Kill them or else the Boogeyman will kill you!

Kill them or else the Boogeyman will kill you!

Ever heard of the boogeyman? Yes I am talking about the imaginary creature used as a substance of fear to disciple children. I first caught the term when my mother used it to intimidate my 5 year old brother saying, “If you are going be a difficult child, I’ll call boogeyman to take you away”. The name itself was enough to turn him from an impish monkey to a gullible puppy. From then onwards whenever persuasion, bribe, trickery and anger failed, I often used it as a last resort to have it my way with him. It served me well until he grew older and started making sense of things. He grasped that there is no such thing as a boogeyman and soon grew out of the idea. Now what if a child is led to believe this idea for most of his life through constant reinstatement and confirmation? Every other child he knows has heard of the boogeyman. There are stories of children disappearing. He witnesses that any sort of disobedience is followed by an instant punishment inflicted by the boogeyman. Will the child ever grow over the idea of boogeyman in this case?

I was born into a religion and grew up practicing it mostly as an acquired habit rather than a self invested faith. As I started on my own I soon educated myself out of it. Today religion for me is merely something that defines my ancestry. So when I hear about communal violence and civil wars stemming from religious differences I tend to ask myself, “can religion motivate a person to jeopardize his peace, well-being, family and happiness to invest a lifetime in senseless struggle?” Is it really about Jihad? Firstly I didn’t know the exact implication of the word but frankly speaking, after knowing the meaning it didn’t make much sense either. How can the words “holy” and “war” be used in conjunction? On what level do the divine concepts of spirituality and faith coincide the political ambitions of a community? So without getting into a philosophical debate on interpretation of Islamic theology I assumed that the civil war in Iraq is based on ideological differences between the Sunni and the Shia islamists and started to get my head around what these differences are? I happened to come across a study conducted on these two sects of Islam by the Congressional Research Service, which is a research service working exclusively for United States Congress. What I read left me dumbstruck. Islam is a religion that lost its sense before it could foster. Since then it has been disintegrated and used to brain wash the masses for various alternative motives. The so called “ideological differences” among various sects and branches of Islam are so overlapping and confused that I bet if you have a level headed discussion, with the so called bearers of the faith, without any guns involved, they themselves won’t be able to make a clear distinction.

So here is what I gathered from it.

1. The prime difference between the Sunnis and the Shias stems from the 1400 years old disagreement on the rightful successor of Prophet and the nature of leadership in the Muslim community. Sunnis believed that the Caliph (political leader) should be selected on the basis of communal consensus and thus they accept all 4 Imams (political/religious leader) out of which only the 4th one named Ali was related to Prophet. In contrast to this, Shias opined that the political succession should be based on bloodline to the Prophet and therefore they regard Ali as their first Imam. Although the Caliphate declined after thirteenth century and prophet’s bloodline was lost after the 12th Imam, the two sects still hold on to this difference and use it as per their convenience.

2. In theory Sunnis denounce idolatry of Imams and only follow Prophets in Quran. They have less powerful religious hierarchy where religious leaders are under state control. They also allow lay man to be flexible in performing prayers. Shias on the other hand have followed the cult of Imams from time to time where the imam has served as both religious and political leader. Now the fundamentalist groups such as Al-Qaeda and ISIS, despite of belonging to Sunni sect, have been seen following the cult of leaders such as Osama Bin Laden and desire a totalitarian state based on Sharia law. So if you see it, in practice they are on the same page as the Shias.

3. And off-course within Sunnis and Shias also, there are several schools of thoughts that differ on the idea of Muslim jurisprudence and interpretation of Quran. For instance the Ismailies, second largest Shia sect believes in 7 imams rather than 12.

These petite differences forced me to ask myself again. Is it really about religion? On what level do the divine concepts of spirituality and faith coincide the political ambitions of a community? If you try to relate it with the taught meaning of religion you would never get an answer. Although if you examine the logical order of things you will realize that religion is in fact the very first form of politics.

