Skip to main content

Save me from gods




In the year 1257, an elephant died in the Tower menagerie and was buried in a pit near the chapel.  But the following year he was dug up and his remains sent to Westminster Abbey.  Now, what did they want at Westminster Abbey, with the remains of an elephant?  If not to carve a ton of relics out of him, and make his animal bones into the bones of saints?

The above quote is taken from Hilary Mantel’s latest Man Booker Prize-winning novel, Bring Up the Bodies (page 69, Fourth Estate, London, 2012).

Mantel’s novel, which I’m still reading, thrusts before us a lot of questions without ever making it look like thrusting.  I like such novels.  Novels that tickle us into thinking, gently, slowly – quite unlike the fist-wielding street hooligans’ (ab-surd) ways.  I ordered this novel even before it was published in India because I knew it wouldn’t disappoint me.

I have lived for over 5 decades with people who claim to be religious, people who pretend to be good.  The people whom I dread most are the religious.  They can sell anything, kill anybody, and pretend to be holy after all that.  Worse, they can portray the most innocent person as the worst criminal. I have seen it.  I have lived with it.
 
I have begun to hate religion, much as I would hate to hate anything.

Atheist as I have become (I used to call myself an agnostic – but I would now rather be an atheist), my prayer to the teeming gods is: “Save me from your followers.”

Note 1: surd is slang for…?
Note 2: This is a wicked post.  
Labels:

Comments

  1. mandakolathurDecember 15, 2012 at 10:40 PM

    Becoming an atheist from an agnostic is but a natural progression of intelligence :) :) :)

    You say, "...pretend to be holy after all that". It may have been better said, "claiming to be holy doing all that"!

    I di dnot understand why you said this is a wicked post. Did you mean an evil post?

    RE

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalDecember 15, 2012 at 10:47 PM

      Wicked, Raghuram. Evil is natural. Wickedness is intended.

      Delete
  2. umashankarDecember 16, 2012 at 8:37 AM

    1. I have started liking you sneak previews!

    2. Your professed wickedness is a surd!

    3. Now there, forgive my wickedness!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalDecember 16, 2012 at 6:38 PM

      Yeah, this is a much better way of letting out the steam, isn't it?

      Delete
  3. Indian SatireDecember 16, 2012 at 12:33 PM

    I dont know if God exists but his believers have done more to his creations than the non-believers not only because of the numbers but because they fight over whose God is the more powerful?

    Balu

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalDecember 16, 2012 at 6:39 PM

      As Nietzsche said, gods must have died laughing seeing the way his followers fought for them.

      Delete
  4. PayojismDecember 16, 2012 at 4:52 PM

    Nice article...I have sligtly different views...
    http://payojism.blogspot.in/2010/07/i-hope-i-become-believer-again_9152.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalDecember 16, 2012 at 6:45 PM

      Yeah, I just read your blog and have posted my comment too.

      Delete
  5. PanchaliDecember 16, 2012 at 7:55 PM

    Oh, well, fancy that! To take steps towards oblivion, and draw final conclusions, is highly 'falsehood'...Isn't that neat, eh?

    ReplyDelete
  6. indu chhibberDecember 17, 2012 at 7:36 AM

    There are good & bad in every group or community.You came in touch with some bad ones but is it wise to paint all with a wide brush?
    If this is about unloading angst,i understand!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalDecember 17, 2012 at 3:04 PM

      Thanks for understanding. Writing has that function too: letting off steam. That's why I called it a "wicked post".

      Delete
  7. AmitAagDecember 17, 2012 at 11:12 AM

    The moral of the story "The people whom I dread most are the religious" is whole heartedly seconded by me, not against any particular sect or creed though!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalDecember 17, 2012 at 3:05 PM

      That's a conclusion I drew from experience, Amit. If your experience also supports it, then ...

      Delete
  8. UnknownDecember 17, 2012 at 12:27 PM

    loved it!loved it!

    i am an indian and i earn 10$ per day from neobux
    You know the value of dollar to rupees!

    if you are interested you can sign up here www.neobux.com/?r=calicer1996

    all you need to do is click a few ads which takes only half an hour per day!


    ReplyDelete
  9. provoqdDecember 17, 2012 at 5:30 PM

    Hi,

    Quite a post you have written. The break-up of words aptly described in Ab-Surd. :)

    So, what made you turn into an Atheist?

    Regards

    Jay
    http://road-to-sanitarium.blogspot.in/

    ReplyDelete
  10. UnknownDecember 18, 2012 at 6:19 PM

    I've always been a great admirer of your blogs !!
    Yet again nice work ...
    Gotta read the left ones now

    Regards
    Raja

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalDecember 18, 2012 at 6:40 PM

      Nice to see you with a comment, Raja. Nicer to know that you were reading me earlier too. This particular post is a little out of my ordinary way - this had ulterior motives! Life makes us do such things sometimes; life makes us terrorists occasionally :) (My terrorism is harmless.)

