Arthur Schopenhauer on Religion

RELIGIONReligion ‘The word ( θρησκεία) -Re Legion (Latin)- A group or Collection or a brigade, is a social-cultural construction and substantially doesn’t exist. Catholic religion (संघवाद) is different from the Protestant religion (संघवाद). Dharma is not Religion (धार्मिक संगठन). "Religion" occurs 5 times in 5 verses in the KJV. Hindu Religion means in the indian language is हिंदू धार्मिक संगठन. Deen in Islam. A DIALOGUE.

Demopheles. Between ourselves, dear old friend, I am sometimes dissatisfied with you in your capacity as philosopherPhilosophy Metaphysics (Matter), Epistemology (knowledge of knowledge), Ethics (Sense of Good or Bad), Logic ( structure of reasoning) > Philosophers: Plato Aristotle Aquinas Locke Marx  Hume Mill  Kant Wittgenstein Descartes Nietzsche Sartre. Disciplines:  Philosophy of Law. Philosophy of Feminism. Philosophy of Religion. Philosophy of Science. Philosophy of Mind. Philosophy of Literature. Political Philosophy. Philosophy of the Arts. Philosophy of History. Philosophy of Language. Theology Vs Philosophy ; you talk sarcastically about religion, nay, openly ridicule it. The religion of every one is sacred to him, and so it should be to you.

Philalethes. Nego consequentiam! I don’t see at all why I should have respect for lies and frauds because other peopleMen Ανθρωποι (People), a woman (γυναίκα), Man (Ανδρας) > Adama, Manu > No proof to establish that due to mutation a monkey turned into a human being. are stupidStupid Only Stupid (Χαζος) people know everything. It is a state of mind without reasoning. Often smart and rich people behave like they are devoid of understanding. Those depending too much on AI would end up with Alzheimer's disease. Why is it? Is It due to a lack of religion? Or bad schooling? Or perverse emotions? Or ill health? Or inane traditions? Or corruption of customs and manners? Or superstition? Or poverty? Or ignorance? Or decayed endocrine glands? Or an obscure trend in mutations and chromosomes? (Walter B. Pitkin 1932). Is self-analysis available to them? > Evidentiary value of statement given by a Stupid > Sense of security by behaving like a stupid.. I respect truthTruth Mathematical 'truth' may not be agreeable with the philosophical 'truth.' A question may be asked on propositional 'truth' on the grounds of physics, that space and time actually don't exist. Vedic injunction Satyam Param Dhimahi, technically Satya is none other than Brahman. For Madhymic Buddhists there is nothing as such to be called 'truth', as all the corresponding facts are only mental projections. Apart from Bio-neuroelectricity nothing exists for Biological Cognition. So-called religious truths are nothing more than a marketing strategy. everywhere, and it is precisely for that reason that I cannot respect anything that is opposed to it. My maxim is, Vigeat veritas, et pereat mundus, the same as the lawyer’s Fiat justitia, et pereat mundus. Every profession ought to have an analogous device.

Demop. Then that of the medical profession would be, Fiant pilulae, et pereat mundus, which would be the easiest to carry out.

Phil. HeavenHeaven स्वर्गे लोके न भयं किञ्चनास्ति न तत्र त्वं न जरया बिभेति । उभे तीर्त्वा अशनायापिपासे शोकातिगो मोदते स्वर्गलोके ॥ १२ ॥ (Kathopanishad). स्वर्ग (Swarga) is neither physical nor a spiritual place or entity. In Torah Elohim is the creator of  שמים shamayim (Sky). Heavenly father = pater caelestis (Ουράνιος πατέρας) in NT. Christian heaven is a Paradisus/Park/παράδεισος where Trinity lives. جَنَّة (Janna) is the place, somewhere in sky where awarded people will get a place. forbid! Everything must be taken cum grano salis.

Demop. Exactly; and it is just for that reason that I want you to accept religion cum grano salis, and to see that the needs of the people must be met according to their powers of comprehension. Religion affords the only means of proclaiming and making the masses of crude minds and awkward intelligences, sunk in petty pursuits and material work, feel the high import of life. For the ordinary type of man, primarily, has no thoughtThinking Human beings began conscious thought as far back as sixty million years ago. By around three hundred thousand years ago, humans inhabiting the Indian subcontinent had developed forms of cognition comparable to those of the modern age, including awareness of competition, defense, and collective security. These early communities were capable of abstract observation, such as counting stars in the night sky, and engaged in reflective discussion about everyday experiences, including the flavors and qualities of food, indicating a sophisticated mental and social life. for anything else but what satisfies his physical needs and longings, and accordingly affords him a little amusement and pastime. Founders of religion and philosophersPhilosophy Metaphysics (Matter), Epistemology (knowledge of knowledge), Ethics (Sense of Good or Bad), Logic ( structure of reasoning) > Philosophers: Plato Aristotle Aquinas Locke Marx  Hume Mill  Kant Wittgenstein Descartes Nietzsche Sartre. Disciplines:  Philosophy of Law. Philosophy of Feminism. Philosophy of Religion. Philosophy of Science. Philosophy of Mind. Philosophy of Literature. Political Philosophy. Philosophy of the Arts. Philosophy of History. Philosophy of Language. Theology Vs Philosophy come into the worldWorld Κόσμος to shake him out of his torpidity and show him the high significance of existence: philosophers for the few, the emancipated; founders of religion for the many, humanityHuman Ο άνθρωπος (Humanum> Homo sapiens) मानव:. We have failed to consider the minimum need to be a 'human'. For Christians, human beings are sinful creatures, who need some saviour. For Evolution biology a man is still evolving, for what, we don´t know. For Buddhist Nagarjuna, the realisation of having a human body is a mere mental illusion. We are not ready to accept that a human is a computer made of meat. For a slave master, a human person is another animal, his sons and daughters are his personal property.             at large. For φιλοσοφον πληθος ἀδυνατον εἰναι, as your friend Plato has said, and you should not forget it. Religion is the metaphysics of the people, which by all means they must keep; and hence it must be eternally respected, for to discredit it means taking it away. Just as there is popular poetry, popular wisdom in proverbs, so too there must be popular metaphysics; for mankind requires most certainly an interpretation of life, and it must be in keeping with its powerPower The amount of energy transferred or converted per unit of time. In the International System of Units, the unit of it is the watt, equal to one joule per second. The capacity of energy infrastructure is rated using watts, which indicate its potential to supply or consume energy in a given period of time. A Power-plant rated at 100 MW has the potential to produce 100 MWh if it operates for one hour. of comprehension. So that this interpretation is at all times an allegorical investiture of the truth, and it fulfils, as far as practical life and our feelings are concerned—that is to say, as a guidance in our affairs, and as a comfort and consolation in suffering and death—perhaps just as much as truth itself could, if we possessed it. Don’t be hurt at its unpolished, baroque, and apparently absurd form, for you, with your education and learningLearning Educational learning theories: Cognitive Learning Theory, Behaviorism Learning Theory, Constructivism Learning Theory, Humanism Learning Theory, Connectivism Learning Theory, Transformative Learning Theory, Social Learning Theory, Experiential Learning Theory., cannot imagine the roundabout ways that must be used in order to make people in their crude state understand deep truths. The various religions are only various forms in which the people grasp and understand the truth, which in itself they could not grasp, and which is inseparable from these forms. Therefore, my dear fellow, don’t be displeased if I tell you that to ridicule these forms is both narrow-minded and unjust.

Phil. But is it not equally narrow-minded and unjust to require that there shall be no other metaphysics but this one cut out to meet the needs and comprehension of the people? that its teachings shall be the boundary of humanHuman Ο άνθρωπος (Humanum> Homo sapiens) मानव:. We have failed to consider the minimum need to be a 'human'. For Christians, human beings are sinful creatures, who need some saviour. For Evolution biology a man is still evolving, for what, we don´t know. For Buddhist Nagarjuna, the realisation of having a human body is a mere mental illusion. We are not ready to accept that a human is a computer made of meat. For a slave master, a human person is another animal, his sons and daughters are his personal property.             researches and the standard of all thought, so that the metaphysics of the few, the emancipated, as you call them, must aim at confirming, strengthening, and interpreting the metaphysics of the people? That is, that the highest faculties of the human mindMind We know nothing about its origin, growth, or demise. Where it lives, can it live without a brain? Possibly, the mind is the soul and spirit. See Consciousness must remain unused and undeveloped, nay, be nipped in the bud, so that their activity may not thwart the popular metaphysics? And at bottom are not the claims that religion makes just the same? Is it right to have tolerance, nay, gentle forbearance, preached by what is intolerance and crueltyCruelty Physical, mental, social itself? Let me remind you of the heretical tribunals, inquisitions, religious warsWar Whenever Christians wage a war, it is a Just war (City of God). Jesus asked his followers to purchase swords (Luke 22: 35-36). Those who legitimately hold authority also have the right to use arms to repel aggressors against the civil community entrusted to their responsibility (Catechism 2265). Without Jihad there is no Islam. In Mahabharata, Krishna tried to stop the War imposed by Kurus. Lord Rama killed Ravan in the war to restore his wife. Deva and Asura battles are not available in Vedas. and crusades, of Socrates’ cup of poison, of Bruno’s and Vanini’s death in the flames. And is all this to-day something belonging to the past? What can stand more in the way of genuine philosophical effort, honest inquiry after truth, the noblest calling of the noblest of mankind, than this conventional system of metaphysics invested with a monopoly from the State, whose principles are inculcated so earnestly, deeply, and firmly into every head in earliest youth as to make them, unless the mind is of miraculous elasticity, become ineradicable? The result is that the basis of healthy reasoning is once and for all deranged—in other words, its feeble capacity for thinkingThinking Human beings began conscious thought as far back as sixty million years ago. By around three hundred thousand years ago, humans inhabiting the Indian subcontinent had developed forms of cognition comparable to those of the modern age, including awareness of competition, defense, and collective security. These early communities were capable of abstract observation, such as counting stars in the night sky, and engaged in reflective discussion about everyday experiences, including the flavors and qualities of food, indicating a sophisticated mental and social life. for itself, and for unbiassed judgmentJudgment The statement given by the Judge on the grounds of a decree or order - CPC 2(9). It contains a concise statement of the case, points for determination, the decision thereon, and the reasons for such decision - Order 20 Rule 4(2).  Section 354 of CrPC requires that every judgment shall contain points for determination, the decision thereon and the reasons for the decision. Indian Supreme Court Decisions > Law declared by Supreme Court to be binding on all courts (Art 141 Indian Constitution) Civil and judicial authorities to act in aid of the Supreme Court (Art 144) Supreme Court Network On Judiciary – Portal > Denning: “Judges do not speak, as do actors, to please. They do not speak, as do advocates, to persuade. They do not speak, as do historians, to recount the past. They speak to give Judgment. And in their judgments, you will find passages, which are worthy to rank with the greatest literature….” Law Points on Judgment Writing > The judge must write to provide an easy-to-understand analysis of the issues of law and fact which arise for decision. Judgments are primarily meant for those whose cases are decided by judges (State Bank of India and Another Vs Ajay Kumar Sood SC 2022) in regard to everything to which it might be applied, is for ever paralysed and ruined.

Demop, Which really means that the people have gained a conviction which they will not give up in order to accept yours in its place.

