Why am I so angry? No more angry posts from my side! I have felt the power of calmness just a few days ago and I want to stick with it.

Deep breath
....1..2..3...




Exhale slowly..

Hm..That feels great :) :)

posted from Bloggeroid

Believing in Beliefs? (Part 2)

It's alright to allow unproven concepts a recognition into your consciousness, unless you are feverishly defending them. I mean, why not? you are not hurting someone by believing in ghosts/spirits/past life/karma/destiny etc. When beliefs are held 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 unexplained 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 show on this aired a couple of years ago. Scamsters mint money feeding on people's insecurities. Someone claims to be the  reincarnation of some baba and fools take it seriously and queue up to get his blessings.

Is there any evidence to prove that such a thing exist? NO! Are these things causing a menace? YES! So, what to do about it? GET RID OF IT!!

Why is it that a skeptic like us is always so meek whereas a scmaster is always so firm on his/ her 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. It would be nice if the proponents of such beliefs undertake serious research in these topics and I would be very happy to have been proven wrong, because it doesn't matter whether we are right or wrong, 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 unexplained now and we've our own ways of understanding it doesn't make us right. Our gaps in thinking 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 a terrible harm they can bring. It's our duty to plug them, for ourselves and for the sake of this society.

Believing in Beliefs? (Part 2)

It's alright to allow unproven concepts a recognition into your consciousness, unless you are feverishly defending them. I mean, why not? you are not hurting someone by believing in ghosts/spirits/past life/karma/destiny etc. When beliefs are held 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 unexplained 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 show on this aired a couple of years ago. Scamsters mint money feeding on people's insecurities. Someone claims to be the  reincarnation of some baba and fools take it seriously and queue up to get his blessings.

Is there any evidence to prove that such a thing exist? NO! Are these things causing a menace? YES! So, what to do about it? GET RID OF IT!!

Why is it that a skeptic like us is always so meek whereas a scmaster is always so firm on his/ her 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. It would be nice if the proponents of such beliefs undertake serious research in these topics and I would be very happy to have been proven wrong, because it doesn't matter whether we are right or wrong, 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 unexplained now and we've our own ways of understanding it doesn't make us right. Our gaps in thinking 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 a terrible harm they can bring. It's our duty to plug them, for ourselves and for the sake of this society.

Hurt Sentiments? (Part 1)

So, some xyz person hurts your social/religious/cultural/moral/economic/financial/......(fill in the blanks)..... sentiments that gets you angry. Very, very angry!

What do you do? You demand their persecution. Worse, you hurt that man/woman physically because they said something that you didn't want to hear.

YOU ULTIMATE DOUCHE!! YOU INSECURE, UNDEMOCRATIC, EGOTISTIC, SELFISH, POOR EXCUSE FOR A HUMAN BEING!!!!!


You outcast a painter for drawing things that offended your religious sentiments? You order fatwa on a writer and openly threaten him with impunity because he wrote something that somehow offended your god? You arrest bloggers because they wrote something against people's 'beliefs'? You spit hatred on people who don't have a sexual orientation that the majority has? You instantly call a skimpily dressed woman all kinds of expletives because she is dressed in a way that offends your 'culture'? You mercilessly beat up couples in the street, in the gardens for kissing because kissing in open is 'immoral'? You throw a cartoonist in jail for drawing stuff to vent his anger against the corrupt government? You threaten a teenage girl because she did not keep respect of the man whom you revered? You vandalize shops for not using regional language script? You spread regionalism in a democratic country where every individual has the right to move freely to any part of their country? You kill young men and women in love because they threw away the caste shackles which again offended your sentiments?

Please. Give me a break! If your sentiments are hurt, go see a psychiatrist. Please take a break from work to recuperate and nurse your hurt feeling. But if you are going to deny people their fundamental rights because they did things that offended your sentiments, then you are the most despicable animal of this planet.

.....to be continued

I am what I am and that's all that I am!

