RELIGION IN THE TIME OF UNCERTAINTIES

In times of uncertainty, people often gravitate towards nationalism and religion to find meaning and stability. This article explores how these forces are playing out in contemporary society, particularly in the context of recent US elections and the political landscape of India.

- C P SURENDRAN

few months ago, Elon Musk said 'woke' was a virus and he would not rest till he destroyed it. Apart from other motivations, he said he 'lost' his young son to the left as the progressive establishment wholeheartedly assisted the boy's irrevocable transition to become a girl.

What must a father or mother do when they lose the right to protect their children from what they consider legitimate personal choices when the wards are legally minors? The problem is not personal. It is cultural, social and political. When does a child's individual preference get precedence over a well-meaning and god-fearing family's rights?

Except there is no god; the family, too, is a disintegrating unit in the West. In The God Delusion (2006), Richard Dawkins critiques the idea of a supernatural deity and argues against the 'god hypothesis'. He contrasts a creator-designed world with a naturalistic worldview, where the universe is governed solely by physical laws.

Dawkins is not the first to challenge the idea of a creator. Since the 1850s, when Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species, the idea of god has been on a shaky ground. But at no point in history has he/she been more challenged. Secularism, a kind of deification of the human, has taken centre stage.