CHAPTER FIVE
REVELATION
Revelation
plays a major role in projecting man as God. It shows how Middle Eastern myths
have been cleverly transformed into elements of the Semitic religions by their
founders.
True Purpose of Revelation
What is revelation? It is a process
of exploiting man's instinctive fear of the supernatural with a view to
establishing one's self as God. In plain language, it means that man is afraid
of the unknown and believes that there is a deity behind every force of nature.
Thus he worships gods out of fear, hoping that they will bestow favours upon
him. Men, infused with high dominance-urge, love to be adored and seek to
replace the mythological figures of gods with their own images through the
process known as revelation. This device needs in-depth investigation and I
shall extend the scope of scrutiny to the Semitic religions, i.e. Judaism,
Christianity and Islam.
Mechanism of Revelation
According to these religions,
revelation means that God chooses a good person as his spokesman, who is charged
with the duty of conveying the divine message to people irrespective of their
reactions and consequences to himself. Such a person, in theory, is God's
servant who has no personal axe to grind in the matter. He is called a
"prophet" or "messenger" and God may communicate with him
directly "as friend to friend", through Gabriel, ecstasies, dreams,
visions or auditions. No matter what medium of communication God may choose, the
fundamental purpose is to establish the absolute sovereignty of God and remind
man that the sole purpose of his existence is to humble himself before Him
through worship.
Some of the revelatory
relationships are exhibited in varying degrees, by the Jewish covenants with
their patriarchs, rabbinic Judaism which came into being during the Babylonian
Exile, Christian belief in the person of Jesus as God's own Son and the ministry
of his apostles, and intercessory powers of Muhammad as the "last"
messenger of God.
Mission of Messiah
Closely connected with prophethood
is the concept of Messiah who comes to restore the faith revealed through
prophets. He appears when the world is in a turmoil owing to the trickery and
tyranny of the infidels, and believers are made to live under conditions of
injustice, poverty and servitude. His mission is to reverse the process by
assuring descent of the infidels and ascent of the believers. The Jews and
Christians dream of the coming of the Messiah and Moslems are awaiting the
appearance of the Mahdi or Imam.
When we look into the device of
revelation it becomes evident that it is a stratagem of the dominant who desire
to command mankind even from their graves and passionately want to be adored and
worshipped. If the reader is prepared to examine the following statements
sincerely and fairly, he/she may have no problem in grasping this conclusion:
Case against revelation
1. God proclaims His laws to
establish His own sovereignty and wants man to obey them to the letter. If man
obeys, he goes to Heaven, otherwise, Hell awaits him with open arms.
a. If God wanted absolute
submission and the purpose of man's creation was to worship Him, He would have
created man according to similar laws that govern the operation of the natural
phenomena.
b. Man's existence is based on Free
Will, the freedom to choose and act. After creating man on this principle, if
God still wants him to adopt robotic behaviour, then God surely does not know
what He is doing, and thus does not deserve to be called God.
Irrelevance of Divine Law
c. God's laws which are eternal and
inflexible, seek to glorify Him instead of solving man's problems. To be able to
serve mankind, law must belong to the present and not to the past. It is for
this reason that every country has a legislative assembly to enact, suspend or
repeal laws to suit national needs.
It is madness to ignore modern
attitudes and insist on obeying the laws which represent ethos of the past
generations going back centuries. Obedience to such laws is simply the
introduction of slavery. In fact, they are no longer practicable because when
they are introduced, it is done by the force of false interpretations which
contradict the original laws. This hypocrisy is exercised to maintain the
sanctity of the divine law because it is the source of dignity, power and wealth
to the members of the priestly classes.
Hell and Heaven versus Free Will
d. Frightening man with Hell and
bribing him with Heaven, is a cheap trick which goes against the grain of
Godhead; it is an exact antithesis of free will.
