02 April, 2011

Science: A religion for Life

"When I call myself an atheist, it is not that I do not have a God to believe in, or a religion to piously follow:
Nature is my God,
Science is my religion...."

While clarifying my stand on religion and God to a certain sect of 'believers', who were unhappy to see me wear the tag of an Atheist, I happened to articulate the above statement.
It does encapsulate my 'faith system' clearly. Nevertheless, an elaboration of this statement was over due for sometime now. And in this post, I simply speak of my religion.

Why do people endorse and live by religions?
They need a system to provide comfort and solace; To seek and understand answers to the big questions of the Universe; A rulebook of sorts to help them lead their lives.
That is what religions are/were supposed to be doing. I shall not delve into analyzing how religions of believers has either succeeded or failed in this objective. I shall contain it to only the arguments for my religion:Science.

We humans are the niche results to have culminated until now in the race to evolution. We have accomplished something that none of the other species hitherto had even tried to, i.e, to curb the grand and ultimate arbitrator: Nature.
We are undoubtedly the first species to have successfully honed the forces of nature to favor our comfortable existence, although to a small, but substantial extent . This advantage humans exercised over nature,has been purely based on Science.
Now, the concept of hope and faith got imbibed into us and became aspects of our lives when we were less equipped to blend with the environments, mainly due to the lack of scientific advancements. To cling on to something because it is antique is, as ironic as it might seem, is also very absurd. Our forefathers weren't equipped with all the reasoning which comes to us as almost intuition.
All that was ignorance, is transpiring to become cognizance with the help of Science, and today we are privileged to inherit this cognizance as intuition.
When such is the case, Science has to be the most rational way of life.
Without hope, faith, illusions, delusions, Gods and Demons, our lives would be less intriguing and would certainly put us into positions of self responsibility. Science hands over the control of our lives back to us. On the other hand, popular faith based religions try to shift this responsibility to irrationality. If irrationality and irresponsibility is what someone seeks, faith based religions are what they'd endorse. Science presents us with the simple truth and sensible rationality, coupled with common sense and quintessential responsibility, with an extra topping of Math! Math, not being mandatory for the followers of this religion, the rest of it is what we need to inculcate 'to live simply and happily'.

Imagine the bliss one could regularly experience, when looking at the world with a paradigm endorsing 'verifiable reasons and convincing explanations' to all the small nuances and all the humongous wonders of nature. Isn't that the bliss which every religion entices its followers with? It would be the blessing unreachable by any other fictitious Deity or Godmen.
Further, the fruit of worshiping Science is Technology which helps us lead a life of ease, comfort and satisfaction.

Rationality is what each one of us should perpetually try to endorse and live by. To do this Science is the best religion.
The Priesthood of Science

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