As far
as I understand, there is a popular misconception that rationalism is
just a denial of the existence of god and religion in any form. Rationalists
are not just propagandists of atheism or crusaders against god. That
is a negative view of rationalism. But rationalism is a positive attitude
to do good to human beings by promoting ethics, self-knowledge, self-discipline
and self-development.
Rationalism is
a battle to liberate humanity from ignorance, religious prejudice and
superstition. Its main aim is to make the discovered truths available to all and
induce everybody to draw his own rational conclusions about the meaning, purpose
and conduct of life.
The accepted
definition of rationalism evolved as early as 1899 is:- It is the mental
attitude, that unreservedly accepts the supremacy of reason, and aims
at establishing a system of Philosophy and ethics verifiable by experience
and independent of all arbitary assumptions of authority.
Speaking
of “Rationalism”, Gowans Whyte states: “Rationalism”, as an
intellectual, movement, does not offer a ready - made creed to replace
the religious creeds in which most people have been brought up. Were
it to do so, it would be attempting to impose the same sort of official
authority as the churches and to discharge the free exercise of Individual
reason. Its proper business is to make the discovered truth available
to all and to Induce everybody to draw his own rational conclusions
about the meaning, the purpose and conduct of life. Late D.M.K. Chief
Annadorai Says: “Rationalism
does not mean repudiation of basic or fundamental truths and maxims,
but the annihilation of dubious modes of thought and action”.
Rationalism is not a system or a faith
or a creed ready to be handled like a measuring rod. It is an attitude
of mind. It is a movement of ideas. It is not an academic exercise indulged
by the learned few. It is concerned with the people and community in
all its aspects. Its task is to show the approach of reason to all problems
of individual and his social life. It lays down the foundation of a
new philosophy of life. It provides an alternative way
of life and/ or philosophy for those who desire to throwaway orthodox
religion and morals based on fear of god. It is not a creed or set of
dogmas, religious or philosophical. Its main task is the diffusion of sound knowledge. Since rationalism is mainly an attitude
of mind, continuance of that attitude is essential to sustain efforts
required for rationalists to keep abreast of the growth of knowledge,
for that alone will prevent rationalism from getting rusty and unserviceable.
The values that rationalism gathers are not permanent for all time to
come.
It calls for a
constant and vigilant recasting of morals and other values to suit the changing
pattern of society.
Rationalism
is not a negative approach:
It is
not mere denial of the existence of god, it is a philosophy by itself
as Buddhism, Jainism, Confucianism are as propounded by their founders.
It is a struggle against injustice, inequality, and slavery. It is a
quest for truth and social reform. Rationalism and humanism is a realistic
alternative to theology. It attempts to transcend divisive, parochial
loyalties based on caste, race, religion, nationality, creed, class,
or ethnicity. It strives work together for the common good of humanity.
It nourishes common moral excellence like altruism, integrity, honesty,
truthfulness, reason, compassion etc. It stands for belief in optimism
rather than pessimism, hope rather than despair, learning in place of
dogma, truth instead of ignorance, tolerance in place of fear, love
instead of hatred, compassion over selfishness, reason over blind faith.
Rationalist propaganda is the only solution to liquidate blind faith.
AIMS AND
OBJECTIVES OF RATIONALISM
Rationalism
aims at the development of potentialities of the individual with freedom or and
independence. Its endeavor is to achieve the ideal of social freedom and to
create a new renaissance. It’s main objective is to liberate human thought from
the limitations of caste, creed, religion, and nationality. Rationalism promotes
an attitude optimism, which helps to develop healthy and dynamic minds to
overcome any crisis. It emphasizes the dignity and work of man as man and his
potential capacity to build a peaceful, decent world where there is no
exploitation of man and where hunger poverty and racial prejudices do not exist.
Aristotle was the first philosopher who defined man as a rational being. He
taught that rationality differentiates man from animal. Animals act from
instinct while human beings are endowed with the faculty of reasoning, which
governs their conduct and action. Rationalism regards reason as the chief source
and test of knowledge. Rationalism holds reason to be a faculty that can lay
hold of truth, beyond the reach of sense perception. For example, if democracy
is considered to be the best form of government, rationalism demands that it
must be shown to the people how this belief stands to reason. Rationalism wants
people to learn to govern themselves by reason, as it is a supreme and innate
human quality, which can be applied to the shaping of our future.
