Questioning the faith of the million
If a scientific investigation says one thing and an ancient epic says another, who ya gonna believe? Well duh – the epic, obviously.
There was a proposed shipping canal project, but
Hindu hardliners say the project will destroy what they say is a bridge built by Ram and his army of monkeys. Scientists and archaeologists say the Ram Setu (Lord Ram’s bridge)…is a natural formation of sand and stones. In their report submitted to the court, the government and the Archaeological Survey of India questioned the belief, saying it was solely based on the Hindu mythological epic Ramayana. They said there was no scientific evidence to prove that the events described in Ramayana ever took place or that the characters depicted in the epic were real. Hindu activists say the bridge was built by Lord Ram’s monkey army to travel to Sri Lanka and has religious significance. In the last two days, the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has launched a scathing attack on the government for questioning the “faith of the million”.
Well exactly. If the million, or the billion, choose to believe that Lord Ram’s monkey army and Donald Duck and his three nephews and the infamous worm squadrons of Aphrodite teamed up to build the Atlantic Ocean which thus has religious significance and therefore no one can step in it or fly over it or ride on it in a boat or a laundry tub – then no one must question that belief and no poxy scientists may submit any poxy reports saying there’s no evidence supporting that belief. Even in secular India. Tra la la, the world gets stupider every day.
But is you had an infinite (or thereabouts) number of monkeys…
;-)
or even “if” you had them.
Ram must have had some damn good animal behaviour experts training ’em. Whole lotta monkey-wrangling goin’ on…
:-)
Yes but ‘Hamlet’ makes a lousy substitute for a bridge.
Ah, c’mon, they wrote Hamlet in their fruit ‘n’ poo-flinging breaks…
You know, I don’t want to be overly disparaging of the stupid religious beliefs of other cultures just because they’re not the stupid religious beliefs that I’m familiar with, but seriously maintaining in this day and age that a geographical feature must not be touched because it is in fact a magical bridge built by a god and his army of monkeys has to be the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. Ever.
Then again, they probably look at the people in America who belief that the earth is only 6,000 years old and that Noah’s flood was real and really did cover the entire world with equal incredulity.
Seriously though. Army of monkeys ? What the bloody hell?
Other people’s theologies sure are silly.
Jesus H. …! Is this 2007 or 1007? The curse of religion is particularly manifest in India. They could be an economic powerhouse if they would just lose the medieval baggage.
The Infamous Worm Squadrons of Aphrodite…great band name…
‘According to an Islamic legend, the Biblical Adam used the bridge to reach Adam’s Peak in Sri Lanka, where he stood repentant on one foot for 1,000 years, leaving a large hollow mark resembling a foot print. Both the peak and the bridge are named after this legend.’
(wiki)
Yes. Of course, silly theology. On the other hand, just because the Giant’s Causeway wasn’t actually built by giants doesn’t mean I’d like to see it demolished to facilitate an oil refinery, any more than I’d have Glastonbury Tor leveled for a park-and-ride scheme.
Don — Yes, of course. But the question here is whether to block the project solely because of the religious beliefs which conflict with the science.
Well, this religious belief about the monkey bridge isn’t that widely or seriously held by many Hindus, especially those in the south and east who tend not to be Ram fetishists. But the POLITICAL reality is that a very nasty and violent minority, the hindutvadis, now mainly in opposition, will create a huge amount of trouble -burning buses on the streets etc – for everyone else. Of course the craven Congress government – as it always does – took the line of weakest resistance.
Actually there are environmental groups that are against the canal project, but if it had been just them protesting, you can be sure the police and army would have been out in full force to crush the protests.
Such is the hypocrisy of India’s secularism.
It gets worse! The minister in charge of the culture portfolio which presented the ‘blasphemous’ argument in court that the hindu gods are, er, erm, non-existent, offers to resign after suspending two senior officers from the Archaelogical Survey of India. Indian politicians are such scum that even the slimiest bottomfeeders at ram sethu would avoid them.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6996621.stm
Argh. Thanks, mirax.