3. TYPES OF RELIGION

 

The word religion is used normally without distinction as to truth, goodness, or usefulness. It is also used without distinguishing different levels of comprehensiveness and systematisation. It is variously applied to organisations, communities, social behaviour, seldom to psychological states. Here we use the word to mean principles which govern thought, feeling as well as action.

The Word ‘Religion” may be used in three senses:-

1. As already discussed it refers to binding back to ones source.

2. In so far as man has consciousness and thinks, he needs a frame of reference to interpret and make sense of life and the world he lives in. This is generally called a philosophy of life. The purposes of his actions and the way he arranges life for himself depends on this.

3. A person, usually the majority, may have no conscious systematised way of living or dealing with the world and their fellows, and yet there is a certain attitude to the world and style to life in general. This system, though held sub-consciously, obtained accidentally and never formulated in words, can also be called a religion.

 

The religion a person actually has is usually a combination of these in various proportions. There are no human beings who do not have some kind of religion. The rejection of one religion, therefore, always implies the acceptance of another from the point of view of which the rejection has been justified. Whatever a person may profess or reject, the fact remains that there are certain tacit unconscious assumptions on which their life is based. There are of course, causes for it, but it has not been deliberately thought through by them. They live by certain attitudes and values derived from their social and cultural environment which has been conditioned into them.

 

Several levels of Religion can be distinguished:-

1, Religions which depend on gnosis or awareness. These are not organised. The Saints and Prophets belong to this group. Since some of these are the founders of the genuine religions they cannot be said to belong to any particular religion. We may call them Meta-religions.

2, Religions which deal with ultimate and comprehensive principles and were taught deliberately by a conscious Prophet or Teacher. Genuine Religions. Three degrees should be distinguished here:-

(a) Religion meant for a select group of disciples who devote their lives to the Religion.

(b) Religion meant for a larger community consisting of rules for living.

(c) Religion meant for the rest of humanity. General influences.

Man is a wholeness having three inter-related aspects, namely, intellect, feeling and action. These correspond to the impulses of faith, love and hope and to the psychological, social and physical. and to consciousness, conscience and will. There are, therefore, three different approaches and a fourth which combines them. Some Religions place emphasis on hope, action, ritual etc such as Hebrewism; some, like Christianity, on love and social relations, and some like Buddhism, on meditation, inner knowledge and thought. Islam combines them. 

3. Popular, socialised and organised Religions which are derived from the genuine religions, but have undergone misinterpretations, elaboration and modification. They have fallen into sects because of the diversity of elaboration, simplification, bias and the different interpretations of lesser men. In particular an imbalance has been created because each interpretation constitutes a narrowing down of religion to merely a few aspects of the total.  

4., Religions which are wholly man-made. They have been created by people on the basis of their experience and thoughts to various degrees of systematisation. They suffer from the limitations of their founders, and are usually based on partial truths and particular points of view. They have arisen because of the particular conditions of life in a particular place or time. They are this-worldly. Pseudo-religions.

5. Pagan Religions based on the worship of the Sun, earth, moon, other Cosmic bodies and nature. These may be symbolised in images and idols. They fail to reach the ultimate unity, hold people down to a lower restricted level. The idol stimulates the imagination and restricts their development.

6., Primitive religions which are based on the worship of spirits, gods and goddesses of various kinds. These may be regarded as a worship of what the higher religions call angels. They also lead to the construction of idols.

 

New Pagan religions have become very popular in the West in recent years owing to the Femininist movement which requires a transcendental justification which they find in the concept of Goddesses. However, they are based on several misunderstandings. These are:-

(1) These religions are already popularized corrupted forms of ancient religions such as those which existed in Ancient Egypt, India and China. The myths and symbols have been taken literally. These gods and goddesses are symbols taken from ideas about men and women and not the other way round. Masculinity and femininity refer to the positive and negative aspects of things and have a symbolic meaning which is wider than human sexuality.

(2) There is usually no ethical teachings behind them, no notion of human development or striving for an ultimate unity.

(3) They are man made, that is, they are based on modern interpretations of ancient ideas which were understood quite differently in the past. The doctrines and practices are out of context with modern life and thinking. The result is contradiction and tension not harmony and development.

(4) They are syncretic in that they put together only selected ideas and practices borrowed from a number of different sources according to whims and prejudices. It remains superficial and destroys the context and unity of the originals without creating a new harmonious unity. This cannot have an integrating effect on the psyche.

(5) They are associated with Witchcraft, Voodoo and other occult or paranormal practices where the subjective desires of the individual are to be achieved through psychological techniques, without the use of normal physical means, without the restrictions of a moral system and without considering the overall picture. The temptation for those acquiring such powers is to use it malevolently. This desire, even if benevolent, produces disorder and is harmful to the individual and the society. The higher religions on the other hand require a person to align himself with the will of God.

(6) In general the Cosmology they are based on and convey tends to be imaginary. The techniques of meditation, for instance, are designed to explore the unconscious and sub-conscious minds and dream states as a method of self-knowledge. This allows the imagination to invest various psychological mechanisms with shape and life which produces experiences of spirits, demons and the other mythical entities. No distinction is made between the healthy and the neurotic and psychotic mind, and they have no method of removing the defects. This makes them rather dangerous. It is true that the unconscious mind contains racial and evolutionary memories, is sensitive to the subtle forces and processes of the Universe, and its capacity for processing this data is much greater than that of the restricted conscious mind. But no differentiation is made between the real and the imaginary, the objective and the subjective, the healthy and the diseased. The gods and goddesses tend to be personifications of masculine and feminine principles within the person, and this sets a limit to their development.

(7) Pagan religions belong to the past and were adapted to conditions in the past, degenerated and were replaced. Religion has developed since then, and it is necessary to look forward. The followers of the pagan religions have not understood why Abraham and others broke idols, and why Moses though he knew the Egyptian religion found it necessary to replace it, and why Buddha, Jesus and Muhammad also found it necessary to reform the religions they found around them.

 

7. The worship of persons, prophet, king or priest to whom the teachings, civilisation or culture is attributed. Some of these are considered to have descended from heaven.

8. Religions based on what were originally philosophies such as Confucianism and Taoism.

9. Perverse religions. These consist of the worship of Satan and other demons. Things like Witchcraft and Voodoo and Human sacrifices belong to this group. They may be considered to be the worship of Jinn or the results of the perversions caused by them.

10. Occult religions such as those based on the Kabalah, Theosophy and other mystical systems. There are secret societies such as the Rosicrucians and Masons. The Illuminati and the Assassins seem to be off shoots of these.

11. Cults. Various man made adaptations based on the combination, re-formulation and alteration of doctrines and practices borrowed from other religion. A number of religions are Syncretic either because of historical accident or by deliberate intention. Christianity is an example and so is Shintoism. There are innumerable new cults connected with spacemen, other planets, astral travel. Spiritualism and Scientology are also examples.

12. Irreligion. This consists of deliberately ignoring or rejecting all religions. But this makes it into a form of religion since it is an attitude to life and reality. It may consist of the worship of Science.

Most of these can be subdivided into types corresponding to each separate faculty - a religion of action, a religion of feelings and a religion of thought. There are those to whom religion means rituals, others to whom it means charitable works and those to whom it is Theology and study.

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According to the Quran, having lost contact with an inner source of enlightenment due to the Fall, which made them prone to superstition and corruption, mankind was to be guided by enlightened Prophets. Adam was the first Prophet. The implication is that mankind was guided by genuine religions from the very beginning when he first became conscious, and a distinction arose between the conscious and unconscious mind. The religions of the other groups may thus be seen as corrupted or degenerate forms of, or substitutes for, the higher religions. The higher religions belonging to group 2 came to replace those of the other groups. Abraham found it necessary to break idols; Moses had to replace the Egyptian religion, Buddha needed to reform the Hindu religion, Jesus the Hebrew religion and Muhammad the Christian. Some of these older obsolete religions, including Paganism, are even now making a come back in the West.

All genuine religions have undergone degeneration. The older they are the greater the degeneration, though some reformation has also taken place from time to time. They have been used to control the population for the benefit of commercial and political interests or by the religious organisations themselves to exploit the people to enhance their own wealth, power and prestige. Doctrines and practices were invented specially for this purpose. Some of these organisations were able to justify, encourage or conceal the most awful corruption and barbarity, including torture, murder, mutilation, intrigue, adultery, rape, infanticide, bribery, deception, lies and so on.

They have been altered through misinterpretation, misapplication, formalization, reductionism and the invention of mythologies. Instead of following the teachings, people have formed sentimental attachment to the person of the teacher, the scriptures, the occasions, or to the emblems and symbols of religion. Dogmatisation, ritualisation and institutionalisation is common. Doctrines have often been converted into superstitions. The organisations have become elaborate and self-perpetuating. The ceremonies often appear to have more to do with theatre than religion. Some have reduced religion to intellectual exercises through complex and abstract theologies, while others have used it as means for the display or discharge of bizarre emotionalism. The vessel has been elaborately decorated, but there is no wine in it. It would be difficult to convince people that there is nothing spiritual about this and they may be in the hands of Satan.

 Forms of Hinduism and Buddhism are also becoming popular in the West. But these, as projected in the West do not resemble the religion as practised by their adherents in their native lands. They have been reduced, there, to superstition and idolatry. There is no accurate written record of what their founders originally taught, or these have been swamped by numerous naive commentaries. There are still those who read or recite their scriptures without understanding a word of it, particularly if it is in a language different from their own. There are, however, sufficient indications that they were similar to the teachings of Islam provided the need for adaptation for different people and circumstances is kept in mind.

 

Nevertheless, despite the corruption, certain social functions are still performed by some of these religions. They offer comfort in times of stress, and to the oppressed and the suffering. They are responsible for charities and even some selfless voluntary work. They still uphold some semblance of morality, prick the conscience, and provide an opposition to would-be oppressors and extremists. Above all they remain as reminders to mankind that there exist higher values and states of being than those which are current. It is, therefore, still possible for the occasional person to seek and find a doorway out of the prison. Quite often the simple believer, who practices his religion seriously though naively, is a far better person and benefits much more from it, than he who is intellectually much more sophisticated, but for whom religion is merely an idea or something to be talked about. Saints or saint-like persons also arise in many different religions from time to time.

The organised religions have not kept up to date with the advances in science, education, technology and organisation and changes in language. They continue to use the same old formulae which have ceased to be stimulating. Many people, do not understand them, have become bewildered by the different claims made by different religions, and have lost faith in the ability of verbal systems to lead to truth.

The result has been the abandonment of orthodox religions. And yet people feel empty, and need a purpose in life. In particular, owing to the drabness, tediousness and tensions of life, and the need for proof in a rational age, they are seeking experiences rather than mere dogma, ritual or institutions. People are experimenting to find some substitute. There is little wonder, therefore, that the older religions are returning and new forms are being invented. However, though it is perfectly true that genuine religions are concerned with things deeper than mere dogma and ritual, they are also concerned with things deeper than mere experience. They are concerned with the state of being.

 Secondly, the motives that these people have are suspect. In many cases it is merely a question of escapism or excitement seeking, relief of tension, or it is an ego-boosting exercise. It makes them feel superior to say that they are motivated by higher aims. Sometimes it is a question of finding a group with which they can identify themselves for companionship and security in the face of a hostile world. Such people tend either to follow some guru, or priest or other hero-figure, who takes up the role of teacher and guide. In the West they often come from the East, particularly India or Japan, or claim to teach eastern or ancient spiritual systems. Sometimes they create their own system of ideas and practices, borrowing a little from here and a little from there and inventing other features. There are many so called revivalist groups, and many ancient systems and cults have been resurrected. Needless to say they do not possess sufficient knowledge or personal development to know what is true or useful. It may well be that some genuine gurus have arrived to teach them from the East, but demand always creates a supply, and there are many charlatans who are quick to take advantage. The ordinary man would not know the difference. The adoration of the followers itself creates charlatans. The main feature of these cults is that the people join them for confirmation of their prejudices and desires rather than for transformation. This can have no results.

 Pseudo-religions are man-made and worldly in the sense that they derive from the lower mind rather than being inspirations from the higher conscious mind. The terms “heaven” and “earth” may be understood as referring to this difference. They consist of all kinds of “isms”. A truth can be divided into several parts or aspects. When people take one part, as is usually the case, and elevate it to the position of the whole truth, then this constitutes a form of Idolatry. The Pseudo-religions, cults and sects arise from this tendency. There are a number of Ideologies, often political in nature, which may deny that they are religious, and may even consider themselves to be anti-religious, but in essence they are pseudo-religions designed to be substitutes for genuine religions.

Two rival systems dominate the world today and need to be considered in order to compare them with Islam. They are the American and the Socialist, Communism being a more systematised form of the latter.