Phil. Ah! if it were only conviction based on insight, one would then be able to bring forward argumentsArguments It is not quarreling. It can be divided into Deductive, inductive, and conductive > Functional includes include: “because”, “since”, “for”, and “as”; typical conclusion indicators include “therefore”, “thus”, “hence”, and “so”. पंच अवयव तर्कः प्रतिज्ञा हेतू उदाहरणम् निगमनम् अवयवाः > premises to conclusion or conclusion to premises to Proof something. Proof is a derivation of a conclusion from premises through a valid argument. and fight the battle with equal weapons. But religions admittedly do not lend themselves to conviction after argumentArguments It is not quarreling. It can be divided into Deductive, inductive, and conductive > Functional includes include: “because”, “since”, “for”, and “as”; typical conclusion indicators include “therefore”, “thus”, “hence”, and “so”. पंच अवयव तर्कः प्रतिज्ञा हेतू उदाहरणम् निगमनम् अवयवाः > premises to conclusion or conclusion to premises to Proof something. Proof is a derivation of a conclusion from premises through a valid argument. has been brought to bear, but to belief as brought about by revelation. The capacity for belief is strongest in childhood; therefore one is most careful to take possession of this tender age. It is much more through this than through threats and reports of miracles that the doctrines of belief take root. If in early childhood certain fundamental views and doctrines are preached with unusual solemnity and in a manner of great earnestness, the like of which has never been seen before, and if, too, the possibility of a doubt about them is either completely ignored or only touched upon in order to show that doubt is the first step to everlasting perdition; the result is that the impression will be so profound that, as a rule, that is to say in almost every case, a man will be almost as incapable of doubting the truth of those doctrines as he is of doubting his own existence. Hence it is scarcely one in many thousands that has the strength of mind to honestly and seriously ask himself—is that true? Those who are able to do this have been more appropriately styled strong minds, esprits forts, than is imagined. For the commonplace mind, however, there is nothing so absurd or revolting but what, if inoculated in this way, the firmest belief in it will take root. If, for example, the killing of a heretic or an infidel were an essential matterMatter Normal matter is made of molecules, which are themselves made of atoms. Inside the atoms, electrons are spinning around the nucleus. The nucleus is made of protons and neutrons. Inside the protons and neutrons, exist indivisible quarks, like the electrons. All matter around us is made of elementary particles. ( building blocks of matter > quarks and leptons). All stable matter in the universe is made from particles that belong to the first-generation. Fundamental forces result from the exchange of force-carrier particles, which belong to a broader group called “bosons”. The strong force is carried by the “gluon”, electromagnetic force is carried by the “photon.” for the future salvationSalvation σωτηρίας (σωτηρᾱ), Moksha in Sanskrit, Moksha can not be achieved without performing Dharma, acquiring Artha ( money and meaning in life), enjoying Kama (fulfilling desires according to Dharma). αἴτιος σωτηρίας (Philo) - Delivery from molestation. Σωτηρίας- Safety money. paying the cost to the Father God for worldly safety and delivery from slavery.  of the soulSoul Abraham, having wept a short time over his wife’s body, soon rose up from the corpse; thinking, as it should seem, that to mourn any longer would be inconsistent with that wisdom by which he had been taught that he was not to look upon death as the extinction of the soul, but rather as a separation and disjunction of it from the body, returning back to the region from whence it came; and it came, from God. (Philo) न जायते म्रियते वा कदाचिन्-नायं भूत्वा भविता वा न भूयः-अजो नित्यः शाश्वतोयं पुराणो-न हन्यते हन्यमाने शरीरे (Gita 2.20 ), almost every one would make it the principal object of his life, and in dying get consolation and strength from the remembrance of his having succeeded; just as, in truth, in former times almost every Spaniard looked upon an auto da fé as the most pious of acts and one most pleasing to GodGod People in most cultures believe in the existence of supernatural beings and other supernatural concepts. God is attributed to both anthropomorphic properties (“listens to prayers”) and non-anthropomorphic properties (“knows everything”). Conceptualizing God is associated with willingness to get the COVID-19 vaccine or Vaccine hesitancy. Pope requested people not to practice “Jesus is my vaccine”. For the Jewish, family (Avestan universal) god became national God:  I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,”(ex 3:15).  See Ishwar. .

We have an analogy to this in IndiaIndia Hind/ hend >hindia. Bharat Varsha (Jambudvipa used in Mahavamsha) is the name of this land mass. The people of this land are Sanatan Dharmin and they always defeated invaders. Indra (10000 yrs) was the oldest deified King of this land. Manu's jurisprudence enlitened this land. Vedas have been the civilizational literature of this land. Guiding principles of this land are : सत्यं वद । धर्मं चर । स्वाध्यायान्मा प्रमदः । The place also been called Hindusthan in Pesia. The word Hendu is mentioned in Avesta. Read more in the Thugs, a religious body quite recently suppressed by the English, who executed numbers of them. They showed their regard for religion and veneration for the goddess Kali by assassinating at every opportunity their own friends and fellow-travellers, so that they might obtain their possessions, and they were seriously convinced that thereby they had accomplished something that was praiseworthy and would contribute to their eternal welfare. The power of religious dogmaDogma It is a set of ideas that the person who holds those ideas will not permit to be criticized. Do you have evidence against my beliefs? I don't want to hear them. Do you notice some logical flaws in my arguments? Dogmas are common in religion and politics but have no place in science! Science should always be open to new evidence and criticism. Science isn't "Truth;" it is just a movement in that general direction. When someone claims they have "Truth," science comes to a grinding halt., that has been inculcated early, is so great that it destroys conscienceConscience The mind (depending on bio-electricity) can not work without memory and information, but consciousness can. Dreams come from consciousness. Conscience, in its moral sense, is the innate human ability to discern right from wrong and, based on this awareness, to guide, monitor, evaluate, and regulate one’s actions accordingly. Read: Mind is man., and finally all compassion and sense of humanity. But if you wish to see with your own eyes, and close at hand, what early inoculation of belief does, look at the English. Look at this nationNation A collective consciousness, founded in ancient origin within a geographic area, with definite history and heritage, culture and way of life, language and literature, food and clothing, coupled with a deep understanding of war and peace is to be known as a nation. Rasra is the Vedic word for it., favoured by nature before all others, endowed before all others with reason, intelligence, power of judgment, and firmness of character; look at these people degraded, nay, made despicable among all others by their stupid ecclesiastical superstition, which among their other capacities appears like a fixed idea, a monomania. For this they have to thank the clergy in whose hands education is, and who take care to inculcate all the articles, of belief at the earliest age in such a way as to result in a kind of partial paralysis of the brain; this then shows itself throughout their whole life in a silly bigotry, making even extremely intelligent and capable people among them degrade themselves so that they become quite an enigma to us. If we consider how essential to such a masterpiece is inoculation of belief in the tender age of childhood, the system of missions appears no longer merely as the height of human importunity, arrogance, and impertinence, but also of absurdity; in so far as it does not confine itself to people who are still in the stage of childhood, such as the Hottentots, Kaffirs, South Sea Islanders, and others like them, among whom it has been really successful. While, on the other hand, in India the Brahmans receive the doctrines of missionaries either with a smile of condescending approval or refuse them with a shrug of their shoulders; and among these people in general, notwithstanding the most favourable circumstances, the missionaries’ attempts at conversion are usually wrecked. An authentic report in vol. xxi. of the Asiatic Journal of 1826 shows that after so many years of missionary activity in the whole of India (of which the English possessions alone amount to one hundred and fifteen millionMillion 1,000,000 (one followed by six zeros), One billion (1,000,000,000) means a thousand million or one followed by nine zeros. A trillion (1,000,000,000,000) inhabitants) there are not more than three hundred living converts to be found; and at the same timeTime χρόνος. Judicial: Where any expression of it occurs in any Rules, or any judgment, order or direction, and whenever the doing or not doing of anything at a certain time of the day or night or during a certain part of the day or night has an effect in law, that time is, unless it is otherwise specifically stated, held to be standard time as used in a particular country or state. (In Physics, time and Space never exist actually-“quantum entanglement”) यमः , पुं, (यमयति नियमयति जीवानां फलाफलमिति । यम् + अच् । विश्वे च कलयत्येव यः सर्व्वायुश्च सन्ततम् । अतीव दुर्निवार्य्यञ्च तं कालं प्रणमाम्यहम् ॥यमैश्च नियमैश्चैव यः करोत्यात्मसंयमम् । स चादृष्ट्वा तु मां याति परं ब्रह्म सनातनम् ॥ it is admitted that the ChristianChristian A person who believes that Jesus died to remission his/her sin/debt. The People of Antioch were called for the first time as 'Christians', in or around 300 CE. converts are distinguished for their extreme immorality. There are only three hundred venal and bribed souls out of so many millions. I cannot see that it has gone better with ChristianityChristianity Basic features: the incarnation of the Word becomes a man in a definite person and his sacrifice on the cross for the redemption of sinful mankind. Whether the theology, organisation, or reading materials, everything formed in Alexandria (read Philo) in or around 80 CE. The term Christian was not used before the first quarter of the 2nd Century (Antioch/Antakya). It was the outcome of three Jewish-Roman wars, namely, 'The Great Revolt' (66-70 CE), the  'Kitos War'( 115-117 CE), and 'Bar Kochba Revolt' of 132-135 CE. After the Bar Kochba revolt, It became a distinct sect from Judaism. In 30 BCE Greek became the language of Alexandria. NT was written in this language and the passion of the Christ was first performed here. The legacy of Clement (159-215 CE) and Origen ((185-254 CE) was to be noted. in India since then, although the missionaries are now trying, contrary to agreementContract An agreement enforceable by law is a contract. All agreements are contracts if they are made by the free consent of parties competent to contract, for a lawful consideration and with a lawful object, and are not hereby expressly declared to be void. Indian Contract Act., to work on the children’s minds in schools exclusively devoted to secularRegular Regulated by Christian law and practices, the opposite meaning of Secular. A regulated government accepts Vaticanism, the control under the papal monarchy. A secular government is free from papal intervention. English instruction, in order to smuggle in Christianity, against which, however, the Hindoos are most jealously on their guard. For, as has been said, childhood is the time, and not manhood, to sow the seeds of belief, especially where an earlier belief has taken root. An acquired conviction, however, that is assumed by matured converts serves, generally, as only the mask for some kind of personal interest. And it is the feeling that this could hardly be otherwise that makes a man, who changes his religion at maturity, despised by most people everywhere; a factFact Something तथ्य (In-formation) that truly exists or happens or some-thing that has actual existence. Circumstances: a fact or event that makes a situation the way it is. Indian Evidence Act: It means and includes— (i) anything, state of things, or relation of things, capable of being perceived by the senses; (ii) any mental condition of which any person is conscious. “facts in issue” means and includes any fact from which, either by itself or in connection with other facts, the existence, non-existence, nature or extent of any right, liability or disability, asserted or denied in any suit or proceeding, necessarily follows. which reveals that they do not regard religion as a matter of reasoned conviction but merely as a belief inoculated in early childhood, before it has been put to any test. That they are right in looking at religion in this way is to be gathered from the fact that it is not only the blind, credulous masses, but also the clergy of every religion, who, as such, have studied its sources, arguments, dogmas and differences, who cling faithfully and zealously as a body to the religion of their fatherland; consequently it is the rarest thing in the world for a priestPriest A typical church official cadre receives salary/ maintenance from the church fund. In Sanatan society, there is no concept of ordained priest. In Rig Veda, Agni is called Purohita (1.1) A पुरोहित performs Yagna Karma. In Ramayana and Mahabharata, a पुरोहित is a Minister of the king's administration. Vasistha was पुरोहित to King Dasaratha. to change from one religion or creedCreed Akida > it comes first, then Book. to another. For instance, we see that the Catholic clergy are absolutely convinced of the truth of all the principles of their ChurchChurch "Εκκλησία του Δήμου">assembly of people in Greece. Creedal political organizations of Christian People (Ecclesia) were created in Rome around 350 CE with a reading manual (NT !) under a local leader (Bishop) within Roman provinces. A church building is also called a 'church'. The church is the body of Christ and this Doctrine of the catholic church was added around 400 CE. Christian groups are divided into Roman Catholics, Orthodox, and countless (45,000+) reformed denominations. A church is maintained by donations and taxation from its members., and that the Protestants are also of theirs, and that both defend the principles of their confession with like zeal. And yet the conviction is the outcome merely of the country in which each is born: the truth of the Catholic dogma is perfectly clear to the clergy of South Germany, the ProtestantProtestant Christianity Lutherans, Calvinists, Anglicans, and Anabaptists. Contemporary Protestant Christianity: “Evangelical,” “Fundamentalist,” “Liberal,” or “Conservative,” to the clergy of North Germany. If, therefore, these convictions rest on objective reasons, these reasons must be climatic and thrive like plants, some only here, some only there. The masses everywhere, however, accept on trustTrust It originated and was reduced to practice under the jurisdiction of courts by the civil law, was expanded and developed in the courts of chancery, and has been employed in nearly every field of human activity. The fundamental nature of a trust is the division of title, with the trustee being the holder of legal title and the beneficiary that of equitable title. By definition, the creation of a trust must involve a conveyance of property. > Trust Deed ∫ Having trust/faith/confidence in something and faithFaith  πίστει. the convictions of those who are locally convinced.

Demop. That doesn’t matter, for essentially it makes no difference. For instance, Protestantism in reality is more suited to the north, Catholicism to the south.

