Ponmala

Even as Corona has brought the world to a standstill, a battle of wits is raging between atheistic rationalists and ardent believers. Miracle mongers and soothsayers of every religion are trolled to no end on social media. Digging out their mishits and wild claims, trolls mock them left, right, and centre. An evangelical preacher sends the Holy Spirit on a missile head to destroy Corona in UAE. An all-knowing and omnipotent charismatic preacher claims he foresaw Corona coming. An equally sought after colleague of his claims he destroyed deadly bacteria by sprinkling holy water. A celebrity faith healer of the Hindu fold claims she had foreknowledge of Corona as far back as three years ago. Muslim clerics mock at the idea of wearing masks to ward off Corona and at the suggestion that the virus could attack Allah’s darlings within the holy precincts of a mosque. And then we have RSS backed spiritual gurus who tout cow urine and fire walking as guaranteed cures for Corona. Each of their tribe is the butt of the joke among thinking people. Little wonder trolls are having a field day on social media as more of such inanities are dished out by quacks in the name of faith and religion.

Within a month of the first reported case of Corona virus in Kerala on 30 January 2020 (it was also the first reported case in India) came the release of Malayalam blockbuster film TRANCE. The film is about an aspiring motivational speaker whom a business conglomerate moulds into a Pentecostal miracle healer and prosperity preacher. It exposes the intrigues behind the transformation of mentally disturbed people into god men, and thereby into money minting machines – all in the name of Jesus. Despite uproarious protests, mostly from Christian denominations, the film was a huge success. It also gave great impetus to rationalists who shouted from housetops that Corona has killed God. ‘Where are you miracle healers and your God hiding?’ they taunted, ‘Come out and save the world from this scourge.’ The Christian god men responded by quoting the bible: ‘Thou shall not tempt the Lord thy God.’

Even if something worse than Corona comes, it will only strengthen blind believers in their faith. And even if a true miracle happens in the name of God, rationalists will not budge a wee bit from their atheistic faith. And so there is little meaning in taking sides. All we can ask the two camps is to unlock their horns. True, believers must realise that prosperity preachers who work miracles at a wave of the hand are the worst enemies of God. They are the modern day Satans who tempt Jesus to turn stones into bread to fill his empty stomach (exploitation of the hungry poor), to throw himself down from the highest point of the temple to prove that he is God (forcing Jesus all the time to work miracles and prove he is God) and to worship him to be made world monarch with absolute power (prosperity and fame). Pay heed to St Paul’s exhortation to worship God in spirit and in truth and shun these pied pipers who lure people away from Jesus and his teachings, which are about carrying your daily cross, drawing strength from the belief that God knows what you need and when you need it.

I would invite the rationalists who bristle at the very sight of religious practices to read O Henry’s famous short story THE LAST LEAF. The story is set in a village during a pneumonia epidemic of the Corona kind. A female artist who is dying of the disease can see an old tree gradually shedding its leaves in autumn. She gets it into her head that she will die when the last leaf falls. Even after all the leaves have fallen, the last ones lingers forever. The lone leaf gives her the will to live. And she finally recovers fully. It turns out that the last remaining leaf was the realistic painting of a leaf by a neighbouring artist, who was also dying of the epidemic, and succumbed to it in the end.

To atheistic rationalists, those who believe in God are taking illusion for reality. Granting that you are right about that (since you can’t be reasoned out of it), it remains a fact that even illusions like the Last Leaf can provide ordinary folks with the will to live. Why ridicule those who hold on to what you think are illusions as a lifeline? And after all, science on which you rely admits that reason is at a loss to understand the universe at its fundamental level. Consult Niels Bohr and you will hear him say, “Every thing you call real is made of things that cannot be regarded as real.” Which means you cannot be rational and realistic beyond a point even in the world of empirical things. So, have forbearance for those who believe in ‘illusions’ as long as they do no harm by that. But, of course, keep getting after charlatans who cheat the gullible in God’s name.

In the sphere of Christian religious practices, Corona has brought about a revolution. Locked up in the home, Catholic families are glued to the TV ‘watching’ the Holy Mass. Who knows, those who are desperate to make a Confession may end up using the phone for it if the virus persists for months. People are dying unable to receive the last rites. And they are interred with no burial ceremony. Sad as that is, they may have the salutary effect of taking Catholics back to the core of Christian faith – the teachings of Jesus and their observance.