It is a lie that was so well established that our society never got over it. It’s the idea of boogeyman that never left the child’s head. It’s the most classic example of mankind consumed by its own notion. Let’s clear our heads of all the preset notions of society and think from scratch. Where did religion sprout from? Why was it formed? And why did one feel the need for such a thing as religion? Just because it’s getting a little boring and lengthy (sorry can’t help it) I would narrate this with the help of a story.

Long ago when the idea of civilization was still in its infancy, there lived a small tribe of people who mostly survived on hunting and gathering. There idea of life revolved around basic instincts of eating, survival and mating. One day a hunter accidentally discovered how to light fire using dry twigs. At first he got scared but then he became inquisitive and tried to reattempt the process. He spent hours rubbing the twigs against each other. After failing for several times he finally succeeded in lighting the fire again. It became a daily practice. Initially it took him several attempts but soon he mastered the technique and could light the fire in first attempt itself. He showed his trick to other tribe members. They got mesmerized and scared at the same time. Every day they gathered around to watch him do his trick. Each time he refused to do the trick they bribed him with food. Soon, his only responsibility in the tribe became to entertain people with his trick. Every evening he displayed his fire trick, in return of which people gave him food. He started enjoying his new status so much so that he dreamt about fire almost every night. He started sharing his fanciful dreams with exaggerated dramatization which added a whole lot of admiration and glory to what was a simple trick earlier. His stories became more and more elaborate day by day. People started interpreting these stories, adding meaning to it. It led to personification of fire. It became customary for people in the tribe to collect every evening, give offerings to the fire bearer and hear stories in his glory. They thoroughly enjoyed this custom mostly because of the mystical stories. These stories helped them attach meaning to the insecure fearful world around them. It was as if they had befriended a divine creature who would protect them from other evils around them. It also bought them close and gave them a reason to communicate more. Soon the news spread to nearby tribes and people from faraway places started coming to participate in the fire bearer’s ritual. Each person witnessing the fire ritual went and told their own versions of stories that people further went on building. Some said that the fire bearer was the most powerful man in world; few believed that he could win over all beasts and evils; some thought he had eternal life and some called him the healer.

These folklores made their way to a village that was recovering from a bad flood. When the villagers heard the stories about the fire bearer they all felt hopeful and resolved to seek his help. So they gathered all they could to please the fire bearer and headed to convince him to visit their village. They served him for days, used their women to lure him and showered him with cooked delicacies that he had never tasted before in his life. Hence the fire bearer agreed to visit their village in the anticipation of a better life. When the villagers were done celebrating the success of their expedition, their life dwindled back to everyday worries. So the village leader sat to consult the fire bearer. However, all his efforts to seek advice or any fruitful response of him went in vain. All his questions where responded by fire tricks and foolery on the part of the tribesman. He soon realized that the tribesman knew nothing except lighting fire, which was not a new thing for villagers who were far more advanced than tribal settlements. The village leader was apprehensive about revealing this truth to the villagers as this would have demeaned his judgment abilities. So he devised a plan. He killed the tribesman and buried him. Next day he displayed a lamp and told the villagers that the fire bearer had assumed the form of fire and had confined himself to the lamp. He also conveyed them that the fire bearer had assigned him as his messenger and had given him powers to communicate with the lamp that would guide them through their problems.