Phil. So it appears. Still, I take a higher point of view, and have before me a more important object, namely, the progress of the knowledgeKnowledge Knowledge is derived from the process of an informed person integrating data from sense organs or intuition into their psyche. This concept is explored in the Vedic Nasadiya Sukta, which questions the possibility of ultimate truth or knowledge. In different languages, such as Greek, Latin, Sanskrit, and Chinese, knowledge is expressed as "η γνώση," "Scientia," "ज्ञानम्‌ ," and "知识 Zhīshì," respectively. of truth among the human raceRace It is a major subdivision of mankind, regarded as having a common origin, and is made up of individuals who have a relatively constant combination of physical traits that are handed on from parents to children. Ethnicity and race are often thought of as one and the same, but they do not consistently have the same meaning. Ethnicity refers to cultural features while race has biological as well as cultural components.. It is a frightful condition of things that, wherever a man is born, certain propositions are inculcated in his earliest youth, and he is assured that under penalty of forfeiting eternal salvation he may never entertain any doubt about them; in so far, that is, as they are propositions which influence the foundation of all our other knowledge and accordingly decide for ever our point of view, and if they are false, upset it for ever. Further, as the influences drawn from these propositions make inroads everywhere into the entire system of our knowledge, the whole of human knowledge is through and through affected by them. This is provedProved A fact is said to be proved when, after considering the matters before it, the Court either believes it to exist, or considers its existence so probable that a prudent man ought, under the circumstances of the particular case, to act upon the supposition that it exists; by every literature, and most conspicuously by that of the Middle Age, but also, in too great an extent, by that of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. We see how paralysed even the minds of the first rank of all those epochs were by such false fundamental conceptions; and how especially all insight into the true substance and working of Nature was hemmed in on every side. During the whole of the Christian period Theism lay like a kind of oppressive nightmare on all intellectual effort, and on philosophical effort in particular, hindering and arresting all progress. For the men of learning of those epochs, God, devilDevil Personified Evil in popular Roman Catholic Religion or a fallen angel from Heaven. Hebrew שָּׂטָן - is only an 'Opposition' or 'Prosecutor' or an Adversary and not Evil. The term in 1 Samuel 29:4; 2 Samuel 19:22; 1 Kings 5:4; 1 Kings 11:14, 23, 25; Psalms 109:6 and Numbers 22:22 is for denoting an Angel of Jehovah. Septuagint translated it as diabolos. In Matthew, 16:23 Jesus identified St. Peter as Saitan (Iblis in Quran)., angels, demons, hid the whole of Nature; no investigationInvestigation Purpose of all investigation is to reveal the unvarnished truth. The constitutional courts are duty bound to ensure that the truth is revealed. was carried out to the end, no matter sifted to the bottom; everything that was beyond the most obvious causal nexus was immediatelyForthwith In Rao Mahmood Ahmad Khan v. Ranbir Singh , has held that the word ‘forthwith’ is synonymous with the word immediately, which means with all reasonable quickness. When a statute requires something to be done ‘forthwith’ or ‘immediately’ or even ‘instantly’, it should probably be understood as allowing a reasonable time for doing it. The interpretation of the word ‘forthwith’ would depend upon the terrain in which it travels and would take its colour depending upon the prevailing circumstances which can be variable. (Shento Varghese v. Julfikar Husen & Ors [2024] 6 S.C.R. 409). Anwar Ahmad v. State of UP [1976] 1 SCR 779 : AIR (1976) SC 680; Nevada Properties (P) Ltd. v. State of Maharashtra & Anr. [2019] 15 SCR 223 : (2019) 20 SCC 119; State of Maharashtra v. Tapas D. Neogy [1999] Supp. 2 SCR 609 : 1999 INSC 417; Ravinder Kumar & Anr. v. State of Punjab [2001] Supp. 2 SCR 463 : (2001) 7 SCC 690; Bhajan Singh and Ors. v. State of Haryana [2011] 7 SCR 1 : 2011 INSC 422; HN Rishbud v. State of Delhi [1955] 1 SCR 1150 : (1954) 2 SCC 934; Sk. Salim v. State of West Bengal [1975] 3 SCR 394 : (1975) 1 SCC 653; China Apparao and Others v. State of Andhra Pradesh [2002] Supp. 3 SCR 175 : (2002) 8 SCC 440; Navalshankar Ishwarlal Dave v. State of Gujarat [1993] 3 SCR 676 : 1993 Supp. 3 SCC 754; Rao Mahmood Ahmad Khan v. Ranbir Singh [1995] 2 SCR 230 : (1995) Supp. 4 SCC 275; Bidya Deb Barma v. District Magistrate [1969] 1 SCR 562 : (1968) SCC OnLine SC 82.  attributed to these; so that, as Pomponatius expressed himself at the time, Certe philosophi nihil verisimile habent ad haec, quare necesse est, ad Deum, ad angelos et daemones recurrere. It is true that there is a suspicion of irony in what this man says, as his malice in other ways is known, nevertheless he has expressed the general way of thinking of his age. If any one, on the other hand, possessed that rare elasticity of mind which alone enabled him to free himself from the fetters, his writings, and he himself with them, were burnt; as happened to Bruno and Vanini. But how absolutely paralysed the ordinary mind is by that early metaphysical preparation may be seen most strikingly, and from its most ridiculous side, when it undertakes to criticise the doctrines of a foreign belief. One finds the ordinary man, as a rule, merely trying to carefully prove that the dogmas of the foreign belief do not agree with those of his own; he labours to explain that not only do they not say the same, but certainly do not mean the same thing as his. With that he fancies in his simplicity that he has proved the falsity of the doctrines of the alien belief. It really never occurs to him to ask the question which of the two is right; but his own articles of belief are to him as à priori certain principles. The Rev. Mr. Morrison has furnished an amusing example of this kind in vol. xx. of the Asiatic Journal wherein he criticises the religion and philosophyPhilosophy Metaphysics (Matter), Epistemology (knowledge of knowledge), Ethics (Sense of Good or Bad), Logic ( structure of reasoning) > Philosophers: Plato Aristotle Aquinas Locke Marx  Hume Mill  Kant Wittgenstein Descartes Nietzsche Sartre. Disciplines:  Philosophy of Law. Philosophy of Feminism. Philosophy of Religion. Philosophy of Science. Philosophy of Mind. Philosophy of Literature. Political Philosophy. Philosophy of the Arts. Philosophy of History. Philosophy of Language. Theology Vs Philosophy of the Chinese.

Demop. So that’s your higher point of view. But I assure you that there is a higher still. Primum vivere, deinde philosophari is of more comprehensive significance than one supposes at first sight. Before everything else, the raw and wicked tendencies of the masses ought to be restrained, in order to protect them from doing anything that is extremely unjust, or committing cruel, violent, and disgraceful deeds. If one waited until they recognised and grasped the truth one would assuredly come too late. And supposing they had already found truth, it would surpass their powers of comprehension. In any case it would be a mere allegorical investiture of truth, a parable, or a myth that would be of any good to them. There must be, as Kant has said, a public standard of right and virtueVirtue Aristotelian model: Excess Mean Deficiency >Irascibility Gentleness Spiritlessness >Rashness Courage Cowardice>Shamelessness Modesty Diffidence>Profligacy Temperance Insensitiveness>Envy Righteous Indignation Malice>Greed Justice Loss>Prodigality Liberality Meanness>Boastfulness Honesty Self-deprecation>Flattery Friendliness Surliness>Subservience Dignity Stubborness>Luxuriousness Hardness Endurance>Vanity Greatness of Spirit Smallness of Spirit>Extravagance Magnificence Shabbiness> Rascality Prudence Simpleness., nay, this must at all times flutter high. It is all the same in the end what kind of heraldic figures are represented on it, if they only indicate what is meant. Such an allegorical truth is at all times and everywhere, for mankind at large, a beneficial substitute for an eternally unattainable truth, and in general, for a philosophy which it can never grasp; to say nothing of its changing its form daily, and not having as yet attained any kind of general recognition. Therefore practical aims, my good Philalethes, have in every way the advantage of theoretical.

Phil. This closely resembles the ancient advice of Timaeus of Locrus, the Pythagorean: τας ψυχας ἀπειργομες ψευδεσι λογοις, εἰ κα μη ἀγηται ἀλαθεσι. And I almost suspect that it is your wish, according to the fashion of to-day, to remind me—

“Good friend, the time is near
When we may feast off what is good in peacePeace εἰρήνη.”

And your recommendation means that we should take care in time, so that the waves of the dissatisfied, raging masses may not disturb us at table. But the whole of this point of view is as false as it is nowadays universally liked and praised; this is why I make haste to put in a protest against it. It is false that state, justiceJustice δικαιοσύνη > judicature ( δικαιοσύνη) > judge (δικαστής / κριτής). The whole purpose of Plato`s Republic is to search for Justice. The purpose of Justice is to establish a perfect State. The State of happiness (ευτυχία), and lawLaw νόμος:  Positive command of sovereign or divine. One can be ruled either by a Statute, a Statue, or a Statement. Legislation is the rule-making process by a political or religious organisation. Physics governs natural law. Logical thinking is a sign of a healthy brain function. Dharma is eternal for Sanatanis. Judiciary > Show me the face, and I will show you the law. Some people know how to bend the law rather than break it. Law Practice. Read a scholarly article cannot be maintained without the aid of religion and its articles of belief, and that justice and police regulations need religion as a complement in order to carry out legislative arrangements. It is false if it were repeated a hundred times. For the ancients, and especially the Greeks, furnish us with striking instantia in contrarium founded on fact. They had absolutely nothing of what we understand by religion. They had no sacred documentsDocument It means any matter expressed or described or otherwise recorded upon any substance by means of letters, figures or marks or any other means or by more than one of those means, intended to be used, or which may be used, for the purpose of recording that matter and includes electronic and digital records. (Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam 2023), no dogma to be learnt, and its acceptance advanced by every one, and its principles inculcated early in youth. The servants of religion preached just as little about morals, and the ministers concerned themselves very little about any kind of moralityMorality Mental frame. It can be high morality or low morality, savage morality or civilised morality or Christian morality, or Nazi morality. Decent Behaviour is acceptable norms of the nations. Christian morality starts with the belief that all men are sinners and that repentance is the cause of divine mercy. Putting Crucified Christ in between is the destruction of Christian morality and logic. Now morality shifted to the personal choice of Jesus. What Jesus did is 'good'. The same would be the case of Ram, Krishna, Muhammad, Buddha, Lenin, etc. Pure Human Consciousness degraded to pure followership. There exists no proof the animals are devoid of morality. or in general about what the people either did or left undone. No such thing. But the duty of the priests was confined merely to templeTemple Latin templum (Tem > "to cut", set apart) Greek temenos (ναός - innermost chamber), Old French temple "side of the forehead" >  night temper > Template. Church building (εκκλησιαστικό κτίριο) is not a Temple (ναός) rather it is σαλόνι for a communal meal (devoid of ιερότητα και αφιέρωση), again the early Christian community had no intention to build anything like Ναός του Σολομώντα. (मन्दिर  is देवगृह), मन्दिर प्रतिष्टा is a good karma mentioned in Agni and Gaduda Purana. Temple of Athena (Ναός της Αθηνάς). Ayodhya Ram Temple. Read: Temple Management, Devottar. ceremonies, prayers, songs, sacrifices, processions, lustrations, and the like, all of which aimed at anything but the moralMorality Mental frame. It can be high morality or low morality, savage morality or civilised morality or Christian morality, or Nazi morality. Decent Behaviour is acceptable norms of the nations. Christian morality starts with the belief that all men are sinners and that repentance is the cause of divine mercy. Putting Crucified Christ in between is the destruction of Christian morality and logic. Now morality shifted to the personal choice of Jesus. What Jesus did is 'good'. The same would be the case of Ram, Krishna, Muhammad, Buddha, Lenin, etc. Pure Human Consciousness degraded to pure followership. There exists no proof the animals are devoid of morality. improvement of the individual. The whole of their so-called religion consisted, and particularly in the towns, in some of the deorum majorum gentium having temples here and there, in which the aforesaid worship was conducted as an affair of state, when in reality it was an affair of police. No one, except the functionaries engaged, was obliged in any way to be present, or even to believe in it. In the whole of antiquity there is no trace of any obligation to believe in any kind of dogma. It was merely any one who openly denied the existence of the gods or calumniated them that was punished; because by so doing he insulted the state which served these gods; beyond this every one was allowed to think what he chose of them. If any one wished to win the favour of these gods privately by prayerPraying It can be interpreted as a political idea. It implicitly assumes the existence of the powerful and the powerless, with an intermediate agency positioned between them. This agency, often unquestioned and abstract, functions to preserve the existing balance between power and poverty. In doing so, prayer operates as a mechanism that normalizes hierarchy, encourages acceptance over challenge, and sustains the status quo without requiring conscious awareness from those who participate in it. or sacrifice he was free to do so at his own cost and risk; if he did not do it, no one had anything to say against it, and least of all the State. Every Roman had his own Lares and Penates at homeHome Αρχική >  , which were, however, at bottom nothing more than the revered portraits of his ancestors. The ancients had no kind of decisive, clear, and least of all dogmatically fixed ideas about the immortality of the soul and a life hereafter, but every one in his own way had lax, vacillating, and problematical ideas; and their ideas about the gods were just as various, individual, and vague. So that the ancients had really no religion in our sense of the wordWord Λόγος . Was it for this reason that anarchy and lawlessness reigned among them? Is not law and civil order rather so much their work, that it still constitutes the foundation of ours? Was not property perfectly secure, although it consisted of slaves for the greater part? And did not this condition of things last longer than a thousand years?

So I cannot perceive, and must protest against the practical aims and necessity of religion in the sense which you have indicated, and in such general favour to-day, namely, as an indispensable foundation of all legislative regulations. For from such a standpoint the pure and sacred striving after light and truth, to say the least, would seem quixotic and criminal if it should venture in its feeling of justice to denounce the authoritative belief as a usurper who has taken possession of the throne of truth and maintained it by continuing the deception.

