Brutal monarchs and dictators and every authoritarian government clung to power through it. The world has shown and still continues to show all that ultimately works is brutal power and pelf. It is only a mindless and immoral world that can compete in arms race and stock-pile weapons of mass destruction at the expense of the poor and the oppressed everywhere in the world going to sleep every night hungry. It is interesting how in the past many Christian missionaries intent on preaching the gospel of love of Jesus Christ to the natives ignored the greed and violence of their colonizing compatriots with militia that they accompanied. But then there were medieval theologians who developed a convenient theology of the divine right of kings to justify and preserve the institution of monarchy.
Humanity and civilization right from its inception got a bad rap. Human beings fallen from God’s grace and rendered defective through the so-called disobedience, and substantially altered through the so-called original sin needed a savior to redeem humanity from eternal damnation, to set things straight, and restore human nature to its near (because human nature will never be the same as the pre-fall days) pristine purity. This world-view predominantly advocated by the most powerful religions in the world, Christianity and Islam have done immense harm to humanity. Hinduism talks about Kala sarpa dosha (in Hindu astrology, obstruction or misfortune caused by stars in certain positions; Kala = death, Sarpa = snake) and Karma dosha (sin due to bad individual deed) that all are subjected to. Buddhism gives some break to humanity in that a human can get liberated without divine intervention. What a way to begin life on this earth with this kind of essential handicap?!
What kind of God would permit this kind of defect? Is God making a point that humans cannot really handle freedom? When one begins with a substantial defect, one has to be aware of one’s own utter unworthiness. Is that what God really wants? The eastern view mainly represented by Hinduism and Buddhism give importance to the human role. While Hinayana Buddhism does not require any divine intervention, and thinks of Buddha as an effective model, Hinduism especially represented by Gandhi sees a role for a Supreme Being or God equated with truth in practical living. I always had and still have difficulty with human beings born in original sin. Similarly I have difficulty with a God, who is supposed to be the Great Loving Father/Mother condemning humans to eternal hell. What I am driving at is that our present world has been deeply programmed by certain greatly damaging religious thought patterns that require long overdue revision. I comment on the role of religions here because religions deeply affect the way people live their lives.
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