Do Religions and Culture make Man Good?

Yesterday night, I was kept awake by the yelps of a puppy. My neighbour had brought the puppy not as a pet but to be chained at the plot of land beside my house where they plant banana trees and other vegetables so that it will discourage thieves from stealing the harvest.

I see so many people giving so much importance to religions and culture - if we post atheist posts or posts that rubbish religious and cultural establishments, the reaction from people is so intense. They say it's a sensitive issue and that we should stick to feminism and not touch religions and culture.

Well, I don't see any humanity progressing here, only getting depleted despite religions and culture. In the neighbourhood that I live, there are 8 Hindu temples - beside the road, drain and on unplotted land. There are mosques and almost every house has prayers altar. Yet, crime and theft are rampant.

The puppy my neighbour brought won't be treated well - it's bound to be exposed to rain and shine, not given proper food, not bathed and not allowed to move about, shackled to a chain. They did this to many dogs before - left emaciated. I tried my best to provide for the neglected dogs. This cruelty stems from an immoral act of stealing - the existence of the houses of worship doesn't seem to atone human horridness. My neighbour is religious. Every evening, I can hear them ringing the bell - doing puja.

I don't understand. Malaysian Indian Hindus throng Thaipusam every year yet Malaysian Indian guys slash women in public - in today's news, a Malaysian Indian guy cut off his wife's hands and feet out of suspicion. He then hanged himself.  These guys are also robbers and snatch thieves.

My uncle's house was broken in. The robbers tied my uncle and aunt up and beat them up into giving up their belongings. After sweeping the house clean off valuables, the robbers left the sombu filled with money in the prayers room. Perhaps they were afraid of deiva kuttham. Romba sami bakthi ulla thirudana irupainga pola.

This is such a paradox. Religions and culture are not ameliorating humanity - they are unhelpful in bringing the good out of man. I will tell you why. It's because of the thinking that you can do anything bad and then compensate it with prayer, viratham, donation to temples and feeding people for one meal. It's also passive and defeatist. You think praying is helpful. It's not. No amount of praying gets things done. You need to get things done.

The happiest, most peaceful with the least crime rates countries in the world are the least religious. Why? Because they hold themselves accountable for their actions. They don't have anything to compensate their misdeeds with. So, they feel horrible if they do something bad so they avoid doing something bad, things that harm and upset others. They don't have gods to bribe and neither an afterlife or reincarnations to live so they try to give their best in this one certain life. On why good is done, it's because you fear punishment from god - his wrath. It's not done because it's the right thing to do - you expect divine rewards, a seat in heaven, 72 virgins to fuck and rivers of wine to drink from. This is proof that you don't need religion to have morals - morality is innate and the crutch in the form of religions only saps the innate morality away. By morality, I mean not harming and doing injustice to others, women especially.

If you are to be an effective feminist, then you need to be a rationalist and oppose religions and culture because that's where most misogyny resides. That's why again, the least religious countries are also feminist and most gender equal. 

The catch though is that to achieve all that, a sort of utopia should be reached - it can be attained if we spend less time boosting godly egos and more time doing what humanity needs.

The only good I see religions bring is holidays.