Demop. But religion is not opposed to truth; for it itself teaches truth. Only it must not allow truth to appear in its naked form, because its sphere of activity is not a narrow auditory, but the world and humanity at large, and therefore it must conform to the requirements and comprehension of so great and mixed a public; or, to use a medical simile, it must not present it pure, but must as a medium make use of a mythical vehicle. Truth may also be compared in this respect to certain chemical stuffs which in themselves are gaseous, but which for officialOffice Αξίωμα > Officer > Office-bearer (1593) > Opus, officium, ex officio (Latin). Box-office (Cash Box). uses, as also for preservation or transmission, must be bound to a firm, palpable base, because they would otherwise volatilise. For example, chlorine is for all such purposes applied only in the form of chlorides. But if truth, pure, abstract, and free from anything of a mythical nature, is always to remain unattainable by us all, philosophers included, it might be compared to fluorine, which cannot be presented by itself alone, but only when combined with other stuffs. Or, to take a simpler simile, truth, which cannot be expressed in any other way than by myth and allegory, is like water that cannot be transported without a vessel; but philosophers, who insist upon possessing it pure, are like a person who breaks the vessel in order to get the water by itself. This is perhaps a true analogy. At any rate, religion is truth allegorically and mythically expressed, and thereby made possible and digestible to mankind at large. For mankind could by no means digest it pure and unadulterated, just as we cannot live in pure oxygen but require an addition of four-fifths of nitrogen. And without speakingSpeech 400 million years ago, the larynx was developed and allowed for communication with other animals. 60 million years ago, human beings talked about Dynosure or like animals in India. The vocal tract was in place to support modern human discourse as early as 300,000 years ago in the Indian subcontinent.   figuratively, the profound significance and high aim of life can only be revealed and shown to the masses symbolically, because they are not capable of grasping life in its real sense; while philosophy should be like the Eleusinian mysteries, for the few, the elect.

Phil. I understand. The matter resolves itself into truth putting on the dress of falsehood. But in doing so it enters into a fatal alliance. What a dangerous weapon is given into the hands of those who have the authority to make use of falsehood as the vehicle of truth! If such is the case, I fear there will be more harm caused by the falsehood than good derived from the truth. If the allegory were admitted to be such, I should say nothing against it; but in that case it would be deprived of all respect, and consequently of all efficacy. Therefore the allegory must assert a claimA Claim A claim is “factually unsustainable” where it could be said with confidence before trial that the factual basis for the claim is entirely without substance, which can be the case if it were clear beyond question that the facts pleaded are contradicted by all the documents or other material on which it is based., which it must maintain, to be true in sensu proprio while at the most it is true in sensu allegorico. Here lies the incurable mischief, the permanent evil; and therefore religion is always in conflict, and always will be with the free and noble striving after pure truth.

Demop. Indeed, no. Care has been taken to prevent that. If religion may not exactly admit its allegorical nature, it indicates it at any rate sufficiently.

Phil. And in what way does it do that?

Demop. In its mysteries. Mystery is at bottom only the theologicalTheology Biology, Sociology, etc are the same type of English construction. Theos (gods) and logos (talking/chatting). Talking about gods and goddesses. Not having perfect knowledge about Olympian gods was a Greek 'mystery'. In the Christian sense theology (Biblical Theology, Historical Theology, Systematic Theology, Practical Theology)  is the understanding of Trinitarian 'mystery'. Most of the Christian people study theology to become church executives or employees. Dharma Tattva (धर्मतत्त्व > Gopath Brahman) is not Theology. धर्मतत्त्व is possiblele without god/s. धर्मतत्त्व is Philosophy (दर्शन) without school affiliation. Read more terminus technicus for religious allegory. All religions have their mysteries. In reality, a mystery is a palpably absurd dogma which conceals in itself a lofty truth, which by itself would be absolutely incomprehensible to the ordinary intelligence of the raw masses. The masses accept it in this disguise on trust and faith, without allowing themselves to be led astray by its absurdity, which is palpable to them; and thereby they participate in the kernel of the matter so far as they are able. I may add as an explanation that the use of mystery has been attempted even in philosophy; for example, when Pascal, who was pietest, mathematician, and philosopher in one, says in this threefold character: God is everywhere centre and nowhere periphery. Malebranche has also truly remarked, La liberté est un mystère. One might go further, and maintain that in religions everything is really mystery. For it is utterly impossible to impart truth in sensu proprio to the multitude in its crudity; it is only a mythical and allegorical reflection of it that can fall to its share and enlighten it. Naked truth must not appear before the eyes of the profane vulgar; it can only appear before them closely veiled. And it is for this reason that it is unfair to demandDemand In economics, the amount of a good or service that consumers are willing to buy at a particular price. of a religion that it should be true in sensu proprio, and that, en passant. Rationalists and Supernaturalists of to-day are so absurd. They both start with the supposition that religion must be the truth; and while the former prove that it is not, the latter obstinately maintain that it is; or rather the former cut up and dress the allegory in such a way that it could be true in sensu proprio but would in that case become a platitude. The latter wish to maintain, without further dressing, that it is true in sensu proprio, which, as they should knowKnowledge Knowledge is derived from the process of an informed person integrating data from sense organs or intuition into their psyche. This concept is explored in the Vedic Nasadiya Sukta, which questions the possibility of ultimate truth or knowledge. In different languages, such as Greek, Latin, Sanskrit, and Chinese, knowledge is expressed as "η γνώση," "Scientia," "ज्ञानम्‌ ," and "知识 Zhīshì," respectively., can only be carried into execution by inquisitions and the stake. While in reality, myth and allegory are the essential elements of religion, but under the indispensable condition (because of the intellectual limitations of the great masses) that it supplies enough satisfaction to meet those metaphysical needs of mankind which are ineradicable, and that it takes the place of pure philosophical truth, which is infinitely difficult, and perhaps never attainable.

Phil. Yes, pretty much in the same way as a wooden leg takes the place of a natural one. It supplies what is wanting, does very poor service for it, and claims to be regarded as a natural leg, and is more or less cleverly put together. There is a difference, however, for, as a rule, the natural leg was in existence before the wooden one, while religion everywhere has gained the start of philosophy.

Demop. That may be; but a wooden leg is of great value to those who have no natural leg. You must keep in view that the metaphysical requirements of man absolutely demand satisfaction; because the horizon of his thoughts must be defined and not remain unlimited. A man, as a rule, has no faculty of judgment for weighing reasons, and distinguishing between what is true and what is false. Moreover, the work imposed upon him by nature and her requirements leaves him no time for investigations of that kind, or for the education which they presuppose. Therefore it is entirely out of the question to imagine he will be convinced by reasons; there is nothing left for him but belief and authority. Even if a really true philosophy took the place of religion, at least nine-tenths of mankind would only accept it on authority, so that it would be again a matter of belief; for Plato’s φιλοσοφον πληθος ἀδυνατον εἰναι will always hold good. Authority, however, is only established by time and circumstances, so that we cannot bestow it on that which has only reason to commend it; accordingly, we must grant it only to that which has attained it in the course of history, even if it is only truth represented allegorically. This kind of truth, supported by authority, appeals directly to the essentially metaphysical temperament of man—that is, to his need of a theory concerning the riddle of existence, which thrusts itself upon him, and arises from the consciousnessConsciousness The mind’s (Mind) function that receives, processes, and evaluates information through the five senses, imagination, emotion, reason, and memory. The senses gather data, imagination and emotion interpret it, reason judges its value, and memory stores or discards it. In neurophysiology, consciousness is often defined as “subjective awareness” — the state of being aware of oneself and one’s surroundings. that behind the physical in the world there must be a metaphysical, an unchangeable something, which serves as the foundation of constant change. It also appeals to the will, fears, and hopes of mortals living in constant need; religion provides them with gods, demons, to whom they call, appease, and conciliate. Finally, it appeals to their moral consciousness, which is undeniably present, and lends to it that authenticity and support from without—a support without which it would not easily maintain itself in the struggle against so many temptations. It is exactly from this side that religion provides an inexhaustible source of consolation and comfort in the countless and great sorrows of life, a comfort which does not leave men in death, but rather then unfolds its full efficacy. So that religion is like some one taking hold of the hand of a blind person and leading him, since he cannot see for himself; all that the blind person wants is to attain his end, not to see everything as he walks along.

Phil. This side is certainly the brilliant side of religion. If it is a fraus it is indeed a pia fraus; that cannot be denied. Then priests become something between deceivers and moralists. For they dare not teach the real truth, as you yourself have quite correctly explained, even if it were known to them; which it is not. There can, at any rate, be a true philosophy, but there can be no true religion: I mean true in the real and proper understanding of the word, not merely in that flowery and allegorical sense which you have described, a sense in which every religion would be true only in different degrees. It is certainly quite in harmony with the inextricable admixture of good and evil, honesty and dishonesty, goodness and wickedness, magnanimity and baseness, which the world presents everywhere, that the most important, the most lofty, and the most sacred truths can make their appearance only in combination with a lie, nay, can borrow strength from a lie as something that affects mankind more powerfully; and as revelation must be introduced by a lie. One might regard this fact as the monogram of the moral world. Meanwhile let us not give up the hope that mankind will some day attain that point of maturity and education at which it is able to produce a true philosophy on the one hand, and accept it on the other. Simplex sigillum veri: the naked truth must be so simple and comprehensible that one can impart it to all in its true form without any admixture of myth and fable (a pack of lies)—in other words, without masking it as religion.

Demop. You have not a sufficient idea of the wretched capacities of the masses.

Phil. I express it only as a hope; but to give it up is impossible. In that case, if truth were in a simpler and more comprehensible form, it would surely soon drive religion from the position of vicegerent which it has so long held. Then religion will have fulfilled her mission and finished her course; she might then dismiss the race which she has guided to maturity and herself retire in peace. This will be the euthanasia of religion. However, as long as she lives she has two faces, one of truth and one of deceit. According as one looks attentively at one or the other one will like or dislike her. Hence religion must be regarded as a necessary evil, its necessity resting on the pitiful weak-mindedness of the great majority of mankind, incapable of grasping the truth, and consequently when in extremity requires a substitute for truth.

Demop. Really, one would think that you philosophers had truth lying in readiness, and all that one had to do was to lay hold of it.

Phil. If we have not got it, it is principally to be ascribed to the pressure under which philosophy, at all periods and in all countriesCountries A Afghanistan Albania Algeria Andorra Angola Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Azerbaijan B Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi C Cambodia Cameroon Canada Chile China Colombia Comoros Costa Rica Côte d'Ivoire Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czech Republic D Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic E Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia F Fiji Finland France G Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Greece Grenada Guatemala Guyana H Haiti Honduras Hungary I Iceland India Indonesia Iran Ireland Israel Italy J Jamaica Japan K Kenya L Latvia Lesotho Liberia Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg M Macedonia Malawi Malaysia Malta Marshall Islands Mauritania Mauritius Mexico Moldova Mozambique N Namibia New Zealand Nigeria Norway P Pakistan Palau Panama Peru Poland Portugal R Republic of Congo Russia S Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines São Tomé and Príncipe Senegal Serbia Sierra Leone Singapore Slovenia Slovakia South Africa Spain Sri Lanka Swaziland (Eswatini) Sweden Switzerland Syria T Taiwan Tanzania The Netherlands The Philippines The Republic of Korea (South Korea) The United Kingdom The United States of America Timor Togo Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey U Uganda Ukraine Uruguay Uzbekistan V Vanuatu Vietnam Z Zambia Zimbabwe , has been held by religion. We have tried to make not only the expression and communication of truth impossible, but even the contemplation and discoveryDiscovery The process of gathering evidence in a lawsuit is known as discovery. This allows each side to get a better understanding of their position and develop strategies for the litigation. It also can promote the settlement process by revealing the strengths and weaknesses of the case. of it, by giving the minds of children in earliest childhood into the hands of priests to be worked upon; to have the groove in which their fundamental thoughts are henceforth to run so firmly imprinted, as in principal matters, to become fixed and determined for a lifetime. I am sometimes shocked to see when I take into my hand the writings of even the most intelligent minds of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and especially if I have just left my oriental studies, how paralysed and hemmed in on all sides they are by JewishJew “Being Jewish” is very important and not forgetting the Holocaust is religion over Halakha. Israeli Jews are divided into Haredi (Orthodox), Dati (reformed), Masorti (Conservative/traditional) or Hiloni (secular), nonetheless, their ethnoreligious identity was possibly originated in ancient Egypt and modified in Babylone. In their Synagogue, they read the Torah and pray for the coming of the Messiah, who would build global 'Israel', through which the Divine and Human would meet forever. notions. Prepared in this way, one cannot form any idea of the true philosophy!

