RELIGION IN THE TIME OF UNCERTAINTIES

In times of uncertainty, people often gravitate towards nationalism and religion to find meaning and stability. This is evident in recent US elections and the rise of strong leaders globally. The role of religion and nationalism in unifying societies, even in the face of challenges to traditional beliefs, is explored.

- C P SURENDRAN

few months ago, Elon Musk said 'woke' was a virus and he would not rest till he destroyed it. Apart from other motivations, he said he 'lost' his young son to the left as the progressive establishment wholeheartedly assisted the boy's irrevocable transition to become a girl.

What must a father or mother do when they lose the right to protect their children from what they consider legitimate personal choices when the wards are legally minors? The problem is not personal. It is cultural, social and political. When does a child's individual preference get precedence over a well-meaning and god-fearing family's rights?

Except there is no god; the family, too, is a disintegrating unit in the West. In The God Delusion (2006), Richard Dawkins critiques the idea of a supernatural deity and argues against the 'god hypothesis'. He contrasts a creator-designed world with a naturalistic worldview, where the universe is governed solely by physical laws.

Dawkins is not the first to challenge the idea of a creator. Since the 1850s, when Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species, the idea of god has been on a shaky ground. But at no point in history has he/she been more challenged. Secularism, a kind of deification of the human, has taken centre stage.

Humanity's move from divine right to human rights and the individual's central role in the universe seems to be a second stage of the Renaissance. But if neither god, king, priest, mother or father are acceptable as figures of authority, how does that crowded absence impact society? Remember, these are the days when the very idea of the hero is dead. Can secularism fill the void? Not too well, it turns out.