Men Made Religion

The purpose of religion has become one of control and dominance. Some organisations have even sowed the seeds of communal discord in tribal society

- Jacinta Kerketta

RELIGION is an institution invented by men. Every institution in society is created by them, and also dominated by them. They control power and strength. And their strength derives from violence. The necessity of violence has been justified, variously, in the name of love, peace, religion-really anything at all. The idea that violence is necessary to protect humans from other humans is gradually becoming common, and many ordinary people are buying into the belief that violence is essential for survival. Some consider war is necessary for restoring peace, even when that involves the deaths of thousands of innocent people and leaves multiple generations ravaged and depressed in its wake. All this is born from a dominance-mindset. It is common to hear people say that if we are not ready to attack, then we leave ourselves open to attack from others. This gives every group a justification to increase its strength. But what does this strength really mean? It means an increase in the power or capacity to commit violence. Creating the power to commit violence to resist violence is also part of this. Historian Yuval Noah Harari, writing in his book, Sapiens, about how men established their dominance the world over, says that this was made possible because they increased their ability to inflict violence. Thus their power kept growing until finally they controlled everything. As part of this process, they incorporated, from time to time, the use of new techniques of violence.