Demop. And if, moreover, this true philosophy were discovered, religion would not cease to exist, as you imagine. There cannot be one system of metaphysics for everybody; the natural differences of intellectual power in addition to those of education make this impossible. The great majority of mankind must necessarily be engaged in that arduous bodily labour which is requisite in order to furnish the endless needs of the whole race. Not only does this leave the majority no time for education, for learning, or for reflection; but by virtue of the strong antagonism between merely physical and intellectual qualities, much excessive bodily labour blunts the understanding and makes it heavy, clumsy, and awkward, and consequently incapable of grasping any other than perfectly simple and palpable matters. At least nine-tenths of the human race comes under this category. People require a system of metaphysics, that is, an account of the world and our existence, because such an account belongs to the most natural requirements of mankind. They require also a popular system of metaphysics, which, in order for it to be this, must combine many rare qualities; for instance, it must be exceedingly lucid, and yet in the right places be obscure, nay, to a certain extent, impenetrable; then a correct and satisfying moral system must be combined with its dogmas; above everything, it must bring inexhaustible consolation in suffering and death. It follows from this that it can only be true in sensu allegorico and not in sensu proprio. Further, it must have the support of an authority which is imposing by its great age, by its general recognition, by its documents, together with their tone and statements—qualities which are so infinitely difficult to combine that many a man, if he stopped to reflect, would not be so ready to help to undermine a religion, but would consider it the most sacred treasure of the people. If any one wants to criticise religion he should always bear in mind the nature of the great masses for which it is destined, and picture to himself their complete moral and intellectual inferiority. It is incredible how far this inferiority goes and how steadily a spark of truth will continue to glimmer even under the crudest veiling of monstrous fables and grotesque ceremonies, adhering indelibly, like the perfume of musk, to everything which has come in contact with it. As an illustration of this, look at the profound wisdom which is revealed in the UpanishadsUpanishad Sitting nearby the Fire (उप + नि + सद् + क्विप्) Comprehending ultimate Truth. Isa-upanishad is the 40th Chapter of Yayur Veda. Brihadaranayaka Upanishad is the 14th Kanda of Satapath Brahman. Most of the 108+ Upanishads are fake books or Psedograph. Shankara Commented on only 10 Books. Ramanuja approved Shankara.  माण्डूक्योपनिषत् ईशावास्योपनिषत् केनोपनिषत् काठकोपनिषत् मुण्डकोपनिषत् प्रश्नोपनिषत् तैत्तिरीयोपनिषत् ऐतरेयोपनिषत् छान्दोग्योपनिषत् बृहदारण्यकोपनिषद् , and then look at the mad idolatry in the India of to-day, as is revealed in its pilgrimages, processions, and festivities, or at the mad and ludicrous doings of the Saniassi of the present time. Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that in all this madness and absurdity there yet lies something that is hidden from view, something that is in accordance with, or a reflection of the profound wisdom that has been mentioned. It requires this kind of dressing-up for the great brute masses. In this antithesis we have before us the two poles of humanity:—the wisdom of the individual and the bestiality of the masses, both of which, however, find their point of harmony in the moral kingdom. Who has not thought of the saying from the Kurral—”Vulgar people look like men; but I have never seen anything like them.” The more highly cultured man may always explain religion to himself cum grano salis; the man of learning, the thoughtful mind, may, in secret, exchange it for a philosophy. And yet one philosophy would not do for everybody; each philosophy by the laws of affinity attracts a public to whose education and mental capacities it is fitted. So there is always an inferior metaphysical system of the schools for the educated plebeians, and a higher system for the élite. Kant’s lofty doctrine, for example, was degraded to meet the requirements of the schools, and ruined by Fries, Krug, Salat, and similar people. In short, Goethe’s dictum is as applicable here as anywhere: One does not suit all. Pure belief in revelation and pure metaphysics are for the two extremes; and for the intermediate steps mutual modifications of both in countless combinations and gradations. The immeasurable differences which nature and education place between men have made this necessary.

Phil. This point of view reminds me seriously of the mysteries of the ancients which you have already mentioned; their aim at bottom seems to have lain in remedying the evil arising out of the differences of mental capacities and education. Their plan was to single out of the great multitude a few people, to whom the unveiled truth was absolutely incomprehensible, and to reveal the truth to them up to a certain point; then out of these they singled out others to whom they revealed more, as they were able to grasp more; and so on up to the Epopts. And so we got μικρα, και μειζονα, και μεγιστα μυστηρια. The plan was based on a correct knowledge of the intellectual inequality of mankind.

Demop. To a certain extent the education in our lower, middle, and high schools represents the different forms of initiation into the mysteries.

Phil. Only in a very approximate way, and this only in so far as subjects of higher knowledge were written about exclusively in LatinLatin Augustus (63 B.C.E.-14 A.C.E), Julius Caesar (100-44 B.C.E.), Cicero (106-43 B.C.E), Virgil (70-19 B.C.E), Tacitus (56-120 A.C.E), Ovid (43 B.C.E.-17 A.C.E), Lucretius (1st-century B.C.E), Livy (59 B.C.E.-17 A.C.E), Lucan (39-65 A.C.E), Hirtius (90-43 B.C.E), Horace (65-8 B.C.E). > Latin America  > Latin is the Official language of Vatican City > Latin Grammar> Vulgar Latin.. But since that has ceased to be so all the mysteries are profaned.

Demop. However that may be, I wish to remind you, in speaking of religion, that you should grasp it more from the practical and less from the theoretical side. Personified metaphysics may be religion’s enemy, yet personified morality will be its friend. Perhaps the metaphysics in all religions is false; but the morality in all is true. This is to be surmised from the fact that in their metaphysics they contradict each other, while in their morality they agree.

Phil. Which furnishes us with a proofProof Mathematical proof, Direct proof, Proof by contraposition, Proof by contradiction, Proof by construction, Proof by exhaustion, Closed chain inference, Probabilistic proof, Combinatorial proof, Nonconstructive proof, Computer-assisted proofs. of the rule of logicLogic What is logic > Glossary of Indian Logic (Sanskrit)-तर्क शब्दावली > Logical Reasoning - Set One, that a true conclusion may follow from false premises.

Demop. Well, stick to your conclusion, and be always mindful that religion has two sides. If it can’t stand when looked at merely from the theoretical—in other words, from its intellectual side, it appears, on the other hand, from the moral side as the only means of directing, training, and pacifying those races of animals gifted with reason, whose kinship with the ape does not exclude a kinship with the tiger. At the same time religion is, in general, a sufficient satisfaction for their dull metaphysical needs. You appear to me to have no proper idea of the difference, wide as the heavens apart, of the profound breach between your learned man, who is enlightened and accustomed to think, and the heavy, awkward, stupid, and inert consciousness of mankind’s beasts of burden, whose thoughts have taken once and for all the direction of fear about their maintenance, and cannot be put in motion in any other; and whose muscular power is so exclusively exercised that the nervous power which produces intelligence is thereby greatly reduced. People of this kind must absolutely have something that they can take hold of on the slippery and thorny path of their life, some sort of beautiful fable by means of which things can be presented to them which their crude intelligence could most certainly only understand in picture and parable. It is impossible to approach them with subtle explanations and fine distinctions. If you think of religion in this way, and bear in mind that its aims are extremely practical and only subordinately theoretical, it will seem to you worthy of the highest respect.

Phil. A respect which would finally rest on the principle that the end sanctifies the means. However, I am not in favour of a compromise on a basis of that sort. Religion may be an excellent means of curbing and controlling the perverse, dull, and malicious creatures of the biped race; in the eyes of the friend of truth every fraus, be it ever so pia, must be rejected. It would be an odd way to promote virtue through the medium of lies and deception. The flag to which I have sworn is truth. I shall remain faithful to it everywhere, and regardless of success, I shall fight for light and truth. If I see religion hostile, I shall—

Demop. But you will not! Religion is not a deception; it is true, and the most important of all truths. But because, as has already been said, its doctrines are of such a lofty nature that the great masses cannot grasp them immediately; because, I say, its light would blind the ordinary eye, does it appear concealed in the veil of allegory and teach that which is not exactly true in itself, but which is true according to the meaning contained in it: and understood in this way religion is the truth.

Phil. That would be very probable, if it were allowed to be true only in an allegorical sense. But it claims to be exactly true, and true in the proper sense of the word: herein lies the deception, and it is here that the friend of truth must oppose it.

Demop. But this deception is a conditio sine qua non. If religion admitted that it was merely the allegorical meaning in its doctrines that was true, it would be deprived of all efficacy, and such rigorous treatment would put an end to its invaluable and beneficial influence on the morals and feelings of mankind. Instead of insisting on that with pedantic obstinacy, look at its great achievements in a practical way both as regards morality and feelings, as a guide to conduct, as a support and consolation to suffering humanity in life and death. How greatly you should guard against rousing suspicion in the masses by theoretical wrangling, and thereby finally taking from them what is an inexhaustible source of consolation and comfort to them; which in their hard lot they need very much more than we do: for this reason alone, religion ought not to be attacked.

Phil. With this argument Luther could have been beaten out of the field when he attacked the selling of indulgences; for the letters of indulgence have furnished many a man with irreparable consolation and perfect tranquillity, so that he joyfully passed away with perfect confidence in the little packet of them which he firmly held in his hand as he lay dying, convinced that in them he had so many cards of admission into all the nine heavens. What is the use of grounds of consolation and peacefulness over which is constantly hanging the Damocles-sword of deception? The truth, my friend, the truth alone holds good, and remains constant and faithful; it is the only solid consolation; it is the indestructible diamondDiamond 1-carat diamond is currently $4,173 (2024). The Kimberley Process (KP) is a multilateral diamond trade regime established in 2003. The price of a diamond or its value involves many of the factors we discuss on our diamond grading page. These include the 4 Cs (carat weight, cut, color, and clarity). The U.S Kimberley Process Authority is a not-for-profit trade association formed to ensure the American diamond industry’s compliance under the Clean Diamond Trade Act of 2003. World Diamond Council..

Demop. Yes, if you had truth in your pocket to bless us with whenever we asked for it. But what you possess are only metaphysical systems in which nothing is certain but the headaches they cost. Before one takes anything away one must have something better to put in its place.

Phil. I wish you would not continually say that. To free a man from error does not mean to take something from him, but to give him something. For knowledge that something is wrong is a truth. No error, however, is harmless; every error will cause mischief sooner or later to the man who fosters it. Therefore do not deceive any one, but rather admit you are ignorant of what you do not know, and let each man form his own dogmas for himself. Perhaps they will not turn out so bad, especially as they will rub against each other and mutually rectify errors; at any rate the various opinions will establish tolerance. Those men who possess both knowledge and capacity may take up the study of philosophy, or even themselves advance the history of philosophy.

Demop. That would be a fine thing! A whole nation of naturalised metaphysicians quarrelling with each other, and eventualiter striking each other.

Phil. Well, a few blows here and there are the sauce of life, or at least a very slight evil compared with priestly government—prosecution of heretics, plundering of the laity, courts of inquisition, crusades, religious wars, massacres of St. Bartholomew, and the like. They have been the results of chartered popular metaphysics: therefore I still hold that one cannot expect to get grapes from thistles, or good from lies and deception.