Believing in Beliefs ? (Part 1)

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

Saw the first lecture by Prof.Michael Sandel on justice on edx. He talks about a case situation where you are driving a trolley truck that's gone out of control.there are 5 workers in the street ahead and it is 100% for sure that if you continue going straight ahead, you will careen into them and kill them.
Now, You have just one alternative. You see a side track and you can quickly steer to it. But there is 1 worker in that track and if you turn there, he will be killed for sure.

So, whats the right thing to do?

Let the truck ram into five workers and kill them, or kill one person in order to save five others?

My first answer is that I would steer the truck into the side track and save 5 lives.......by killing 1.

But that 'feels' morally wrong. That still looks like killing, rather than saving.

But what if by killing one innocent person, I could save 1000 innocent lives? Would I then take the truck on sidetrack and save 1000 other people by killing 1. Does it feel morally right ? Is that the right thing to do ?


Tough question.


my first reaction was -yes.it's rational and reasonable to kill one person to save a thousand others.

But now my answer is a NO.


Why?

Well, I feel that though your intentions are good, though the result of your action (killing one person to save many others) look logically and mathematically better on paper, it sends out a very disturbing signal in the society. It somehow dehumanizes the worker in the side track. In a split second, an innocent, hard working man became a commodity, he became expendable. His wishes, his rights didn't matter any more and he became your object, which you chose to do away with. His life was somewhat of lesser importance than the lives of five others. And that's what feels wrong.


But what about the other 5 people? Wont they die, won't their families suffer? Didn't they have a right to live as much as the poor thing in side track did ?

Yes. That's all correct. But in both the scenarios, they still have their dignity to live or die as a human being and not as an object.

Let me put it this way. Thousands of people die in accidents everyday, natural or man made. Accidents kill people, but as opposed to act of the killing with motive, they don't leave behind an uncomfortable feeling. One man treating another man as an object can never be right. It doesn't matter what the motive was.

Killing one for saving other can not be right. You wont kill one man and harvest his organs to save five others, even though it might sound like a logical thing to do. But morality isn't about logic it's about what legacy you leave behind. What lessons people get from your actions.

However, if you still choose ti steer the trolley on the sidetrack and kill one man to save many others, make sure you kill yourself right after that. Because only that can restore the balance of morality that you just disturbed.

posted from Bloggeroid

All great deeds and all great thoughts have a ridiculous
beginning. Great works are often born on a streetcorner
or in a restaurant's revolving door. So it is with
absurdity. The absurd world more than others derives
its nobility from that abject birth. In certain situations,
replying "nothing" when asked what one is thinking
about may be pretense in a man. Those who are loved
are well aware of this. But if that reply is sincere, if it
symbolizes that odd state of soul in which the void becomes
eloquent, in which the chain of daily gestures is
broken, in which the heart vainly seeks the link that will
connect it again, then it is as it were the first sign of
absurdity.
It happens that the stage sets collapse. Rising, streetcar,
four hours in the office or the factory, meal, streetcar,
four hours of work, meal, sleep, and Monday Tuesday
Wednesday Thursday Friday and Saturday according
to the same rhythm—this path is easily followed
most of the time. But one day the "why" arises and
everything begins in that weariness tinged with amazement.
"Begins"—this is important. Weariness comes at
the end of the acts of a mechanical life, but at the same
time it inaugurates the impulse of consciousness. It
awakens consciousness and provokes what follows. What
follows is the gradual return into the chain or it is the
definitive awakening. At the end of the awakening
comes, in time, the consequence: suicide or recovery.
In itself weariness has something sickening about it.
Here, I must conclude that it is good. For everything begins
with consciousness and nothing is worth anything
except through it. There is nothing original about these
remarks. But they are obvious; that is enough for a
while, during a sketchy reconnaissance in the origins of
the absurd. Mere "anxiety," as Heidegger says, is at the
source of everything.

(a passage from 'The Myth of Sisyphus' by Albert Camus)

I must never forget that for every selfish jerk out there,there are many hardworking,honest,good people;many of whom are oppressed and exploited by the selfish few.