God versus Man
2. Since the purpose of revelation
is to glorify God, it is an instrument to harass, humiliate and hypnotise man,
and not to elevate him by allowing him to steer his own destiny.
a. It is obvious that revelation is
necessary for God but not for man whose interest is opposed to that of God.
b. Revelation is thought necessary
to defeat or destroy evil.
If God is the creator, then He is
also the creator of evil. Is it not hypocritical of God to warn man of evil
after creating it? Again, there is no evidence that divine laws, prophets or
messiahs, have ever vanquished evil. In fact, each messenger and messiah, by
demanding exclusive submission to himself and denying other gods and gurus has
created further divisions in mankind and thus promoted the cause of evil through
hatred and wars.
Again, is it not crazy that God
creates all sorts of irresistible temptations which mislead man and then wants
him to avoid them? Isn't he playing a vicious game?
Prophet, an irrelevance
3. If the purpose of revelation is
to defeat evil, the person of the medium, i.e. the prophet or messenger, becomes
quite irrelevant. Why?
a. Evil is always here. Its
suppression demands that God must live amongst people permanently in a visible
manner so that they can see Him and seek His advice directly. Again, His
presence is bound to be far more inspiring and decisive to conquer the evil.
b. Once people can see and contact
the Supernatural Being, they are far more likely to follow Him than the evil. On
the contrary, the medium, i.e. the prophet or messenger, is human: he eats,
drinks, answers the call of nature, walks, talks, sleeps, feels happy and sad,
needs sex, falls ill, requires medication and so on. If despite all these facts,
he claims to be divine, then this claim is dubious by its nature, to say the
least. There is no proof that what he says is inspired or commanded by God. If
people don't believe him, it is God's fault because He chose the suspicious and
inferior method of revealing Himself. He must reveal Himself directly, if
revelation has anything to do with Him at all.
Revelation, the Source of
Mischief
4. The more prophets and messengers
God sends, the greater discord He causes amongst people through divisions,
sectarian hatred and the bid for disciples. Thus revelation ceases to be the
divine guidance, and becomes the source of mischief.
a. It is even worse when a prophet
declares that he is the last one and no more prophets will follow him. If he is
needed for the eradication of evil, which is always here, then there is surely
need for prophets all the time. Thus he belittles his own purpose.
b. However, the more important
aspect of the "last prophethood" is that as time moves on, the
teachings of the prophets are subjected to interpretations to elicit the
meanings that are not there. It is done for several reasons: firstly, the
written doctrine or the scripture is not capable of providing guidance for all
occasions and times. Secondly, religion is not only the biggest business on
earth but also the greatest source of power. Therefore, fundamentalists,
especially the religious leaders, resort to all sorts of holy tricks to keep
their faith alive.
Finally, there are individuals in
every religion who are as keen to gain godly stature as were their founders but
lack the courage and ability to set up their own divine shops. Therefore, they
drum up the reverence of the founders out of proportion to give him divine
status and project themselves as his deputies or viceroys. Thus they establish a
similar relationship with their founder as the founder is supposed to have with
God.
Now, it is easy to see that
revelation does not serve its declared purpose because it matters not whether
there are few prophets or many. Neither it makes any difference whether the
sacred teachings are written or oral. Over a period of time, the words of the
scripture may remain exactly the same but their spirit and meanings are grossly
distorted, thus rendering it unfit to guide.
Revelation the source of
misguidance
5. Each revealed religion claims to
be the only true faith and calls other religions false. Out of ten such
religions only one may be true. Since nine are false, the tenth must also be
false.
How can a revealed religion provide
guidance, when it is not possible to choose the true one? It is surely the
source of misguidance.
Revelation and Prophecy
6. Revelation is closely connected
with prophecy which is a form of divination. It is amazing how diviners and
fortune- tellers have always appeased their clients through skillful
presentation and double-edged tongue since inception of time. It is a vice but
made to look a virtue by the play of words versed in the art of deception and
duplicity which tempt the seekers to find in them what is not there.
a. Miracles are also an integral
part of prophecy. These are the fairy tales which are forged by the followers
for giving godly status to the founders of their religion to raise their own
prestige.
