Culture
Definition of Culture
Culture is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior and norms found in human societies, as well the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups. Humans acquire culture through learning process of enculturation (the process by which an individual learns the traditional content of a culture and assimilates its practices and values.) and socialization, which is shown by the diversity of culture across societies. These include expressive forms like art, music, dance, ritual, religion, and technologies like tool usage, cooking, shelter, and clothing.
Most people tend to believe that they are the center of the world, and their culture is the anchor of the human history. Chinese nationalists believe that history really began with the Yellow Emperor and Xia and Shang dynasties, and that whatever Westerners, Muslims, or Indians achieved is but a pale copy of original Chinese ideas and inventions.
Indian nativists dismiss these Chinese boasts and argued that even airplanes and nuclear bombs were invented by ancient Indian sages. They believe that Maharishi Bhardwaj invented rockets and airplanes, Viswamitra not only invented but also used missiles and Acharya Kanad was the father of atomic theory.
Many Greeks believe that history began with Homer, Sophocles, and Plato and that all important ideas and inventions were born in Athens, Sparta, Alexandria, or Constantinople.
Pious Muslims regard all history prior to Prophet Muhammad as largely irrelevant, and they consider all history after the revelation of Quran to revolve around the Muslim umma. The main exceptions are the Turkish, Iranian, and Egyptian nationalists, who argue that even prior to Muhammad their particular nation was the fountainhead of all that was good about humanity.
Needless to say, the British, French, Germans, Italians, Russians, Japanese, Americans, and countless other groups are similarly convinced that their cultures, their political systems and religious practices were essential to the very laws of physics.
All these claims are false. They combine a wishful ignorance of history with more than a hint of racism. None of the nations or religions of today existed when humans colonized the world, domesticated plants and animals, built the first cities, or invented writing and money. Morality, art, spirituality and creativity are universal human abilities embedded in our DNA. Their beginning (based on our present knowledge) was in Stone Age Africa. It is therefore crass egotism to ascribe to them a more recent place and time, be it China, India, Greece or Arabia in the age of Muhammad. (Harari)
Religion
Definition of Religion
The definition of religion is a controversial and complicated subject in religious studies, with scholars failing to agree on any one definition. Oxford Dictionaries defines religion as the belief in and/or worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods.
According to many scholars religion is a modern Western concept. Parallel concepts are not found in many current and past cultures. There is no equivalent term for religion in many languages. An increasing number of scholars have expressed reservation about ever defining the essence of religion. (Wikipedia)
There are over 4,000 religions in the world, but three –quarters of the world’s population practice one of the five major religions: Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Shinto.
Westerners often use the term “the three great religions”: Christianity (2.3billion adherents), Islam (1.9 billion), and Judaism (15 million). Hinduism, with its 1.2 billion believers, and Buddhism, with its 500 million followers- not to mention the Shinto religion (87 million) and the Sikh (26 million) do not make the cut. Followers of the ‘three great religions” believe that all major religious traditions emerged out of the womb of Judaism, which was the first religion to preach universal ethical rules like the Ten Commandments. But this is a baseless and insolvent idea, which ignores the world’s most important ethical traditions.
Stone Age hunter-gather tribes had moral codes tens of thousands years before Judaism. When the first European settlers reached Australia in the late eighteenth century, they encountered Aboriginal tribes that had a well-developed ethical worldview despite being totally ignorant of Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad.
Scientists nowadays point out that morality in fact has deep evolutionary roots. All social mammals, such as wolves, dolphins and monkeys, have ethical codes, adapted by evolution to promote group cooperation. For example, when wolf pups play with one another, they have “fair game” rules. If a pup bites too hard or continues to bite an opponent, the other pup will stop playing with him. In chimpanzee bands dominant members are expected to respect the property rights of weaker members. If a junior female chimpanzee finds a banana, even the alpha male will usually avoid stealing it for himself.
The so called biblical prophecies of “Thou shalt not kill” and “Thou shalt not steal” were well known in the legal and ethical codes of Sumerian city-states, pharaonic Egypt and the Babylonian Empire.
The Bible is far from being the exclusive source of human morality. Confucius, Laozi, Buddha, and Mahavira established universal ethical codes long before Jesus. And at a time when Judaism still mandated the sacrifice of animals, Mahavira and Buddha were already instructing their followers to avoid harming not only all human beings but any living being whatsoever, even including insects. It therefore makes no sense to credit Judaism, Christianity and Islam for creation of human morality.
