Reflective Rants

Is God real? The earliest evidence of a religious school of thought would date back to the paleolithic age and is based on the ritual treatment of the dead. Academics suggest that ritual burials represent an awareness of life and death and a possible belief in afterlife, which point towards the possibility of prehistoric religion. As time progressed, we have seen the advent of countless religions that were instrumental in shaping the minds of our ancestors. From the practice of bear worship in North Eurasian ethnic religions to the more recent Christian practice of self flagellation in the name of atonement of one’s sins, the evidence of how religion has moralized brutal and barbaric rituals in the name of God is staggering. In his volume, ‘The Future of an Illusion’, Freud states that religion consists ‘of certain dogmas, assertions about facts and conditions of external (or internal) reality which tell us something that one has not oneself discov...

“I’ve always considered myself to be a strong person, so overcoming depression shouldn’t have been such a big deal to me. However, when I actually went through it, I miraculously transformed into a helpless shell of the person I once used to be. I noticed a sudden decline in my appetite, and I would feel these instant pangs of nausea every time I tried to eat. Getting out of bed seemed like a Herculean task. I was too exhausted to perform even the most mundane everyday activities. I didn’t want to talk to anyone, or see them. People terrified me to a point where I would feel waves of panic gush over me every time someone came near. My dark, dingy room was where I found solace, and getting out of it seemed impossible. Social isolation seemed like the perfect answer to all my problems. I wasn’t myself. I wanted to change, but I didn’t know how. I wasn’t comfortable with telling people about the way I was feeling because I knew they would judge me. My world was completely devoid...