Miracles can neither be performed
nor can they have any relevance to the quality of the message or the doctrine.
Look at the modern illusionists who call themselves magicians. How wonderful and
incredible their performances are! Yet their marvellous acts form no part of
piety, but demonstrate a skill in trickery.
b. One should also remember that
prophecy is injurious to the concepts of morality and piety. If it is possible
to tell the future events, say 1000 years, beforehand, then everything is
determined, and there is no need for people to struggle for piety or listen to
revelation.
True purpose of Revelation
7. The true purpose of revelation
ought to be the elevation of man. But this is not the case because it promotes
the cause of God who seeks to subdue man through threats of torture and
temptations of treats. The God who desires self - promotion at the expense of
human dignity is neither beneficent nor creator, nor all-powerful.
a. Maybe it is not God who resorts
to such devices. It is more likely the person of the revelationist, i.e. the
prophet who seeks self-adoration. Why? Because God seems to be his prisoner who
is obliged to address people through him. Since God cannot be seen or contacted,
and He is nothing more than what the prophet presents Him to be, it is the word
of the prophet that becomes all-important and all powerful. It is not suprising
that in all "revealed" religions, believers show more respect to the
prophet than to God.
By choosing a man to be His
prophet, God invites him to participate in Godhead because the person of the
prophet becomes indistinguishable from the person of God. This certainly
demolishes the concept of monotheism.
Bigotry and Revelation
8. The revelationist must address
the whole of mankind and show concern for everyone. But this is not the case:
the Jewish God, despite claiming to be the creator of mankind, is infatuated
with the Jews only; the Christian God is determined to bless the believer and
blight disbelievers and the Islamic God hates the infidels.
Revelation versus progress
9. Revelation is the recipe not
only for bigotry, barbarity and sectarian hatred, but also for regression,
primitiveness and superstition. This fact emerges clearly when we consider the
attitudes of the religious authorities towards scientists and inventors. The
treatment of Galileo is an example in point, and brilliant men, like Newton and
Einstein who did not believe in the logical conclusions of their own
deliberations and discoveries, explain the superstitious effects of revelation.
The modern progress which vouches for the eminence of man, came into being as a
revolt against revelation.
a. Again, revelation is not the
least concerned with the welfare of mankind. Has God ever revealed the cure for
Smallpox, Cancer or AIDS? It is man himself who has to find the ways for his
survival. He is capable of discovering the path of eternity as surely as he
promotes his secular longevity.
Revelation and ignorance of
human problems
10. Revelation, to be genuine, must
concentrate on the main human problems such as:
a. Slavery, and
b. parity of the sexes.
Quite to the contrary, the
Christian Church sanctioned slavery as the Will of God. Neither Moses nor
Muhammad abolished it. Worse still, these revealed religions subjugated woman to
the iron will of man.
Revelation is the tool of
viceroyalty, that is, though the revelationist seeks divinity for himself, he
claims to be the servant or lieutenant of God who is the Supreme Being. Since
all Semitic religions are founded on the concept of a Creator God, one is
inclined to speculate if the existence of such a deity is possible. The more one
thinks about this postulate the less convincing it becomes. Why?
IS THERE A CREATOR GOD?
Creator God is not a possibility
1. It is irrational to think of a
Creator God in the beginning of the universe because God is considered to be
perfect in skill, power and wisdom but we know that everything comes into
being on the principle of "simple to complex", "elementary to
elaborate" and "imperfect to perfect".
a. The idea of perfection
automatically raises another issue: the perfect God must have been created by
yet another Creator who is even superior to the Creator God.
b. Reason cannot admit the
existence of a Creator God; such an admission can be made only on the grounds of
faith which is not a guide but a shield. The function of a guide is to lead out
of a dilemma, provide release and vision whereas a shield is protection against
immediate injury but at the expense of a genuine solution and opens the door to
eventual despair, derision and devastation.
