Let me give you a scenario and stimulate your thinking on it.

Two human beings are born at any random instant, in random families living in completely different parts of the world. Now, in these parts of the world, people tend to follow certain ways of life. They wear certain types of clothes, speak particular kind of languages, accept specific type of behaviors as appropriate and have certain rules and regulations in their societies.

These individuals start growing and learning from the environment, understand that certain words carry certain meanings and that there are some limits to the actions that they can perform. Until this moment, everything seems to be going fine doesn’t it?

Now, the society thinks that as these individuals are new to this ‘town’, they should be schooled and trained so that they may ‘gel’ into the present set of people and thus survive and prosper. Therefore, the process of ‘teaching’ begins and these toddlers are told what is right and what is wrong, what are the definitions of Good and Bad, what is permissible and what is not and all other related stuff like Religion, Values, Traditions, Morality, Ethics etc.

Both of theses individuals are independent of each other and oblivious to the fact that the other exists. As they grow mature and gain strength, knowledge and wisdom, they realize that there are certain ‘profiles’ that they have to fit in. The society has a certain perception of a ‘successful’ and ‘happy’ person. They come to know that they need to have a sufficient amount of money before they can be called ‘Rich’ and then respected in the society. They realize that they have to ‘study’ in some institutions for a certain period and then they will be considered as ‘knowledgeable’ and ‘wise’ people. They have to follow a certain set of ideological principles and behave in a well-defined and restrictive manner and only then will they be called ‘religious’ and ‘pious’ people.

Now comes the horrible part. Both of these individuals accept whatever is taught, conveyed or preached to them. They accept that whatever the people around them or in their locality are thinking or saying, is the absolute truth. They do not challenge anything and just go their separate ways in leading their lives. They pass the same set of values to their children, dutifully carry out their responsibilities and make some goals and objectives in their lives to keep following the myths of ‘success’ , ‘happiness’ and ‘satisfaction’ that have been sold to them by their respective societies and they DIE at some random point in time in this process due to any random reason…

Now what do you think about such individuals? They may have been very successful in terms of whatever they had been doing with their lives. It is also very much possible that the people around them, their families, colleagues, children, relatives, friends etc were very happy with their behavior and conduct in their entire lives. They didn’t hurt anybody, didn’t steal anything, didn’t do anything ‘wrong’.

But they never questioned the basis of anything. If one of them was born a Christian, for example, he died the same. If the other was born a Hindu or a Muslim, he died without even knowing that whether the set of principles that he followed or the things that he considered right were actually right or not? He never pondered over the purpose of his creation because he thought “It did not matter” or “It was all a waste of time and energy”. He never asked the bold questions either because his society discouraged those things or may be because he just didn’t consider this important enough.

I say that these individuals, despite the amount of so-called ‘success’, ‘happiness’ and ‘piousness’ that they may have gathered, were complete failures and just a burden on this earth. They were just another addition to the waste that this system accumulates while going on indefinitely.

There is a reason that there is a thing called ‘brain‘ in our heads. And there is also a reason we are different from other animals and species present on this planet. We evolve, think, adapt and learn from our mistakes. We have the ability to control our basic instincts by using our brain. We can ask questions about our world and our surroundings and try to answer them. Our minds alone develop propositions, formulate arguments, draw inferences, recognize universal principles, and value logical validity, coherence, and truth. We can wonder why the physical universe corresponds to abstract mathematical theorems. Our minds are conscious of time, reality, and truth. We can study the past, recognize the present, and anticipate the future. Our minds have the ability to exploit nature for survival (Oil, Gas, Milk, Minerals etc). We can think abstractly. We can create Religion, Culture, Laws and Technology to suit ourselves.

So, to me, If a human being doesn’t utilize this exquisite and intricate piece of nerves called “brain”, that person is wasting   a precious resource and is doing injustice to himself, the society and especially the generations of humanity to come. Now it is up to us that do we want to be just like those two individuals or do we have the courage to ask?