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Pseudo-Religions

 

Soon after the coming of Christianity, the Roman Empire was beginning to disintegrate and collapse. The Emperor Constantine needed a way of holding the empire together and make it governable. Christianity afforded him an opportunity to do this. Christianity was, therefore, established as the official religion of the Roman Empire. In order to be effective, however, rationalization and a uniformity of doctrine had to be achieved, it had to be adapted to the understanding of the majority of people, and it had to be in the interest of the State and those who controlled it. This involved a process of selection and interpretation from among the diverse doctrines and teachings. The Church became a powerful organized secular authority with its own hierarchy. Personal responsibility and diversity of views according to the nature, understanding and development of the individual was sacrificed to standardization and the rule of religious authorities. The Church monopolized thought and guarded it jealously. All independent thinking and acceptance or conversion to alien system of thought was regarded as a threat and was opposed through military, political, and commercial means. All this had several consequences:-

1. As this created a particular viewpoint, it inevitably excluded all other view points. The seeds of conflict were laid down. The organized Christian Church sought, acquired and jealously guarded its political power, wealth, prestige and privileges and was transformed and corrupted by it. Political and commercial expediency and the need for expansion and self-perpetuation, rather than truth or virtue soon became the dominating considerations. Owing to a missionary spirit, Christianity began to spread rapidly and began to practice war and persecution against all other religions and sects and what it considered to be heresies. Science was persecuted, and even the translation and distribution of the Bible in native languages was repressed. Ideological independence was impossible without political and commercial independence and vice versa.

2. The political and commercial ambitions of various groups required independence from the Church. This led to the formation of separate nations and the eventual weakening of the power of the Church.

3. The Christian Church itself became divided into an Eastern and a Western authority, the Orthodox and the Catholic. Later it divided into many other sects, each of which insisted on a uniformity of dogma and practice. There were bloody wars and mutual persecution.

4. As Christianity had become corrupted, Islam came to rectify religion, spread rapidly and introduced new ideas. But though Islam was tolerant towards Christianity, the Christian Church mounted several crusades against it. Yet despite these, and even because of them, ideas and other influences from Islam continued to enter Europe, particularly through Spain. Islam, however degenerated, and its political expansion was eventually stopped by Christian victories and the onslaught of the Mongols . However the new ideas and influences stimulated an age of learning, commerce and exploration in Europe which also led to the Reformation of Christianity, the rise of the Protestant Churches, the discovery of new lands and the development of the sciences.

5. The Christian Church came into conflict with the newly emerging political, commercial powers, and also with the Sciences, probably because of its opposition to Islamic influences. Eventually a compromise was reached. Released from the domination of the Church and its dogmas, these secular movements became free to develop by concentrating their attention on the material world and excluding moral considerations while the Church claimed full authority over the spiritual life and  became monastic and wholly other worldly in doctrine. A dichotomy arose between the religious and the secular, the spiritual and the physical, values and facts, both in thought and practice. Each required the rejection of, and opposition to, the other. The Church required people to tolerate and bear the poverty, injustice and suffering in this world in order to reap a reward in the other world. Thus leaving the authority of those who had worldly power and wealth in tact, and allowing them the freedom to do as they liked without opposition. The Church allied itself with the political and commercial interests or was forced to concentrate its attention, interest and activities on such interests in order to preserve itself against its rivals. No doubt the order so produced allowed the development of industry, technology and political organization.

6. When America was discovered it was soon seen as a haven for those who needed to escape from religious, political and commercial persecution. Were it not for America the mental and ideological development of the world would have been quite different. The freedom of thought, from old conventions and habits, and the mixture of peoples of different cultures and temperaments, the new conditions of life which offered new challenges, the existence of enormous resources and vast spaces, created a new mental climate and great opportunities. The main effect of the independence of the U.S.A was the introduction of the ‘Age of the Common Man’, the people having escaped from the dominance of the old aristocracy and other authorities which owing to their power had become arrogant, oppressive and corrupt. This showed itself in the economy which began to cater for the needs of the people, as well as in the political and cultural fields. It released their energies and talents and allowed greater self-fulfillment. The arts and crafts, in the old world, catered mostly for a small market, the Aristocracy. But owing to the abundance of resources, vast spaces and the relatively small population in the new world, almost everyone was richer. The riches of America and other lands attracted trade. The increase in the size of the market, encouraged the development of Capitalism, mechanization, the Industrial Revolution and mass production. It encouraged the application of science, and therefore, education and research. Whereas in the past science was, for most people, a curiosity and for the enthusiasts a means of understanding the world, it became in America a means for technology and profit. Most of the inventions responsible for the modern world were done in the U.S.A. It also encouraged the development of freedom and Democracy. Many new possibilities opened out which existed nowhere except to a lesser extent in Australia, and many experiments in living could be conducted. However, it became evident to many that the new rich lacked the breeding and culture found in the old aristocracy and middle classes. Behaviour became cruder and less controlled, though also less artificial and hypocritical.

Immigration to America relieved the congestion and population pressure in Europe and this together with the vastly increased opportunities of trade re-invigorated Europe also. The U.S.A carried the hopes of many people and became an ideal for them, and this too affected the economics, politics and culture in Europe. The natural wealth and freedom offered by the new land attracted many enterprising people as well as the best brains from countries where congestion, convention and power structures had obstructed their energies and creativity. Numerous new religious sects and cults arose. But it was not only (1) religious groups who went there but also (2) criminals and offenders were banished or attracted (3) the poor came seeking opportunity and fortune, (4) entrepreneurs, businessmen, adventurers and those who had political ambitions arrived, (5) intellectuals, professionals and scientists came because of better salaries and opportunities to develop their interests, (6) slaves were captured and imported from Africa, and (7) labour forces were imported from China, Ireland and other countries to build the railways and other projects. All these contributed to the character and culture of the U.S.A. There arose a new frontier spirit which required independence, individualism, initiative, enterprise, versatility, improvisation, self-reliance and freedom from convention. Invention, mechanization and trade were essential where the population was small and resources vast. The mixing of peoples from so many different cultures and genetic constitutions increased the vigour of the people and stimulated new combinations and synthesis of ideas.

 

7. The population, however, grew and expanded and soon the space began to run out, and pressure on resources increased. Organization became more important, people once again became more and more inter-dependant and pressure for conformity was re-established. A new upper class of rich Capitalist arose and began to dominate affairs. The conditions of their past life jelled into an ideology which began to grip their minds. It has an inertia of its own despite the continuously changing circumstances. The U.S.A became the most powerful nation in the world. It dominates the world economically, politically as well as culturally. All European nations imitate it and its values also affect people in the rest of the world.

1. Secularism

America, because of the advantages mentioned above, was the land of opportunity and freedom from religious, political and commercial repression. A great mixing of ideas, cultures and talents took place. When, therefore, a nation was to be created, this diversity had to be taken into consideration. Religious, political and commercial freedom had to be incorporated. A separation between established religions and the State was necessary. And yet, in order to keep the nation together, there had to be some kind of ideological basis for it. The American Way has replaced the old religions or adapted and incorporated them. Religion, and, therefore, the soul, the inner life and the question of life after death, morality and values became personal matters. The new ideology, Secularism, concerned itself with the nation, with the external, social and material life. Their system is based on this world and this life. The aim is to establish heaven on earth. No doubt some aspects of Christian theology helped in this aim.

The vast territory and the relatively sparse population isolated people and made them independent and self-reliant. The conditions for Democracy were, therefore, inherent in the situation. The horse for transportation and the invention of the hand gun was an important contributory factor. The gun is a source of power in two ways: The individual can impose his will on others, and he can prevent others from imposing their will on him. It can be used for offence or defense. It is the gun which settles any argument or dispute in a practical, swift and decisive manner, and established rights. In Europe the availability of the gun was strictly controlled by those who possessed the power and wealth and by governments. In the U.S.A all had the right to it since it was necessary for self-defense. It is by means of the gun that they subdued nature, the native Indians, overthrew their British and other masters, and brought order out of chaos. However, those who had accumulated wealth, individuals, groups and organizations and governments could purchase the services of gunmen, and though this brought a kind of order it also brought about injustices and inequalities. The gun mentality still dominates individual and political thinking in the U.S.A and accounts for the resources invested in Military development and their military power. It also accounts for the fact that more than 100 times more people are killed by the gun in the U.S.A than anywhere else.

 Secularism was first systematized in the U.S.A, and assumed the status of a religion in its own right. It became the fastest spreading religion. mainly owing to the fact that America, because of its prosperity and power, exports it through its technology, the cinema, television and through commercial as well as political pressures. It became an ideal for many nations. We, therefore, use the American Ideology only as an example of tendencies prevalent in the whole Western, and progressively in the rest of the World. Most people have the desire for wealth, power, fame, freedom and pleasure. It is in the United States that the opportunity to fulfill these desires exists to the greatest extent. The following description of their value system may, on the surface, appear naive and will no doubt be denied by those conditioned by it, but we are not concerned here with all aspects of American life, but mainly with that connected with secularism. Nor is it a criticism of the U.S.A in particular since the same tendencies can be found among all other people to various extents, but lack of opportunity has prevented the same kind of development.  It is, with respect to the present development of man, the most successful way of life. But, as will be shown, it also has powerful tendencies to arrests further development, and to reverse them. The purpose of this description is to show how it contrasts with the religious ideals, and how the difference affects the human condition and development.

The tenets of this religion are something as follows:-

1. Assumptions:-

(a) The world is material and mechanical in nature, devoid of intelligence. Though a distinction is made between the observing consciousness and the thing observed, the former is regarded as an effect not having any independent reality. That which is not available to the senses directly or indirectly is not real.

(b) Man is the highest intelligence which has arisen in the world. He has the capacity to see the real world. Or conversely, that which man sees is defined as real.

(c) Only arbitrary human purposes have value. All things are and should be subject to and exploited by him.

2. Externalism:-

(a) Only the senses provide knowledge as well as pleasure. The senses should be cultivated and its pleasures sought.

(b) Only material objects seen through the senses are real. The world is a collection of interacting objects. The society, for instance, is a collection of individuals. The whole has no reality apart from the parts. Thus only physical individuals matter.

(c) Since things are dead and inert, all changes depend on external forces acting upon things. Therefore, it is only external phenomena which matter and only external force can be and should be used to manipulate all things including human beings for ones advantage.

(d) All objects are limited by time and space. They arise, change and disintegrate. Therefore, only the present moment is real. Only the present interest of the individual has significance.

 

3. All organisms, including man have a desire for self-preservation, personal advantage and pleasure. Hence a struggle for existence, a competition arises. Those who have the greatest abilities or environmental advantages and use them prosper. This view has three results:-

(a) That every individual must have the right and freedom to pursue his own self-interest, prejudices and ambitions no matter how delusional or what means or effects this has on others, themselves or the environment, that this is identified with material advantages, and it is always external in nature. Individualism is encouraged. Though this produces variety and creativity, it also produces an undisciplined society. If then something needs to be done in the common interest of all in the community, it is necessary to use external methods of coercion, manipulation and organisation, and matters must be so arranged that the provision of these services becomes the interest of the individuals who provide it. The businessman and industrialist must profit from it, the politician must depend on election by the people, and those concerned with the culture and ideas, the scientists and artists must gain prestige or some other advantages. The workers must be organised into hierarchies such that their promotion is dependant on satisfying the aims of whoever controls the organisation.

(b) It is an advantage to increase ones own abilities through training and education, but also through forms of organisation, propaganda and manipulation of information, and control over materials and resources. Hence property rights. It is also an advantage to diminish the advantages of others by all means available, and exploit and use them for ones own advantages.

(c) Since no intelligent God is recognised and all advantages are connected with the power of money to control both resources and men who depend on them, then Money is God, and this is supported by the trinity of Science, Technology and Organisation. Not mankind, but the Nation has become the World.

 

4, Values:-

(a) Since there is only one life on earth, the pursuit of wealth, power, prestige and pleasure are the only worth while aims. Greed, lust, fear, aggression, obsession and ambition, things which in the revealed religions were considered vices become virtues. Morality simply means Efficiency.

(b) The notion of Progress has replaced that of human Development. Progress merely implies the increase in physical and environmental advantages. Utopia is to be built in this World. Success means achieving material dominance.

(c) Psychological and social welfare is to be sacrificed to physical advantages.

 

The attitude to life becomes something like this: -

A person is born into this world and has a single life. He, therefore, has the right to maximize his enjoyment while he is here. There are three basic instincts, for self-preservation, for sexual relationships and for self-assertion, and these are understood in the narrowest and crudest sense, stimulated and allowed to function freely with few restraints. The Law exists only to maintain order by settling the conflicts which arise. It bears little resemblance to morality or justice. It is permissible to get round the letter of the law. Success usually means achieving wealth, power or prestige, and the maximizing of self-indulgence and pleasure, but the methods by which these are obtained is irrelevant as long as they are not caught in illegal activity, legality or illegality being defined by themselves, or more usually by those who have the power. This attitude:-

(a) Allows people to use others for their own profit.

(b) Allows earning through financial manipulation and activities which produces nothing or production of things which may be useless or harmful.

(c) Creates criminals and swindlers.

(d) Produces a class of scroungers and layabouts who expect the state or charities to cater for all their needs. This is regarded as a right particularly as they think, sometimes rightly, that it is the state or society which has produced the conditions where they are deprived of the opportunities to lead a life according to their wishes, has created unemployment and created conditions where some people can exploit others of whose number they do not wish to be.

Thus four corresponding distinct types of people can be found in these countries.

