By Dr. Adnan Bouzan
When you see human reason colliding with religious texts, know that the problem does not lie in reason itself, but in the texts as shaped by authorities. Religion, in its essence, requires no enmity with thought. Yet what is presented today in the name of religion is nothing more than a human construct governed by interests and burdened with manipulation.
Miracles ended long ago. There is no miracle in reality; what exists is thought, science, experience, and human will. Any discourse that insists on convincing people of supernatural phenomena is nothing but a means of keeping them captive to illusion and fear, so that the power of clerics and politicians may endure.
And when people are told that texts are sacred and untouchable, such sanctification is not for religion itself but for the authority that has hijacked it. Texts have been interpreted, fragmented, and employed in ways that serve a particular class, preventing the emergence of free thought. Thus, the conflict is not between religion and reason, but between reason and those who monopolized religion, imposed their reading by force, and made themselves mediators between human beings and the divine.
It is blatant manipulation: in the name of texts, injustice is legitimized, revolutions are suppressed, poverty is justified, and tyranny is presented as divine destiny. And whenever reason raises its voice in refusal, they claim: “This is rebellion against religion.” Yet the truth is that it is rebellion against their authority, not against religion itself.
Human beings do not need miracles, nor priests to interpret texts for them. They need only their free thought and their awareness of themselves as value. Reason is not an enemy of religion, but an exposer of the falsity of religious authority. If religion has a true essence, reason will reveal and liberate it; and if it is nothing more than a structure of exploitation, it will collapse at the first serious confrontation with reason.
Either religion must be purified of human manipulation, or humanity must liberate itself entirely from false religion.