Dear Pervaiz Salahuddin:

 

Greetings.

 

The conditioned flow of discussion on Darwin's Theory of Evolution versus the dictates of religion has convinced me that most of the contributors are at best analyzing a hotchpotch of fact and fiction as if it were all science.

 I say "a hotchpotch of fact and fiction" because, to my way of thinking, science is empirical fact whereas many of the ideas of religion are take-it-or-leave-it beliefs which aren't grounded in fact.

 Fact is easy to understand and we may dispense with it at this point.

 The point of fiction is that the human race thrives on stories, also known as fiction, and our books of religion supply us nothing but stories that are fantastical and mythical and serve to fulfill a human longing for a story to tell, on and on and on, as we have been doing for centuries.

 It would have been interesting if someone had proposed that, going by what Charles Darwin and his grandfather Erasmus had demonstrated -- Erasmus by way of his poems and essays and Charles by way of his scientific method -- we should be pondering how to effect change in our conditioned reflexes con-cerning religion, deity and the supernatural.

 Our minds may evolve over time but we resent change because fear rules our lives: fear of what 'they' will say, fear of failure, fear of death, fear of this, that and the other. And, in a discussion of this nature, fear of being totally excommunicated by one's church!  

 It is pathetic to see that some people go flat out to condemn New Age and alternative spirituality cults or systems simply because they themselves don't understand a thing about them. It is even sadder to see intellectuals revolve around a fiction, a myth, a story about The Story, without evolving an inner appreciation for the feel of truth within the soul.

 Such people forget that every religion, even Christianity and Islam, began as cults and, regardless of how these so-called monotheistic religions have grown in numbers during the past two thousand years, these cousin religions continue to meet with a great deal of non-acceptance among intelligent people around the globe.

 Finally, when we say "Darwin's Theory of Evolution and Religion" we give the impression that Darwin also propounded a theory of religion, which he didn't. For our purposes it would have been better to rephrase the heading to read "Religion versus Darwin's Theory of Evolution."

 

Keep up the good work. And good wishes for the future of the Family.

 

Rashid Mughal

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