      Delete
  11. www.wizardlegalblogs.comDecember 29, 2012 at 4:04 PM

    Being an atheist is far better than being a theist and doing all sorts of wretched and inhuman things against fellow humans and nature. I am also a staunch rationalist and believe in "Service to a fellow human being is equal to service(read worship God) to
    God" dictum.

    Ms.Nirmala Rao
    Hyderabad

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalDecember 29, 2012 at 10:28 PM

      Being anything that is genuine all that matters Ms Nirmala, as far as I'm concerned. I'm right now battling with a fraud who bears a turban.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ivan the unusual friend

When you are down and out, you will find that people are of two types. One is the kind that will walk away from you because now you are no good. They will pretend that you don’t exist. They don’t see you even if you happen to land right in front of them. The other is the sort that will have much fun at your expense. They will crack jokes about you even to you or preach at you or pray over you. This latter people are usually pretty happy that you are broke. You make them feel more comfortable with themselves even to the point of self-righteousness. Ivan was an exception. When I slipped on the path of life and started a free fall that would last many years before I hit the bottom without a thud but with enormous anguish, Ivan stood by me for some reason of his own. He didn’t display any affection which probably he didn’t have. He didn’t display any dislike either. There was no question of preaching or praying. No jokes either. Ivan was my colleague for a brief period at St Joseph’s
14 comments
Read more

Machiavelli the Reverend

Let us go today , you and I, through certain miasmic streets. Nothing will be quite clear along our way because this journey is through some delusions and illusions. You will meet people wearing holy robes and talking about morality and virtues. Some of them will claim to be god’s men and some will make taller claims. Some of them are just amorphous. Invisible. But omnipotent. You can feel their power around you. On you. Oppressing you. Stifling you. Reverend Machiavelli is one such oppressive power. You will meet Franz Kafka somewhere along the way. Joseph K’s ghost will pass by. Remember Joseph K who was arrested one fine morning for a crime that nobody knew anything about? Neither Joseph nor the men who arrest him know why Joseph K is arrested. The power that keeps Joseph K under arrest is invisible. He cannot get answers to his valid questions from the visible agents of that power. He cannot explain himself to that power. Finally, he is taken to a quarry outside the town wher
14 comments
Read more

Joe the tenacious friend

AI-generated illustration You outgrow certain friendships because life changes you in ways that nobody, including you, had expected. Joe is one such friend of mine who was very dear to me once. That friendship cannot be sustained anymore because I am no more the person whom Joe knew and loved to amble along with. And Joe seems incapable of understanding the fact that people can change substantially. Joe and I were supposed to meet one of these days after a gap of more than two decades. I scuttled the meeting rather heartlessly. Just because Joe’s last messages carried words that smacked of intimacy. My life has gone through so much devastating fire that the delicate warmth of intimacy has become repulsive. Joe was a good friend of mine while we were in Shillong. He was a post-graduate student and a part-time schoolteacher when I met him first. I was a fulltime schoolteacher teaching math and science to ninth and tenth graders. My dream was to postgraduate in English literature an
11 comments
Read more

Kailasnath the Paradox

AI-generated illustration It wasn’t easy to discern whether he was a friend or merely an amused onlooker. He was my colleague at the college, though from another department. When my life had entered a slippery slope because of certain unresolved psychological problems, he didn’t choose to shun me as most others did. However, when he did condescend to join me in the college canteen sipping tea and smoking a cigarette, I wasn’t ever sure whether he was befriending me or mocking me. Kailasnath was a bundle of paradoxes. He appeared to be an alpha male, so self-assured and lord of all that he surveyed. Yet if you cared to observe deeply, you would find too many chinks in his armour. Beneath all those domineering words and gestures lay ample signs of frailty. The tall, elegantly slim and precisely erect stature would draw anyone’s attention quickly. Kailasnath was always attractively dressed though never unduly stylish. Everything about him exuded an air of chic confidence. But the wa
9 comments
Read more

Levin the good shepherd

AI-generated image The lost sheep and its redeemer form a pet motif in Christianity. Jesus portrayed himself as a good shepherd many times. He said that the good shepherd will leave his 99 sheep in order to bring the lost sheep back to the fold. When he finds the lost sheep, the shepherd is happier about that one sheep than about the 99, Jesus claimed. He was speaking metaphorically. The lost sheep is the sinner in Jesus’ parable. Sin is a departure from the ‘right’ way. Angels raise a toast in heaven whenever a sinner returns to the ‘right’ path [Luke 15:10]. A lot of Catholic priests I know carry some sort of a Redeemer complex in their souls. They love the sinner so much that they cannot rest until they make the angels of God run for their cups of joy. I have also been fortunate to have one such priest-friend whom I shall call Levin in this post. He has befriended me right from the year 1976 when I was a blundering adolescent and he was just one year older than me. He possesse
8 comments
Read more