 

There is little doubt that the success of the U.S.A in this world in so far as wealth and power is concerned depends partly on this philosophy. But it also depends on the enormous resources that existed there, the immigration of vigorous peoples from all over the world, the freedom and stimulus offered by a relatively sparse population in a great land mass and the mixing of cultures and ideas. Their wealth has also been obtained by the exploitation of the resources and peoples of a great part of the rest of the world. These advantages are disappearing. It is, however, impossible that this system could have been established or worked without the existence of many socially conscious and morally upright men with high ideals. who took thought and action about the rights and welfare of others. And this must be attributed to the entry of the revealed religions. There is nothing in the Secular Philosophy which could have created such people. And the number of such men is diminishing. Indeed, the system created has proved unsatisfactory to many people, and great number of religious revivals, new sects, cults and experiments in alternative systems of living continue to arise there.

It is true, of course, that every one would like to be free and have the opportunities to fulfill their dreams. But the system creates great differences of wealth from the fantastically rich who cannot possibly use all their wealth to the extremely deprived. 90% of the wealth is concentrated in the hands of 10% of the population. Disorganized competition leads to great fluctuations of the economy due to the accumulation of unused money, bringing misery to millions. They are responsible, directly and indirectly, for the wastage and depletion of most of the resources of the world, the pollution of land sea and atmosphere, the disruption of the ecological system and the adulteration of nutrition. Their commercial and political institutions have exploited and impoverished, instigated wars and revolutions, manipulated and destabilized governments in many foreign lands, producing chaos.

 

Since new frontiers had to be explored and tamed, the American way of life is based on individualism. self-centeredness, personal initiative, enterprise and responsibility and these require freedom. The basic ideology consists of the freedom to fulfill desires, dreams, and whims. Since these are usually material and require money, money making, efficiency and consumerism become the foundation for all values. This is to be achieved through the use of incentives, free enterprise and competition. It creates a purely commercial civilization. Yet a society consists of inter-dependent people who must cooperate. It cannot be based on complete freedom, individualism and competition. Unity is, therefore, achieved in three ways, namely, (a) through the compulsion exerted by those given the right to ownership and authority, (b) the use of incentives or bribes, and (c) through propaganda, regimentation and other methods of mental conditioning. Incentives mean the harnessing and stimulation of greed, lust, vanity, pride and competitive aggression. Competition breeds selfishness but also striving. It leads to creativity but also destruction. It creates winners but more losers. It creates fear, tension and anxiety, greed due to fear of loss, and neurosis. Free enterprise implies that a person is allowed to do anything whether or not it benefits or harms him, others or the social interest. Since no religion is officially recognized as the source of values, the opinions or whims of all men are equally valid. The values they prize most are freedom and the rights of the individual, but there is no mention of duties, responsibilities, compassion, cooperation and brotherhood. Charities exist, but they too are lucrative businesses for some people, occasions for boasting, self-congratulation and parties for others. Authority and ownership of the means of production is concentrated in the few and it is these few who, therefore, possess control over the majority. They also control the media through which mental conditioning is achieved. The result of this conditioning is to enslave, disable and reduce the potentialities of people, including the holders of power, while giving them the illusion of freedom.

The Dollar is god, the ultimate value by which all things are measured, and many large temples have been built to it. Science, Technology and Organization constitute a trinity, to be worshipped for themselves or as methods of attaining wealth, power and prestige. Science provides the ideology and is completely devoid of value judgments; technology drives industry and organization dominates social interactions. They are obsessed by profit, pleasure-seeking, sex and publicity irrespective of whether or not they are good, useful, true or beautiful. They have many idols representing various national political or commercial heroes rather than Saints, and they memorize and recite the creeds written by some of these. They worship their flag every day and sing the national Anthem in all schools and institutions. Their film industry and advertising campaigns export their culture throughout the world, acting as missionaries. Films, for the cinema or television consists mostly of the adulation of wealth, power, individualism, egotism, violence, greed, fornication, pornography, destruction, the falsification of history and various prejudices such as the moral superiority of the American over everyone else. Weaknesses such as lechery, lack of self-control, greed, cruelty, self-righteousness, selfishness and conceit are made into virtues, impress instead of disgust, and set the standards of behaviour for the general population. It has a corrupting influence not only directly but also by making heroes out of the film stars who are generally both of low moral quality and very influential because of their wealth and fame. Most people spend many hours a day watching Television which, though they show many educational and informative programs, is devoted mostly to entertainment. People model themselves on the characters shown on the many so called Soap Operas which supposedly show the private lives and problems of ordinary people. The characters in them generally have thoughts, motives and behaviour which from a religious point of view is quite disgusting. It usually has a thoroughly corrupting effect because it presents as normal and even admirable behaviour which is either amoral or morally degenerate. Or it reflects the somewhat neurotic values of the playwrights who are usually persons of a particular type and life style. The book shops are full of novels and magazines or video tapes of a similar nature. Their youth is brought up on electronic games of violence and many fictitious super-heroes, often cartoon characters such as Superman, a son of a being from another Galaxy, who defends the American Way of Life against super-criminals. All these have the same function as the Scriptures have in the religious.

America is the home of Capitalism, but though this requires the free play of market forces, the government makes use of discriminatory taxes, subsidies and other controls when it suits their national interest ignoring that of other nations, and this interest is identified with that of their capitalists. Mass production through the analysis of tasks into simple repetitive work, standardization, the conveyor-belt system and time and motion control was invented in the U.S.A. This reduces human beings to cogs in a machine, allows the control of the behaviour of the many by the few, removes the need for skill, motivation, thinking, initiative, responsibility and creativity, imposes uniformity and conformity, and necessitates mass consumption irrespective of environmental, social or psychological effects, divides the irksomeness of work from pleasure, production from consumption, values from facts, means from ends and labour from management. It creates automatisms, disintegration by concentrating attention on the part while obscuring the whole, and, therefore, also deprives people of coordination and control. Thus, the freedom spoken of refers only to the few who have the enterprise, cunning and resources to utilize the labour of others for their own advantages. However, since they are relatively rich owing partly to the resources of the land and partly due to the system, they do not feel its oppressiveness, but nevertheless react to it with violence, strikes, riots and other symptoms of unrest and frustration. 

Capitalist freedom, however, also means that crime, injustice and immorality are rampant. Their affairs are controlled not by knowledgeable experts in each field, but by powerful businessmen. It is these who define the law. The law is, therefore, defined in a way which excludes what otherwise would be seen as the thoroughly criminal and psychopathic nature of much of political and business practices, specially on the international field. It is usually only the small criminals who are prosecuted. All activities are judged by the profit they yield. To be fair, sometimes success also means the achievement of some kind of excellence in some popular field, but people who sacrifice money and effort to achieve this are seen as eccentrics. Profits can be made by unethical means and by exploiting the needs of others. Many of those who control their business and politics are criminals even according their own laws, but have the money and power to control the police, the media of communication and the legal institutions. They are able to employ henchmen, publicity agents and other psychopathic characters to do their bidding. Complete loyalty and obedience to those who can pay is required and given irrespective of any moral considerations. Conscience can be bought or sold. Science, religion, and Art are businesses, and have seldom any value apart from a monetary one. Religion is often used by commercial and political interests. Many of their religious preachers claim to be true Christians but propagate the doctrine that the purpose of religion is to obtain worldly success and that worldly success is an indication of spiritual excellence. Religions is often reduced to showmanship, bigotry, mass appeal and hypocrisy. Journalists and newsmen have little regard for truth or virtue but concern themselves with superficial and frivolous reporting, gossip and sensationalism since these sell papers and make a profit. Even Trade and Industry is less concerned with providing what is useful but more with theatre and persuasion to buy.

The desire for success creates strong competition. Cooperation is only a means to this end, unlike Socialism, which is their worst enemy. Competition requires the belief in freedom, individuality and aggression. Freedom means absence of all restrictions to self-indulgence and self-expression. To have a fighting spirit is the highest personal virtue. Individuality means self-centeredness, egotism and arrogance. It is true, of course, that all ideas, initiatives, and achievements come from individuals, but the individual does not exist in isolation and is affected and formed by the accumulated ideas, culture and other influences coming from the rest of the society. But this is seldom admitted. The combined minds of the many is a greater thing than that of any individual, though it is also true that a thousand fools cannot be equal to a single wise man. Excessive freedom tends to contradict itself, and not only because the freedom of some people is a restriction of that of others, but also because self-indulgence brings its own diseases. People are free to starve, to remain ignorant, to cultivate physical as well as mental and moral diseases and to infect others with them, to be deprived and exploited. The richest country also has some of the poorest and most deprived. The freedom to lie, corrupt, control and mentally condition others implies depriving others of the ability to act and think. Despite this desire for freedom and independence, and perhaps because of it, they also desire and impose social conformity to a much greater extent than elsewhere. Intolerance and self-righteousness are strongly entrenched. This makes their social system very oppressive despite claims to freedom.

 

Some of the greatest needs are for health and justice. Doctors and Lawyers are, therefore, very highly paid. Medicine and Law become expensive. Only the rich can afford them. The poor cannot and must suffer. Hence the great popular need for fictitious heroes who fight for justice, self-sacrificing doctors who care for the sick, and the constant talk of morality and freedom. But all this is regarded as being as it should be. Success, it is believed, should have its privileges, to be denied to those who are not successful. Else where is the incentive? To be a “loser” is the worst of sins, perhaps the only sin, and earns social contempt, regardless of the fact that there can be no winners without them, and luck and circumstance plays a part in success.

Being materialists, physical health, vigour and prowess, games, and appearance, rather than character, skill, intellectual and spiritual qualities, are of paramount importance. Since success is measured in material and social terms physical and social images are most important. Behaviour is dominated by the presentation of a public mask, showing off and posturing. The impression on, and the approval of, other people governs much of their thinking and behaviour. They spend a great amount of money, effort and time on cosmetics, self-decoration, cosmetic surgery and public relations. Youthfulness, passion, and aggression are adulated. Passivity, thoughtfulness, wisdom and self-control are regarded as weaknesses. Birth and death, old age and disease are regarded with horror and usually hidden away in institutions. This tends to create a devaluation of life and life is seen as a kind of game. Violence, aggression, crudity and rudeness become pervasive. Nor do they mind killing, committing mass abortions at one end of the life span and euthanasia at the other end, all in the interest of personal comfort or advantages. Very soon the poor and disabled will be regarded as nuisances to be got rid of or as a source of spare organs for the rich. Their blood is already bought and sold.

They are governed by a system they call Democracy, of which they are very proud. In this they have the right to elect their political leaders occasionally, but not those who control their wages and salaries, nor those who control information and ideas. In fact the political system is controlled by a few powerful and rich men who are able to purchase the services of publicity agents and manipulate opinions and the elections. Having been elected on certain promises, they can then do as they like, ignoring all promises. Their policies and actions usually remain secret, and the public is fed with misinformation. The demonstrations and strikes and other forms of civil disorder are clear proofs that the opinions or desires of the people have not been consulted, and that democracy is an illusion. Democracy often means the people are reduced to a uniform mediocrity, that everyone’s opinions and values are as good as anyone else’s. No standards can be maintained. The people have no respect for authority, the non-expert for the expert, the ignorant for the knowledgeable, the stupid for the wise, the profane for the virtuous, the men for the women or the women for the men, the children for the parents, the wives for the husbands and husbands for the wives. Nor do they earn it. People have become arrogant, self-opinionated, full of superstition and prejudice, obsessions and phobias, and the majority of them have filthy sexual attitudes and habits which are worse than those of unintelligent animals. They strive to be ‘themselves” though the only meaning given to this is the desire to be different from others, a reaction to conformity But this desire, shared by all, produces uniformity. The only way discipline of any kind can be maintained is through money and power, the coercion of the Law and of superior officers. No tradition of self-discipline exists. Conversely, these devices reinforce the said conditions. Human activity and knowledge ought to have three aspects - to enhance understanding, practical application and beneficial utilization. The American genius lies in the application of knowledge, its commercial exploitation. Though this has encouraged some pure science it has given it a bias. As for wise utilization this appears to be absent altogether. People want things and these wants are supplied, but why and for what purpose is never questioned.

They have two Political Parties, which determine all aims and policies. These are equivalent to organized Churches and its Priests. Between them there is much, sometimes vicious, rivalry and a power struggle, but little difference. Politics dominates life above all other considerations including the truth, the good, the useful, the beautiful. Political events are occasions for pageantry and theatre. Law depends not on morality and justice, but on the struggle for power and political expediency. Their shrines are devoted to financial and commercial companies, and the greatest spectacles of light and glitter is produced in the service of advertising and promoting the desire for goods. In fact the whole of their media of communication is devoted to the creation of an illusory world, a substitute reality, while real information tends to be controlled and manipulated by political or commercial interests and powers. Most people depend for their livelihood on employment by the few whose bidding they must obey and who have the power to engage, promote or dismiss in accordance with their self-interest or whim. Since the people have little say in what affects their lives they are allowed license in the areas of life which are regarded as unimportant by these powers.

