“Nothing is evil which is according to nature,” assertsMarcus Aurelius
Evil always comes with evilness, creates unpleasantsituations but an evil occurrence can be good when it exposes badness veiledwithin the ‘best’. Most, even all woeful events are exemplary in one or otherways helping a man to lift faculty of learning and understanding. Coronaviruspandemic is one such bad occurrence that arrived with goodness. It exposes thecapitalist mind of man – man of varieties and embarrassed religious doxa.The powerful and powerless find themselves up the creek. The virus deprived theelite of the privilege. The proper and common lost the distinction. The curfewonce specific to Kashmir reaches America, China, and Italy. Coronavirus exposesthe military mindset of apparent democratic states where destruction receivesmore attention than the wellbeing of humans. War has priority over humanhealth. The goodness of Coronavirus reflects in the fact that it exposesreligious-impious, and powerful-powerless equally, it exposes abduction ofreason by religiosity and illness of unreasonable and illogic. The goodness ofevil Coronavirus follows from the fact that it makes anachronism of religiositypublic. It shows that man has not evolved to a magnitude where he can mitigatethe woes of the time. Even the religion might be embarrassed when it finds itsfollowers preferring abstract instead of practical, mythology over phenomenonand irrationality over rationality. The religiosity across the globe becamelaughing stuff when people at the helm of religious affairs (Christian, Jews,Muslims, Hindu, etc) crushed up reason, logic and prudence to blind faith, mythand ideational factors.
The current situation in the middle of pandemic gave rise towidespread speculations, the revival of rationally sacrilegious dogmas andlogical profanations. Covid 19 arrives with intriguing trepidations, conspiracytheories, and debates. Some are blaming China and others blame America. Manyexperts view that a coronavirus is a tool amid to transform the global powersymmetry, others say that it is the war of economy, even a few opined thatvirus may lead to the emergence of new world order. A section of the populationis filled with doubts and apprehensions about biological war. During thisglobal chaos and confusion, the religiosity continued fixed with the doxologyas usual without exploring possible humanitarian loss and destruction.Primarily people at the helm of religious affairs across the globe hardly showsany concern towards this challenging cataclysm even they didn’t give damn toit, maybe they feel their presence under the shades of Sacredness living withthe impression that ‘profane’ cannot touch them as such claims came outpertinaciously across many parts of the globe even from Kashmir too.Religiosity puts commoners in surprise when it indirectly sabotaged thegovernment efforts meant to execute to protect humanity. Why a folk of’well-read’ people engaged in religious affairs is riding roughshod overgovernment procedures regarding the Coronavirus? Is it the law of tradition orlaw of self-ego to prefer Doxa over the reason? It shocks when aperson familiar with sacred texts goes with the irrational and illogicalpresuppositions besides having immense scope for rationality, intellect, reasonand the public good in their respective religions. There is nothing new incalamities, epidemics, pandemic, disasters and destructions, such occurrenceshave been a part of human history and have contributed to the evolution ofhuman thought, thinking and reasoning of a man besides inviting destruction.The man at all times has responded to such events with the proper use ofintellect and reason. The religion has maintained the use of intellect to carefor existence. However, Accusations are being exchanged among individuals,groups, religion, and nations. Some blame rats, some accuse bats for thepandemic. Maybe the people are true to their apprehensions but blaming Divinityto do away with a Being and Existence is not less than heresy in the world ofreason and rationality. A religious belief apart, is it suitable for theresponsible religiosity to debate on the subjects limited to the domain of theOther World, when the lives are lost? Can we afford to put reason to death whenthe existence of humanity is at stake? Is it possible that religion puts upwith preferring a mere conviction over the sanctity of human lives? No, adivine religion has no scope for holding human life in low esteem. Human lifeand existence is the subject matter of almost every religion. Looking back overthe history of religions it is evident that every religion respects goodness oflife. So, why religiosity proved impractical, unreasonable when humanity fallsto Covid-19?
The present situation demands us to follow the factual religious teachings though many pointing fingers to each other will do no favor to us but beating self-ego, radical religiosity ad unreasonable minds will help us to overcome the situation. The radical religiosity across the globe attracts attention during this point of time in a bitter way. The exhortation of unreasonable is strong that ecclesiastics along with their followers defied, denied and pushed back the state orders of public safety though few embraced the orders. This denial not only came from the third world known for the imperialism of faith and fanatic radicalism but people within theo-clerical class across intellectually advanced states like America, Israel, Iran, and Germany kept their rational and logical faculty under the boots of Bolshevik convictions of faith putting whole humanity in danger. The Brigadeführers of sacred institutions were busy to prove their mettle when people across the world were shaking in their boots as the pandemic was felling lives, livelihoods, and normalcy across the world. Christians were concerned about the routines of the Church, Jews worried about Torah and so were Muslims about Jabr-o-Qadr and Azab-i-Illahi but human life and existence – the pole of the center for almost all religions – had no value when one analyses the happenings. Many incidents show that the people who claim to follow complete religion or Deen had no value for life; instead, they prefer to stick to the unreasonable conventions putting whole humanity at stake. This is not the case of particular religion or community, but people at the helm of religious affairs across the religions resorted to killing reason and intellect when the situation demands mandatory adoption of protective measures. A Christian father Rev. Majdi Allawi was asked about sanitizer and masks, his answer was astonishing when he replied “Jesus is my protection,” “He is my sanitizer.” (NYT 22 Mar 2020). The 92-year-old Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, most senior of the Lithuanian rabbis feel pride in upholding the standards of ultra-Orthodox ideology and instead of following the state orders ensuring the safety of human lives (Haaretz, 25 March 2020). Passionate sermons of Muslim preachers are making rounds following their parallels in other religions. It feels they have chosen this fateful moment to prove their priestly power inviting commoners to cross the ladders leading to heaven instead of asking them to get the real. There is a justifiable and appropriate space for reason and intellect in a religion. Religion can never be based on irrationality, religiosity must speak reason because every religion deals with the man having special faculty of reason and intellect, but how in God’s name are we going to get benefit from the illogical, unscientific and abstract sermons. By all accounts, there is an unbridgeable gap between revelation and reason but the religion with a man and his needs as a subject matter can never be at conflict with intellect. It is believed that the world is eternal and marked by ontological hierarchy with intellect at the top and the world of development and decay at the bottom. The fight with Coronavirus demands practical and logical efforts instead of speculations. Reason and intellect are the foundation of a belief system, though many principles, Ahakaam or Mammlaat are beyond reason and intellect but such principles. The present situation takes us to the functional aspect of religion. Religion is a social Phenomenon (E. Durkheim) and should be treated in terms of its social functions rather in terms of factors relating to an individual. Every religion is divine and the Divine Religion is Absolute Divine Truth. There is no comparison of the Absolute Divine Truth system with a worldly thought system. The human system of intellect and reason can never be prioritized over the Divine system, however, the interpretation of religion or belief system is dependent on the human intellect. One cannot put intellect and reason on the back while dealing with worldly situations like the Coronavirus. To pump the abstract and unseen when a man demands practical, positive and passion is neither favorable to religion nor a man.