Demop. How often must I repeat that religion is not a lie, but the truth itself in a mythical, allegorical dress? But with respect to your plan of each man establishing his own religion, I had still something to say to you, that a particularism like this is totally and absolutely opposed to the nature of mankind, and therefore would abolish all social order. ManMen Ανθρωποι (People), a woman (γυναίκα), Man (Ανδρας) > Adama, Manu > No proof to establish that due to mutation a monkey turned into a human being. is an animal metaphysicum—in other words, he has surpassingly great metaphysical requirements; accordingly he conceives life above all in its metaphysical sense, and from that standpoint wishes to grasp everything. Accordingly, odd as it may sound with regard to the uncertainty of all dogmas, accord in the fundamental elements of metaphysics is the principal thing, in so much as it is only among people who hold the same views on this question that a genuine and lasting fellowship is possible. As a result of this, nations resemble and differ from each other more in religion than in government, or even language. Consequently, the fabric of society, the State, will only be perfectly firm when it has for a basis a system of metaphysics universally acknowledged. Such a system, naturally, can only be a popular metaphysical one—that is, a religion. It then becomes identified with the government, with all the general expressions of the national life, as well as with all sacred acts of private life. This was the case in ancient India, among the Persians, Egyptians, Jews, also the Greeks and Romans, and it is still the case among the BrahmanBrahman ब्रह्म > ब्रह्मसूत्र > ब्रह्मसूत्रभाष्यम् > ब्रह्मजिज्ञासा > जन्माद्यस्य यतः, Buddhist, and Mohammedan nations. There, are three doctrines of faith in China, it is true, and the one that has spread the most, namely, Buddhism, is exactly the doctrine that is least protected by the State; yet there is a saying in China that is universally appreciated and daily applied, the three doctrines are only one—in other words, they agree in the main thing. The Emperor confesses all three at the same time, and agrees with them all. EuropeEurope EU and Countries - Albania Andorra Austria Belarus Belgium Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus Czech Denmark Estonia Finland France Germany Greece Hungary Iceland Ireland Italy Latvia Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Malta Moldova Monaco Montenegro Netherlands North Macedonia Norway Poland Portugal Romania Russia San Marino Serbia Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland Ukraine United Kingdom Vatican City. is the confederacy of Christian States; Christianity is the basis of each of its members and the common bond of all; hence TurkeyTürkiye Republic of Turkiye (Τουρκία> Asia/Europe) changed its official name from The Republic of Turkey on 26 May 2022. Old Name: Anatolia (Anadolu). Turkish republic ( Muslim majority), founded in 1923 after the abolition of the Ottoman Empire. City: Ankara, Istanbul. Bursa. Constitution., although it is in Europe, is really not to be reckoned in it. Similarly the European princes are such “by the grace of God,” and the PopePope Political and Religious Head of the Catholic Church based in Vatican City. He is designated as Bishop of Rome (Diocese). He ruled the Vatican City through a secretariat. The term Pontifex (Pontiff Maximus> Roman City Chief Priest) was never translated as 'Pope'. It was officially Coined in 950 to 1000 CE Francis Benedict XVI (2005-2013)-Resigned John Paul II Pope Paul VI John XXIII Pius XII Pius XI Benedict XV Pius X Leo XIII Pius IX Gregory XVI Pius VIII Leo XII Pius VII Pius VI Clement XIV Clement XIII Benedict XIV Clement XII Clement XI Innocent XI Alexander VII Clement VIII Sixtus V Gregory XIII Pius V Paul III Leo X Alexander VI Sixtus IV Nicholas V Eugene IV Benedict XII John XXII Clement V Boniface VIII Nicholas IV Gregory X Innocent IV Nicholas III Alexander IV Gregory IX Honorious III (1150 – 1227) is the delegate of God; accordingly, as his throne was the highest, he wished all other thrones to be looked upon only as held in fee from him. Similarly Archbishops and BishopsBishops Επίσκοποι - Inspector, the system of Epicopic leadership developed after 300 CE in Christendom. Now Bishops are the Prince of the Church., as such, had temporal authority, just as they have still in EnglandEngland 47 boroughs, 36 counties, 29 London boroughs, 12 cities and boroughs, 10 districts, 12 cities, 3 royal boroughs boroughs: Barnsley, Blackburn with Darwen, Blackpool, Bolton, Bournemouth, Bracknell Forest, Brighton and Hove, Bury, Calderdale, Darlington, Doncaster, Dudley, Gateshead, Halton, Hartlepool, Kirklees, Knowsley, Luton, Medway, Middlesbrough, Milton Keynes, North Tyneside, Oldham, Poole, Reading, Redcar and Cleveland, Rochdale, Rotherham, Sandwell, Sefton, Slough, Solihull, Southend-on-Sea, South Tyneside, St. Helens, Stockport, Stockton-on-Tees, Swindon, Tameside, Thurrock, Torbay, Trafford, Walsall, Warrington, Wigan, Wirral, Wolverhampton counties (or unitary authorities): Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Cheshire, Cornwall, Cumbria, Derbyshire, Devon, Dorset, Durham, East Sussex, Essex, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Herefordshire, Hertfordshire, Isle of Wight, Kent, Lancashire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, North Yorkshire, Northamptonshire, Northumberland, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Shropshire, Somerset, Staffordshire, Suffolk, Surrey, Warwickshire, West Sussex, Wiltshire, Worcestershire a seat and voice in the Upper House; Protestant rulers are, as such, heads of their churches; in England a few years ago this was a girl of eighteen. By the revolt from the Pope, the Reformation shattered the European structure, and, in particular, dissolved the true unity of Germany by abolishing its common faith; this unity, which had as a matter of fact come to grief, had accordingly to be replaced later by artificial and purely political bonds. So you see how essentially connected is unity of faith with common order and every state. It is everywhere the support of the laws and the constitutionConstitution The Constitution encompasses the global system of rules governing constitutional authority. Simply reading selected provisions of the written text may be misleading. Understanding the underlying principles, such as federalism, democracy, constitutionalism, the rule of law, and respect for minorities, is crucial. Democratic institutions must allow for ongoing discussion and evolution, reflected in the right of participants to initiate constitutional change. This right entails a reciprocal duty to engage in discussions. Democracy involves more than majority rule, existing within the context of other constitutional values. Therefore, a profound understanding of these principles informs our appreciation of constitutional rights and obligations. Read more—that is to say, the foundation of the social structure, which would stand with difficulty if faith did not lend power to the authority of the government and the importance of the ruler.

Phil. Oh, yes, princes look upon God as a goblin, wherewith to frighten grown-up children to bed when nothing else is of any avail; it is for this reason that they depend so much on God. All right; meanwhile I should like to advise every ruling lordLord Adoni in Hebrew (אָדוֹן) and dominions in Larin. άρχοντας / κύριος in NT to read through, on a certain day every six months, the fifteenth chapter of the First BookBook Council of Trent (1545–1563) the Catholic Church created a Congregation of the Index, to declare a writing dangerous and to burn it, till it exists without notice. For Christians, the Bible, and for Muslims Quran, is only good for human guidance and nothing else. After Jesus, St. Peter and St. Paul are the most educated persons in the Christian world. of Samuel, earnestly and attentively; so that he may always have in mind what it means to support the throne on the altar. Moreover, since burning at the stake, that ultima ratio theologorum, is a thing of the past, this mode of government has lost its efficacy. For, as you know, religions are like glowworms: before they can shine it must be dark. A certain degree of general ignorance is the condition of every religion, and is the element in which alone it is able to exist. While, as soon as astronomy, natural scienceScience επιστήμη, geology, history, knowledge of countries and nations have spread their light universally, and philosophy is finally allowed to speak, every faith which is based on miracle and revelation must perish, and then philosophy will take its place. In Europe the day of knowledge and science dawned towards the end of the fifteenth century with the arrival of the modern GreekGreek Oldest Greek (750 BCE Dipylon inscription) Alphabet A α alpha B β beta Γ γ gamma Δ δ delta E ε epsilon Z ζ zeta H η eta Θ θ theta I ι iota K κ kappa Λ λ lamda M μ mu N v nu Ξ ξ xi O o omikron Π π pi P p rho Σ σ ς sigma Τ τ tau Y υ upsilon Φ φ phi X x chi Ψ ψ psi Ω ω omega ♦ Homer (800 B.C.E) Hesiod (700 B.C.E), Aesop (6th-century B.C.E), Hippocrates (460-377 B.C.E) Euclid (ca. 300 B.C.E), Epicurus ( 341-270 B.C.E), (Strabo 64 B.C.E.-23 C.E) Epictetus (55-105 C.E), Josephus (37-100 C.E) ♦ Septuagint (LXX 2nd Century BCE) > New Testament (Καινή Διαθήκη). Greek vocabulary > Greek grammar > Learn Greek in 30 hours. philosophers, its sun rose higher in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, which were so productive, and scattered the mists of the Middle Age. In the same proportion, both Church and Faith were obliged to gradually disappear; so that in the eighteenth century English and French philosophers became direct antagonists, until finally, under Frederick the Great, Kant came and took away from religious belief the support it had formerly received from philosophy, and emancipated the ancilla theologiae in that he attacked the question with German thoroughness and perseverance, whereby it received a less frivolous, that is to say, a more earnest tone. As a result of this we see in the nineteenth century Christianity very much weakened, almost stripped entirely of serious belief, nay, fighting for its own existence; while apprehensive princes try to raise it up by an artificial stimulant, as the doctor tries to revive a dying man by the aid of a drugDrug Any substance (other than food) that is used to prevent, diagnose, treat, or relieve symptoms of a disease or abnormal condition. Drugs can also affect how the brain and the rest of the bodywork and cause changes in mood, awareness, thoughts, feelings, or behavior. Some types of drugs, such as opioids, may be abused or lead to addiction. Apart from management Allopathic drugs never cure any disease.. There is a passage from Condorcet’s Des Progrès de l’esprit humain, which seems to have been written as a warning to our epoch: Le zèle religieux des philosophes et des grands n’était qu’une dévotion politique: et toute religion, qu’on se permet de défendre comme une croyance qu’il est utile de laisser au peuple, ne peut plus espérer qu’une agonie plus ou moins prolongée. In the whole course of the events which I have pointed out you may always observe that belief and knowledge bear the same relation to each other as the two scales of a balance: when the one rises the other must fall. The balance is so sensitive that it indicates momentary influences. For example, in the beginning of this century the predatory excursions of French robbers under their leader Buonaparte, and the great efforts that were requisite to drive them out and to punish them, had led to a temporary neglect of science, and in consequence to a certain decrease in the general propagation of knowledge; the Church immediately began to raise her head again and Faith to be revived, a revival partly of a poetical nature, in keeping with the spirit of the times. On the other hand, in the more than thirty years’ peace that followed, leisure and prosperity promoted the building up of science and the spread of knowledge in an exceptional degree, so that the result was what I have said, the dissolution and threatened fall of religion. Perhaps the time which has been so often predicted is not far distant, when religion will depart from European humanity, like a nurse whose care the child has outgrown; it is now placed in the hands of a tutor for instruction. For without doubt doctrines of belief that are based only on authority, miracles, and revelation are only of use and suitable to the childhood of humanity. That a race, which all physical and historicalHistorical Old or ancient facts, which could be verified, are recorded after following a system. 'In the beginning was God' is a faith statement, not a historical Fact. Itihas (iti-ha-asa) in Sanskrit means it was there or as it existed, which is part of Smriti Parampara, verified facts, and Puranas are a collection of old stories of the vedic nation, which can not be verified, but they are with the people and recorded in books without verification. data confirm as having been in existence only about a hundred times the life of a man sixty years old, is still in its first childhood is a fact that every one will admit.

Demop. If instead of prophesying with undisguised pleasure the downfall of Christianity, you would only consider how infinitely indebted European humanity is to it, and to the religion which, after the lapse of some time, followed Christianity from its old home in the East! Europe received from it a drift which had hitherto been unknown to it—it learnt the fundamental truth that life cannot be an end-in-itself, but that the true end of our existence lies beyond it. The Greeks and Romans had placed this end absolutely in life itself, so that, in this sense, they may most certainly be called blind heathens. Correspondingly, all their virtues consist in what is serviceable to the public, in what is useful; and Aristotle says quite naïvely, “Those virtues must necessarily be the greatest which are the most useful to others” (ἀναγκη δε μεγιστας εἰναι ἀρετας τας τοις ἀλλοις χρησιμωτατας, Rhetor. I. c. 9). This is why the ancients considered love for one’s country the greatest virtue, although it is a very doubtful one, as it is made up of narrowness, prejudice, vanity, and an enlightened self-interest. Preceding the passage that has just been quoted, Aristotle enumerates all the virtues in order to explain them individually. They are Justice, Courage, Moderation, Magnificence (μεγαλοπρεπεια), Magnanimity, Liberality, Gentleness, Reasonableness, and Wisdom. How different from the Christian virtues! Even Plato, without comparison the most transcendental philosopher of pre-Christian antiquity, knows no higher virtue than Justice; he alone recommends it unconditionally and for its own sake, while all the other philosophers make a happyHappyness ευτυχία : State of emotional exuberance caused by secretion of sedative chemicals in the brain even in a bad circumstance. life—vita beata—the aim of all virtue; and it is acquired through the medium of moral behaviour. Christianity released European humanity from its superficial and crude absorption in an ephemeral, uncertain, and hollow existence.

… coelumque tueri
Jussit, et erectos ad sidera tollere vultus.
Accordingly, Christianity does not only preach Justice, but the Love of Mankind, Compassion, Charity, Reconciliation, Love of one’s Enemies, Patience, Humility, Renunciation, Faith, and Hope. Indeed, it went even further: it taught that the world was of evil and that we needed deliveranceSalvation σωτηρίας (σωτηρᾱ), Moksha in Sanskrit, Moksha can not be achieved without performing Dharma, acquiring Artha ( money and meaning in life), enjoying Kama (fulfilling desires according to Dharma). αἴτιος σωτηρίας (Philo) - Delivery from molestation. Σωτηρίας- Safety money. paying the cost to the Father God for worldly safety and delivery from slavery. ; consequently it preached contempt of the world, self-denial, chastity, the giving up of one’s own will, that is to say, turning away from life and its phantom-like pleasures; it taught further the healing power of suffering, and that an instrument of torture is the symbol of Christianity, I willingly admit that this serious and only correct view of life had spread in other forms throughout AsiaAsia Central Asia Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan Tajikistan Turkmenistan Uzbekistan Eastern Asia China China–Hong Kong China–Macao China–Taiwan Japan Mongolia North Korea South Korea Southern Asia Afghanistan Bangladesh Bhutan British Indian Ocean Territory India Iran Maldives Nepal Pakistan Sri Lanka South-Eastern Asia Brunei Cambodia East Timor Indonesia Laos Malaysia Myanmar Philippines Singapore Thailand Vietnam Western Asia Armenia Azerbaijan Bahrain Cyprus Georgia Iraq Israel Jordan Kuwait Lebanon Oman Palestine Qatar Saudi Arabia Syria Turkey United Arab Emirates Yemen thousands of years previously, independently of Christianity as it is still; but this view of life was a new and tremendous revelation to European humanity. For it is well known that the population of Europe consists of Asiatic races who, driven out from their own country, wandered away, and by degrees hit upon Europe: on their long wanderings they lost the original religion of their homes, and with it the correct view of life; and this is why they formed in another climate religions for themselves which were somewhat crude; especially the worship of Odin, the Druidic and the Greek religions, the metaphysical contents of which were small and shallow. Meanwhile there developed among the Greeks a quite special, one might say an instinctive, sense of beauty, possessed by them alone of all the nations of the earthEarth Sixty million years ago, the Earth may not have been radically different from the world known today. Vast soils supported dense vegetation, including banyan-like trees across the Indian subcontinent, with flourishing plant life extending through what is now Central Asia. Rivers resembling the modern Amazon may already have sustained abundant fish populations, while reptiles, snakes, turtles, and primates moved freely across diverse ecosystems. Human beings—both intelligent and unintelligent—were present, navigating cycles of stability and catastrophe. Localized cataclysms may have occurred without globally erasing life. Monkeys, snakes, and other familiar animals are assumed to have coexisted with humans, reinforcing the claim that biological continuity, rather than linear evolution, defines Earth’s history. From this perspective, fossil interpretation is seen as fragmentary and imaginative, shaped by academic models rather than complete evidence, with scholars constructing theoretical problems and resolving them through evolving intellectual frameworks rather than absolute historical certainty. that have ever existed—a peculiar, fine, and correct sense of beauty, so that in the mouths of their poets and in the hands of their artists, their mythology took an exceptionally beautiful and delightful form. On the other hand, the earnest, true, and profound import of life was lost to the Greeks and Romans; they lived like big children until Christianity came and brought them back to the serious side of life.