The U.S.A is the origin of Mass Production. It is a means of increasing profit by mechanization and regimentation of workers. Whereas this created cheaper goods in large quantities made available to the mass of the people, not possible before, it also dehumanized the worker who became a cog in the machine, regimented and reduced to monotonous repetitive work on parts. As he had little idea of the wholeness of the object he was creating, it replaced intelligent, purposive and cooperative work. Mass production requires the analysis of tasks and machinery into simple routines and parts which could be standardized and mechanized. Only a few intellectual workers were required to design these machines and a few managers to supervise the work force. The workers became alienated from the work they were doing, worked only for money, and a distinction between work and pleasure arose, the latter becoming ever more bizarre to compensate for the monotony. Since most their waking life is spent in this work they were unable to develop their intelligence, self-reliance, creativity, initiative, sense of responsibility, value systems, motives or knowledge except in so far as required by their employers. This has had a degenerative effect. However, it was supposed that increasing mechanization would bring about increasing leisure which could then be used in the pursuit of these higher values. This, however, has not happened because greed, cultivated by the investors in their own interest, makes increasing demands for goods and the introduction of the computer leads to progressive automation of machinery and the workers become redundant and deprived.

The U.S.A is also the originator of what has been called Popular Culture, a result of the increase in general prosperity.  This culture takes the same forms as the more sophisticated art forms, namely painting, music, dancing, singing, literature and sculpture, but is rather superficial and crude since it is designed for commercial purposes and mass appeal. It usually requires little skill, training, sensitivity or concentration of attention, being devoted to the mass production of quantity rather than quality. It tends to be meaningless and purposeless except to entertain, impress and excite through spectacle and the stimulation of the baser feelings and urges. It is the kind of thing children do, but here adults are highly paid for it. It has no educational, developmental or inspirational value. It tends to have a barbarizing rather than civilizing affect. Its main function is to relieve the stresses created by monotonous and irksome work and a collapsing social system, and to produce exciting illusions to distract from the mundane. It, therefore, replaces religion, the function of which is also to point to a different but higher world. But popular culture is available now and in this world and requires no efforts on the part of the spectators to achieve. However, the notion of ‘civilization’ is itself transformed by it. It tends to overwhelm and drown the higher forms of art. Though this leaves the people in a rather naive, primitive and uncultured state, it must also be admitted that they remain free from the artificialities, perversion and pretensions which some of the products of higher culture produces, such as those designed to propagate class distinctions. Since people are always in a hurry to make money, Art provides a background to living rather than to the cultivation of the personality. Having devoted their minds to business and technology, it is not surprising that they should have neglected the education and cultivation of other important faculties and aspects of their nature, and remained unbalanced. Indeed, the whole culture and way of life appears to be designed to a make an outer show with little content, to be loud and noisy, large, fast, pretentious, ostentatious, exhibitionist, flashy and full of glitter.

Most people, despite opportunities for education, and in common with children and primitive people, are impressed by glitter, colour, lights, noise, transient fashions, size and quantity, ostentation, novelties, spectacles, showmanship, pageantry and other superficialities. The political and economic systems cater very well for this. It takes advantage of these characteristics but also makes them into its victims and maintains this state. It diverts attention from the merit of things to the ‘wrappings’ which become more important. All this cannot be regarded as innocent fun since it diverts the worlds resources causing starvation and misery elsewhere. More than half their economy is devoted to such pursuits. It also dictates their foreign policy.

The rich, powerful and famous, film, sport and popular music stars, irrespective of their quality, and how they have acquired their wealth or position, are honoured and become national heroes to be imitated. Needless to say their wealth and power has usually perverted and corrupted them and allows them to shed a corrupting influence. The language is suitably altered. Words are misused to hide the true nature of things in order to legitimize things which would otherwise be condemned. The word ‘love’ is used for lust and sexual perversions. It is used with great frequency in order to produce a false reassurance when real love is absent. Nauseating sentimentality often hides, replaces and compensates for real concern. ‘Gay’ is used for homosexuality; the commercial word “deal” is used in all human relationships; character weaknesses are represented as strength, and strength as weakness; and so on.

One need only to examine their chief sources of entertainment, television, video records and cinema, to see that they are lovers of violence, destruction, ostentation, sexual depravity, bigotry, self-righteousness, and these they export to all other nations. Their heroes are indistinguishable from their villains, the good from the bad. The most horrifying aspect of their culture is the fact that children are brought up on toy weapons and on computer games, television, videos which mostly consist of killing, destruction and sensuality. They grow up to regard war as normal and the killing of human beings as merely an adult form of these games. The whole structure is sustained by a constant stream of stimuli, propaganda and incentives through magazines, newspapers, radio and television, cinema, advertisements and shop displays.

The competition and struggle for wealth, power and prestige makes for a crude society, full of great stresses and strains which produce environmental, social and psychological problems. There is widespread corruption in business, politics, the police, courts, and government departments. As a nation the Americans are the greatest wasters of the resources the earth, the worst polluters and the greatest destroyers of the ecological system. They are also responsible for the extreme poverty and misery of large sections of the peoples of the world whom they have exploited through their banking, business and political institutions. There is a great amount of pilfering, theft and robbery, and few of these criminals are ever caught. It is usually the smaller criminals who are caught and punished while those who have the power to commit large scale swindles, fraud, theft, injustice, coercion, injury and mass murders remain immune. Their industrialists have, in their own interests, by means of their financial power, initiated and encouraged revolutions, rebellions and insurrections, killing and impoverishing millions of people in many lands. They have also indulged in direct and indirect military operations to promote their interests. America has made huge profits from the World Wars. They are willing to sacrifice the lives of their soldiers in the pursuit of profit, but not in the interest of morality or justice. Their secret agencies, the C.I.A (the Central Intelligence Agency) have through intrigue, subversion and criminal means manipulated and destabilized foreign governments, and while claiming democracy for themselves they have manipulated the elections in other lands, initiated and supported terrorism, massacres, created civil disorder and chaos and supported vicious dictatorships and tyrannies. No nation in the world which does not serve their national interest is safe from their interference or able to act independently. It is not widely known that the U.S Government considers it a matter of national security to encourage secret sterilization of the women in the poorer nations of the world. In several countries women have been injected with dangerous sterilizing drugs, for which no country has issued licenses, under the pretext of immunization against diseases. Those industrialists and politicians under whose guidance this was carried out prided themselves on being patriots. This idea, apart from being a stupid one, particularly for the U.S.A which contains peoples of all nations and which was founded on high humanitarian ideals, is in fact a criminal one and ought to be so considered. Innumerable criminal activities of similar type can be cited. The world can no longer afford America or the spread of the American Way of Life. The obsession with the constant and indiscriminate increase in material wealth at the expense of social, psychological and environmental welfare must be regarded as a psychopathic tendency of diseased minds.

Their ideal ignores the fact that the same qualities which produces the wealth and power also produces the crime, murder, robbery, arson, destruction of property, assault, violence, alcoholism, drug addictions, perversions, psychopathy, neurosis, psychosis, injustice and oppression which are reaching epidemic proportions. Their cities are not safe at night for the citizens. They have the highest divorce rate, adultery, debauchery, prostitution, rape, incest, homosexuality, juvenile delinquency, atrocities, sexual and other perversions, depravity, profanities, infanticide, abortion, child abuse, cruelty, illegitimacy, drug and alcohol addiction, gang warfare, racial and institutional persecution, oppression and injustice. Organized crime syndicates deal in gambling, drug trafficking, prostitution, arms dealings, trade in human organs, money laundering, racketeering, extortion, blackmail, intimidation, and exert control over police forces, politicians, government departments, commerce and business. Large firms have become powerful enough to ignore the rights and welfare of the people in the way they conduct their business. All this in addition to the misery and wastage of large scale unemployment and the precariousness of life owing to traffic accidents, industrial injuries and organic diseases caused by the way of life, adulteration of foods and pollution of the environment. Hypocrisy and self-deception effectively hides the true nature of the people from themselves and allows them to be bigoted and self-righteous with respect to other peoples. All kinds of extremism, bigotry and persecution thrive. Despite all this they consider themselves civilized, and superior to other nations. The implication is that the prevalence of such behaviour is acceptable. Surely, there must be something diseased about a society where everyone plies his own narrow self interest; where people have no other ambition but to accumulate material wealth beyond what they need, can use, or is even beneficial to them, while others are deprived of the barest necessities and are starving; where no one can trust others because colleagues, in order to climb the ladder of power will trample on and undermine others; where firms. salesmen and banks swindle people out of their money and the small print has to be closely scrutinized in every deal; where the media corrupts and nothing can be believed; where everything has to be locked up tightly against vandals and thieves and the streets and parks are unsafe; where violence and destruction is regarded as good entertainment; where people turn a blind eye when someone is assaulted, beaten and robbed on the streets and witnesses become dumb; where the wives and daughters of others are regarded as fair game for sexual purposes; where gangs roam terrorizing people; where children must be protected from strangers, and even from neighbours and relatives; and where the law will give little protection in these respects.

Wealth and technology has made them lovers of ease, self-indulgence and pleasure, and rather cowardly. They are less able to deal with hardship and stress and make rather bad soldiers. But technology compensates for this. The intellectual achievements of the few has given the rest of the nation a position of advantage over other nations. The result is that the general emotional development has been arrested at an immature, primitive level and relative barbarism has become a way of life. The Americans are, with some exceptions, technologically sophisticated, but culturally and socially naive, crude, brash and unbalanced, given to settling their differences with force and violence instead of intelligence, and, despite the greater opportunities for education, relatively ignorant.

Despite the claim to equally and justice, the U.S.A is also the home of extreme forms of racial and religious prejudice. Negroes from Africa were captured and transported to America. The Southern States were built on Slavery. Though slavery was officially abolished, Africans continued to be suppressed and persecuted. Organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan were devoted to the harassment, murder and arson against Negroes, Jews and Catholics. The native Red Indians were dispossessed, almost wiped out and the survivors confined in small Reservations. Minority religions and cults are still harassed. Large companies tend to strictly control all aspects of the life of their officers, even as to who they marry, their friends, their beliefs and conscience, how and where they live and where they go for holidays. This is not unlike Communism.

 Though nations where civil war and political oppression are found are considered to be barbaric, the truth is that there is a different kind of civil war, oppression and barbarism in the U.S.A and spreading rapidly into Europe. Nazism and Fascism are, of course, European phenomena. The Muslim peoples in particular are regarded as backward, but though they are certainly technologically inferior, socially it is the West which must be regarded as backwards and barbaric. If we define wealth more realistically, as the amount of benefits produced, then American wealth is largely an illusion. The people are not happier, better or more fulfilled than others. In other words, these goods serve little purpose. It is not the case that there is something wrong with the Profit motive itself, but that Profit is incorrectly understood. Jesus himself said:-

“For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul.” Matthew 16:26

The main criticism to be made is that there is no over all comprehensive unitary view of life and coordination between its various aspects. But this could be an advantage because, in the absence of certainty, experimentation and, therefore, change is still required. A rigid coordinated system such as produced by Communism destroys the possibility of evolution. On the other hand, there is no way of ensuring that the destructive tendencies will not get the upper hand over the constructive ones.

The prediction of the Apostle Paul, found in the Christian Scriptures, can be relevantly quoted:-

“This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men will be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy. Without natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those who are good, traitors, self-opinionated, arrogant, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof : from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with diverse lusts. Ever learning and yet never able to come to the knowledge of truth.” 2Timothy 3:1-7

 Thus though they have certainly achieved great economic power, they have paid for it by environmental, social and psychological problems. This must inevitably militate against them, and, indeed, the whole world which they have dominated.  These conditions make the U.S.A, into a particularly dangerous nation for the following reasons:- They produce the greatest number of criminals, psychopaths and neurotics and it usually such that seek and gain power. The people are relatively immature and their history and culture is based on violence. They have the wealth for scientific research and the development of technology, the will to use it for their own advantages at the expense of everyone else, the tendency to ignore moral considerations in politics, commerce, military affairs and science. They also cultivate industrial, political and scientific secretiveness which prevents others from sharing knowledge, and a great capacity for self-deception, rationalization and self-righteous. Though their wealth and power could have been used to do a considerable amount of good in the world, they still pursue their own narrow interests at the expense of everyone else. There is an obsession with technology without considering its uses and effects. Because of their industrial and military power, the Americans can now do whatever they like with impunity in the world. Those so called traitors, who gave away the secrets of the Nuclear Bombs to the Soviet Union, thereby restoring a balance of power, ought really to be regarded as Heroes. The greater allegiance ought to be towards humanity. When all efforts, both of men and women, are concentrated towards the fulfillment of the desire for material success, dominance and pleasures, other nations and peoples who have broader aims are bound to be left behind and exploited. The problem is that where there is competition between nations then more advanced technologies make the older ones obsolete. It is impossible, if a nation is to remain competitive, to devote less than full effort in developing technology. They, therefore, force other cultures to conform to theirs.

