Secularism vs Sickularism! And the winner is...

As our PM Modi calls for strict action and immediate FIRs against Gau Raksha vigilantes, we need to think far beyond. Such acts won't vanish till we allow secularism to be mocked and in fact become fashionable through the use of words like "sickulars" to describe secular people. Our PM now needs to clearly and loudly state that not only would killing of human beings in the name of cow protection be treated with an iron hand but even any statement against our constitutional pledge to be a secular state won't be tolerated. Secularism should be the only religion of this nation till people become atheists – that is, till they give up their immature and illogical religions based on the false concept of existence of different varieties of man-made Gods.

 In fact, leave alone religion and god, to me personally, it's a shame that in 2017, we still have a word called atheists. I mean, do we have a word for those who believe that the Earth is round? Do we have a word for those who believe 2 + 2 = 4? Do we have a word for those who believe that humans can't fly? Do we have a word for those who believe that humans cant have ten heads? Well, the answer is no. Because all that is normal and requires basic intelligence. On the contrary, if we were to define people who don't understand such basic logic, we would need to form a new word that would basically mean "low IQ people in need of special care." 

If we don't have a word for people believing in basic and normal things, then why do we have a word for those who don't believe in God, something for which, in 4 billion years of existence of Earth, there has been no evidence? I often wonder, why don't we address the believers of God simply as "low IQ people in need of special care"? 

Actually, I am not joking. Research after research has proven that people who believe in God or religion have lower IQ. Just take a look at some of the below mentioned studies: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/mrpersonality/ 201312/why-are-religious-peoplegenerally- less-intelligent 

https://blogs.psychcentral.com/faith/2012/05/ religious-people-are-stupid-and-mean-studiesshow/ 

However, my idea in writing this article was not to humiliate anyone who believes in God. Only education can help them overcome their intellectual handicap; and over time, just the way people learnt that the Earth is round and it goes around the Sun and 2 + 2 = 4, they will learn that there can't be anything called God and being religious is really stupid. The real problem is that schools and colleges don't give us real education. They don't make us question everything that's not based on evidence. 

As I keep saying, I am always worried about kids seeing their favorite biology teacher – who teaches about evolution and fossils – at a Sunday mass/Thursday Sai Baba temple/Friday namaz... The kids clearly would learn nothing, for if evolution were to be true, and the biology teacher really believed in it, she wouldn't be found in a church or a temple. The same goes for the physics teacher who teaches about the universe and at the same time wears a stone on his finger; or the chemistry teacher who teaches about the chemicals required to spot life on other planets and keeps a Monday fast or eats vegetarian food on Tuesdays; or the history teacher who is supposed to teach about facts of the past and comes to the classroom with a red tika on his forehead; and the geography teacher who is supposed to teach about the formation of landscapes and keeps navratra fasts. Because then there is no need to teach anything, as God believers have one answer for everything – God created it! That's genuinely scary and pitiable. Imagine, then what's the need of teaching all these subjects like biology, chemistry, geography et al? After all, where is the role of science compared to, for example, the amazing intelligence of primitives who wrote the Bible, where all the species of animals on this planet stay within walking distance of Noah's house! We can either teach in class how life on Earth came as a result of the process of evolution over 4 billion years or teach how God created man and woman. We can either teach how rains happen scientifically or teach how praying to rain Gods and fasting for it, brings rains. If we teach the former we must not do the latter. 

The premier institutions across the globe don't teach about the irrationality of primitive, unscientific and brainless religious systems and don't have proper subjects on relationships and sex. Instead, across the world, one would find a cross or a church inside the campus, a Ganesha or a Saraswati statue at the entrance of the school, or prayers to the non-existent Lord every morning... And with this, we give rise to generations of idiots and semi-frustrated and unbalanced souls... Those who will either disrespect others on the basis of man-made stupid differentiations like caste, colour or religion, or on the basis of sex. Someone will put pathetic forwards on religion (either running down some other religion or praising their own – both of which are signs of equal amounts of stupidity and lack of rationale) and someone else on women... And we will have a nation trying to deal with Gau Raksha vigilantes and rapists. Religious fools and sexists, two typical character traits of the ill-educated garbage that premier institutions keep producing all across the world. 

