If you call yourself scientific and logical, yet strongly believe in something that's supported by no evidence whatsoever, then there is no cure for your condition.
See the thing about logic is, it has to be possessed in entirety. If you leave holes in it, random crap will come seeping in and pollute your emotion-driven mind in no time.You'll wave the flag of science, yet you'll believe in the concept of past life. You'll demand scientific evidence but still believe that our destinies are pre-written. You'll worship logic yet that's the first thing you'll sacrifice on the alters of religion.
Words of truth, even when spoken quietly, make their impact. It is the made up stuff, the sham that needs to be spoken from the rooftops. Wonder why the proponents of illogical, unscientific rubbish are often very charismatic and effective speakers? Because what you can't prove with evidence and logic can only be pushed down people's throats through a powerful emotional rhetoric. Such people will avoid answering a logical question directly, in stead they will take you on a pseudo scientific emotional ride, and will get extremely angry if you show them the faults in their claims.
Follow logic. Completely! So that you leave no room for rubbish to hold any sway on you, no matter who speaks it or how powerfully they speak it. Skepticism is our best ally in times where too much false knowledge is being spread with too much fervor.
Save yourself. Think logically. Demand proofs. Don't just believe in something. In fact, reject all beliefs as much as possible and accept evidence. If you believe in past life, you might as well start believing in flying spaghetti monster. If you believe in the eternal nature of soul then you have no right to ridicule someone who says that we are actually living in the matrix or that you are going in hell because you are not a Christian.
Beliefs are ridiculous when they are held strongly without rational thinking or practical evidence. Beliefs are even dangerous when you are so enamored with them that you even reject the evidence that proves your beliefs wrong.
Mother nature has worked very hard to increase our brain size. Lets not insult her efforts. Think, and think deeply. Be a skeptic. Demand evidence. There are far too many loopholes laid out ahead of you to fall into, and only science and logic can save you from them.
Lastly, no matter how smart you are, if you say to me things like - "oh, i believe in black magic and I believe psychics exist and they can talk to spirits", i would say, in 'django unchained' fashion, "Lady/ Gentleman, you had my attention, but now you don't even have my curiosity".
posted from Bloggeroid
Past life is a topic which I have given a lot of thought, and I still do. My view of past life is something like a banyan tree, the prop roots may change with time however the root and the main trunk remain the same and infallible.
ReplyDeleteHuman on account of the brain is a constant stream of thoughts (electromagnetic waves), if we had no brain we would have been mechanical alike a machine. This electromagnetic waves, or the quanta of energy that makes our thoughts is unending and unborn. So concepts such as past-life, souls, angels and demons all can fit into it.
ReplyDeleteDear Oshonica,
I am not gonna say everything is true.. but I am neither saying it is all false. Logic & rationality all stem from our perception.
for eg: How can something travel in nothing (space). How can a Man fly? How can time slow down or pace up? (relativity) How can 1000 suns be squeezed into a matchbox (Black hole)... How can a man fly? Imagination.. not a very long time ago. How can you talk to someone at the other end of globe... Rationality and logic denied such events at certain point in History.. yet they are very much possible at this time.
As a pure logic and rational believer please give them even a chance of 0.000001% to be true. And then think of rational or Logic to justify them.. if (keyword being IF) true.
I hope u r a believer of Science... but science also has an underlying belief... that everything works on certain principles or law. Science believes that everything can be explained by science ... But if you apply pure "Logic" and Pure "rationality" Just because "WE BELIEVE" that it has been able to explain a lot of phenomenon around us .. it can explain everything. Needless to say that may not be necessarily true.