The pursuit of material prosperity, though it leads to birth-control and the reduction of the population, it also leads to the neglect of human values. But we all have to die and this renders all efforts which do not benefit human development useless. Self-discipline in the people is no longer necessary for superiority. Technology developed only by the few provides the power. Indeed, it is even suggested that the next stage in Evolution, a creature to replace man, will be sophisticated computerized machines or robots. Man is even now being replaced by machines at an accelerating speed. Human beings are becoming redundant. Many of those who control the government, the industries, the armed forces and secret services, and many of their scientists and lawyers, have psychopathic tendencies, often deliberately cultivated. Rules and regulations, the Law and public opinion exert some restraint on them. But the government has found a way to neutralize opposition by controlling information and presenting everything in a popular or moral wrapping, or by harnessing the primitive tendencies of people. The government often works secretly in the interest of business and commerce, without the knowledge of the President and elected representatives. There are also many independent very powerful individuals and groups who ply their own self-interest. Many Americans have seen the deficiency in their system, and religious revivals continue to take place. Fortunately, this exerts some restraint on their political ambitions, though it also encourages prejudice and narrow-minded bigotry in many. Commerce, too, requires freedom and the good will of potential customers, and this may also be a source of restraint, but only when information is free and people are well informed.

 

It is well known that some Muslim people hate the American and western system, usually for political reasons. But it must be pointed out that:-

(a) These criticisms do not apply to all the people, and many of them abhor these features. No civilization can exist which does not have a sufficient number of people of high quality. They must have more of these than in Muslim countries.

(b) They do not describe the whole of the Western system, only some aspect of it. There are also many good features mainly because religion or its legacies continue to be revived. Science has become a religion for many, occupies their minds and involves the same devotion and dedication.

(c) That the same evil tendencies can be found also in all other countries, including Muslim ones. They, too, want wealth, power and prestige. Had they succeeded they would have created the very same conditions. These features refer to the human condition everywhere. It is the genuine religions alone which have tried to counteract them.

(d) In a number of ways the Americans have established conditions which should have existed in Islamic countries but have deteriorated. These include greater equality, freedom, openness, equality in the treatment of women, charity, questioning, the pursuit of knowledge, the fight against oppression and injustice and religious tolerance. Many still think in moral terms. Community solidarity and action is found there to a much greater extent than elsewhere. They are also devoted to development, progress and success though these terms are misunderstood.

(e) Since people everywhere are conditioned by the social systems in which they live, there is basically no difference between people. It is secularism, not any particular nation which is being criticized. 

(f) These criticisms should not blind us to the fact that the Western people are still far ahead of anyone else in the world socially, educationally, technically, politically and economically. They have produced a great amount of fine Art of all kinds, beautiful Architecture, Literature, Homes, Cities, Gardens and parks and achieved much in science, medicine, technology and social organization. Though their skills are not in doubt, all this does not necessarily imply that they are better human beings, more developed or happier than others. All their creations can be criticized, but mistakes are inevitable and lead to learning. Many of those who achieved much were defective in a great number of other ways. They were unbalanced owing to the channeling of their potentialities into a narrow direction. It goes to show what enormous potentialities human beings have when not corrupted, and that even with the corrupting influences there are are still many who are protected, immune or capable of overcoming them.

(g) Criticisms can only be justified on the grounds that they have made an ideal out of the defects and that considering the great advantages they have in education, organization and technology they have made no moral progress and still remain a relatively primitive and ignorant people with a low sense of values. All people have virtues and vices. In the West these virtues are almost exclusively used to transform the environment instead of being directed towards human evolution. But each stage in evolution has limits. Nature demands evolution not mere progress.

 In order to obtain a balanced view it is also necessary to look at three other sides of their civilization . Though the emphasis is on the material values, there are also social and psychological values.

Firstly, the people are more enterprising and the culture encourages it; there is greater freedom in the U.S.A than elsewhere; class consciousness has become much weaker and the people treat each other with greater equality, though they are to a large extent impolite, crude in speech, disrespectful of other people’s feelings which makes them relatively barbaric. There are more Charities than elsewhere and the people are generally more generous perhaps because they can afford to be. Many, privately, are still morally motivated, but this is not usually distinguished from mere sentimentality and seems to be a legacy left over from a more religious past. Much is done through community action rather than by individuals and the State. They have the greatest number of scientists in the world and many organizations concerned with improving and conserving various aspects of the environment and nature. A great number of their workers can be found doing good social and environmental works in many poor and deprived areas of the world. There is no doubt that they have contributed much to the advance of knowledge and achieved a great amount in the fields of Science, Technology and Entertainment, Art, Literature, Civics, Politics and their Business institutions and enterprises dominate the world.

Secondly, the devotion to money making has produced some very rich people and companies, and these use their wealth to sponsor the Arts, Sports, Science, many religious, social and charitable enterprises which could not otherwise be financed. This, however, also means that it is their mentality which controls what will proliferate and what will be suppressed. Others take high risks in pursuit of some dream or ideal or find methods of making them financially viable. It is probably these which alone have made America great. This system works owing to three factors.

(a) The money is extracted by the force of the business practices, thus creating surpluses. It would not have been available otherwise. This has both advantages and disadvantages. It is not a matter merely of teachings, maintaining social ideals and voluntary action on the part of the general population as used to be the case in the past, but resources and incentives have also been provided. But since the initiative is concentrated in the hands of the few, this allows the general population to become complacent, uninvolved and to fall into decadence without serious consequences. It also gives developments an economic rather than a social or psychological bias. However, the idea that affairs, rather than being the responsibility of everyone, should be left in the hands of a commercial, political or spiritual ‘priesthood’ appears to be a legacy of Christianity.

(b) The system itself also probably produces the guilt feelings which must be relieved in this way.

(c) This sponsorship is also a method of advertising and increasing profits since it ensures good publicity. The replacement of this by the patronage of the State, as in Socialism, cannot have the same effect since this removes diversity and becomes formal, a matter for committees and bureaucracies, and removes personal interest and involvement. Governments do not take risks and do not pursue what are considered inessentials. Nothing new comes out of them.

 

Thirdly, the awareness of the inadequacies of the capitalist system leads to the creation of a great number of new cults and religious sects. These fall into four categories.

(1) Despite its decline, religions still have a hold on a great number of people. There are attempts at revival and reinterpretation in the older sects. There are a great number of Evangelists and many of these have their own organisations and Radio Stations, Publishing Companies and Churches. They are big business. Most of these are rather simplistic, naive and based on emotion and fantasy. The spiritual vacuum created by the commercial materialist society makes the population particularly vulnerable to them. As a busy population has little time to make any but a superficial study of their own, they rely on those who do., These businesses have grown rich by exploiting this situation, manipulating demand and supplying it..

(2) There are also a great number of new sects, such as Jehovah Witnesses, Mormons, Christadelphians, Christian Scientists, Adventists, Spiritualists, Members of the Church of God etc. which also send out missionaries to other countries, Many of these have sub-sects. There are innumerable other smaller sects which form their own communities. Among them are those led by people who claim to be prophets, sometimes Jesus, Moses and even God himself. A number of them have bizarre practices or catch people, usually adolescents, through brain washing and mental conditioning.

(3) There are what has been collectively called the New Age Religions. Many of these have borrowed ideas from Eastern and Pagan Religions, created their own religion by a mixture of ideas derived from many others and also from science. A great number of rituals, meditation techniques, and healing theories and practices are associated with these. There are faith healers, aroma, colour and sound therapists, herbalists, naturists, people using dance, movement, posture and breathing or dietary techniques and so on. People concerned with ecological and environmental protection, organic agriculture and against blood sports usually belong to this group.

 

The philosophy behind these is something as follows:- All things in nature are inter-connected. Man is part of nature. The individual must become aware of, and harmonize with it directly for his own welfare. This cannot be done through a doctrine or through anyone else. Therefore, no authority is accepted. Since no one can experience the experiences of others or transfer his to others, then the relationship between the individual and Nature is a subjective and personal matter. The techniques for doing this must be developed and practiced, but different ones may be effective for different people. Though it cannot be denied that these people are among the most enlightened, the main criticism against these cults is that since they rely on their own subjective judgments and do not recognize the authority of those who might possess higher knowledge, intelligence and consciousness, they cannot distinguish between fantasy and truth. They tend also to be sentimental, not recognizing the valid function of the harsher side of existence.

4. There are many popular schemes for spiritual, psychological, social and physical self-improvement. Some are loosely based on advances in psychological knowledge. Scientology is the best known of these, but many other people have set up systems of their own. Some adapt or merely use the outer techniques or terminology of Eastern systems, dimly understood. Variations of Yoga or Buddhist and Zen meditation are popular. Theosophy, systems based on the Kabalah and revivals of paganism and other primitive and obsolete religions also find a great number of followers. Their efficacy must be regarded as doubtful because they are neither based on research nor on inspiration, and because people flock to them because they have unidentified psychological problems. They want comfort, security, a sense of belonging or significance, or confirmation of their own fantasies and prejudices. Nevertheless they have at least three virtues. (a) That they maintain interest in higher spiritual matters. (b) That they constitute at least an attempt at adaptation to modern conditions of life and knowledge. These schemes may be regarded as primitive or first attempts. It may well be that as knowledge progresses then, as in other fields, much more efficacious techniques will develop. (c) Human beings are required to take responsible control over all their affairs. They have to grow into adults. These developments should, therefore, be tolerated, if not welcomed.

 

As a result of the cross-fertilization of cultures; social experiments can still take place there, and new institutions can still arise. Indeed, many people are forced to look for other ways of organizing life. There are many dissenters and people who have opted out of what is called “the rat race”. The country is large enough for all kinds of alternative systems of living to flourish. As long as these communities are small and diverse, and they present no organized threat to the establishment, they are tolerated. This freedom, however, exists, not only because the political system was created to contain a diversity of peoples, but also because by and large the people are politically much more naive and more thoroughly indoctrinated, diverted and better controlled. Having a measure of material prosperity, they are also much less willing to hazard this prosperity and independence in pursuit of some doubtful and risky political ideal. Indeed, they have nothing to gain and much to lose from a replacement of their political structure by another.

The Western system has alienated a section of the people who have established what is called a Counter Culture.  This may also be regarded as a separate religion. It could not, however, have arisen anywhere else except in the context of Western culture and should be regarded as part this system. It contain a great variety in it so that it is difficult to describe by means of common characteristics. The main ones appear to be

(1) The rejection of materialism and greater concern for environmental, social and spiritual matters.

(2) the desire not to conform to social norms and commonly held values.

(3) the idea that religion and philosophy are subjective systems which must, therefore, vary with each person according to their nature, experience and understanding.

(4) Mixing and absorption of a great number of ideas from all kinds of systems, Pagan, Eastern and Ancient.

(5) Creation of and experimentation with new rituals, practices, forms and social systems.

(6) The use of alternative medicines and healing systems including the use of herbs, crystals, aromas, colours, mediums, dowsing, arrangement of materials, faith healing, spiritualism.

(7) Belief in a variety of nature spirits, a multiplicity of gods and goddesses, demons, visitors from outer space, rays of energy and other unorthodox entities.

 

It seems reasonable to make the following comments:-

(1) It is obvious that the secular systems fail to satisfy all human needs, particularly the spiritual ones, though also social ones.

(2) These systems can be considered as a revolt or reaction to the materialist system rather than being rational or inspired.

(3) Orthodox religions have failed to attract these people owing to their degeneration partly because they have become mere mechanical ritualistic institutions and partly because of their alliance with the commercial and political interests.

(4) As no research has been done and the quality of people is not particularly high, those who set up these systems cannot be regarded as having the knowledge, wisdom and expertise to produce something which has objective truth or value. They are neither inspired, nor do they have adequate rational abilities nor wide enough experience and these are the only criteria of truth, goodness and usefulness.

(5) Where people produce or accept something which conforms to their existing nature, then this can have no transforming or evolutionary function.

(6) Some of the ideas, motives and practices of these people add rather than diminish the social and psychological problems.

(7) However, they maintain the existence of the higher ideas and ideals and their experimentation may lead to the emergence of something valuable. They also destroy or weaken the degenerate institutional religions thereby making way for the arising of the true regenerated religion.

 

2. Communism

Socialism, and Communism a more systematized form of it, was primarily a reaction to Capitalism, particularly because the latter created increasing differences in wealth, injustice, economic chaos and cycles of relative prosperity alternating with depression. This caused a great amount of suffering and wastage of human talents. It was correctly understood that the economic system was not independent of the Ideological and Social systems. It tried to deal with the new forces which had arisen in the world, namely science, technology and organization, in a unified way. The economy had to be planned. Man was to take control of all his affairs. In order to do this communism created a Political Party in which all the power was concentrated, and a centralized State through which total control on all aspects of life was exerted. The freedom and initiative of the individual was, therefore, severely curtailed. Communism was developed when Intellectual Materialism was at its height. Yet it placed its emphasis on the Social aspect of life. It undertook to change the nature of society. The State undertook to determine, control and provide the material needs. The third ingredient, the psychological aspect, was to consist of the development of culture, the arts and the sciences. It undertook to change human nature itself by socializing it. But it neglected the spiritual aspect of man. Religion was considered to be an obsolete superstition to be replaced by Communism. This was to be done in a manner similar to the way Christianity replaced previous religions, by adapting and incorporating some of their institutions and ideas, and by repression. It mistook the nature of religion, man, society and economics and proved to be inadequate in all respects.

