This post is not a tribute to Kancha Illiah although I concede he was a man with thoughts and experience worth respecting. This post is my reflection on why I do not believe in the institution of God. I shall, at times, refer to the 4th Earl of Russell's arguments.
The primary reason for not believing in God has been the extremely religious atmosphere I've been brought up in. I come from a typical middle-class family which traces its roots to the poorest yet most religious part of India. Religious, not in the bigoted, but rather in the too-devoted-to-care-about-others manner. Religion has never been enforced on me but at the same time has been a constant companion in my formative years. At the age of 8, I knew more Hindu myth and prayer than the average 18 year old in India. With the imbibing of religion in my childish mind, the institution gained a follower. Premature celebration, religion. Apostasy had to follow, for the rational mind makes its choices based on reason and logic, rather than epics that run for 100,000 verses.The sweeping statements end here.
Religion, as Marx(of the Karl variety; Groucho was too busy with women and comedy to notice) defined it, is the 'Opium/Opiate of the masses'. Scholars of tremendous learning have connoted this statement to correspond to their own thoughts on the institution of religion.I, in my capacity as a person of very limited learning but a decent amount of exposure, am of the opinion that religion is too interweaved with the populace and their daily life for it to be given up as a whole. At the same time, it is an insidious poison that spreads in the veins of society, corrupting the path of the pathbreaking. His Beyond-Human-Greatness (HBH) Russell has stated that religion has only enforced the morality of a few on a whole. The contemporaneous example that springs to mind is of the Hindu fundamentalists. Religion is a force both adhesive and divisive.In the present time, it is almost quotidian to hear about some conflict in the world whose roots are latently entrenched in religion. From where I can see, the view suggests that its divisive.It led to the greatest exodus in human history.It divided sons of the same father and led them to fight for decades altogether. As HBH Russell believed, religion has done nothing for man but curb his spirit,royally screw his life and deny him his right to indulgence.So much for religion.
Now for God. If I were to refer to Hofstadter, it'd be an endless loop of 'God Over Djinn'(I don't expect anyone to get this reference). God, in the Biblical sense, is the creator of the earth and the heavens. This is one of the arguments that everyone, ranging from evangelists to saffron clad men selling Bhagwad Gitas in the Bangalore Rajdhani Express, has tried.The fallacy is obvious.If you possess the power to create,you ought to be have been created. It becomes what is defined by Hofstadter as a 'strange loop'. Loopy Loopy God Thou Art. God, in the eyes of the rational HBH Russell and Thomas Paine, is a creation of man.Man, in his height of Godless glory,created God to make modesty a continuing virtue.The virtue remains while the sanction of God is proliferated at an exponential rate. The institution has benefited the few of power. His Holiness Pope Leo X is alleged to have said: "It serves us well, this myth of Christ". Myth it sure is,Leo. Myth becomes legend. Legend becomes History. History becomes Scripture. Scripture becomes code. Houston, we have a problem.
In all,I believe George Carlin said it the best: "Religion is bullshit".
In a totally unrelated vein, I detest works of literature that have self-help motivational messages. Those are for dweebs.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Forever Dead
the title is random. As shall be the post.
'Indian culture'. Brilliant term.Brilliant Cliche.Every single act of violence against expressions of love, the fairer sex and anyone who dares oppose all of this is justified at the behest of Indian culture. If those proliferating this nonsense had their way, my mum would've never got her PhD. My sisters would've never been able to exercise their right to education. Like 'good' Indian women, they'd be illiterate, subservient and oft abused.
If their ideology was to be subscribed to, Hinduism says that men and women are to not fall in love with each other. Any external or material manifestation of their love is to be questioned and quashed by any means possible.Even from the point of an atheist, this is fiction penned down with a lot of imagination.Let us not debate scripture, for the Bajrangis shall lose hands down on that point. Let us rather solve a silly little paradox here. Prithiviraj Chauhan is listed as one of the inspirations for these organisations, as he managed to defeat the 'bad' Muslim ruler, Mohammed Ghori. The same Prithviraj who abducted Samyogita in order to defy society and marry her.Go Bajrangi,solve.
If we are to progress on the incorrect premise that Indian culture advocates repression of free expression,then the very idea of free expression should be repugnant to Indian society. A clear proof of it being an incorrect premise comes from the fact that policemen in Delhi, without any orders or instructions,were bashing up the Bajrangis who dared to create any disorder. 'Screw you saffron brigade' is the clear mandate of the urban Indian population, which is somehow conveniently ignored by the fundamentalist groups.
One of the many reasons for my apostacy, this.Hail Bertrand Russell.
'Indian culture'. Brilliant term.Brilliant Cliche.Every single act of violence against expressions of love, the fairer sex and anyone who dares oppose all of this is justified at the behest of Indian culture. If those proliferating this nonsense had their way, my mum would've never got her PhD. My sisters would've never been able to exercise their right to education. Like 'good' Indian women, they'd be illiterate, subservient and oft abused.
If their ideology was to be subscribed to, Hinduism says that men and women are to not fall in love with each other. Any external or material manifestation of their love is to be questioned and quashed by any means possible.Even from the point of an atheist, this is fiction penned down with a lot of imagination.Let us not debate scripture, for the Bajrangis shall lose hands down on that point. Let us rather solve a silly little paradox here. Prithiviraj Chauhan is listed as one of the inspirations for these organisations, as he managed to defeat the 'bad' Muslim ruler, Mohammed Ghori. The same Prithviraj who abducted Samyogita in order to defy society and marry her.Go Bajrangi,solve.
