Let’s continue the story from where we had left off, if you have missed the first and second part, I would recommend you to first check those out and then come back here to read the part 3:

Teacher: Good morning students!

Students: Good morning teacher!

Teacher: Let’s begin with where we had ended in the last lecture. Jimit had asked us about the fake babas and gurus.

Jimit: Yes, I am of the opinion that paap, punya, heaven and hell are misused by these babas to fool innocent people. I am strongly against that. We’ve seen so many cases where these babas have almost a cult like following and support from the people. They have connections with big politicians, they commit crimes and never get caught. How would you defend that? You have to agree that the root cause for all of this is religion.

Teacher: Good point Jimit! I will come to that point in a second. Before that, you answer me a few questions.
Since you are obviously anti-religion here, it is safe to assume that you are a believer in science. You believe that everything that exists, everything that is discovered or will be discovered, everything that is invented has a logical explanation that science will one day figure out. There are no questions that science cannot answer, given enough time. Am I correct?

Jimit: Yes, absolutely!

Teacher: Do you believe that science, scientific and technological progress is a boon to the society?

Jimit: Yes.

Teacher: Good. Now how many of you know about Alfred Nobel?

Rajat: He is the person whom the Nobel prize is named after.

Teacher: Yes. Do you know the story of the dynamite and Alfred Nobel?

Rajat: Yes, he was the inventor of dynamite and he once read in the newspaper that ‘Alfred Nobel dies because of his own invention’, he was very disturbed by the fact that dynamite is being used for war. People hated him, so he added the Nobel peace prize in his will, so people remember him for the good and not the bad.

Teacher: Did Alfred Nobel think of this application of the dynamite while inventing it?

Rajat: No.

Teacher: Good. Now Jimit, answer few more simple questions, do you have a knife at your home?

Jimit: Yes.

Teacher: What do you use it for?

Jimit: To cut vegetables.

Teacher: Can it be used to hurt someone?

Jimit: Yes.

Teacher: Does that mean we stop using the knife?

Jimit: No.

Teacher: Similarly, is science good? Yes. Can science be misused? Yes. All the modern weapons are a scientific invention. They are used for war. They are used to kill innocent people by terrorists. The vehicles, factories, machines, etc. we see around us is all originated from some or the other scientific invention. All of them harm the environment. Does that mean we stop all scientific research? No.
Science, just like that knife in your house is just a tool, what matters is the way it is used. If one particular use case of that tool is not good, that does not mean that the tool is bad.
Don’t you feel that it is the same for religion as well? In the case of fake babas, it isn’t even misuse of religion, it is straight up wrong, it is not even religion. But since they do it in the name of religion, the tool, religion is blamed.

Jimit: But that’s not always the case. Some of the rules that these religions preach, are just wrong. For example, the “sati” practice that was followed earlier where when husband dies, wife has to jump into the flames of the husband’s cremation.
There are many examples of such rules that are harmful at best, fatal even, at times. If religion is so ideal, how can these things exist in religion?

Teacher: Absolutely agree! Great point! Here’s the problem with theists. Practices like “sati” are obviously bad. Any logical person would agree with that. There are many such practices prevalent in modern day as well, where people do things that are unfathomable in the name of religion. People believe in a lot of things that obviously should not exist. For the theists in the class, if there is something obviously wrong, you should not follow it blindly. It is really important to ask the right questions to the right people.
Here’s the problem with religion. Long time back when many of the religions were made, all the communication was oral, there were very less written books or scriptures that describe these religions. Anyone who has played the game ‘Chinese whisper’ or ’telephone’, knows that the messages that are passed orally get distorted so easily. Even if it does not get distorted, the person who is listening to the religious preachings might have a different opinion about the same and he goes on to preach his own opinion. Some of the religious preachings we hear today are distorted long back, some of them are lost, some of them might be logical but we don’t have reasons for them.
So what is the solution to this? Logical reasoning and asking the right questions as I said earlier. You ask the questions to right people, if you are satisfied with the answer you get, follow it, if you are not, don’t follow it.
It is important to understand that paap and punya are not absolute rules, but guidelines.

Rajat: Great point! I had another question, I have never understood why we have to follow the stupid rituals in religion. Why are people so obsessed with these rituals?

(Bell rings)

Teacher: I will surely answer this question too in the next lecture! Thankyou everyone!

So that was part 3 of this series, hope you enjoyed it, do check out part-4 as well!