The Birth of Bigotry
Bigotry is defined as obstinate or intolerant devotion to one’s own opinions and prejudices. Followers of monotheistic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) believe in a single God. The first concept of a single God goes back to Pharaoh Akhenaten of Egypt, around 1350 BCE, long before the God of the Old Testament, Yahweh. Followers of monotheistic religions believe that there are no other Gods except their own, called Yahweh, Jesus or Allah. Polytheists like the Hindus find it perfectly acceptable that different people worship different gods. They rarely if ever fought, persecuted, or killed people just because of their religious beliefs. The big exception was the 1947 partition of India and Pakistan. Monotheists, in contrast, believed that their God was the only god, and that he demanded universal obedience. Consequently, as Christianity and Islam spread around the world, so did the incidence of crusades, jihads, inquisitions, and religious discrimination. Even the Jews, the fellow monotheists were not spared. The Jews have been persecuted by the Christians from the 4th century onward culminating in the death of round 6 million Jews by Nazi Germany during the Holocaust (1941-1945).
By insisting that “there is no god but our God,” monotheistic idea tends to encourage bigotry according to Yuval Harari, lecturer at Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He says, “Do you really think Muslims or Christians or Jews are more ethical than Hindus just because they believe in many gods?”
Science
Science is the pursuit and application of knowledge and understanding of the natural and social world following a systematic methodology based on evidence.
Scientific methodology includes the following:
- Objective observation: Measurement and data (possibly although not necessarily using mathematics as a tool)
- Evidence
- Experiment and/or observation as benchmarks for testing hypotheses
- Induction: reasoning to establish general rules or conclusions drawn from facts or examples
- Repetition
- Critical analysis
- Verification and testing: critical exposure to scrutiny, peer review and assessment
Modern science is typically divided into three major branches[ that consist of the natural sciences (e.g., biology, chemistry, and physics), which study nature in the broadest sense; the social sciences (e.g., economics, psychology, and sociology), which study individuals and societies. Disciplines that use existing scientific knowledge for practical purposes, such as engineering and medicine, are described as applied sciences.
What is the difference between science and religion?
- Science tends to concern itself with the natural or physical world – that which can be observed and measured. If it cannot be observed or measured empirically, then it is not scientific.
- Scientific knowledge is gained primarily through the experimental method: a hypothesis is formulated and then experiments designed to test the hypothesis. Experiments use standardized procedures of data collection, so that other scientists can repeat the exact same experiment in the same way and verify the data and test the findings for them.
- In contrast religion tends to concern itself with the spiritual world, many aspects of which cannot necessarily be observed and measured in a scientific extent. For example, knowledge in many religions comes ultimately from God, and belief in the existence of God cannot be verified empirically. Belief in God is a matter of faith.
- Any knowledge claims made by religions which are not verifiable by empirical observations cannot be regarded as ‘scientific’.
Conclusion
Culture is much older than religion and religion is older than science. Humans acquire culture through learning process of enculturation and socialization, which is shown by the diversity of culture across societies. These include art, music, dance, food, shelter and clothing. Each society has its own culture which it has acquired over long time. The idea that Western culture is better than other culture is product of ignorance and racial bias by the Westerners.
It is certainly true that belief in god was vital to various social orders, and that it sometimes had positive consequences. Indeed, the very same religions that inspire hate and bigotry in some followers inspire love and compassion in others. Yet even though belief in gods can inspire us to act compassionately, religious faith is not necessary condition for moral behavior. Morality of some kind is natural. All social animals from chimpanzees to rats have ethical codes that limit behavior like theft and murder. Among humans, morality is present in all societies, even though not all of them believe in the same god, or in any god. We don’t need to invoke God’s name in order to live a moral life. Secularism can provide us with all the values we need.
What then is the secular idea? The most important secular commitment is to the truth, which is based on observation and evidence rather than on mere faith. Secularists strive not to confuse truth with belief. In addition, secularists do not sanctify any group, person, or book as if it and it alone has sole custody of the truth. This commitment to the truth underlies modern science, which has enabled humankind to crack the atom, track the evolution of life from one cell organism to a highly evolved human being, cured many diseases and sent men to the moon.
I will conclude this essay with a quote from late Stephen Hawking, Professor of Physics and Cosmology at Cambridge University.
“There is a fundamental difference between religion, which is based on authority, and science which is based on observation and reason. Science will win because it works”.
Sources
- Yuval Noah Harari, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century. New York: Spiegel& Grau, 2018
- Wikipedia.org, Feb, 15, 22.
