Book Review - The End of Faith

Introduction:

End of faith is a book by Sam Harris. Going by the title, I had assumed it to be a treatise on atheism like- say- The God Delusion of Richard Dawkins. But to my surprise it didn’t turn out to be one. But instead it was a work which diagnosed the phenomenon called faith (or belief) and its various manifestations from various dimensions and its impact on the world. Having proficiency in neurology and allied sciences, Sam Harris does a good job in it.

Synopsis:

First of all, the concept of belief is examined with all its psychological clutches that hold us.

“A BELIEF is a lever that, once pulled, moves almost everything else in a person's life. Are you a scientist? A liberal? A racist? These are merely species of belief in action. Your beliefs define your vision of the world; they dictate your behavior; they determine your emotional responses to other human beings.”

Then the focus shifts from belief to the next obvious territory: the territory of religion. Sam Harris warns about the religious bigotry and its effects.

“It seems that if our species ever eradicates itself through war, it will not be because it was written in the stars but because it was written in our books”

The primary focus is on the Abrahamic religions which have a common root: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. All three have many similarities and all have exclusive truth claims. Sam Harris goes to the roots of ‘holy’ scriptures of these religions and examines them. He rebukes the truth monopolies the religions claim to have.

“The idea that any one of our religions represents the infallible word of the One True God requires an encyclopedic ignorance of history, mythology, and art even to be entertained—as the beliefs, rituals, and iconography of each of our religions attests to centuries of cross- pollination among them.”

While examining these original texts (Old Testament, New Testament, Koran, Sunnah etc), he shows how they are inherently intolerant and inspires violence against the non-believers. The episodes of medieval Christianity: the never ending witch-hunts, inquisition, burning heretics at the stake make for a nauseating reading and makes one wonder how much blood have spilled for the sake of belief.

Then his gaze turns towards east. He observes, in the east, non-sectarian spiritual traditions have developed which never developed in the west in a full scale and ponders on the reason. In his own words: 

“If there is an equally arresting image that accounts for why nondualistic, empirical mysticism seems to have arisen only in Asia, I have yet to find it. But I suspect that the culprit has been the Christian, Jewish,and Muslim emphasis on faith itself. Faith is rather like a rhinoceros, in fact: it won't do much in the way of real work for you, and yet at close quarters it will make spectacular claims upon your attention.”

He then dwells on the issue of conscious mind, the functioning and the intricacies and all the exhortations of western philosophers like Descartes, Pascal, and Sartre et al. Then he makes an arresting conclusion:

“ Nevertheless, when the great philosopher mystics of the East are weighed against the patriarchs of the Western philosophical and theological traditions, the difference is unmistakable: Buddha, Shankara, Padmasambhava, Nagarjuna, Longchenpa, and countless others down to the present have no equivalents in the West. In spiritual terms, we appear to have been standing on the shoulders of dwarfs.”

Then the focus is shifted to Buddhism and the long tradition of Buddhists to focus on the mind and its functioning. He posits Buddhism in the high pedestal among religions which is rational and most of the claims can be empirically verified. He mocks the difference in understanding of the universe and its functioning between Eastern and western tradition thus:

“It is no exaggeration to say that meetings between the Dalai Lama and Christian ecclesiastics to mutually honor their religious traditions are like meetings between physicists from Cambridge and the Bushmen of the Kalahari to mutually honor their respective understandings of the physical universe.”

He makes a very important distinction which most miss: The difference between mysticism and religious tradition. To paraphrase him –

“MYSTICISM is a rational enterprise. Religion is not. The mystic has recognized something about the nature of consciousness prior to thought, and this recognition is susceptible to rational discussion .The mystic has reasons for what he believes, and these reasons are empirical. The roiling mystery of the world can be analyzed with concepts (this is science), or it can be experienced free of concepts (this is mysticism). Religion is nothing more than bad concepts held in place of good ones for all time. It is the denial—at once full of hope and full of fear—of the vastitude of human ignorance.”  

He nails the coffin called faith thus :

“Faith is simply the license they give themselves to keep believing when reasons fail When rational inquiry supports the creed it is championed; when it poses a threat, it is derided; sometimes in the same sentence. Faith is the mortar that fills the cracks in the evidence and the gaps in the logic, and thus it is faith that keeps the whole terrible edifice of religious certainty still looming dangerously over our world.”

Conclusion:

This is one of the few books written in the spirit of free enquiry. Usually the books which take critical position on religion take the side of atheism, and eventually end up advocating it. But this book is an exception. While looking the faith, religion and the dangers which loom from it, it also looks at the possibility of expansion of human consciousness through non-sectarian spiritual traditions and methods. It’s a strong, scholarly work rooted in reason, science and rationality.