If we are to progress on the incorrect premise that Indian culture advocates repression of free expression,then the very idea of free expression should be repugnant to Indian society. A clear proof of it being an incorrect premise comes from the fact that policemen in Delhi, without any orders or instructions,were bashing up the Bajrangis who dared to create any disorder. 'Screw you saffron brigade' is the clear mandate of the urban Indian population, which is somehow conveniently ignored by the fundamentalist groups.
One of the many reasons for my apostacy, this.Hail Bertrand Russell.
Thursday, February 05, 2009
ءردء اءر بعنازیر بھءتته
For the past one month, I've been on an off-and-on Urdu learning spree. I can read and write Urdu with average fluency now. It's quite an exciting prospect to learn a language. It's like diving into a world full of human expression. If my language spree continues, I shall graduate a polyglot.
At NALSAR, we rarely get the time to read beyond the course (barring Political Science, wherein we do manage to read things of interest although the didactics are absolute bullshit). I'd vowed to myself that I'd read a lot this semester.Being an avid reader, especially of works that relate to politics or humanity, reading Benazir Bhutto's autobiography, "Daughter of the East", was quite an irritating exercise, partly due to her fibs and partly due to a mild fever that I'd acquired. She's glorified her father beyond the wildest imagination of any person who knew about Zulfi's politics. She went to the extent of saying that it was Mujibur who was responsible for the 1971 war, at no point mentioning that it was her own father's ego that led to the Bengali agitation and the formation of the Mukti Bahini. The very same father did not allow Bihari refugees from Bangladesh, who'd supported him through the war even though they were residents of East Pakistan, to settle in Pakistan. Those people exist today sans rights,passports and worst of all,food. They can be seen in the slums of Delhi,Bombay,Calcutta and possibly, smaller towns of East India.The same father who spoke of Roti, Kapda and Maqaan but never spoke of how he wished to provide those to the common Pakistani. He was every bit like the Quaid-e-Azam. Pakistan's Quaid-e-awam, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who never cared for the Awam(Common Populace). The period described by Benazir is the time of General Zia. Zia is accused of having proliferated Islamisation in the legal system. However, it was Zulfikar and not Zia who'd started it. In a half-hearted Islamist gesture, he'd declared Friday as a public holiday and banned drinking and gambling.It is highly regrettable that a woman of the stature of Benazir(although, from what has been written about her, it can be inferred that she was an academic disaster) had to resort to this degree of untruth to back her campaign and to forward the interest of PPP.Enough of Benazir bashing. Daddy may not approve.
My love for poetry in chaste Hindi was something that gradually died after I discontinued formal instruction in the subject. These past few days, thanks to Abdaal and Urdu, I'm rediscovering poetry and have fallen in love with Ghalib's "Hazaron Khwaishen Aisi" and Majaaz's "Awaara".It's always been my belief that Hindustani poetry manages to convey emotion, particularly sadness, in a much more intense manner than English. English poetry, particularly that of Milton,is impressive but lacks the depth of Hindustani. An example of which is Taraana-i-Hind by Allama Iqbal(What we term 'Saare Jahan Se Acha').
Enough.The law of Contracts harks silently from a corner. To quote Carl Emmanuel Bach,"I'll be Bach".(And I shall forever be glad for batchmates who've heard of the Goldberg Variations; and I succesfully managed to lose my Glenn Gould CD).
At NALSAR, we rarely get the time to read beyond the course (barring Political Science, wherein we do manage to read things of interest although the didactics are absolute bullshit). I'd vowed to myself that I'd read a lot this semester.Being an avid reader, especially of works that relate to politics or humanity, reading Benazir Bhutto's autobiography, "Daughter of the East", was quite an irritating exercise, partly due to her fibs and partly due to a mild fever that I'd acquired. She's glorified her father beyond the wildest imagination of any person who knew about Zulfi's politics. She went to the extent of saying that it was Mujibur who was responsible for the 1971 war, at no point mentioning that it was her own father's ego that led to the Bengali agitation and the formation of the Mukti Bahini. The very same father did not allow Bihari refugees from Bangladesh, who'd supported him through the war even though they were residents of East Pakistan, to settle in Pakistan. Those people exist today sans rights,passports and worst of all,food. They can be seen in the slums of Delhi,Bombay,Calcutta and possibly, smaller towns of East India.The same father who spoke of Roti, Kapda and Maqaan but never spoke of how he wished to provide those to the common Pakistani. He was every bit like the Quaid-e-Azam. Pakistan's Quaid-e-awam, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who never cared for the Awam(Common Populace). The period described by Benazir is the time of General Zia. Zia is accused of having proliferated Islamisation in the legal system. However, it was Zulfikar and not Zia who'd started it. In a half-hearted Islamist gesture, he'd declared Friday as a public holiday and banned drinking and gambling.It is highly regrettable that a woman of the stature of Benazir(although, from what has been written about her, it can be inferred that she was an academic disaster) had to resort to this degree of untruth to back her campaign and to forward the interest of PPP.Enough of Benazir bashing. Daddy may not approve.
My love for poetry in chaste Hindi was something that gradually died after I discontinued formal instruction in the subject. These past few days, thanks to Abdaal and Urdu, I'm rediscovering poetry and have fallen in love with Ghalib's "Hazaron Khwaishen Aisi" and Majaaz's "Awaara".It's always been my belief that Hindustani poetry manages to convey emotion, particularly sadness, in a much more intense manner than English. English poetry, particularly that of Milton,is impressive but lacks the depth of Hindustani. An example of which is Taraana-i-Hind by Allama Iqbal(What we term 'Saare Jahan Se Acha').
Enough.The law of Contracts harks silently from a corner. To quote Carl Emmanuel Bach,"I'll be Bach".(And I shall forever be glad for batchmates who've heard of the Goldberg Variations; and I succesfully managed to lose my Glenn Gould CD).
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