I have recently started reading the renowned book by Albert Camus named The Myth of Sisyphus and in it, he debates the legitimacy of suicide. And interestingly, there are multiple reasons which stop us from killing ourselves, and religion is one of the major ones, which is why I chose to discuss it.

With time, we all become too self-aware, unfortunately. Some don't, which is a good thing because ignorance is bliss. Otherwise, consuming literature and introspecting in depth holds enough power to make us insane. For instance, a few months back, I met a dearest human at a book fair [he may be reading this blog; if yes, hello dude ;) ]. He attempted suicide, which I found difficult to comprehend because I cannot imagine myself possessing the willingness to attempt it, knowing the fact that I have many dreams to achieve. Anyhow, the only thing that was weird about it was that he was men of faith. So, he put me in wonder that how come someone spiritual ends up attempting to take his life?

This question takes me back to one of the books of my beloved Harari, which was 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, where he stated that if you love someone, you don't need to seek any other purpose for your existence. The love here doesn't only mean something romantic; it can be spiritual or maybe the love you have for your family or even for your own goals. So, as long as you have anything to love, you are going to strive to live daily for it and do all the other prerequisites that need to be done, no matter how meaningless it can be. In this contemporary modern world, we may have multiple distractions to not give us enough time to introspect; however, in ancient times, a few decades ago, life was way too different, and humans needed something to live for. Therefore, you can only understand the importance of religion if you don't have the luxury of this capitalist world. Also, anything that could be a reason for us to live can be at the same time , a reason for us to die.

I don't know about others, but the scripture of Manto can make sense too. You can literally feel so much while reading him, and I can put forth some hypotheses out of it, which are yet to be proven by any empirical evidence but are worth introspecting. The first observation is that you will find financially poor individuals more inclined towards religion, and they still try to live happily despite all the hardships and agony because they have faith, which promise them reward in the after life for enduring all of this. On the other hand, the richer you are, the more it will be obvious that you are secular because you have so many other distractions to live for. Lol, it just reminds me of the priest who used to curse these individuals who were distracted from religion because of all the luxuries they had, but his reason never satisfied me, weirdly.

Well, the second significance of having a religion is morality, even though this is debatable because morals are subjective, and it's a canon thing to make them absolute. For example, a religion can make any wicked individual to not lie only if they don't have enough empathy to have morals on their own and need fear for not doing something evil. What kind of pathetic human could they be ? Likewise, a religion can be used justify the killing of another human being just because they don't believe in the same god, and they can do this gladly because they can easily interpret its legitimacy out of their divine scriptures. I can quote examples of different religious fanatics here, but leave it, because this is what, unfortunately, religious ideology preaches, which is to consider only yourself righteous and others deluded.

If any of you have ever watched the incredible series Vikings, you know very well the importance of religion. Because, collectively, religion can unite humans with different interests and provide them with shared end goals. It's the same fact that was quoted in Sapiens, where Harari said that the major breakthrough in human evolution was triggered when we started believing in shared myths, which do not have any physical or empirical existence.

I believe, at a personal level, a religion can ease everything because you have some predefined rules and regulations specified by the divine scripture which you have to blindly follow without thinking twice. However, on the other hand, if you don't have any belief, you have to morally reconsider every action of yourself and compare it with a contemporary standard, which can be emotionally exhausting. So, to atheists out there, please let these theists live with their beliefs because the truth will not set everyone free; it can bring uncertainty and chaos, which are rarely endured by everyone. Perhaps, this is one of the key reasons why religion is imperative because it does not merely tell humans what to believe; it tells them what to live for. For someone who can confront uncertainty and construct meaning independently, religion may feel useless, but for someone who needs certainty, purpose, community, and a reason for their sufferings, they desperately need a god; otherwise, it will be devastating. Thus, the question isn't whether religion is objectively necessary for everyone, but whether every human being can afford to live without religion , which has provided meaning to their existence from centuries.

Author: Mohsin Ramzan