One of the effective ways of avoiding any real discussion of religion or discriminating its darker from its brighter side is to define or identify it as "our highest aspiration." In the interests of intellectual honesty, we must also reject the identification of religion with the mere sentiment of benevolence or with altruistic.
If we view religion as an historic phenomenon in human life, we are prepared to believe -- from what we know of human nature and history -- that religion like all other social institutions has its darker as well as its brighter side. This is of course not a refutation of religion, or of the necessity which reflective minds find to grapple with it. But it indicates that there may be more wisdom and courage as well as more faith in honest doubt than in most of the creeds.
Since religious fundamentalism is on the rise in all segments of our society, I decided to dedicate some of my artistic reflections to the subject that motivates some extreme fundamentalists to believe that their religion gives them the right to tell everyone else what they are and are not allowed to do and commands them to kill certain non-believers.
I had some hard time to decide in what order I should publish those reflections, and finally decided to bring them in alphabetical order since I didn't want to elevate one issue above another one.
The first installation in this series deals with ascetism.
Asceticism, (from Greek askeĊ: "to exercise," or "to train"), the practice of the denial of physical or psychological desires in order to attain a spiritual ideal or goal. Hardly any religion has been without at least traces or some features of asceticism. Those who practice ascetic lifestyles often perceive their practices as virtuous and pursue them to achieve greater spirituality. Many ascetics believe the action of purifying the body helps to purify the soul, and thus obtain a greater connection with the Divine or find inner peace.
"Unnatural asceticism", in contrast, covers practices that go further, and involves body mortification, punishing one's own flesh, and habitual self-infliction of pain, such as by sleeping on a bed of nails.
There exist also secular examples of unnatural ascetism:
A "Starving Artist" is someone who minimizes their living expenses in order to spend more time and effort on their art.
Eccentric inventors sometimes live similar lives in pursuit of technical rather than artistic goals.
"Hackers" often consider their programming projects to be more important than personal wealth or comfort.
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