Composition and Godhead
2. Any system or being is composed
of individual parts. God is a being and, therefore, must have constituent parts.
These parts must have existed before He assumed His final shape. He could not
have existed as perfect right from the beginning nor could He have been the
Creator because He Himself needed composition.
a. In this respect, one should
remember that all Semitic religions speak of a physical God: Jews had seen Yahwe
who conversed with Moses like a friend; Jesus was the God incarnate, and Allah,
the Islamic God, sits on the throne and is carried by angels. A physical God is
surely a composition like all other physical entities.
Universal law versus Creator God
3. The physical study of the
universe shows its subjection to the fundamental laws and not to the will or
caprice of a Creator.
Creator God and incompetence
4. The Creator God is responsible
for all the doom and destruction, despair and disease, gloom and grievance,
treason and trickery, mutilation and murder, theft and thuggery, rape and
racism. All these vices must originate from his design and constitute the proof
of His incompetence and imperfection.
Creator God and purpose
5. If there is a Creator God, then
the creation must have a purpose. It is not possible to assess the divine
purpose with certainty:
a. Some say that it is the union of
man with God. No two distinct entities can be merged together. Merger is
possible only if they both are of the same essence. If this were the case, they
would be one and the same thing, and thus could not have separated in the first
place. Therefore creation could not have materialised.
b. Some say that God has created
man to worship Him: the obedient shall be offered the pleasures of paradise, but
the disobedient shall roast in the inferno.
Far from being divine, such a God
does not qualify even for the merits of ordinary humans. This system of reward
and punishment is unjust and arbitrary because it is He who made people what
they are.
However, this cannot be the purpose
of creation because man is endowed with free will which is the power to choose
or refuse, and thus implies an inherent contradiction in the concept of
creation.
c. The purpose that the universe
may have is tantamount to the divine desire which must take precedence over
everything else. Much as the priests would have liked us believe in the
compassion, wisdom and caring nature of God, He turns out to be extremely
selfish and self-centred because His ultimate aim is the fulfillment of His own
desire and not the welfare of man.
Creator God versus perfection
6. All Semitic religions ascribe
such attributes to God which are of human origin; He is subject to spasms of
dole and delight, feels murderous and merciful, condemns the foe and commends
the friend, indulges in love and hatred and expresses the nice and nasty sides
of His disposition.
The God that is an aggregate of
opposite properties and is so easily excited, lacks the stability, composure and
wisdom to rank as the Creator or the Perfect. He is nothing but a flight of the
human imagination.
Creator God, the tool of
revelationists
7. Unless God is the tool of
dominance for the revelationist, He cannot confine His disclosure to the agency
of a particular person who is subject to all human frailties. He must reveal
Himself to everyone individually and openly if the purpose of revelation is the
good of mankind and not the revelationist.
Creator God is not Almighty
8. To be the Creator, God has to be
Almighty. Can He kill himself? Can He do without this universe? Obviously, He
cannot because if He could, He wouldn't have created the universe. If He did so
unnecessarily, then all that this universe contains is futile and God loves to
play a fool's game. No fool can ever be AllPowerful and All-Wise. This world is
too wonderful to be within His creative ability.
Creation as compulsion
9. If this cosmos is a creation,
then creating is God's greatest passion and thus, creativity begins to rank as a
compulsion which lacks will, wisdom and planning. It is like being used to
narcotics which the addict must consume to survive.
God cannot be absolute
10. God is a being. Therefore, He
is subject to the conditions of His environment, and cannot be absolute and
all-powerful. If He is not a being, He does not exist because whatever exists
must have a body of some kind, no matter how rare.
Having delved into the Semitic
mythology, I shall examine in the next book the Semitic religions i.e. Judaism,
Christianity and Islam for establishing the premises enunciated in Book One.
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