And By the way .. "we believe" which is again a belief.. Look around science in schools is jus telling u things which are NOT TRUE... eg; "Mpemba effect" ...is true for most of liquids. (Calriometry taught in school) is a forced untrue "make belief" theory.... ( I don't say it Science says it...)
sp.ajay, thank you for your comment! i mean it. can you imagine the plight of a lone blogger who writes a lot and nobody reads that? well, I'm that plight! :P
ReplyDeletefalcon- thank you for your comment! my only reader :P
I'm not addressing either of you in my comment below. my answer is not in direct connection to your comments but rather an effort to put my own point further across.
it's a perfectly neat idea to allow unproven concepts a recognition into your consciousness. i mean, why not? you are not hurting someone by believing in ghosts/spirits/past life/karma/destiny etc. when done at an individual level, it's a perfectly harmless practice. but i am not concerned with that. i see what this kind of thinking gets projected into on a larger scale. when such fascinations, these 'beliefs' become so widespread that people who are not in the habit of thinking for themselves start believing in such concepts immutably. it's not the good part, the 'honey and roses' side of believing that concerns me. it's the bad part. the exploitation, the control over people, the money minting business and sometimes infliction of pain, injuries and even death that disturbs me.
e.g. religion practiced in your homes is harmless. but when it spills on the streets, meddles with government procedures, that's when it becomes dangerous.
past life is an interesting concept. it's the respite of a tired soul that has fought in-vain against the still unexplainable areas of our existence. but look at the sway it holds on people! there's a whole industry that claims to introduce you to your past life to cure your present day problems. there was a TV sow on this, aired a couple of years ago. scamsters mint money feeding on people's insecurities. someone claims to be a reincarnation of sai baba and fools take it seriously and queue up to get blessings.
is there any evidence to prove that such things exist? NO! are these things causing a menace? YES! so, what to do about it? GET RID OF THEM!!!!
Why is it that a skeptic like us is always so meek whereas the scmaster is always so firm on his beliefs and so boastful of them? is our duality of thought causing us to stay meek? Then I reject this duality. I speak of evidence. i firmly reject these beliefs until evidence props up. i encourage people to undertake research in these topics and i would be very happy to have proven wrong, because it doesn't matter whether we succeed or fail, what matters is that truth gets uncovered. but till that happens, i will keep my personal crusade against this sham up and alive.
science isn't boastful unlike beliefs. it does take into consideration a hypothesis, then works on it, tries to prove/disprove it, collects data that is statistically significant and only then accepts its own hypothesis.
just because life seems unexplainable now and we've our own ways of explaining it doesn't make us right. our gaps in thinking, in fact, make us prone to internal conflicts. what courage do we have then to stand up against a conman claiming to be the incarnation of some xyz god? we may think, "oh it is possible. 0.0000000001% possible." (that means nothing, statistically). why does the need of thinking about past life and god and karma arise in the first place? life may as well be meaningless, purposeless, we die and nobody in the universe gives a flying fish about it. no soul, no balance sheet of our good and bad deeds is kept. so, why not hold onto what we know for sure till new evidences come up, no matter how bitter life appears in the process devoid of its embellishments ? by all means, do imagine, make hypotheses, try them, test them. but don't accept them unless proven. the loopholes in logic have time and again proven what terrible harm they can bring. it's our duty to plug them, for ourselves and for the sake of this society.
this comment has turned into a blog post itself. I'm sory about the long winded reply. thank you for bearing with me :)
-oshonica
Scams and crooks always existed, and will continue to exist. For people like Satya Sai Baba I don't have any particular unyielding respect neither do I have a feeling of negativity. Actions are supreme to birth (or re-birth if someone is claiming).
ReplyDeleteYour comment makes me answer another related question- does God exist? The answer to this is, probably we are asking the wrong question! It doesn't matter whether God exists or not, what matters is- what does God signify. Humility, righteousness, purity of thought etc. Regardless of your beliefs is goodness prospering. If it is then it hardly makes a difference.
I do have a lot of negativity against such people. Actions are supreme but again, i think, ends don't justify means. even if you are doing good things for people but in the process, making them even more dumb and taking advantage of their illiteracy and economic, social backwardness to put weird ideas into their heads, then i can never accept that. this tendency, on its surface looks harmless but it breeds paternalistic attitudes of people in power and submissive traits in people who get ruled. this whole dumbing-down of people angers me. he might not have done(or might have, who knows?) any direct harm to people, but he has done crime against rationality.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with your second statement.
-oshonica