists are not really discussing God as there is nothing for them to look for an illusion but what they have researched on is the root of nature and how life came into existence.

According to religion, the universe was created by Brahma while the ministry of ‘destruction’ was handed over to Lord Shiva. But it is not that world over, people have become satisfied with these explanations about the universe, God and the creators. The Muslims will never accept anyone above Allah who they feel is the ultimate truth while the Christian faith revolves around Father, Son as well as the Holy Spirit.  

Hinduism is more complicated in this matter as we are not just satisfied with Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh. In fact, in the past several decades, we have churned out godmen after godmen who claim to know everything and can do any miracle under the sun. Their devotees too are increasing in number.

Interestingly though, these self styled godmen use all the results of science to promote their blind faith. Even for their medications they use the best medical services available and claim it is God who cured them. All this gives them huge publicity as they promote the miraculous powers of their God. In each hospital, one can see photographs of Gods pasted on the ward of ICUs, where people put their money and pray for the well being of their near dear one before entering into the ICU.

We are waiting for the monsoon. Any sensible person would know that the delay is because of the climate change. But our astrologers are having a field day with their predictions. They guide businessmen and farmers as what has gone wrong with their ‘grahas’ and nakshtras. People are flooding temples and other religious places to make offerings. Farmers are praying for the rain to come soon.

It is not wrong to perform harmless rituals if someone believes in it, but things are slowly taking a dangerous turn. Girls are being sacrificed for keeping the God of rain, ‘Indra’, happy. At one place in Madhya Pradesh, the women of farmers lied naked in open fields to please the rain Gods. The sexual vulgarity in these customs and traditions is open and has got religious sanctity. Right now, it is reported that a girl is performing yagna and sitting on a fast for the past 10 days in a village in Aligarh to bring rains. Unfortunately, some of the TV channels are also supporting such an act explaining that in the film Guide, Dev Anand did the same thing. It is surprising how a news editor could draw such a parallel from cinema, when today world over we are celebrating the achievements of science.

It is therefore not surprising that the religious leaders will start a new debate on the achievements of science and term it as fictitious. Thankfully, we live in a modern democratic world where even those who talk of God’s miracles are themselves enjoying the bounties of science. Yet they denigrate it at the same time. Some of them have already started saying that by calling “Higgs Boson’ a ‘God Particle’, the physicists have accepted the supremacy of God and stamped their approval to the theories that Brahma i.e. God’s Particle created the world.

These self proclaimed godmen are experts in twisting the facts and using them for their own purposes. How can a country where everything is used in the name of God be affected in any way by this hugely successful scientific research? Religion is politics and that is why despite all this research, the organized religion will continue to dominate our popular discourse as politicians would not be able to do away with religion and they enjoy ignorance of the people.

Mothers often sing the lullaby ‘chanda mama door ke’ for their children. In 1969, Neil Armstrong and Yuri Gagarin conquered the moon but our text books did not change. The folklore did not change even after this and grandparents continued to entertain children with their fictitious tales about Chanda mama. 

Our society is fascinated with Gods. Our morality emanates from religion and that is why we have not been able to reconcile that we live in a modern world, which has become modern because of human quest to challenge the laws which were imposed upon them. Human instinct to understand the mysteries of universe exposed the lies spread by priestly classes to dominate over human beings. Slowly, that knowledge has been exposed with the great inventions of science and this research can definitely help us spread the message that faith may be good for personal purposes but do not commercialize it and do not use it for victimization of women and the marginalized. All those discriminatory practices in the name of God must stop now though we know it well that the war between those who believed in enlightenment of human beings and those who continue to make people suffer through their superstitious beliefs will continue.

The victory of human inquisitiveness has not come without sacrifices. We need to remember those sacrifices of extraordinary human beings who challenged popular beliefs and notions and were sentenced to even death.

Galileo, an Italian physicist, astronomer and philosopher, invented the telescope and developed his thesis about the solar system amidst great risk to his life as he was at odds with the popular belief of his time. He challenged the old theories about the universe being propagated by the Christian Church. An inquiry suggest that Galileo was "vehemently suspected of heresy", having held the opinions that the Sun lies motionless at the centre of the universe, that the Earth rotates around the Sun, and that one can hold and defend an opinion even if it is declared contrary to Holy Scripture. He was required to "abjure, curse and detest" those opinions.

He did not change his views and in fact wrote the best work during his imprisonment. He was arrested for life, where he lost his eye sight and suffered from various diseases. Today, when the Physicists globally are celebrating, it is also time to remember the sacrifices made by Galileo for human life.

How ironical it is that the Church and other religious groups lie motionless watching helplessly, the most astounding work of our time. The propagators of modern scientific ideas do not claim fame neither do they come to an ultimate conclusion, as science is a process to explore further the mysteries of nature.

The world has paid a heavy price because of power of religion and ignorance of people and if people do not wake up to this challenge, the great efforts of liberators of human race will go in vain.Hence it is not just time to celebrate the work of human achievements but also spread that enlightenment to common masses so that people are not further betrayed in the name of religion.

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