HOW RATIONALISM
CAN NEUTRALISE CASTEISM
The Caste-based
social system has assigned a hierarchical position to each caste result
of this feeling of superiority and inferiority based on birth have been
deep embedded in the minds of the people. This in turn has led to the
disappearance of the spirit of brotherhood, oneness, and comradeship
in our society. Rationalism affirms that humanity is one and indivisible.
It emphasizes that, every human being is entitled to equality of status
and equality of opportunity in every sphere of life irrespective of his caste or creed.
It wages a war on the false theory of superiority and inferiority attached
to birth, and declares that the unjust social order of caste must go
in the interest of social justice and human solidarity.
Rationalism
alone can effectively take up the creation of a new social order without caste.
HOW
RATIONALISM CAN COUNTER COMMUNALISM AND RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISM
Religious
fundamentalism in India today displays the most incendiary form of
intolerance to wards other religions. It challenges the very fundamentals of our
conception of a secular state. It is the greatest enemy of national integration
in multilingual and multi-religious country that is India. Rationalism
inculcates the spirit of tolerance and promotes universal brotherhood. It
promotes humanism with a natural and scientific approach to our problems. A
rationalist by training and temperament is governed by reason. A man of reason
has tolerance and understanding. A man of understanding can never be aggressive
in his thought or action. Religious bigotry or religious intolerance has no
place in the minds of rationalists. Hence rationalism is the best antidote to
communalism and religious fundamentalism.
If the
doors, windows, ventilators of our brain are allowed to open, there
will be free flow of thoughts and then we will think freely. First,
we should make people think. When they think, they start questioning;
when they start questioning reasoning commences. One tries to get answers.
Newton could give us the theory of gravitational pull by questioning
why an apple falls down on the ground instead of going up? Great thinkers
like Periyar, Ingersoll, Bertrand Russell and others have not accepted
any thing for granted. They questioned every statement with probing
mind and realized the truth that there cannot be any supernatural power
called ‘god’ .
“Reason
is the light, the sun of the brain. It is the compass of the mind, the
ever constant northern star, the mountain peak that lifts itself above
all clouds”.
Any man
who stands for progress has to criticize, disbelieve and challenge every
item to the old faith. A man who claims to be a realist has to challenge
the whole of the ancient faith. Item by item he has to reason out every
nook and corner of the prevailing faith. Reasoning is the guiding star
of one’s life. Mere faith and blind faith is dangerous. It dulls the
brain and makes a man reactionary. Here is what Shaheed Bhagat Singh
says, “Study was the cry that reverberated in the corridors
of my mind, study to enable yourself to face the arguments advanced
by the opposition. Study to arm yourself with arguments in favour of
your cult. I began to study, MY
PRECIOUS FAITH AND CONVICTIONS UNDERWENT REMARKABLE MODIFICATIONS.”
When reasoning
commences, man arrives at the conclusion that the so-called holy books
are not sacred. He no more considers them as holy. He no more considers
them as containing the knowledge revealed certain chosen men of god,
Prophets or god’s son or his angels in the language known to them.
He no more considers that these chosen men god’s men or so-called
prophets are chosen by god. He comes to know that they are all utterances
of so-called god’s men or prophets during their delusion, trance or
epilepsy and written by human beings at various stages, at various thinking
levels.
Most mystics
are epileptics. Saint Paul was one, Mohammed another, Chaitanya was yet
another, Dostoveski a fourth, Ramakrishna a fifth and the list can easily
be made much longer. He will
come to the conclusion that religions are creations of human imagination.
With the view to making people non-skeptic, the so-called holy men and
their henchmen propagated that they contain sacred knowledge revealed
by god, and therefore not subject to questioning. All religions of the world forbid
examination, do not want reason. Everyman should allowed to investigate
to the extent of his desire and his ability. There is no real investigation
without freedom from the fear of gods and men.