Phil. And to form an idea of the result we need only compare antiquity with the Middle Age that followed—that is, the time of Pericles with the fourteenth century. It is difficult to believe that we have the same kind of beings before us. There, the finest developmentDevelopment ανάπτυξη of humanity, excellent constitutional regulations, wise laws, cleverly distributed offices, rationally ordered freedom, all the arts, as well as poetry and philosophy, at their best; the creation of works which after thousands of years have never been equalled and are almost works of a higher order of beings, whom we can never approach; life embellished by the noblest fellowship, as is portrayed in the Banquet of Xenophon. And now look at this side, if you can. Look at the time when the Church had imprisoned the minds, and violence the bodies of men, whereby knights and priests could lay the whole weight of life on the common beast of burden—the third estate. There you have club-law, feudalism, and fanaticism in close alliance, and in their train shocking uncertainty and darkness of mind, a corresponding intolerance, discord of faiths, religious wars, crusades, persecution of heretics and inquisitions; as the form of fellowship, chivalry, an amalgam of savagery and foolishness, with its pedantic system of absurd affectations, its degrading superstitions, and apish veneration for women; the survival of which is gallantry, deservedly requited by the arrogance of women; it affords to all Asiatics continual material for laughter, in which the Greeks would have joined. In the golden Middle Age the matter went as far as a formal and methodical service of women and enjoined deeds of heroism, cours d’amour, bombastic Troubadour songs and so forth, although it is to be observed that these last absurdities, which have an intellectual side, were principally at home in France; while among the material phlegmatic Germans the knights distinguished themselves more by drinking and robbing. Drinking and hoarding their castles with plunder were the occupations of their lives; and certainly there was no want of stupid love-songs in the courts. What has changed the scene so? Migration and Christianity.

Demop. It is a good thing you reminded me of it. Migration was the source of the evil, and Christianity the dam on which it broke. Christianity was the means of controlling and taming those raw, wild hordes who were washed in by the flood of migration. The savage man must first of all learn to kneel, to venerate, and to obey; it is only after that, that he can be civilised. This was done in Ireland by St. Patrick, in Germany by Winifred the Saxon, who was a genuine Boniface. It was migration of nations, this last movement of Asiatic races towards Europe, followed only by their fruitless attempts under Attila, Gengis Khan, and Timur, and, as a comic after-piece, by the gipsies: it was migration of nations which swept away the humanity of the ancients. Christianity was the very principle which worked against this savagery, just as later, through the whole of the Middle Age, the Church and its hierarchy were extremely necessary to place a limit to the savagery and barbarismBarbarian Herodotus ( 484 – 425/413 BCE)) divided the world into two groups, Hellenes (Greeks or Greek speakers) and Barbarians (non-Greeks or non-Greek speakers) in his Book of History-1. of those lords of violence, the princes and knights: it was the ice-breaker of this mighty flood. Still, the general aim of Christianity is not so much to make this life pleasant as to make us worthy of a better. It looks beyond this span of time, this fleeting dream, in order to lead us to eternal salvation. Its tendency is ethical in the highest sense of the word, a tendency which had hitherto been unknown in Europe; as I have already pointed out to you by comparing the morality and religion of the ancients with those of Christianity.

Phil. That is right so far as theory is concerned; but look at the practice. In comparison with the Christian centuries that followed, the ancient world was undoubtedly less cruel than the Middle Age, with its deaths by frightful torture, its countless burnings at the stake; further, the ancients were very patient, thought very highly of justice, and frequently sacrificed themselves for their country, showed traits of magnanimity of every kind, and such genuine humanity, that, up to the present time, an acquaintance with their doings and thoughts is called the study of Humanity. Religious wars, massacres, crusades, inquisitions, as well as other persecutions, the extermination of the original inhabitants of AmericaAmericas Christophorus Columbus landed in the Bahamas island in October 1492 and then in Cuba. Columbus and his gang imported European Diseases to the New World (the name given by Amerigo Vespucci, in his forged letters, who never visited the land of Adivasis). They murdered the Indigenous population (Adivasis). In 1507 the word 'America' was possibly first used to denote the land of Adivasis (North America and South America). America was 'Great' before 1492 under the hands of Adivasis. In Purans the land is mentioned as Patal Lok. and the introduction of African slaves in their place, were the fruits of Christianity, and among the ancients one cannot find anything analogous to this, anything to counterpoise it; for the slaves of the ancients, the familia, the vernae, were a satisfied race and faithfully devoted to their masters, and as widely distinct from the miserable negroes of the sugar plantations, which are a disgrace to humanity, as they were in colour. The censurable toleration of pederasty, for which one chiefly reproaches the morality of the ancients, is a trifle compared with the Christian horrors I have cited, and is not so rare among people of to-day as it appears to be. Can you then, taking everything into consideration, maintain that humanity has really become morally better by Christianity?

Demop. If the result has not everywhere corresponded with the purity and accuracy of the doctrine, it may be because this doctrine has been too noble, too sublime for humanity, and its aim set too high: to be sure, it was much easier to comply with heathen morality or with the Mohammedan. It is precisely what is most elevated that is the most open to abuse and deception—abusus optimi pessimus; and therefore those lofty doctrines have sometimes served as a pretext for the most disgraceful transactions and veritable crimes. The downfall of the ancient institutions, as well as of the arts and sciences of the old world, is, as has been said, to be ascribed to the invasion of foreign barbarians. Accordingly, it was inevitable that ignorance and savagery got the upper hand; with the result that violence and fraud usurped their dominion, and knights and priests became a burden to mankind. This is partly to be explained by the fact that the new religion taught the lesson of eternal and not temporal welfare, that simplicity of heart was preferable to intellectual knowledge, and it was averse to all worldly pleasures which are served by the arts and sciences. However, in so far as they could be made serviceable to religion they were promoted, and so flourished to a certain extent.

Phil. In a very narrow sphere. The sciences were suspicious companions, and as such were placed under restrictions; while fond ignorance, that element so necessary to the doctrines of faith, was carefully nourished.

Demop. And yet what humanity had hitherto acquired in the shape of knowledge, and handed down in the works of the ancients, was saved from ruin by the clergy, especially by those in the monasteries. What would have happened if Christianity had not come in just before the migration of nations?

Phil. It would really be an extremely useful inquiry if some one, with the greatest frankness and impartiality, tried to weigh exactly and accurately the advantages and disadvantages derived from religions. To do this, it would be necessary to have a much greater amount of historical and psychological data than either of us has at our command. Academies might make it a subject for a prize essay.

Demop. They will take care not to do that.

Phil. I am surprised to hear you say that, for it is a bad look-out for religion. Besides, there are also academies which make it a secret condition in submitting their questions that the prize should be given to the competitor who best understands the art of flattering them. If we, then, could only get a statistician to tell us how many crimes are prevented yearly by religious motives, and how many by other motives. There would be very few of the former. If a man feels himself tempted to commit a crimeCrime A positive or negative act in violation of penal law; an offense against the state classified either as a felony or misdemeanor., certainly the first thing which presents itself to his mind is the punishment he must suffer for it, and the probability that he will be punished; after that comes the second consideration, that his reputation is at stake. If I am not mistaken, he will reflect by the hour on these two obstacles before religious considerations ever come into his mind. If he can get away from these two first safeguards against crime, I am convinced that religion alone will very rarely keep him back from it.

Demop. I believe, however, that it will do so very often; especially when its influence works through the medium of custom, and thereby immediately makes a man shrink from the idea of committing a crime. Early impressions cling to him. As an illustration of what I mean, consider how many a man, and especially if he is of noble birth, will often, in order to fulfil some promise, make great sacrifices, which are instigated solely by the fact that his father has often impressed it upon him in childhood that “a man of honour, or a gentlemanGentleman A non-Jewish. The word gentleman originally meant one who had a coat of arms and some landed property. When you called someone "a gentleman" you were not paying him a homage, but merely stating a fact. If you said he was not "a gentleman" you were not insulting him, but giving information. Aryan (Arya) is a courageous person, and Bhadralok is a well-mannered typically Bengali Babu., or a cavalier, always keeps his word inviolate.”

Phil. And that won’t work unless there is a certain innate probitas. You must not ascribe to religion what is the result of innate goodness of character, by which pity for the one who would be affected by the crime prevents a man from committing it. This is the genuine moral motiveMotive Intending to collect money he started to motivate the people to donate to him. Intention comes first then motive to take the course. Motive is action > Reason, Root, Rationale, Purpose, Excuse. Section 4 BSA (Admission/Confession of Motive-S 22 BSA) , and as such it is independent of all religions.

Demop. But even this moral motive has no effect on the masses unless it is invested with a religious motive, which, at any rate, strengthens it. However, without any such natural foundation, religious motives often in themselves alone prevent crime: this is not a matter of surprise to us in the case of the multitude, when we see that even people of good education sometimes come under the influence, not indeed of religious motives, which fundamentally are at least allegorically true, but of the most absurd superstitions, by which they are guided throughout the whole of their lives; as, for instance, undertaking nothing on a Friday, refusing to sit down thirteen at table, obeying chance omens, and the like: how much more likely are the masses to be guided by such things. You cannot properly conceive the great limitations of the raw mind; its interior is entirely dark, especially if, as is often the case, a bad, unjust, and wicked heart is its foundation. MenMen Ανθρωποι (People), a woman (γυναίκα), Man (Ανδρας) > Adama, Manu > No proof to establish that due to mutation a monkey turned into a human being. like these, who represent the bulk of humanity, must be directed and controlled meanwhile, as well as possible, even if it be by really superstitious motives, until they become susceptible to truer and better ones. Of the direct effect of religion, one may give as an instance a common occurrence in Italy, namely, that of a thief being allowed to replace what he has stolen through the medium of his confessor, who makes this the condition of his absolution. Then think of the case of an oath, where religion shows a most decided influence: whether it be because a man places himself expressly in the position of a mere moral being, and as such regards himself as solemnly appealed to,—as seems to be the case in France, where the form of the oath is merely “je le jure”; and among the Quakers, whose solemn “yea” or “nay” takes the place of the oath;—or whether it is because a man really believes he is uttering something that will forfeit his eternal happiness,—a belief which is obviously only the investiture of the former feeling. At any rate, religious motives are a means of awakening and calling forth his moral nature. A man will frequently consentConsent Dr. Dhruvaram Murlidhar Sonar v. State of Maharashtra [2018] 13 SCR 920 : (2019) 18 SCC 191; Pramod Suryabhan Pawar v. State of Maharashtra [2019] 11 SCR 423 : (2019) 9 SCC 608.Shiv Pratap Singh Rana v. State of Madhya Pradesh & Anr [2024] 7 S.C.R. 8. Doing Sex: involves an active understanding of the circumstances, actions and consequences of the proposed act. An individual who makes a reasoned choice to act after evaluating various alternative actions (or inaction) as well as the various possible consequences flowing from such action (or inaction), consents to such action. to take a false oath, but suddenly refuse to do so when it comes to the point; whereby truth and right come off victorious.

