Homa Arjomand
416-737-9500
September
18, 2007-09-17
Personal
Freedom and Religion
I need to
begin my speech with this statement “the more one distance from religion the
more one can gain personal freedom”.
Historically human needed to create
religion to explain the unknown phenomenon such as existence of life, reasons
for death in order to provide comfort for the fear of unknowns. Religion also
provides very simple answers “Only God Knows” to many complicated and complex
questions and doubts. Despite the progress and knowledge in history,
civilization and science, religion remains as a heavy leash on the man’s neck.
The more mankind was able to explain the unknowns and the relationships of him
to the nature, the more he was able to distance himself
from religions clarification for the same phenomenon.
I believe a
religious individual has no personal freedom as he surrenders himself over to a
force that has no boundaries, no regulation and grounds. Philosophically and
practically, those individuals do not value their influences in changing the
world and they do not think they have will power to do so.
One may ask then how millions of religious individuals are in fact making some actual changes in the environment? My answer to this question is clear. These people in reality are not effectively religious during their actions they take to change the world. These individuals no longer expect their God to provide them with food, clothing and shelter as they take their own destiny in their own hand, they do not blindly follow most of the unreasonable commands from their religious leader; but despite the above mentioned facts, these religious individuals do not intend to make an effective change in their environment. As the result they hand over the control to their worldly Gods. In some cases because of their real life situation and their ambition to end the injustice that they experienced, these individuals are forced to act against their own religions rules and actually do enforce some reforms by pushing back their religious boundaries, by engaging against the current politically and socially.
Once more,
I need to emphasize that despite the fact that the above question may always be
a subject for the academicians, nowadays the same question arises in a much
larger scale across the entire society. Not too long ago if someone would ask
what is the relation between personal freedom and religion? The answer was very
clear for almost everyone except for Fundamentalists and that was religion and
personal freedom contradicts each other. It was in fact part of everyone’s
knowledge as the above-mentioned question was answered during a long process of
progress of science since the
My personal
approach is since the answer to the question is obvious; it is up to the
religious groups to prove that the religions are not contradicting personal,
civil, scientific and political freedom. And they are the ones who have to
explain their aggression against human, women, children and civil rights for the
thousands of years. It is time for them to apologize and condemn their act.
To make the
philosophy discussion short, I must say religion has limited my personal freedom
along with millions of other individuals. In fact I should say religion has
destroyed many of individuals’ personal rights and mine too.
In
countries, where religions run the state, the personal freedom has no meaning at
all; the personal freedom of millions are scarified directly by religious rules
and its horrific state system. On one hand the religious state denies the
fundamental rights of woman as an equal citizen and recognizes women as a
second-class citizen, practically women legally have become the men’s slaves in
those countries. Before I explain how the personal freedom being undermined by
religion we need to define the personal freedom first. In this discussion, I
would use Islam as the base of my debate, mainly because I am more familiar with
this religion in theory and in practice and also because Islam has not been
challenged in any aspects. In addition I believe that all other religions would
have similar and common elements.
The first
and the most essential point I would like to discuss are about “personal and
civil freedom”. My attempt is to provide a general definition of these rights.
In my
opinion personal freedom is the one that provides the individuals to grow and
enhance his ability. It also allows him to be distinguished and the same time to
understand its unity with the society. An individual can demonstrate his talent
and it empowers him to shape his destiny, at the same time the personal freedom
is relative and it depends upon the stages of progress in the society.
On other
hand religion basically defines human as being created by super natural power,
where its essence has been ordained by God, as the result human being has no
control over his destiny and has no rights, therefore he is considered to be a
being who is obliged to obey the law of God in order to gain and enjoy his
prosperous in the after life. The
above definition can be explained by the following instances:
·
The first instance is the right to
live and be immune of any violence against body and mind, while in Islam execution,
dismember, bloodshed and even assault on children are acceptable and allowed
which is define as punishment of a crime in relate to blasphemy, rubbery and
permitting marriage to children of 9 years old. As one can clearly see the right
to live, Immunity of body and mind against any violation is simply being
undermined in Islam
·
The unconditional freedom of speech,
expression
and believes are the rights that have never been acknowledged in any
religions, specifically in Islam. The only political party allowed is the party
of God and that is Hezbollah. Any criticism to Islam or the holly book of
Koran is considered heresy and punished by Islamists. Selman Rushdie and Danish
caricaturist have not been forgotten. One does not need to remind you how
Islamists treated Jews and Bahaeis and there is hardly any need to mention about
the atheists. The Islamists ( the political Islam)
saw the seeds of hatred against
other groups. This is because in their view Islam is the last and the most
complete religion in the world. And for the ones who do not intend to convert to
Islam, the least punishment is to pay religious tax. All these violation can be multiplied
when it comes to women and children’s rights in Islam. In Islam the rights to
divorce for women has no meaning, men have the custody of the children. Women
receive half of inheriting compare to men. The witness of two women is
equivalent to one man. Beating women is permitted in Islam. Women will be stoned
to dead if they have relationship out of marriage. In Islam men can have four
wives, and abortion is heavily punished.
·
In the instance of National
sovereignty, Islam only recognizes one nation and that is the nation of
Islam, therefore independency cannot be accepted.
·
In Islam exploitation and
slavery are not being condemned. All Imams and profits had slaves. Child
abuse, child labour and child exploitation is
permitted in Islam.
·
When it comes to music and
entertainment, there are many of restrictions or conditions apply,
specifically where women are involved. Dancing is prohibited. Women involve in
sports is strongly condemned in Islam.
·
Where science and scientific
advancement are concerned a huge conflict arises. The animosity of Islam
with science cannot be exactly portrait, because within last centuries there
were not many frontiers and scientists who brought new idea in science and
advancement in order to see the reaction of Islamic leader. But this is
the nature of all the religions and Islam not to accept any scientific theory.
In this instance Christianity has darker history. Nobody, even the one who did
not study the history knows the fate of Jordano Bruno
and Galilae and the burning of witches.
One can add pages to this list
in such way that at the end we will not see any light to the end of tunnel, as
it was in the dark ages.
But human
being found his way to persuade and guaranty the individual, social and
political freedom. French revolution was one of the greatest and goriest example for people to follow, even in twenty first century
the citizens of many countries are enjoying the fruit of this revolution.
Experience and aftermath of the revolution suggest that we need to have such a
radical progressive movement in order to up root the religious from the
education, justice system and state. This is our task, the task of civilization
to regain personal freedom, peace and comfort. And this cannot be possible
without challenging the religion industries. Freedom seeker and we as a secular
have enormous responsibility to unite and motivate the whole society toward this
goal.