It tried to form a synthesis between the scientific ideas which were current in the nineteenth century and ideas derived from the Judaic-Christian tradition. Karl Marx was himself a Jew turned Christian. Yet it rejected the notion of the soul, life beyond death and the world of ideas as being unreal. It took from Science the Principle of Objectivity. According to this, only the external world as given to the senses is real and the behaviour of an object is determined only by external forces acting on it. This establishes Materialism as a policy. For human beings it means that the influence of the environment is more important than their inherent characteristics. It means that the individual is entirely dependant on the society and his character is formed only by the society. The Society, therefore, can and has the right to modify the individual. In effect it means that the leadership has this right. Morality was to consist of conformity to the Social interest as seen by the Party. The Law existed to enforce this.

 The desire for social justice, the abhorrence of usury, the view of life as a struggle against evil forces, the looking forward to the communist Millennium and the principle “from each according to their ability to each according to their need” is taken straight from the Old and New Testaments. (Acts 2:44-45 for instance). It’s God is the process of Dialectical Materialism which contains a Trinity (thesis, anti-thesis and synthesis); its Church and Priesthood is the Communist Party; its Bible is the writings of Marx and Engels. From science it takes determinism, materialism and Darwinian evolution theory. Communism from the very outset was not merely meant to be an economic or political movement but it set out, like a religion, to transform human nature. There is an unjustified assumption among all priests and even kings and dictators that they can and have the exclusive right to act for God and impose their will on the rest of mankind. Communism wanted to replace all other ideologies, religions and their systems of ethics, with something they considered to be more modern, and this by force. In doing this they caused alienation and invited opposition and conflict, an inevitable result of the partial view, and the cause of all their problems. Communism may, therefore, be considered to be an antithesis to the Secular Ideology and a return to the equivalent of the domination of the Christian Church to which the Secular system was an antithesis. The pendulum merely swung from one extreme to the other.

It is believed by some people that there is nothing wrong with the Communist Ideology itself, but that, as in other religions, the oppression and tyranny which resulted from the application of its principles, were due to the limitations, the ignorance, stupidity, inexperience, hypocrisy and inadequacy of the people who acquired and exercised the power. Though there is certainly some truth in this, it is also a partial truth. The idea that human beings should behave in a socially responsible manner rather than selfishly is certainly a laudable aim, and is a central theme in all genuine religions. But human limitations should have been taken into consideration within the Ideology itself. Unlike the Christians who believe in the original sinfulness of man, communism taught that man was perfect, though capitalism had corrupted him. According to them it only required changes in life style to bring about psychological changes. The self-centered individual would be converted into a socially responsible one, and there would then be no need for coercion. In order to achieve this transformation the community should be isolated from all Western influences and, indeed, it should convert all other nations to communism through teaching, propaganda as well as political, military and subversive means. Communism was, therefore, seen as a threat to the power holders in the West and also because communism closed the markets to Capitalist expansion. The Capitalist nations protect themselves also by the use of political and commercial means as well as subversion. This in turn confirmed the Communists in their view that Socialism could not be sustained without a world-wide revolution and multiplied their efforts to do so. Communism and Capitalism, therefore, provoked each other into a world-wide conflict, mischief making and subversion in which millions of people were tyrannized, massacred, manipulated, corrupted and impoverished. The repression, coercion and isolation practiced by the Communists within their own borders was to an extent the result of the need to protect themselves against this western subversion. The West caused it. What they could not achieve directly they achieved indirectly by ensuring that repression would continue and cause increasing disenchantment. Apart from this when a nation, in order to compete, had to undergo rapid industrialization much of the labour has to go into producing capital rather than consumer goods. It could not be expected that conditions should be better in the early days of communism than they were, for instance, in Britain during the industrial revolution. They were equally oppressive there. Though originally the aim was to liberate man by making him the master of the machine rather than its slave, competition with America required rapid industrialization. The whole nation was to be turned into a machine, constructed and run on rational and scientific principles. The aim was no longer human welfare. The Plan became the Law.

The trouble was:-

(a) The politicians and administrators were not scientists and could not understand science. They could not apply scientific principles. On the contrary they expected science and art to conform to their ideology.

(b) The power passed into the hands of the engineers, technologists and scientists. The communist party, in order to retain its power, found it necessary to periodically persecute and purge these people and brings them into ideological conformity. They tended to destroy talents and talented people.

(c) Knowledge was not sufficiently comprehensive to deal with all affairs. Science was too simplistic. Not everything, in fact, was known, predictable and controllable by man. A Plan, therefore, always contained mistakes. As it was to apply to the whole community without exceptions, there were no alternatives and no possibility of escape. A recipe for disaster was built into it.

(d) The State exclusively determined what the nation needed or should have and this was not always what people wanted. There is a delay between gathering information about needs and demand, processing it, planning, production and finally distribution. By the time the goods or services were available the needs, demand or fashions had changed. Thus, there were surplus goods as well as unfulfilled wants. Mass production was cheap but not versatile enough to fit all needs. Nor were the methods of organizing manufacture and distribution efficient.

(e) A Bureaucracy had to be set up, and this is a cumbersome, unintelligent machine which is slow to adapt. It possesses inertia, is self-propagating and inefficient. This is because the workers in it are hampered by laws, rules and regulations instead of being able to use experience and intelligence. It standardizes everything. The Plan it produced became an end in itself. Though the plan may have been useful for some purpose in the beginning, change in circumstances made it into an absurdity. The whole economic system came to be engaged in futile activities which were demanded only by the Plan.

(f) As everyone was guaranteed employment and all had to conform to a plan there was no incentive to work hard and efficiently or to use materials and energy efficiently. It made for wastage and contracting output. In order to maintain or increase production fear and coercion had be used instead. This is, however, less efficient than incentives since it is a negative force, preventing something rather than encouraging and stimulating.

(g) Human beings are by nature much more complex and versatile than the machines they create. Regimentation and conformity to such machines produces revolt or unpredicted and undesirable side-effects.. 

(h) The suppression of religion also meant the absence of a basis for moral behaviour. A philosophy based on the supremacy of Economic interests is not conducive to socially responsible behaviour. Social conditions cannot be altered fundamentally without changing people. Unchanged people will change any new system and adapt it to suit their own nature. The system was exploited by some to their own exclusive advantage. The transformation of people must come first. No system can be applied without great suffering until its time is ripe.

(i) Since it produced a single organization with a single policy, it did not consider or cater for variety. It became oppressive and dictatorial and led to a struggle for power and control as the only way of fulfilling different goals.

(j) No one was, in fact, responsible for anything. This, as anyone who has worked in government departments knows, makes for wastage on the one hand and insufficient resources on the other. People could waste resources since they did not personally pay for them, and the managers merely had to fill quotas set for them by remote uninvolved officials.

(k) As everyone is dependant on others, it removes initiative, self-reliance, self-determination, self-discipline and personal responsibility. These qualities began to dwindle even in the leadership. In order to fulfill ambitions or needs it becomes necessary to enlist the support of others and to create pressure groups, thereby intensifying conflicts.

(l) It removed or stifled individual creativity and induced uniformity and conformity.

(m) As the government had total control this gave them power to manipulate not only resources and production but also people and information. Ultimately, however, the source of all power and progress is free information and the unhampered potentialities of people.

(n) As the whole system was based on a particular doctrine it became dogmatic and suppressed objectivity and adaptability.

 

It can, however, be shown that, the theory itself as well as its application was faulty.

Human striving and behaviour is governed by three factors:- inherent characteristics, environmental conditions. and also by volitional efforts. Communism obviously had only a partial view of man since it placed its attention on the environmental and material factor alone. It is clearly absurd to suppose that you can transform a lion into a sheep by merely changing its conditions of life and food supply.

 Communism took the Philosophical ideas of Hegel and turned them upside down, and even these were derived by a misinterpretation of the ideas contained in the religions of India. Dialectical Materialism is the reverse of Dialectical Idealism as described by the Philosopher Hegel. According to his theory all processes in the Universe undergo three stages - thesis (something is affirmed), antithesis (the thesis is negated), and synthesis (the two opposites combine to create a third stage). This may act as a thesis, thereby beginning another similar cycle. In actual fact, the original insight found in most religions describes the world of phenomena as being created by the interplay of two relative forces, a pair of opposites, positive and negative, and a third, reconciling force which may be a product of the other two, but all three coexist. The three derive from, and represent, an Original Unity, which is Absolute. From the Hegelian point of view an Idea exists first (the thesis), it produces a Material manifestation (the anti-thesis) e.g. human products derive from their thoughts. Life consists of interaction between man’s thoughts and these objects (the synthesis). A particular condition of life so produced again produces new ideas which act as thesis, produces an anti-thesis, and leads to another synthesis. And so on. This creates the evolutionary or historical process. From the Marxist point of view, the opposite holds true. The Material conditions exist first. They create the idea and there is a subsequent synthesis, producing the conditions of life. This gives rise to new material conditions which produce ideas, and so on. The communists explain the whole of human history from this point of view. Thus the economic conditions forced men to invent sciences and technologies which changed the social and economic conditions. These forced them to invent new technologies and so on. Capitalism came out of Feudalism where there was a class war between the landowners and the peasants. A middle class arose there because these land owners had to work through them in order to manage the peasants. The middle class became the Merchants who accumulated the Capital required for the Capitalist System. Thus a new upper class arose. This gave rise to another class war between the Capitalists and the Proletariat, the Workers whom they employed. This, they claimed, should lead to the classless society of communism. However, if we follow the theory correctly, it must inevitably lead to the arising of a third class of managers and administrators, and these should become increasingly more powerful, leading to a new, though socialist system. And indeed, the class of Capitalists are losing power even in the West. Shares are being distributed more widely, and experts in all fields are increasing in numbers and gaining power. Affairs are increasingly controlled by Managers, administrators and Scientists.

According to their theory, Communism should have developed in the more advanced industrial countries, not in Russia which was a backward Feudal society. In order to overcome this contradiction Lenin altered the theory, just as religious people with political ambitions alter the teachings of the prophets. The world was to be considered as a single system described by its most advanced society, and the Communist revolution was to be worldwide. Besides inviting the opposition of the more industrially powerful nations and worldwide conflicts, it created another contradiction. If only economic factors are to be considered then it should have been realized that communist idealism could have no effect, and that revolutions can only take place where people are poor, and not where they are prosperous and have much to lose. Man, however, is not driven by causes alone, but also by purpose, ideas and reason. The theory was altered to say that the revolution would come when people have understood their economic interest correctly and the communists undertook to provide this education. This, however, appears to agree more with Hegel than Marx since ideas are now given greater importance. In fact it agrees more with a view compatible with Islamic. Allah, the Absolute creates the pair of opposites and the interaction between these produces the third factor which can modify the other two. The social world, the ideas, motives and actions of people, for instance, depend on the interaction of the external material world and the inner psychological world. They in turn can modify both the external and inner world. The environment has effects according to how it is perceived, and this depends also on social interactions.

It could be argued that Dialectical Materialism and Dialectical Idealism themselves form a pair of opposites which should lead to a synthesis. And that Capitalism and Communism form a pair of opposites, both of which must change by synthesis and become more and more like each other. Indeed, this is happening. The Company in America for instance is very paternalistic and dictatorial just as the Party is under Communism. Governments everywhere are forced to take an increasingly active part in controlling affairs. On the other hand, Communist and Socialist nations were forced to introduce incentives, the profit motive and personal initiative and responsibility, just as under Capitalism. It is a mistake to suppose that the Dialectical Process applies to States or Governments only. It applies to social conditions and life in general. The conflict is the same as that which occurs between mind and matter. The action of mind on matter produces life or energy. No explanation exists in these theories how such opposites can come into existence. In fact, by Idea we understand a kind of patterns or order; by matter we understand inertia or resistance; and by Life we understand motion, behaviour, energy. The three are not separate things, but are understood relative to each other. They are different properties of the same thing.

From the Islamic point of view the fundamental nature of Reality is Absolute unity. But if we wish to study and discuss the universe, we must analyze. This implies the creation of three inter-dependant factors, namely two relata and the third relating factor. We must not, however, confuse this triad or trinity with the Absolute from which it derives. The Universe may, then, be thought of as being governed by three factors, Ideas (information or order), energy and matter. The Physical Universe could not have arisen except for the Laws which govern matter and these are not matter or energy. Human history may, for instance, be seen as being governed by Psychological, Social and Material factors, and the Society by Ideological, Communal and Economic factors. Though each of these may be affected by the others, there are also independent developments at these levels. Given exactly the same economic conditions, differences will still occur in different places owing to ideological or social differences. And vice versa. This is why Communism developed in Russia and not in Europe or America, and that the location and spread of Islam cannot be explained in terms of economic factors alone.

