Right from the beginning of the world, when human reason has not yet developed to the level of reasoning on reasoning, man facing nature, the glories and powers in nature, was filled with awe and was distressed on how nature reveals itself. Man in this primitive stage, filled with the zeal of curiosity to know and understand nature had resort to mythological believes about many things that happened. All the "WHY" questions were attributed to the cause of a god. Theocentricism was at the apex of its nature. Religion was developed and it offered man hope to continue to live.
THE FAILURE OF RELIGION
Religion gave man false hope till the Renaissance period when man resolved to understand himself other than relying or attributing his cause to an unknown deity. The period of enlightenment began with the Renaissance. Enlightenment was a desire for human affairs to be guided by rationality (thinking and acting according to supposed natural order) rather than by faith, superstition, or revelation; a belief in the power of human reason to change society and liberate the individual from the restaints of custom or arbitrary authority; all backed up by a world view increasingly validated by science rather by religion or tradition.
This began the fall of religion. Man discovered that the promises offered by religion is a vain hope. Although, religion served somehow as an instrument of meaning and discipline since it involves ethics, moral codes of conducts; hence it helps to cut human excesses.
Religion has failed because it doesn't allow people to express themselves as they ought to. Neitzsche in his book "Thus Spoke Zarathustra", opined that until God is dead, people will not take their businesses in this world seriously for he thinks that God will do everything for them.
Religion does not allow people to develop their own thought, it makes people to think along her thoughts. Instead of serving as an instrument of unity, most religion served as an instrument of division and as an instrument of war. It destroys personal development. For Dr Oguji, Religion places man in the paradox of appearing to be healthy but he is not. It promises miracle which does not exist.
THE COMING OF SCIENCE
When man discovered that Religion has failed, he climbed to science as his succour which seems to be gaining more successes. Science and technology has done many marvelous and app-laudable things. It has successfully engineered the development of our society and has made many things easy for man.
Could people in the 5th century until 18th century imagine that you can make a journey by flying in the air or that you can travel from Nigeria to another part of the world with a short time or that you can stay where you are anywhere in the world and connect with another person in the other world as far as London from Nigeria within seconds and not by mail? These and many successes has science gained.
Again, the development of AI has shown the level SCIENCE has skyrocketed. It has indeed conquered the world. Science presented itself as a solution to any human problem you can think of. This has made some scientists to say "SCIENCE OR NOTHING". Science presented itself as the summit of everything we do.
THE FALL OF SCIENCE
In the twenty first century, because of all these promising hopes of science, man strongly believed in it and also technology. However, there have been many instances that show it has failed. The development of nuclear weapons of mass destruction have increased inequalities between man which has caused strife, war and killings. Man because of this has lost the sanctity of human life and value at the sacrificial altar of science. The degradation of human value increased; society superiority where one society looks at another as less society and the people in it as less humans because of their success in the field of science and technology.
Scientific claims that science is the answer to every human problems has been proven false by so many events that have happened in the past and still happening now.
The advent of HIV/AIDs which up till now, no drug has been found as a substance for the treatment of the disease but only an antiviral regimens which leave persons at the mercy of drugs till the end of their lives was found. The same is applicable to Lassa fever and many other diseases and viruses which science has not found any cure for them.
Most evidently now, at this period the whole world is not at rest because of the emergence of Coron-avirus (covid-19) which came from Wuhan in China on 31st January, 2019. People who trusted in science called on it but it was not answering. In this situation, Religion is no where to be found.
The world was abandoned by both science and Religion. This is the announcement to the world that both science and Religion have failed. People began at this covid-19 period to ask themselves, what shall we do; to whom shall we run to; who can save us; whence shall come our help?
THE THIRD WAY
The only remedying situational answer is "THE TRUST OF ONESELF". Instead of trusting science or Religion, man should turn back and trust himself: What he can do and not what science and Religion can do for him. The covid situation has shown that man can survive by trusting himself. The "SELF" should be the virtue in the middle of extremes which are science and Religion that are negatives if we incline on them. The self should wear the cloak of LONGEVITY which states that one should take too much of nothing and little of everything.
©️ Abonyi Hyginus Ebuka
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