As I mentioned earlier, that religious individuals have low IQ is quite evident by almost all researches done around the world: however, those who – apart from practicing it – go to the extent of pulling down other religions in public and in public forums like Twitter, WhatsApp, Facebook, You Tube etc are perfect examples additionally of how religion finally makes you irrational extremists. Be it Islam, Christianity, Sikhism or Hinduism.

That brings me to the original question in the heading! Secularism vs Sickularism. And the winner is.... quite evident from a beautifully written article that I read the other day:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/ourhumanity- naturally/201103/misinformation-andfacts- about-secularism-and-religion 

In this article, David Niose brings out how secularism not only is rational but also leads to less crime, sexism, murders and every ill one can think of. The article is based on a path-breaking research paper by Phil Zuckerman of Pitzer College, titled Atheism, Secularity, and Well- Being: How the Findings of Social Science Counter Negative Stereotypes and Assumptions.

 Zuckerman analyzed a wide array of data comparing religious nations to less religious nations and also, interestingly, religious states within the United States (i.e. "Bible-belt" states) to less religious states. 

He found out that religious people were more likely to engage in: 

Criminal behavior: Citing four different studies, Zuckerman states: "Murder rates are actually lower in more secular nations and higher in more religious nations where belief in God is widespread." 

He also states: "Of the top 50 safest cities in the world, nearly all are in relatively nonreligious countries." Within the United States, we see the same pattern. Citing census data, he writes: "And within America, the states with the highest murder rates tend to be the highly religious, such as Louisiana and Alabama, but the states with the lowest murder rates tend to be the among the least religious in the country, such as Vermont and Oregon." 

And these findings are not limited to murder rates, as rates of all violent crimes tend to be higher in "religious" states. Zuckerman also points out that atheists are very much under-represented in the American prison population (only 0.2%). 

Marriage and family: Zuckerman cites a 1999 Barna study that finds that atheists and agnostics actually have lower divorce rates than religious Americans. He also cites another study, in Canada that found that conservative Christian women experienced higher rates of domestic violence than non-affiliated women.

Unprotected sex: ...Teens who make religioninspired "virginity pledges" are not only just as likely as their non-pledging peers to engage in premarital sex, but more likely to engage in unprotected sex. 

Not just the above, but he also observed that atheists were happier people. The most secular nations in the world report the highest levels of happiness among their population. Similarly, atheists were more altruistic: Secular nations such as those in Scandinavia donate the most money and supportive aid, per capita, to poorer nations. Zuckerman also reports that two studies show that, during the Holocaust, "the more secular people were, the more likely they were to rescue and help persecuted Jews."

  Research after research has proven that people who believe in God or religion have lower IQ

 

And last but not the least, Zuckerman, citing numerous studies, shows that atheists and agnostics, when compared to religious people, were actually less likely to be nationalistic, racist, anti-Semitic, dogmatic, ethnocentric, and authoritarian. Secularism also correlates to higher education levels. Atheists and other secular people are also much more likely to support women's rights and gender equality, as well as gay and lesbian rights. Religious individuals are more likely to support government use of torture .


Need I write more about the virtues of secularism? The Chinese Communist Party has directed its people to give up religion. Yes, while becoming non-religious should be the ultimate goal of education and every nation, the minimum we need to start is by making secularism a non negotiable tenet of daily life. Something that can't be questioned. Something that can't be mocked. Instead of making it mandatory for Indians to stand for national anthems in cinema halls and fanning primitive concepts of nationalism that are actually non-secular and racist (specially in the case of India where nationalism instantly means abusing Pakistanis, which in turns fans anti-Muslim feelings and turns non secular), the Supreme Court might as well make it mandatory to respect secular tenets of the Constitution of India.

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