Sergut Berhanu
Ruthie Grant, Instructor
English 103
8/15/02
ANCIENT DOGMAS
Most of us are living in a world where living conditions are getting intolerable as the days go by. We might not realize it, but there are a number of futile beliefs and traditions that are keeping us from achieving our dreams. The faith I practice is Coptic Orthodox; therefore, I believe in God. However, unlike most of my ancestors, I also believe that religion is one of the many frivolous beliefs that we are indoctrinated in. “ Each life style comes wrapped in myths and legends that draw attention to impractical or supernatural conditions. These wrappings give people a social identity and a sense of social purpose, but they control the naked truths of social life” (Harris 5). There are various societies, but each of them have different myths, legends, or spiritual beliefs that urge them to extreme behavior that leads the distraction of human nature. Have you ever asked yourselves “What did our male ancestors do to convince women that men are the rulers of the world?
Well, I have. It is in the Bible what these male chauvinists used to strip women of their confidence and make them feel inferior. As the great author Marvin Harris outlined in his book “Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches”, “Supposedly, the subordinate males banned together and overthrew the matriarchs, took away their weapons, and have been conspiring ever since to exploit and degrade the female sex” (Harris 86). Anytime women have tried to withdraw themselves from the taboos we are dwelling in, people, especially priests, control them by quoting the
Bible “ A woman was created to support a man, and she is going straight to hell by not doing so.” What I would like to remind women is that the Bible was written by selfish men; therefore, whatever they wrote is going to benefit the male society, but not women. In most of the cultures throughout the world women are expected to be submissive to men, and treat them as Gods. “Men expect their wives to serve them and their guests and to respond to all requests promptly and without protest” (Harris 88). A good example could be the status in which the Middle Eastern women are living in. These women, according to the Koran, are required to keep their body covered with veils, they cannot attend schools, and they cannot work.Their role is to serve
the men of the house, and take care of the children. In general, they are treated like brainless humans without emotions.
In addition, religion or any other spiritual belief has an influence in the raising of children. Most parents discipline their children based on their religious ideals. For instance, if a child asks mysterious questions concerning the Bible his parents or teachers will punish him; as Christian priests preach no one has a right to inquire the story of creation.
As the straordinary writer Alice Miller pointed out in her enchanting book “ The Truth Will Set You Free”, “ Christian schools consider corporal punishment for the children entrusted to their care to be one of their religious duties.” Even though saddening, it is true. I, being raised in a culture where religion dominates and affects each step of your life, have been obliged to go through unfair punishments. According to my culture, a child doesn’t have to complain if an elderly person hits him. The odd thing is that these adults have the guts to holler,“ It is for your own good” after they had literally abused a child. The sad thing is that the parents,teachers, or priests themselves had to go through the same ordeal,
but they still practice the same unfair ritual to raise a child. “ Twenty years hence, some of these victims will themselves become teachers at Koranic schools and inflict on their charges and their own children the same treatment they endured in childhood. And society will revere them for it and commend them as God- fearing men going about their sacred duties” (Miller 79). So, unless we stop living entrapped in the “ box of taboos” we created these toxic pedagogies will go on from generation to generations.
Furthermore, during the era of slavery, the white landowners used the Bible as a tool to control the slaves. Even though the ancestors of the nineteenth century slaves had their own beliefs when they were forced to convert to Christianity. Subsequently, the white planters invited white ministers every Sunday to their plantations to preach a gospel of obedience based on Paul’s call for servants to “ obey in all things your masters”. Thus, the true significance of the Bible or any other cultural beliefs depends on how we interpret it.
Religion has also been the cause of many wars and conflicts. As Alice Miller wrote, “ Wars patently designed to invade and conquer foreign territory are passed off as arts of self defense, or as the fulfillment of some
holy mission” (Miller 63). An excellent example could be the Holy Wars, or Crusades intended at recapturing Jerusalem from Islam. Until this day Israel and Palestine are combating, although the reason has gotten more political and complicated. They are fighting day and night causing thousands of deaths, and depriving people of the peace any society deserves.
“I sincerely believe that we not only have the right to know what is good and what is evil; we have the duty to acquire that knowledge if we hope to assume responsibility for our own lies and those of our children. Only by knowing the truth can we be set free” (Miller 9). Those of us who lead our lives based on insincere moral principles should initiate to think critically and overcome our fears that were instilled in us when we were kids. Only by doing so we can be set free from the various irrelevant principles that are damaging towards an enhanced civilization.