It may further be pointed out that Karl Marx’s analysis of the Capitalist system leans heavily on a moral, and not an economic judgment, namely the evils of usury (interests and rents), what he calls surplus value. The ability of the owner of a factory to exploit the work force is not so much an economic fact as a legal one. Ownership is a legal or social concept. And a Class depends on inter-marriages, and, therefore, has a sexual element. The Communists, themselves, realized when they took the lands from the owners and gave them away to peasants that the latter behaved quite irresponsibly. The lands were neglected and food production suffered. People either require supervision and coercion or will only work from incentives. They also require knowledge. These are not economic facts but facts about the psychological development of people. In order to avoid government by fear, compulsion and tyranny, you must provide bribery. The only other alternative is the development of self-discipline, and this depends on an ideology. The Communist mistake lay in imposing the religious principle of “from each according to ability, to each according to need” on people by force. This principle was applied in Christianity to those who voluntarily accepted the doctrine. It cannot be imposed by force on all and sundry. A simple psychological fact was ignored: If people are not allowed to do as they want or obtain what they desire then there must be unrest and opposition to the source of the obstruction.

Communism moreover may be thought of as merely an extension of certain features found in Capitalism. For instance, as Marx pointed out there is in Capitalism a tendency for firms to continually expand by swallowing or merging with others in order to eliminate competition and increase their profits. There is a tendency towards Monopolies.  The Capitalist system, despite the belief in free market forces, requires government interference to prevent monopoly and maintain competition. In this it contradicts itself. Communism may be thought of as State Monopoly, the final result. This increases the Economic dictatorship of the few. But Economic power is not the only source of tyranny, there is also Political and Ideological Tyranny. The class rivalry and conflict is merely one form of a much more general conflict between individuals and between groups of all kinds.

Human beings do not have only material needs, but also social and spiritual needs. The later were not merely neglected but attempts were made to suppress them. Having based itself on Economic factors it is remarkable that it was also economically inefficient. It looked at certain factors in Capitalism, but neglected others, in particular the question of incentives for production, development and efficiency. It did not measure the cost of production and had no incentive to improve its efficiency. It contradicted itself by first criticizing Capitalism on moral grounds and trying to establish a society on moral grounds and then undermining morality by elevating material advantages as the highest goal. Total control by the State also implies the suppression of the initiative, creativity, enterprise and personal responsibility of the people. Where, then, will those able to rule come from? And who will they rule over? If all thought is to be controlled who can do the independent thinking? No one, in fact, is responsible for anything. The society becomes a machine and human beings mere cogs in it. And if human beings are to be reduced to robots is this worth human effort to achieve?

 

Communism, however, had some advantages. Everyone had guaranteed employment. No one was thrown on the scrap heap as it were. Prosperity and adversity were equally shared, except for the few power holders who were able to feather their nests. The State acted as a patron, encouraging the development of certain talents in people irrespective of their backgrounds, within the limits of the economic possibilities. This certainly released much more creativity than exists in countries where financial and class restrictions exist. But it has also suppressed other talents. Where there is a single source of control there the view point will be restricted and we have insufficient diversity, and, therefore, insufficient interactions. It is a fact of life that because of human limitations, the best of intentions, when put into practice, do not turn out the way intended. Unforeseen factors force changes. Wisdom, therefore, dictates that provision should always be made for diversity and rectification of mistakes.

Communism bases itself on knowledge as it was at a particular stage in history, thereby arresting all further development. Knowledge by its nature must progress. What is thought true at one stage is not true at another. What is thought to be fundamental and invariable is found later to be not so. That which cannot be understood at one stage is understood at a later stage. Humanity grows. In particular if such knowledge is allowed to govern all aspects of life, and this is done by just a few people, all of whom have a limited capacity for holding knowledge or applying it, then development is severely restricted. Nature herself is much wiser. It experiments, creates great variety, and selects the most useful features for propagation and multiplication. The Communists ought to have learnt this from Darwin. It is something every plant or animal breeder knows. It is, of course, true that in the interest of efficiency and power all efforts should be concentrated in only a certain limited number of channels. But this can be counter-productive when an imbalance has been created, and when the product has become obsolete. No doubt many species died out due to over specialization in this way. They were powerful and played an important role in their time but were unable to adapt.

Freedom and Authority form a pair of opposites, the excess of one over the other will always create problems. The balance between them can only be provided by a third factor, namely personal responsibility and morality. This is why religion is important. Religion, however, itself has succumbed to these opposites and this should not be allowed to happen. It is neither something which is left to individual consciousness nor something which is imposed by some authority, but also has a communal dimension in that it is maintained by communication and interaction. Religion, however, has two other functions:- to reconcile the objective world with the subjective and the Universal with the particular (heaven with earth, the environment in which we live).

 

3. Scientism

The modern pseudo-religion which has been partly incorporated both in the Communist and the Capitalist systems is what might be called Scientism. Its god is Science. Its priests are the scientists and technocrats in their white coats and its shrines are the Laboratories. In this form Science was not the servant of man but his master. It is not merely a method for studying nature but its doctrines are regarded as sacrosanct, the scientist is to be venerated, granted supreme authority and obeyed as the sole representatives of knowledge. His jurisdiction was to extend to all aspects of life. Science not merely creates a technology, but is to be applied to economics as well as to law, social and political planning, and even to manipulate man genetically and psychologically. Advances in Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Sociology and Psychology and their associated technologies promised to transform, through genetic and social engineering, man, his society as well as the entire environment. It creates new materials, new sources of energy and new crops and foods. It was ever more successful in manipulating nature and making man completely independent. The arrival of nuclear energy, in particular, raised the hope of the availability of limitless power, progress and prosperity. Many governments around the world saw science as the source of power, prestige and wealth as well as a weapon.

But things began to go wrong. It caused great disasters and threatened to destroy man as well as his environment, not only (a) because it created destructive weapons, but also (b) because of great industrial disasters and (3) advice and ideas which proved to be false or inadequate. Disenchantment gradually set in, which caused the pendulum to swing to the other extreme. The problems are as follows:-

1. It was not noticed that Science is a human creation, not an independent god. To worship it, to become subservient to it, is idolatry. There is no science apart from scientists. The scientist is a human being and as such suffers from the same limitations as all other human beings. They too, suffer from prejudices, selective perception, rationalization and fantasy. And they, too, are motivated by greed, the desire for wealth, power or prestige, and they serve the whims of those who will supply these.

2. Human affairs require three interdependent factors, namely an Economic, a Political and an Ideological (of which science is only a part). Commercial as well as political interests began to manipulate scientists and distort scientific endeavour. Research and application began to be controlled by these forces. The warnings of many scientists about impending disaster were ignored.

3. Science is amoral. But action and application requires motives and these are governed by values. Just because something can be done is not a good enough reason why it should be done. We can all murder, but should we do so? The question of whether something was beneficial or good was completely ignored. Science defines knowledge in a much too narrow way. We need not only external knowledge but also inner awareness and interactive social responsibility. We need knowledge of ‘what is’, ‘what ought to be’ and ‘how to achieve it’.

4. Science is constantly changing. What is considered to be true at one stage is not considered true at another. But apart from this, fashions dictate what is acceptable at a particular time to a particular people. Many perfectly valid ideas have existed which were neglected and then resurrected. Others were accepted on inadequate grounds and later rejected.

5. Truth is defined very narrowly. It refers to a limited set of conditions usually in a laboratory. Thus, though it may be true that X varies with Y in a certain way, given a real situation there is no guarantee that all the factors, A, B, C, D etc which operate in it are known.

6. Science gives us knowledge which can be applied in many different ways. Given a different set of aims it is possible to achieve these instead. It is not at all necessary that technology should take the direction of development it has taken.

7. Science has nothing to say about the significance and purpose of man. In the absence of this all purposes and strivings must be considered futile. Nor does it satisfy deeper human needs. It has nothing to say about love, faith or hope, or about consciousness, conscience and will. Yet human existence depends largely on these.

8. Science consists of methods which are applicable and useful in certain fields. These methods are not applicable or useful in other fields. These other fields are ignored. The fact that something is ignored does not establish its non-existence.

9. Even if all the laws are known every situation is too complex for accurate scientific calculate to be made. All calculations are approximate. The possibility of full control is, therefore, very remote except for very simple systems.

10. The direction science takes and the knowledge which accumulates is biased and unbalanced. This is because research is funded by commercial or political interests, not objective ones.

 

The idea of scientific and technological progress and the possibility that there may be other much more advanced civilizations somewhere else in the Galaxy or the rest of the Universe has given rise to several modern pseudo-religions which could not have existed in the past. According to them one or more of them has advanced to such a high level that they are gods. They create civilizations elsewhere in the Universe, including this earth, by means of geo-physical as well as genetic engineering. Humanity has been created by them, and when they have developed to a suitable degree these gods will return and give mankind the science and technology by means of which peace, prosperity and immortality will be achieved on earth. In the meantime they have stimulated human progress by communicating with selected people, known as prophets, throughout the ages and various places, and instructing them in the means by which development can be achieved. The founders of these cults claim that they are, themselves, such prophets and have been instructed by these gods and even taken up to visit these planets.

Though such claims can neither be verified nor falsified just as those of the prophets of the past cannot be, their founders are not particularly bright or able people. They are followed mainly because the ideas of the traditional religions have been given a more rational and, for modern times, a more understandable, basis. It could be argued that the people of the past had less knowledge and could not, therefore, interpret their experiences correctly. Though these religions were based on genuine experiences, their interpretations reduced them to superstitions. Modern enlightenment allows the removal of these superstitions. On the other hand, it could be argued that the human need for religion, for hope, purpose and significance which science has removed, combined with the impossibility of denying the usefulness and, therefore, the truth of science, has led them to invent such reconciling cults and even created illusions and hallucinations. Their idea of the gods is not compatible with the idea of God in the traditional religions, and leaves the question of origins unexplained. Moreover, if the desire is to produce a rational religion then proof ought also to be provided. These gods, unfortunately do not reveal themselves in a verifiable way. And if they do not then these cults are not different from the traditional religions and become redundant. As far as our present knowledge goes there is no way in which anyone from a distant galaxy can travel to this earth. To say that science and technology will in the future make this possible is to speculate. New discoveries may completely change our view of the Universe, and the explanations by these cults will then also be seen as conditioned by contemporary ideas. 

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The main purpose of this discussion is to show that there are three ways in which pseudo-religions arise. The Capitalist system arose because the economic or material circumstances existing in America produced a certain way of life from which their ideology arose. Communism on the other hand was an ideology which created a certain social conditions, which in their turn led to the economic and material conditions existing in the USSR and these led to its collapse. There is a third way for man to adjust to his environment which may be called interactionism, and scientism may be regarded as its manifestation. The conditions which gave rise to the American secular ideology, that everyone can do as he pleases and accumulate as much material wealth as he can, cannot be reproduced again except either by discovering and migrating to new uninhabited planets or reducing the population very severely. It is unlikely that a new Ideological system such as Communism can gain ground again because the limitations of the human mind to create an all-comprehensive system and control it has become too obvious. Interactionist Scientism, though it has the strength of adaptability, suffers from the defect that it is constantly changing and no long term ideal can be applied or planning done.

Islam, on the other hand, is the religion of unity beyond the trinity. It requires the recognition of (a) environmental circumstances, (b) the ability of human beings to interpret and change their circumstances and (c) inherent ideals or value systems. And these three must be coordinated into a single way of life, thinking and action. This is the meaning of Vicegerency and of Surrender.

The three factors, the psychological or ideological (P), social (S) and material (M), can be arranged in 7 different ways according to whether each is dominant, catalytic or passive, thus:-

X, PSM, PMS, SPM, SMP, MPS, MSP, X

where X represents the coordinated unity between them. There is a real unitary state in the beginning, the three factors separate and interact. There is a direction of development in which the psychological factor becomes increasingly passive, and there is again a unitary state at the end. The motion can be in either direction.

There are, therefore, six possible systems, in three pairs, between which there will be differences and conflicts. The two items in the pair may be distinguished as follows:- PSM implies that inherent psychological factors govern behaviour through social institutions while PMS implies that material conditions are the mediators, and, therefore, it is thoughts or ideologies which dominate. When social conditions dominate the mediator may either be psychological or material factors. When material factors dominate, the mediator may either be psychological or social factors. The material, social and psychological conditions will all differ accordingly.

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Meta-Religion

 

It is well known that great inspired religious Teachers have arisen throughout the world, that the development of humanity is dependant on the new consciousness which they bring, and that these Teachers cannot be said to belong to any particular religion.

Despite the decline of religions in the conscious minds of people, it continues to have profound effects in the unconscious mind. There is a psychological need for it. The abandonment of a particular religion leads people to seek another or even to invent one or some substitute for themselves. The feeling that they belong to and are dependant on something greater than man with which they wish to associate themselves if only for well being and harmony, inner security or a sense of significance and value, that there is something sacred and mysterious about existence and consciousness is part and parcel of being human. It is probably also the case that there is subconscious realization that there are physiological rhythms and resonances with the Cosmic processes. The world is divided into large blocks according to their culture, and these are rooted in Religion. We have the Confucian-Buddhist Culture in China, Hinduism in India, Islam in the Middle East and Christianity in Europe in America. They have distinct characteristics. Religion, therefore, seems to be connected with the nature of geographical areas of the world. They are manifestations of some underlying psychological conditions.