Phil. But false oaths are still oftener sworn, whereby truth and right are trodden underfoot with the clear knowledge of all the witnesses of the act. An oath is the jurist’s metaphysical pons asinorum, and like this should be used as seldom as ever possible. When it cannot be avoided, it should be taken with great solemnity, always in the presence of the clergy—nay, even in a church or in a chapel adjoining the court of justice…. This is precisely why the French abstract formulary of the oath is of no value. By the way, you are right to cite the oath as an undeniable example of the practical efficacy of religion. I must, in spite of everything you have said, doubt whether the efficacy of religion goes much beyond this. Just think, if it were suddenly declared by public proclamation that all criminal laws were abolished; I believe that neither you nor I would have the courage to go home from here alone under the protection of religious motives. On the other hand, if in a similar way all religions were declared to be untrue; we would, under the protection of the laws alone, live on as formerly, without any special increase in our fears and measures of precaution. But I will even go further: religions have very frequently a decidedly demoralising influence. It may be said generally that duties towards God are the reverse of duties towards mankind; and that it is very easy to make up for lack of good behaviour towards men by adulation of God. Accordingly, we see in all ages and countries that the great majority of mankind find it much easier to beg admission into Heaven by prayers than to deserve it by their actions. In every religion it soon comes to be proclaimed that it is not so much moral actions as faith, ceremonies, and rites of every kind that are the immediate objects of the Divine will; and indeed the latter, especially if they are bound up with the emoluments of the clergy, are considered a substitute for the former. The sacrifice of animals in temples, or the saying of masses, the erection of chapels or crosses by the roadside, are soon regarded as the most meritorious works; so that even a great crime may be expiated by them, as also by penance, subjection to priestly authority, confessions, pilgrimages, donations to the temple and its priests, the building of monasteries and the like; until finally the clergy appear almost only as mediators in the corruption of the gods. And if things do not go so far as that, where is the religion whose confessors do not consider prayers, songs of praise, and various kinds of devotional exercise, at any rate, a partial substitute for moral conduct? Look at England, for instance, where the audacious priestcraft has mendaciously identified the Christian Sunday with the Jewish Sabbath, in spite of the fact that it was ordained by Constantine the Great in opposition to the Jewish Sabbath, and even took its name, so that Jehovah’s ordinances for the Sabbath—i.e., the day on which the Almighty rested, tired after His six days’ work, making it therefore essentially the last day of the week—might be conferred on the Christian Sunday, the dies solis, the first day of the week which the sun opens in glory, the day of devotion and joy. The result of this fraud is that in England “Sabbath breaking,” or the “desecration of the Sabbath,” that is, the slightest occupation, whether it be of a useful or pleasurable nature, and any kind of game, music, knitting, or worldly book, are on Sundays regarded as great sins. Must not the ordinary man believe that if, as his spiritualSpiritual Inspirational or inspired, energetic, motivated. It is all about earthly potency. It can not be translated as Adhatmya in Sanskrit. 'Christian Spirituality' means being motivated by Christian ideas. An airy or thin, like invisible earthly matter, is also called Spiritual. "Take and receive my spirit" means take courage from me, or just blowing wind from one's mouth. guides impress upon him, he never fails in a “strict observance of the holyHoly Hebrew root qdš makes the word qōdeš (distinct). "And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation". (Exodus 19:6a).  Distinct, which is not common or ordinary. "Be holy, for I, the YAHA, your ELOHIM, am holy" (Lv 19.2; cf. 11.44; 20.26) > be just, pure, and clean. Greek ἅγιος is " set apart" and is different from Hebrew 'qodes'.καὶ τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος (Matt 28.19). 'the holy place' (מִקְדָּשׁ, Ezekiel 37:28). Sanskrit 'pavitra -पवित्र' means sanctified by vedic mantra and rituals and not only cleaned 'something' by clean water or by fire. Folly (Oppo). Sabbath and a regularRegular Regulated by Christian law and practices, the opposite meaning of Secular. A regulated government accepts Vaticanism, the control under the papal monarchy. A secular government is free from papal intervention. attendance on Divine Service,”—in other words, if he invariably whiles away his time on a Sunday, and never fails to sit two hours in church to listen to the same Litany for the thousandth time, and to babble it with the rest a tempo, he may reckon on indulgence in here and there little sins which he at times allows himself? Those devils in human form, the slave-owners and slave-traders in the Free States of North AmericaNorth America Antigua and Barbuda Bahamas Barbados Canada Costa Rica Cuba Dominica Dominican Republic Grenada Jamaica Mexico Panama Papua New Guinea Trinidad and Tobago United States of America (they should be called the Slave States), are, in general, orthodox, pious Anglicans, who look upon it as a great sin to work on Sundays; and confident in this, and their regular attendance at church, they expect to gain eternal happiness. The demoralising influence of religion is less problematical than its moral influence. On the other hand, how great and how certain that moral influence must be to make amends for the horrors and misery which religions, especially the Christian and Mohammedan religions, have occasioned and spread over the earth! Think of the fanaticism, of the endless persecutions, the religious wars, that sanguinary frenzy of which the ancients had no idea; then, think of the Crusades, a massacre lasting two hundred years, and perfectly unwarrantable, with its war-cry, It is God’s will, so that it might get into its possession the grave of one who had preached love and endurance; think of the cruel expulsion and extermination of the Moors and Jews from Spain; think of the massacres, of the inquisitions and other heretical tribunals, the bloody and terrible conquests of the Mohammedans in three different parts of the world, and the conquest of the Christians in America, whose inhabitants were for the most part, and in Cuba entirely, exterminated; according to Las Casas, within forty years twelve million persons were murdered—of course, all in majorem Dei gloriam, and for the spreading of the GospelGospel A conscious evangelical fixation (NT)for inner consumption, legalised by Constantine after acceptance of several Egyptian myths. Why there are four Gospels instead of one, seems to validate the fixation by saying that four independent communities produced the same. Paul was Constantine's shadow, and Peter was his inner consciousness, who did not know Jesus during the trial period.  Facts on Jesus were so few that the bookbinder had a problem 'call it a book' compared to Homar, or any Latin book available for reading in or around 325 CE., and because, moreover, what was not Christian was not looked upon as human. It is true I have already touched upon these matters; but when in our day “the Latest News from the Kingdom of God” is printed, we shall not be tired of bringing older news to mind. And in particular, let us not forget India, that sacred soil, that cradle of the human race, at any rate of the race to which we belong, where first Mohammedans, and later Christians, were most cruelly infuriated against the followers of the original belief of mankind; and the eternally lamentable, wanton, and cruel destruction and disfigurement of the most ancient temples and images, still show traces of the monotheistic rage of the Mohammedans, as it was carried on from Marmud the Ghaznevid of accursed memoryMemory It is the process of storing and then remembering this information. Forgetting may be a sign of a more serious problem, such as: Alzheimer's disease, Other types of dementia, Stroke, Depression, Head injuries, Blood clots or tumors in the brain, Kidney, liver, or thyroid problems, Reactions to certain medicines,, down to Aureng Zeb, the fratricide, whom later the Portuguese Christians faithfully tried to imitate by destroying the temples and the auto da fé of the inquisition at Goa. Let us also not forget the chosen people of God, who, after they had, by Jehovah’s express and special command, stolen from their old and faithful friends in Egypt the gold and silver vessels which had been lent to them, made a murderous and predatory excursion into the Promised Land, with Moses at their head, in order to tear it from the rightful owners, also at Jehovah’s express and repeated commands, knowingKnowledge Knowledge is derived from the process of an informed person integrating data from sense organs or intuition into their psyche. This concept is explored in the Vedic Nasadiya Sukta, which questions the possibility of ultimate truth or knowledge. In different languages, such as Greek, Latin, Sanskrit, and Chinese, knowledge is expressed as "η γνώση," "Scientia," "ज्ञानम्‌ ," and "知识 Zhīshì," respectively. no compassion, and relentlessly murdering and exterminating all the inhabitants, even the women and children (Joshua x., xi.); just because they were not circumcised and did not know Jehovah, which was sufficient reason to justify every act of cruelty against them. For the same reason, in former times the infamous roguery of the patriarch Jacob and his chosen people against Hamor, King of Shalem, and his people is recounted to us with glory, precisely because the people were unbelievers. Truly, it is the worst side of religions that the believers of one religion consider themselves allowed everything against the sins of every other, and consequently treat them with the utmost viciousness and cruelty; the Mohammedans against the Christians and Hindoos; the Christians against the Hindoos, Mohammedans, Americans, Negroes, Jews, heretics, and the like. Perhaps I go too far when I say all religions; for in compliance with truth, I must add that the fanatical horrors, arising from religion, are only perpetrated by the followers of the monotheistic religions, that is, of Judaism and its two branches, Christianity and Islamism. The same is not reported of the Hindoos and Buddhists, although we know, for instance, that Buddhism was driven out about the fifth century of our era by the Brahmans from its original home in the southernmost part of the IndianIndia Hind/ hend >hindia. Bharat Varsha (Jambudvipa used in Mahavamsha) is the name of this land mass. The people of this land are Sanatan Dharmin and they always defeated invaders. Indra (10000 yrs) was the oldest deified King of this land. Manu's jurisprudence enlitened this land. Vedas have been the civilizational literature of this land. Guiding principles of this land are : सत्यं वद । धर्मं चर । स्वाध्यायान्मा प्रमदः । The place also been called Hindusthan in Pesia. The word Hendu is mentioned in Avesta. Read more peninsula, and afterwards spread over the whole of Asia; yet we have, so far as I know, no definite information of any deeds of violence, of wars and cruelties by which this was brought about. This may, most certainly, be ascribed to the obscurity in which the history of those countries is veiled; but the extremely mild character of their religion, which continually impresses upon us to be forbearing towards every living thing, as well as the circumstance that Brahmanism properly admits no proselytes by reason of its caste systemCaste The caste system was brought to India by the Europeans. In the Vedic system, the Varna-Ashram system was in practice. Untouchability was never in Vedic society. Every person was respected in their domain of profession. Every person was considered divinely originated (Purush Sukta). At the time of Mahabharata equal rights were established (Bhagavad Gita)., leads us to hope that its followers may consider themselves exempt from shedding blood to any great extent, and from cruelty in any form. Spence Hardy, in his excellent book on Eastern Monachism, p. 412, extols the extraordinary tolerance of the Buddhists, and adds his assurance that the annals of Buddhism furnish fewer examples of religious persecution than those of any other religion. As a matter of fact, intolerance is only essential to monotheism: an only god is by his nature a jealous god, who cannot permit any other god to exist. On the other hand, polytheistic gods are by their nature tolerant: they live and let live; they willingly tolerate their colleagues as being gods of the same religion, and this tolerance is afterwards extended to alien gods, who are, accordingly, hospitably received, and later on sometimes attain even the same rights and privileges; as in the case of the Romans, who willingly accepted and venerated Phrygian, Egyptian, and other foreign gods. Hence it is the monotheistic religions alone that furnish us with religious wars, persecutions, and heretical tribunals, and also with the breaking of images, the destruction of idols of the gods; the overthrowing of Indian temples and Egyptian colossi, which had looked on the sun three thousand years; and all this because a jealous God had said: “Thou shalt make no graven image,” etc. To return to the principal part of the matter: you are certainly right in advocating the strong metaphysical needs of mankind; but religions appear to me to be not so much a satisfaction as an abuse of those needs. At any rate we have seen that, in view of the progress of morality, its advantages are for the most part problematical, while its disadvantages, and especially the enormities which have appeared in its train, are obvious. Of course the matter becomes quite different if we consider the utility of religion as a mainstay of thrones; for in so far as these are bestowed “by the grace of God,” altar and throne are closely related. Accordingly, every wise prince who loves his throne and his family will walk before his people as a type of true religion; just as even Machiavelli, in the eighteenth chapter of his book, urgently recommended religion to princes. Moreover, it may be added that revealed religions are related to philosophy, exactly as the sovereigns by the grace of God are to the sovereignty of the people; and hence the two former terms of the parallel are in natural alliance.

Demop. Oh, don’t adopt that tone! But consider that in doing so you are blowing the trumpet of ochlocracy and anarchy, the arch-enemy of all legislative order, all civilisation, and all humanity.

Phil. You are right. It was only a sophism, or what the fencing-master calls a feint. I withdraw it therefore. But see how disputing can make even honest men unjust and malicious. So let us cease.

Demop. It is true I regret, after all the trouble I have taken, that I have not altered your opinionOpinion A judge's written explanation of a decision of the court. In an appeal, multiple opinions may be written. The court’s ruling comes from a majority of judges and forms the majority opinion. A dissenting opinion disagrees with the majority because of the reasoning and/or the principles of law on which the decision is based. A concurring opinion agrees with the end result of the court but offers further comment possibly because they disagree with how the court reached its conclusion. in regard to religion; on the other hand, I can assure you that everything you have brought forward has not shaken my conviction of its high value and necessity.

Phil. I believe you; for as it is put in Hudibras:

“He that complies against his will
Is of his own opinion still.”
I find consolation, however, in the fact that in controversies and in taking mineral waters, it is the after-effects that are the true ones.

Demop. I hope the after-effect may prove to be beneficial in your case.

Phil. That might be so if I could only digest a Spanish proverb.

Demop. And that is?

Phil. Detras de la cruz está el Diablo.

Demop. Which means?

Phil Wait—”Behind the cross stands the devil.”

Demop. Come, don’t let us separate from each other with sarcasms, but rather let us allow that religion, like Janus, or, better still, like the Brahman god of death, YamaTime χρόνος. Judicial: Where any expression of it occurs in any Rules, or any judgment, order or direction, and whenever the doing or not doing of anything at a certain time of the day or night or during a certain part of the day or night has an effect in law, that time is, unless it is otherwise specifically stated, held to be standard time as used in a particular country or state. (In Physics, time and Space never exist actually-“quantum entanglement”) यमः , पुं, (यमयति नियमयति जीवानां फलाफलमिति । यम् + अच् । विश्वे च कलयत्येव यः सर्व्वायुश्च सन्ततम् । अतीव दुर्निवार्य्यञ्च तं कालं प्रणमाम्यहम् ॥यमैश्च नियमैश्चैव यः करोत्यात्मसंयमम् । स चादृष्ट्वा तु मां याति परं ब्रह्म सनातनम् ॥, has two faces, and like him, one very friendly and one very sullen. Each of us, however, has only fixed his eyes on one.

Phil. You are right, old fellow.