By Shyamon Jayasinghe –

Shyamon Jayasinghe

“We had an admirable, though isolated, program in Rupavahini called “Yathaarthaya,” which had  the objective of making the public think critically. I was distressed to hear that that program has been withdrawn probably due to the pressures of astrologers”

Destruction

I am at a loss to make sense of all this and would like someone to try and help me to understand this. Just now, I watched over Al Jazeera how a pathetic, large-scale human tragedy is unfolding in the Indonesian province of Sulawesi. A 7.5 magnitude colossal earthquake followed by a tsunami has left over hundred thousand people-babes, kids, elderly and the sick included- starving, waiting until international agencies bring food. They have lost their homes. Over 1500 persons have been found dead and buried under the rubble. Hundreds of thousands still to be found. The province of Palu is also seriously affected.

The Question, “Why”?

Why did all this happen to the largest Muslim state in the world where people pray five times a day? Nobody can deny the justice of my question and I have no interest in belittling any faith. I ask as a rational and thinking man who is confronted with a puzzling situation. We need an answer as we are set with a challenge and we need to know where to go from here. If we were dumped in a foreign land and have lost our direction we enquire from those who know. I think the Indonesian crisis leaves thinking people thrown into serious confusion with regard to their exitential living. One cannot let the ball pass to the wicket keeper and continue with our assumptions for the simple reason that our very assumptions with respect to our existence and how we got here has come under challenge.

Provoked and the Unprovoked

To quote a story from the man-imposed tragic event called the holocaust, I like to turn to the novel, “ The Tattooist of Auschwitz,” written by Heather Morris. Auschwitz, we know, was one of Hilter’s prison camps located in Poland where  truck loads of Jews were brought in and dumped for execution suffocated by gas. These prisoners, man, woman and child-whole families -were uprooted from their homes and forcefully brought in to Auschwitz where they had to first work their bone out while in a starvation diet, constructing their own crematorium. When in a terribly weak condition these hapless persons were marched to the crematorium and suffocated to death. Their only crime was being Jew.

In this novel the main character, Lale Sokolov, is asked by Geeta another (woman) prisoner with whom Lale develops a love relationship: 

“Do you still believe in God?”

“Not anymore after this..no” 

In this example, Lale is a thinker who thought about the event. He did not let the ball pass. The event provoked and consumed him. Many natural and man-induced mass scale tragedies should provoke us to re-think our assumptions but they don’t do that; most of us, victims included, let the ball pass.

Worser still many affected find a way out to rationalise and justify their beliefs

Archbishop of Canterbury

I remember the massive Tsunami in 2004 when even Sri Lanka was attacked. The Archbishop of Canterbury, when questioned in the way I now question, responded saying he is severely ’embarrassed.’ The Archbishop was being frank. He was a thinker. Perhaps the Archbishop reflected: “where is God ? Why is he indifferent? Or, more simply, does he exist at all?” Or even, in a mood of self-guilt, “Am I conning around with my parish?”

Getting Around or Rationalising the Event

Those who don’t bother to question can be left alone as hapless persons who are silenced by sheer incompetence; they are walking dead. On the other hand, the hard nuts are those who present theoretical explanations to justify the happening and keep the God assumption afloat. 

In the Indonesian event, it is reported how a woman raised her hands and praised God for having saved her. Did it not occur to her to ask why God allowed the suffering of so many millions? 

On a similar vein one can recall how many a time a ‘cancer survivor,’ has praised God for having  saved him. Most of these have been cases of temporary  disappearance of symptoms. They are called remissions. But that does not bother such persons. They go down on their knees and make thanksgivings. Why did it not occur to these lucky ones  that the majority of patients will not even have remissions but will suffer and die? How could that be a thankful event?

Besides, why does it not occur to such persons to ask why God had let him get the dreadful disease and suffer, in the first place?

Among the many other rationalisers are those who attempt to get a bit more sophisticated. They say “God moves in mysterious ways… it is not our right to question these events.” They might point out that God has a “plan,” for each of us and we must submit to his divine will. There are over 8 billion people in the world living in every nook and corner of the planet. Could one even imagine how a God can pick and implement and monitor his plan in respect of each of these 8 billion persons? Doesn’t make sense isn’t it? But no, to the believer it does make sense.

All these objectors have one thing in common: their  brains are wired to believe and have faith under any circumstances. I need not refer to those who cling to their positions for material gain.

Karma Theory

The Indian Karmic theory, although followed by many religionists who name themselves as atheists (Buddhists etc) also seem to be predicate an assumption of an Orderer or Commander whose task is to ration and allocate desserts to those who live undesirable lives. How else can a negative deed lead the dying individual to a specific appropriate fate in the next life. I remember how my mother got womb cancer in her very young days. My father who was given to astrological thinking went to an Indian soothsayer who constructed a rigmarole about my mother having been in her previous birth, a princess born to a royal family in China and how she had kicked a pregnant woman. “This cancer in the womb is a result of that evil karma,” the conner said. Now, this is a con story obviously but I bring this here to hypothesise a scenario  of a person being reborn to a pattern of life determined  by her previous doings in a previous birth. Such a development implies an Orderer or Commander who will note and micro-manage the nasty behaviour of persons in order to re-order their next life. The acts themselves could not have the potential to do that job of re-orderer.

If one doesn’t subject given beliefs like the above to critical scrutiny, it all would look very reasonable. The woman who kicked a pregnant woman deserves to get cancer in the womb! 

Call for Critical Scrutiny

It  is the job of educationalists to inculcate a critical sense among students who would make up the world of  their time. In Australia, critical thinking projects are  embedded all subjects. In some other Western countries, critical thinking is taught separately in a dedicated way. No country can afford a population that wouldn’t question the claims of others-whoever the latter maybe.

Religion cannot be granted a protected status when it comes to free enquiry. Religion makes propositions with regard to reality. Today, that is the job of science. Scientific propositions can be validated at lest temporarily until new contradicting  evidence comes up. On the other hand, religionists argue that religious explanations of reality are true for all time and can never be questioned even in the face of contradicting evidence. Copernicus questioned, when his telescope showed a different reality. The poor bloke got into trouble and, to save his life, he was forced to recant all what he told:

“No..no.. what I said was poppycock.” 

The biggest earthquake in religious beliefs was presented by Charles Darwin, when he found evidence from fossils of plant and animals, which countered the assumption that man was created by God.  But Charles Darwin was more diplomatic and would defer the release of his findings  for a “better” day.

It is a pity that Sri Lanka has lost its way in promoting critical thinking. The concern is nowhere in our syllabii and is not taught separately either. Despite nearly 60 decades of free education, we have an uncritical population most of whom gulp down every fake and slanted  claims and accusations of politicians. The generality of our people are easily caught up by emotional slogans  relating to  ethnicity or religion; they cannot develop a sense of where the country needs to go and how we can get there. Our media is dominated by the ill-products of our deficient education system. Many of the media formidables are not products of universities. The blind leads the blind.

Look at our media: Television channels, for instance, are flooded by astrologers and soothsayers and men and women of the Black Art. We had an admirable, though isolated, program in Rupavahini called “Yathaarthaya,” which had  the objective of making the public think critically. I was distressed to hear that that program has been cancelled, probably due to the pressures of astrologers.