Historically important events, too, are connected with the arising of religions. It is, however, not always clear whether these events are accidental or integral to the Religion. Religions represent some kind of organic force which governs human beings and their affairs on a global scale, but it has not been looked at and studied from this point of view. The Renaissance, The Age of Exploration which led to the discovery of America, Australia and New Zealand, and the spread of the Europeans to Africa and Asia, the various stages of the Industrial Revolution, the development of and revolutions in Science, all these involve the arising of some new impulse, a new spirit and consciousness which appears to be the product of an independent evolution.

Conventional Religion tends to be very restricted, intellectually as well as emotionally and in action. This is because of the limitations of the human mind. Reality is much vaster than can be comprehended by any man. The self-same kind of repression which was practiced, for instance, by the Christian Church against every other religion, sect, movement, doctrine or practice which it did not agree with, was practiced also by purely Political systems. Even Science progresses only against the opposition of prestigious Scientific bodies. The more systematized and comprehensive the doctrine is the greater is its oppressive power. Something similar, of course, happened to Islam too, though it ought not to have. How then do these new enlightened developments occur?

The modern world with its advances in Science, Technology and Arts could not have taken place until a liberation was achieved from the power of the Christian Church. This liberation began with the Renaissance and the Reformation in Europe. The Renaissance would have been impossible but for the encounter with Islam.

The modern world appears to have been created by the following sequence of events:-

A Political, Cultural, Economic and Spiritual explosion took place in the world following the introduction of Islam by a single man, the Prophet Muhammad. and a single book, the Quran. By his own admission he was merely a transmitter, not an originator, and yet he created a revolution in the world. It caused or facilitated the collapse of the old order and the Roman and other Empires which had dominated large populations of the world, and replaced it with an Islamic Empire which spread rapidly in a belt through the middle of the Old World, from Spain in the West, to Indonesia in the East. It collided with other Cultures and peoples and stimulated the reformation of Hinduism, Buddhism and Christianity. By admitting that there were valid religions throughout the world, Islam was not averse to absorbing Indian, Chinese Middle Eastern and European religious notions either. Islam emphasized learning and knowledge. Many of its leading lights, therefore, gathered it from where ever they found it. Not only were the Muslim countries favourably situated between east and west, north and south, the past and the present, and in the very areas where past civilizations had flourished, but through an extensive empire and trade routes they had access to all human achievements in the realm of ideas and arts. All past knowledge had been gathered, including that of the Greeks, Romans, Indians, Chinese, Babylonian and Egyptian. These were synthesized and developed further to some extent. The seeds of the modern world were sown.

Feeling the threat from an expanding Islam, the Christian nations mounted several Crusades against the Muslims, and eventually succeeded in stopping their physical expansion. This was aided by the very destructive Mongol invasions from which Muslim civilizations never recovered. Europe, however, was saved from this fate by the eventual defeat of the Mongols by the Muslims. The conflict with Islam brought Europeans into contact with Islamic ideas and Culture. New ideas from the Islamic world began to filter into Europe through the Universities established in Islamic Spain and other places. This caused both the Renaissance and the Reformation of Christianity. The Reformation broke the domination of the Catholic Church over the minds and the social interactions of the Europeans. It also produced what is called the Protestant Ethic in business. Its main features are that on the one hand frugality and self-restraint must be practiced and on the other hand there must be hard work, constant activity because the devil finds work for idle hands. Resources and talents were to be applied to useful purposes. In the parable of the Talents, the Bible itself condemns the man who did nothing useful with what he had. (Matthew 25:15-30). The result is the accumulation of Capital and its investment. This proved useful in producing the Industrial Revolution and exploiting the wealth of the newly discovered lands.

A second effect was that the Islamic Merchants introduced into Europe many rare goods. Islamic mercantilism was not an accident. It derives not only from the Prophet’s teachings and life, but from the spread of the Muslim Empire. The Prophet Muhammad extolled the virtues of Trade. Muhammad was himself a merchant and no doubt learnt much during his travels. Mercantilism carries goods, from where there are surpluses to where they are needed, it encourages enterprise, counteracts stagnation, facilitates the development of adventure and courage, it also broadens the mind of the traveler who comes in contact with so many different peoples and cultures. It increases knowledge and facilitates the exchange of ideas. Islamic traders traveled far and wide and brought the silks, spices and porcelain of the East to the West, thus creating the enthusiasm for trade in the West.

The third effect was due to the conquest of Constantinople in 1453 by the Turks. This closed the overland route from Europe to the East. European Merchants had to find alternative sea routs to the East. Thus the Age of Adventure began. This led to the discovery of America, Australia and Africa. It is unlikely, however, that this developments could have taken place but for the idea that the world was spherical and that the East could be reached by traveling west, ideas which also came from the Muslims.

Migration to, and exploitation of these lands was responsible for the Industrial revolution. In order to gain the resources and wealth which these new lands contained, the European Merchants had to start manufacturing the goods with which to trade. This stimulated mechanization. Since the immigrant populations were small, innovation and mechanization to do the work was encouraged. Industrialization encouraged centralization which made transport and communication more important. Methods of organization had to be improved. Government became more elaborate. Greater industrialization and organization also meant that universal education had to be undertaken. The needs of industrial competition made scientific research necessary, which in turn fed the industrialization process and the need for higher education. We now have a triad of factors, namely, Science, Organization and Mechanization which transformed life completely. The Jews played an important part in these developments. While they had equal and free citizenship under Islamic rule, they were persecuted and isolated in Europe. They were forced to devote themselves to the Sciences and Arts, and to Money lending and commerce. Capitalism owes a great deal to them. Marx and Engels, the founders of Communism, were Jews too. The influence of the Jews on the Modern World far outweighs their proportional numbers.

It cannot be claimed that all these transformation took place by accident. Nor is it claimed that the Prophet Muhammad himself intended these developments. Economic factors alone could not have produced such changes, though they played their part. Nor is it true to say that Reason alone is responsible, since reason cannot operate without a motive. It is unlikely that they could have taken place if the hold of the Catholic Church on the minds of the people had remained dominant. What inspires these developments was the subconscious idea that man has the capacity, and the destiny to transform the world, that he possesses the divine spark of initiative, creativity and responsibility. That he is, in fact, the Vicegerent. There appears to be a psychological process of development affecting mankind as a whole. In so far as mankind is an organ of this planet, its brain perhaps, we may regard the planet itself as developing psychologically. Individual human beings may be aware of the totality to various degrees in the same way as a single cell in the human brain may be aware of the total mind of the individual. There may be people in whom such awareness has developed to a relatively high degree, who guide and channel human history as mentioned in the article on Limits (Quran 18:61-83)

Unfortunately, among the majority of people consciousness tends to be confined to their own immediate affairs and is hypnotized by their own achievements. Man thinks he is god himself and no longer recognizes the source of his capacities. He mistakenly assumes that he can dictate to nature and dominate reality instead of cooperating with it. And he has to pay a heavy penalty for this error. The suffering which arise from wars, unrest, uprisings, revolutions, political upheavals, strikes and conflicts, neurosis, psychosis, corruption, crimes, violence, man-made accidents and industrial disasters, pollution, wastage of resource, the destruction of the ecosystems, and the consequent droughts, floods and storms, diseases, the collapse of economic systems and so on, cannot be attributed to anything but ignorance, the flouting of natural laws, to alienation. Their existence proves the relative impotence of man.

 

In order to understand Meta-religion, the following facts should be considered:-

1. The founders of the great religions cannot be regarded as belonging to any particular religion. The religions they founded, therefore, derive from something which is beyond religion, namely on revelation, consciousness of the greatness, mystery and sacredness of objective reality, and of the world process in general. They can be regarded as conscious organs, spokesmen of the world process.

“Say: Lo! The guidance of Allah Himself is sufficient Guidance.”  2:120

2. The Great Teachers have appeared at strategic times in the history of mankind when some kind of dead end appears to have been reached, and changed the course of historical development.

3. All the Great Teachers, Buddha, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad, introduced two separate sets of teachings:- The Secret or Esoteric which was given only to a select number of companions, and a set of teachings which was made more generally available, and may be called the Mesoteric teaching to distinguish it from the ordinary worldly ideas current in the society. The words of one of the companions of the Prophet Muhammad confirming this have already been quoted elsewhere and so has Quran 18: 64-82. The secret doctrine used to be hidden in India among some Yogis and in ancient Egypt it was held by a class of Priests. There is evidence in History that there was a struggle between secret Monotheism and the more popular superstitious religion of the common man. The Hebrews distinguished and isolated themselves by adhering to strict monotheism and were persecuted for this until they left under the guidance of Moses and Aaron to set up a separate nation. Moses is said to have learnt all the wisdom of the Egyptians and may be regarded as embodying the Esoteric tradition which was later incorporated into the Essene sect. Aaron on the other hand, together with the Levites, one of the Hebrew tribes, became the Priests and represent the Mesoteric aspect of Hebrewism. John the Baptist and Jesus probably emerged out of the Essenes. The Esoteric tradition appears to have continued in Christianity among the Gnostics, and in Islam, among the Sufis. However, we must beware, any one can clam to be a Sufi and yet have nothing whatever to do with the Esoteric tradition.

4. That the religious teachings having been introduced into the world affected and were affected by the psychological, political and economic influences current in the society. The result was that though these religious teachings had some transforming effects on these factors, they were also transformed and corrupted by them. The actual teachings, practices and institutions of the various religions are quite unlike those taught by the Founders. The word ‘religion’ is normally applied to this, and we shall call it Exoteric religion. The Christians religion, for instance, was wholly transformed after it became the established Church in the Roman Empire under Constantine. It acquired prestige, wealth and power. Those who became authorities in this religion found it necessary in order to protect their prestige and power to persecute the Esoteric as well as the Mesoteric tradition. Similar changes also took place in Islam. Fortunately, however, they were unable to tamper with the Quran and the Hadith as others had done with their religious literature.

 

It is, therefore, possible to distinguish between two opposite forces at work in the world, and a third which is a synthesis of the two.

A - Those coming from a spiritual or psychological source. These have their own history. The continuity between Hebrewism, Christianity and Islam is relatively easy to trace. But they are also connected with Hinduism, Zoroastrianism and Buddhism.

B - Those coming from the worldly or secular source. These are economic and political in nature. There is a continuity here also.

C - Those which are a resultant of the interaction between the other two. They create the culture and social life. But this must, nevertheless, be thought of as an independent factor since it has its own continuity.

Indeed, we may divide humanity itself into these three categories. Those working at level, A are few in number and remain invisible to the rest of humanity, mainly because they cannot recognize them or the fields in which they operate. History generally studies Influences B, the political and economic struggles of people. The history of Culture, of science and art, is usually a specialist subject, not widely known. The history of Religion, however, is only studied in its exoteric manifestation, where it appears merely as a facet of the political or economic struggle, or as an aspect of the culture. The real history of mankind, of their development, remains hidden. This cannot, of course be otherwise while inner forces are not recognized.

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Irreligion

 

A great proportion of human beings in the modern secular age ignore religion altogether because they do not understand it. They do not behave in a conscious, deliberate and self-controlled manner. If they deliberately ignore or flout it then this, too, is a form of religion. However, human beings behave in two other ways, namely, according to instincts and impulses or according to the way they have been conditioned by experiences. In both cases they act below their capacities in an automatic and mechanical manner which may be perverse because of channeling through various accidental psychological associations. They can contradict their own nature. For instance they can acquire desires, tastes or habits of thought, feeling and action which are detrimental to their own welfare. They can even punish themselves unconsciously and destroy themselves by committing suicide. However, self-destruction is also a natural process. Things which do not conform or are maladjusted degenerate and are destroyed, thereby releasing the materials and energies for new construction.

An unreligious activity is one which is not consciously guided by a comprehensive view of the nature of reality, of man and a person’s relationship with reality. It is, therefore, one which has no inner value system, purpose or goal, though an external purpose continues to exist as in all other organisms or artifacts, A car, for instance, has no purpose of its own, but only the one given to it by its owner or user. The purpose of an organism in the scheme of things may be to transform certain kinds of materials and energies and to be eaten by some other organism. But man has the capacity to determine a purpose for himself. Though limited inner purposes and goals certainly exist, there is no conscious justification for these. They may and do, therefore, lead to futility or self-contradiction. The desire, thought or action becomes an end in itself. It is mechanical, automatic or impulsive behaviour. They, like drift wood, move wherever the tide and wind blows them. They cannot control anything, but are controlled by other persons, things and events. The distinction between human beings and animals ceases to operate. It is impossible for them either to recognize their problems or to have the desire and ability to solve them.

There are three ways in which things can be regarded:- as dead and inert objects, as living organisms, and as conscious beings. A person regards himself as a conscious being, having a centre of integration, control and initiative. Many people distinguish and separate all other things, including animals and other human beings, as belonging to the category of inanimate things. They can then use them without considering the nature and value of the object itself. The ability to see and feel the sensitivity of living things is usually low. This creates a particular attitude to life in general. No person has any value except for the use he or the industrial system can make of him, and only his profitability to someone else is important. Life is cheap since it is plentiful, and all kinds of harshness and violence in action and speech become normal. The ability to see and feel the divine spark in other human beings, and in nature in general, is even less active. It is both the result and the cause of irreligion. This seems to be connected with self-idolatry. However, since it is an attitude which governs their life, it is also a form of religion. It is not atheism since it does have a god.

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