Radio Vimoh

Human beings designed religions to forgive themselves. And the need for it arose from a fundamental dichotomy in human nature.

We talk about platforms so often these days that it appears protocols don't exist. But they do, and they power large chunks of the internet. Email, blogging, and podcasting are perhaps the last vestiges of the open web publishing. So I try to make a case against the much-talked-about YouTube for podcasts.

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The stated purpose of a lot of writers who deal with mythology as subject matter these days is to make the younger generation aware of India’s rich culture and heritage by telling stories which have remained untold. But I can’t help feeling sometimes that not enough attention is being paid to the shape of future India. What will these young people grow up to become? What kind of adults will they turn out to be? What manner of India will they build? Is it going to be more of the same — an India powered by outrage and offence, crying out three times a day demanding to be treated like children by the authorities? Or can it be something different?

Theme Music: Werq, by Kevin MacLeod

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Nobody wants to admit that they had help getting where they are right now. In their heads, everyone is a hero who did it all by themselves. And this is why people hate it when their privilege is pointed out to them.

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Being your own boss probably isn't what you think it is. So I clarify a key thing you need to keep in mind before taking the plunge into self-employment.

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There is this pretentious streak running through many artists and writers that I feel is counter-productive. It involves them not taking responsibility for their own success and blaming the market instead. A rant.

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Me breaking from format and trying to do a completely unscripted episode.

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A lot of cultural infrastructure that goes into the making of human civilisation is fictional in nature. For example, there is literally no difference between talking animal characters in children’s stories, aliens in adult science fiction, and the gods of mythology. They all come from the same source — human imagination in service of the human survival instinct. They all came into being because we need to understand.

Today’s audio is about that. That and Duck Tales of course.

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In addition to telling us that gods created us and how the gods created us, creation myths also tell us WHAT the gods created us FOR. Creation myths they tell us what we are allowed to do and what we are not allowed to do. I believe that the gods come from a place that lies somewhere between two human impulses -- the impulse to cooperate and the impulse to destroy. What happens when an empathetic creature commits murder? The answer is guilt. Guilt happens. And what do we need when we feel guilt? We need forgiveness. So when humans were struck by the guilt I just mentioned, they found no one who could forgive them. And because they needed forgiveness desperately -- because without forgiveness they would go mad -- humans had to invent gods. Gods who would justify their existence by telling them that there was nothing wrong with them. The gods of today -- democracy, capitalism etc. -- are gods we have not forgotten yet.

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What if I told you Cows do not give us milk? What if I told you Trees do not give us oxygen. What if I told you that we have lied to ourselves from the beginning of civilisation? The history of religion is the history of language. Religion and the law both seek to define what it means to be human and tell us how to behave. Both are human-centric. Both prioritise human beings. Both tell us the story of human exceptionalism. In the eyes of both worldviews, the human being holds a special place. Religion says human beings were created and are loved by a god who looks suspiciously similar to human beings. The law is more direct -- it says that human beings need to be good to each other because such behaviour is what holds societies together.

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