My being pro-BJP is incidental ; whereas my being anti-Congress is permanent

If there was one impending doom that could be called as the greatest to befall on Independent India, that could be called as ‘congress’. That was one baggage we could have done without. Instead of disbanding it for good as per the aspirations of the Mahatma, it was left to stay. The lust for power knows neither principles nor ethics. It triumphs everything else.

But, why such animosity against such a ‘great’ national party which did so many ‘sacrifices’ for the nation you may ask. Well, the issue under discussion merits at least the scope of a full book. The ills inflicted on the nation, the aspirations of the people cut short, the number of hopes betrayed, and it will be too long to even mention all the sins committed by congress.

The best test would be to list all the problems distressing the Indian populace and the problems plaguing all the political parties across the nation. I can take a bet that a phenomenal number of them can be traced back to congress, its ideology (does it have one?) and its misrule. From falling over backwards for minorities to dynastic politics to dividing on communal and caste lines – everything – has its roots in the congress party.

To start with, when Congress got the mandate to rule the country after independence they inherited a great number of traits from the erstwhile rulers, the British. They continued to despise the people and their aspirations, they continued to see how they can hold onto the seat willy-nilly, and the worst them of all: they continued to Divide and rule. In fact, congress has mastered this strategy of dividing the country into smaller and smaller pieces in the name of language, religion, castes and whatnot!

If the country is divided into umpteen number of pieces, if one faction is at war with the other, if regionalism has triumphed over nationalism (and a large number of people have sympathies for regionalism than nationalism) think that there is a grand wicked hand of congress at work. In fact, congress not only represents a party but it stands for a culture – a culture that now has been imbibed by many other small parties. It’s a culture of settling scores of political rivals, corruption of gargantuan magnitude, legacy of betrayal, sycophancy (most important), keeping the people in perpetual poverty and ignorance, needless reverence of one particular family (dynastic politics, in other words), rendering of constitutional institutions into the state of powerlessness, killing free speech – in short, killing democracy inch by inch.

Although the hegemony of congress over the nation has dented over a period of time, it takes some more time for its abject decimation. India and congress are like two mutually exclusive events – For India to progress, congress has to go with all of its manifestations or should congress stay, India can never be on the path of progress – that’s a given. To be more straightforward, I consider congress to be akin with a cancerous tumor which has to be removed should the person needs to survive. Here, the person is India.

On the contrast, with all its problems and squabbles - BJP in the national level -- is something you can still entrust your hopes on. Although the original ideology of placing nation above the party and self has definitely deteriorated over time, it has still not died completely. Still, there are leaders who can selflessly dedicate themselves for the task of nation building. Besides, should I have to choose other party than the BJP or the congress there is not a single party which can throw a real challenge to congress other than the BJP at a pan-Indian level. So, it’s also the deprivation of choices that makes me vote for the BJP. With its many obvious flaws, if you consider BJP to be evil, it is much lesser evil compared to congress and all of its manifestations – any day! That’s why, my being pro-BJP is just incidental but my being anti-Congress is something permanent.

The Land Jihad

I assume you all have heard of the term ‘love jihad’. If you haven’t, just googling it will throw out thousands of results. It is a phenomenon that is rampant in several areas of coastal regions of Karnataka and also in many parts of Kerala. When I heard it for the first time, I thought it was some kind of a crackpot conspiracy theory but later instances proved otherwise. But did you know there is something called as ‘land jihad’?

Let me first interpret the word ‘jihad’ in the present context. Jihad in simple terms means a religious warfare for the cause of Islam. Though the means remain violent most of the times, a few times it can be non-violent also. This land jihad falls into the latter category. But the cause or the end remains intact: The cause of religion.

Land as an investment avenue

There are many investment avenues that can be used to leverage your capital amount of investment. The basic lessons of investment say that over a long duration of investment horizon only two investment avenues are profitable more than any other types of investment: The first one is investment in stock market and the other one is investment on land. Both these investments, in a way are an investment on the economy of the nation. So, especially when the economy is booming, the stated investments can give you very high dividends. As India is a booming economy, the importance of investment in these two avenues can’t be stated more. Here, the focus is on land so let me stick to it.

Land Jihad by ‘Religion of peace’ – With Kerala as an example

Islamists make no bones about their intention to make this nation Islamic. The way things are shaping up in the nation and the kind of support they are getting from all the quarters both openly and covertly, perhaps they will eventually be successful. Among many ways of capturing the nation, ownership of the land is one of the main ways. Just remind yourself how the church captured and controlled the African continent by owning most of the land.