The villagers became extremely happy. They built a temple for the fire messenger and placed the lamp in it. They collected at the temple every evening to hear the will of the lamp which was followed by ceremonial singing and offering. This helped in building hope and confidence of the villagers. They started working with revived zeal and passion. Soon their hard-work got paid with a generous harvest. They felt victorious and empowered and gave credit to the magical fire lamp. Their faith in the lamp strengthened. Now that they had surpassed their basic worry they started seeking the lamp messenger for various questions that eluded them. This made fire messenger’s job trickier. People started approaching him for all sorts of questions and solutions, expecting nothing but positive results. He was mostly approached by ill people who prayed the fire lamp to heal them. He knew that he was in no power to cure them out of their illness. Thus he reasoned them saying that the lamp addressed only those who were worthy of his mercy. With this reason he subjected them to vigorous fasting and various sacrificial rituals. So at last when they died, he blamed it on their inefficiency to honor the wills of the lamp. One day a villager died despite of surpassing all the tests he had been subjected to. So the villagers gathered in the temple to seek reason behind his death. This day the messenger devised the concept of life after death. He ensured all the villagers that the soul of the demised had been sent to the clouds, which was a place far more beautiful and comfortable than their own settlement. He explained that it was a reward of winning his test.

At times the village head also made up lies simply to serve his personal interests. For instance once he told people to fast twice a week and offer more to the fire lamp so he could hoard on to food supplies. He selected the most beautiful women in the village and appointed them to his service declaring that these women will bear the next generation of fire messengers.

Looking at the idolatrous obedience of the people he realized what he was capable of. Realization of power made him shrewd, self – centric and ambitious. The lie that was told to rescue the hopes of villagers now became a way to his means. He declared himself as the fire god. He then hosed people into believing that a small temple was not worth the stature of fire god. So they were made to toil day-in and day-out to build an elaborate temple. To make them more focused and productive he declared good food, entertainment and women as putrid indulgences, unholy in the eyes of the fire god. In apprehension of a rebellion he also created a divide between village community by introducing laws of matrimony and reducing the idea of family to a bloodline. He also introduced chastity and turned gratifying act of love making into mere procreation necessary to yield next generation of people. This too had to be approved by the fire god.

Soon his stories turned into intricately woven system of lies which he was finding hard to handle. Hence he appointed a person to document his policies into a book that he named “commandments of the fire god”. He also assigned preachers to advocate and spread his doctrine. People were obligated to read his book twice a day so that they were always cautious of their actions.

As time passed, villagers got conditioned to this system of life. Things were going as planned by the fire god until the village was hit again by a devastating flood. It departed the village with a lot of deaths and destruction. This time villagers were so blinded by the faith that all they did was to pray all day, with the belief that the fire bearer would bring them out of their misery. This time, instead of guiding the villagers, the fire god rather told them to pray more and offer whatever they had to the lamp. He neither had any empathy nor any interest in people’s misfortune as he had hoarded enough food to last him for years.

One day fire god woke up to see that there had been a theft in the temple. Someone had stolen food out of his stock. He was outraged. He warned the villagers to find the thief and stone him to death or else the lamp will evince his rage upon the whole village. So next day they left 10 dead bodies outside the temple. No one knew who really the thief was. These were just 10 people who were suspected of the crime. Whole village was plagued by grief, hunger and diseases. People died almost every day. Soon came the time when there were only five families left in the village. Extreme starvation turned them into soulless bodies. When they couldn’t bear the starvation anymore they came to a collective decision. That night while the fire god was sleeping they went to the temple, stole the food and killed the fire god. Fearing that the fire lamp would take revenge of them they abandoned the village and settled as far as they could. The temple was later discovered by a new settlement of people along with the lamp and the book of commandments by fire god.

The moral is, whatever version of story you may belief in, religion in all cases is a political system that was shaped to run a society. It surely has faces of both good and bad and has served a purpose from time to time. However the question is, today, do we really need a thing like religion to answer our doubts and lay our hopes on? Does it really have a role in modern society? Isn’t it time we reconstruct or at least mend it so it is more adaptable and less ambiguous? Isn’t it time to grow out of the idea of the boogeyman and stop fearing it? Isn’t it time to scrap the notion of religion so that no one can hand a gun in a child’s hand and say, “Kill them or else the Boogeyman will kill you!”

Please note that I am not an expert on theology neither do I aim to target any specific religion. This blog presents my personal views on religion in general. Readers are free to correct me or add there views in the comments.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.