Skip to main content

Good and Evil

“There is no good and evil, there is only power and those too weak to seek it.” 
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Examine history and we will be amazed by enormity of the evil that man has inflicted upon his fellow creatures mostly in the name of gods and creeds.  A lot of good people perished being labelled as heretics and witches.  Thousands of innocent people have died and continue to do so to please the gods of fanatics and radicals.

The Pope has apologised for his Church's inhuman attitude towards homosexuals.  Pope John Paul II had made quite a number of apologies.  Most religions will have infinite sins to atone for if they are willing to undertake an honest introspection.

And yet religion is about goodness, compassion, and what not?  That's what we have been told at least.

The plain truth is that religion, like most other man-made institutions, is about power. If you have power, what you do is right and good!  Rather, it's not about good and evil; it's about who wants to be the boss.


Indian Bloggers

Comments

  1. Durga Prasad DashJune 29, 2016 at 8:08 AM

    Yes. Manay religious organisations are becoming power centric in stead of propagating human values.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Pranju chakrapaniJune 29, 2016 at 8:23 AM

    This reminds me of Grand Inquisitor in Brother Karamazov who reprimands even Jesus of depriving church of its full power.But that's just fiction and the truth is much more harsh, I guess

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJune 29, 2016 at 9:05 AM

      Dostoyevsky was a genuinely spiritual person who was tormented by the problem of evil. Ivan Karamazov's quest is spiritual though he is an atheist. Real spiritual seekers are tormented souls who will not run after power. Yes, truth is much more harsh...

      Delete
  3. Anupam PatraJune 29, 2016 at 11:49 AM

    The examples of the brutality you speak of are numerous. It's always good to remind ourselves of these evils. Makes us want to change things.

    Nice write up.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJune 29, 2016 at 12:56 PM

      The atrocities still go on. The common people are helpless, powerless.

      Delete
  4. RoysonJune 29, 2016 at 2:45 PM

    Very well said.

    Religion might have been born to unite people under the fear of god. But now it is causing division. Its time to evolve to humanity.

    ReplyDelete
  5. CYNOSUREJune 29, 2016 at 11:42 PM

    well, rightly said, religion is nothing but just a glorified and fancy name to hide the dirty game of power and politics.
    Very much like terrorism, religion also every year kills large amount of people, but no-one bothers.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJune 30, 2016 at 7:17 AM

      You gave it the right name: "a glorified and fancy name to hide the dirty game of power and politics."

      Delete
  6. Chaitali BhattacharjeeJune 30, 2016 at 12:08 AM

    Now this reminds me of a quote by Gibran, which I mention:
    Your daily life is your temple and your religion.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJune 30, 2016 at 7:18 AM

      If only the religionists understood that, Chaitali!

      Delete
  7. umashankarJune 30, 2016 at 8:51 AM

    That is the crux of the matter, my friend.

    ReplyDelete
  8. indu chhibberJune 30, 2016 at 11:43 AM

    Religion did not start as a way to grab power but it has become a short cut to it now.

    ReplyDelete
  9. UnknownJune 30, 2016 at 1:07 PM

    You have rightly threw a light Sir but question in my mind is the religion is wrong or the humans who involved in it are ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJune 30, 2016 at 4:12 PM

      The problem is wit people. Give any system to them and they will pervert it.

      Delete
  10. DebopamJuly 4, 2016 at 12:09 PM

    Some people are using religion to remain in power......

    Natureram

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Ghost of a Banyan Tree

  Image from here Fiction Jaichander Varma could not sleep. It was past midnight and the world outside Jaichander Varma’s room was fairly quiet because he lived sufficiently far away from the city. Though that entailed a tedious journey to his work and back, Mr Varma was happy with his residence because it afforded him the luxury of peaceful and pure air. The city is good, no doubt. Especially after Mr Modi became the Prime Minister, the city was the best place with so much vikas. ‘Where’s vikas?’ Someone asked Mr Varma once. Mr Varma was offended. ‘You’re a bloody antinational mussalman who should be living in Pakistan ya kabristan,’ Mr Varma told him bluntly. Mr Varma was a proud Indian which means he was a Hindu Brahmin. He believed that all others – that is, non-Brahmins – should go to their respective countries of belonging. All Muslims should go to Pakistan and Christians to Rome (or is it Italy? Whatever. Get out of Bharat Mata, that’s all.) The lower caste Hindus co...
121 comments
Read more

Tanishq and the Patriots

Patriots are a queer lot. You don’t know what all things can make them pick up the gun. Only one thing is certain apparently: the gun for anything. When the neighbouring country behaves like a hoard of bandicoots digging into our national borders, we will naturally take up the gun. But nowadays we choose to redraw certain lines on the map and then proclaim that not an inch of land has been lost. On the other hand, when a jewellery company brings out an ad promoting harmony between the majority and the minority populations, our patriots take up the gun. And shoot down the ad. Those who promote communal harmony are traitors in India today. The sacred duty of the genuine Indian patriot is to hate certain communities, rape their women, plunder their land, deny them education and other fundamental rights and basic requirements. Tanishq withdrew the ad that sought to promote communal harmony. The patriot’s gun won. Aapka Bharat Mahan. In the novel Black Hole which I’m writing there is...
61 comments
Read more

Romance in Utopia

Book Review Title: My Haven Author: Ruchi Chandra Verma Pages: 161 T his little novel is a surfeit of sugar and honey. All the characters that matter are young employees of an IT firm in Bengaluru. One of them, Pihu, 23 years and all too sweet and soft, falls in love with her senior colleague, Aditya. The love is sweetly reciprocated too. The colleagues are all happy, furthermore. No jealousy, no rivalry, nothing that disturbs the utopian equilibrium that the author has created in the novel. What would love be like in a utopia? First of all, there would be no fear or insecurity. No fear of betrayal, jealousy, heartbreak… Emotional security is an essential part of any utopia. There would be complete trust between partners, without the need for games or power struggles. Every relationship would be built on deep understanding, where partners complement each other perfectly. Miscommunication and misunderstanding would be rare or non-existent, as people would have heightened emo...
9 comments
Read more

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl
44 comments
Read more

The Circus called Politics

Illustration by ChatGPT I have/had many students whose parents are teachers in schools run or aided by the government. These teachers don’t send their own children to their own schools where education is free. They send their children to private schools like the one where I’ve been working. They pay huge fees to teach their children in schools where teachers are paid half of or less than their salaries. This is one of the many ironies about the Kerala society. An article in yesterday’s The Hindu [ A deeper meaning of declining school enrolment ] takes an insightful look at some of the glaring social issues in Kerala’s educational system. One such issue is the rapidly declining student enrolment in government and aided schools in the state. The private schools in the state, on the other hand, are getting more students. People don’t want to send their children to the schools run by the government systems. The chief reason is that the medium of instruction is Malayalam. The second ...
6 comments
Read more