It’s a common knowledge that Muslims like to be amongst themselves. That’s the reasons you find ‘Muslim ghettos’ even in some of the well-developed countries of Europe. I’m not trying to implicate anything wrong per se. But given the ‘Muslim only’ mindset, it is difficult to deal with them in many cases. For instance, it is almost impossible to find a house to buy in a completely Muslim-dominated area if you are a non-Muslim. This is just a small example of demographic seize. [The media especially the loathsome likes of NDTV, The Hindu et al. wants us to believe exactly the opposite where Muslims are portrayed as helpless victims]But contrary to this, the Hindu land-owners by and large sell off their lands to a good price without thinking any of the other larger consequences. The ghettoization is a dangerous trend, very well captured in this well-researched article.

Kerala, former ‘God’s own country’: It is no longer cool to refer Kerala as god’s own country anymore. God disowned that state long back if ever he owned it in the first place. It is heading up steadily to become another Kashmir. Defense analysts say the kinds of events that Kerala is witnessing now is strikingly similar to the events that Kashmir witnessed a few years before things went out of control. Let me add some factual spice to it: Muslim fundamentalists have declared to make Kerala an Islamic state in a few decades. The avowed promise was really serious that the chief minister of Kerala had to concur they actually vowed so. This small article actually outlines briefly how land Jihad is taking shape in Kerala.   

As the above article briefly explains, Muslims in many dealings are willing to pay price which is higher than market value. Unsuspecting Hindus by the lure of higher price just sell off their lands for a higher price. As with many cases, Hindus are caught off guard here. There is nothing objectionable-legally-as everything is done in accordance with laws. This trend of land Jihad started in the Muslim-dominated district of Malappuram then it did spread to other cities like Kasargod. One of my friends who happens to be a resident of Kasargod gave me first-hand account of all these. In his own words – “Kerala is turning out to be a hotbed of Islamic Fundamentalism. A powerful land mafia is behind all to usurp the lands from Hindus with intimidation & terror so as to create a strong Muslim land bank. Unemployed Muslim youth are reared with cash, motor bikes, mobile phones to foment tension in Hindu pockets thereby create panic to sell off their lands. Gulf money + Forged money is deployed for the purpose. Being a part of the central cabinet & a partner in the state ruling front, they have the necessary protection from all quarters. To top it all, the Hindus are divided into umpteen numbers of parties”.

This is just a glimpse of what RoP guys have done in recent years in one particular state. Let's look at the RoL (Religion of Love) guys now. They are far better networked, far wealthier than any cult group you can think of.

Land Jihad by ‘Religion of Love’

Let me ask you a question to start with. Who is the largest landowner of India? Any guesses? I think this is fairly simple. Yes, the Government of India (GoI). But let me ask you a tough one. Who is the second largest landowner of India? You perhaps don’t know because it’s a tough guess. Indian Church is the second largest landowner of India. Surprised? May be you are.

Globally, the church is third largest landowner 

Christians constitute about 3% of Indian population (according to 2001 census) and the church is the largest non-government landowner in India. Talk about disproportionate asset allocation! While at present the Christian population could be anywhere between 5-6% of the total population, it is still a case of disproportion. (Although some evangelical websites like this places the percentage to as high as preposterous 25%! )

But what’s wrong in owning any amount of real estate in legal terms you may ask. Fair question! If it were to be all legal, then the question would have been only about the moral and strategic choices and implications. But the case is not so. How did the church acquire so much land in the first place? It is through the land grants since the days of the British. It’s like an inheritance of the colonial period. But the sad part is that even after the independence, there was never an effort to legitimately redistribute this.

This article could be a primer for the issue under discussion. One more disturbing fact about this issue is that it is not discussed as it should have been. You can see a very few intellectuals like Rajiv Malhotra raising this topic often and we can never expect our mainstream media to discuss these issues which have far reaching consequences. This is because most of the Indian media is controlled from outside India, mostly by church and also because the excessive fetish and allegiance it has towards the twisted idea of secularism.

The church’s nefarious designs for India to make it a Christian nation can be seldom disputed. Why should we fear the church’s hegemony on land ownership? Anyone posing such naïve questions should care to study the kind of divisive role the church played in the continent of Africa. Why go even there? Just watch our own back yards of some the north-eastern states of Nagaland, Tripura, etc. You can better understand the church and its design. It always wants to create state within the state. The kind of role it has played in the North East India is an unshakeable testimony to the fact.

Last Tidbit : If the issue is not debated with all seriousness it demands, if the trend is left unchecked, I think we will be laying a strong foundation towards making India a Chrislamic  Republic and that can be unarguably the greatest disaster to befall on us.