They denied the
right to disagree the dissent. THE RIGHT TO KNOW IS THE BASIC HUMAN RIGHT.
Scientific
temperament
It is
supplementary to Rationalism. Then what is Science? Science is the systematic
observation and classification of natural phenomena in order to learn about them
and bring them under general principles and laws as per the 20th century
dictionary. Scientific temperament, scientific thinking, scientific outlook are
derived from science.
Science
Man’s knowledge
which expanded as a result of observation and experience slowly became organized
as Science, which in time began to claim the whole of man’s experience as its
field of study. Science is organized knowledge. It relies on reason in its
search for facts. All theories of science must satisfy man’s reason. The methods
of science are experiment and observation and an acceptance of the validity of
sense experience. The function of science is to accumulate factual knowledge of
the universe including man. The discoveries of science came into conflict with
the beliefs sanctified by religion, thus giving rise to a conflict between
science and religion. .
It needs to be
pointed out, however, that the conflict between science and religion is not
merely a conflict between discovered fact and revealed wisdom, but between two
fundamentally different attitudes to life: the rational and the religious. The
rationalist mental attitude is the basis of science and the scientific method.
Science is not
a mere collection of facts. Science is knowledge, organized and presented in a
systematic manner, to understand the nature of and the underlying principles
behind the facts that we study. Every law of science must, without a single
exception, be valid universally, at all times and all places. These laws are not
valid merely notionally or approximately but exactly. Scientific phenomena
should be repeatable and demonstrable. If I observe a phenomena, it is not
enough that I observed it. It should be possible for me to demonstrate it before
you, you and you. Each one of the laws of science can be, have been and will be
tested by anybody starting from a high school student to a Nobel Laureate.
Science gives us a way to understand the physical world around us. In fact, it
is the only way of understanding the physical world around us. A scientist who
sees the beauty and elegance of science may say science is so perfect and
is so complete that he does not need to believe in the supreme being. Science
explains everything.
Science
denies the existence of the supernatural and magic, which is the very
essence of religion. Another important attribute of science is that
it allows one to make testable predictions. All truths at any given
time in science are truths by consensus. Science is, evolutionary, while
religion is not. All new knowledge in science must be consistent with
known and established observations. The growth of scientific knowledge is a continuous
process. Science is, therefore, evolutionary. A religion once founded
continues substantially unchanged. An important attribute of science
is the right to question. Knowledge advances and science progresses
because people exercise their right to question. If you question it
must be only to seek clarification and not to doubt.
Science is
truly international, religion is not. Scientists all over the world use the same
method, that is, the method of science. They employ the same techniques, use the
same materials, and publish frequently in the same journals. They are
increasingly beginning to use the same language - that is, English - and they
form a truly international community in which the professional links are at
least as strong as any other link. There is little communication between various
religions and, therefore, no common language. Religious customs and practices
differ enormously, often fundamentally, from religion to religion. Religion, in
fact, divides people while science unites them. Today, we understand, reasonably
well, what might have been the likely origin of the universe. It is generally
accepted by scientists that the universe came into existence about 18 billion
years ago, and they can trace the history of the universe backwards to nearly 10
(power) of a second just after the event of its formation - called the ‘big
bang’ by the astronomers. Today, scientists can say with considerable certainty,
that life on our planet evolved from non-living materials. After the formation
of the earth, complex chemical substances were slowly formed from the simple
chemical substances that were contained in the primordial atmosphere; such a
‘chemical’ evolution eventually dovetailed into the biological evolution.
The Constitution
of India (Preamble)
Fundamental
Duties
Article
51 A: Fundamental Duties: It shall
be the duty of every citizen of India. (h) to develop the scientific
temper. humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform.
CONCLUSION
Science/ Scientific
temper
Knowledge of
the universe, Darwin’s theory of evolution of life on this earth,
systematization of knowledge, rational thinking of facts, theories and further
scientific analysis should reach the common man and make him think. There is
every need to develop scientific thinking and outlook among all sections of
people.
Work hard to
cultivate a scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry. Educate
others around you by installing in them a scientific temper and the spirit of
inquiry. This will help every country to progress.
Article
Presented at 6th FlRA Conference held at PUNE
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