I can't lose hopes in people for a bunch of jerks again.I can't give them that power over me.

I owe it to all the good people out there.We all do.If it weren't for people like us,Earth would rot.

We are the only hope for future generations and I feel that responsibility now more than ever.I can't again let myself  be overwhelmed by the negativity that this country is experiencing right now.I can't give up.I can't.I can't afford the luxury of being cynical.

Stirrings

(wrote a long while ago.blogging now)
I am scared of myself. From what they see,people often call me sweet,nice,agreeable,helping etc.but i only know how different i am than what i appear to people.There is a very dark,dangerous side to me that is exclusively inside my head.We say every person has two faces.a good one and a bad one. but the bad face i own is particularly dangerous.. i guess because of my constant thinking of cause and effect theory,i've come to a stage where i can somehow justify and even trivialize some of the worst crimes that the history of human society has witnessed. by justify, i don't mean i approve of them. i only mean that i can understand the circumstances that led someone to commit those crimes. and suddenly that feeling of extreme disgust and disbelief regarding a crime is replaced by an indifferent,calculated,cold reason. Intellect is a double edged sword. if someone is smart enough,their intellect combined with a prolonged period of self-imposed exile can eventually cause them to be,at least for a while,a nihilist -someone who is disillusioned and no longer believes in anything that is regarded by the society as typically good or bad. everything loses its meaning and what stares back at you is a meaningless,absurd,dangerously isolated,silent world full of evil. A feeling of being defeated by life. mocked by life. like an unknown power giving out a malicious laugh from behind the veil that is pulled over our eyes. a realization that all the promises made to us were hollow and that we were so juvenile to believe in them. the new realization that liberates you also leaves you defeated.

I've my periods of nihilism alternating with the commonplace hope and utopia. I don't know what's the exact tipping point that causes me to shift from one extreme to the other. it might be a very small thing such as reading a comment on facebook or seeing something trivial on television. just about anything can set me off and so begins the cyclone of thoughts that ultimately washes me off to either of the philosophical shores. But for the outside world, i have pretty much learnt to look even all the time. the puzzle can be locked into deeper corners in my head for later unriddling when i am alone.

It is the nihilist phase that is scary. mainly because it can not be challenged, for it is 'the' fundamental truth. and boy, is it bitter? slowly the feeling of silent defeat is replaced by anger. the great frustration now seeks revenge upon a faceless enemy .hence,although this phase is unsettling, it is also empowering. Anger makes me feel strong.do things i won't dare to do otherwise. and now i can completely identify with captain ahab of moby-dick. someone who would dare god if he meets him to a mortal combat. even in the face of a certain defeat,he will fight. for the flawed, incoherent world that the god has created and for his cruel mockery of adding conscience into humans to perceive this incoherence and feel defeated by him for ever and ever. But you realize that even your anger is futile. it is justifiable but where does it lead? nowhere. what does it achieve? nothing. and who does it fight against? nobody. it just burns inside you and eats you,erodes you from within,withering away all the compassion,love,fairness and hope in you. you don't even feel human anymore.. you have just destroyed everything that you once stood for. you are defeated but still brimming with pride. you are acutely aware of your intellectual sharpness and think of yourself as an elite superhuman. someone who need not obey the laws made for the mediocre people. but the same unforgiving self analysis also tells you that your pride is all hollow. like a bloated balloon that even a lowly,mediocre ordinary pin can instantly burst. you see the examples of random kindness in the world amidst the harrowing evil. you wonder how some people still have hope. can't they see that it will still be ultimately meaningless no matter how much they strive for a meaning? how can they be so involved with life? so devoted to living and doing everything human'ish'? are they dumb? because if they are smart like me then,they will join me in this gloomy, hopeless ride to nowhere. is ignorance bliss? ohh..it is not my fault that i am capable of dissecting things until i find the truth. it is not my fault that i can see through the veil. if i am smart then why am i not happy? how do these people get to be happy and at peace while i am tossing and turning on the inside? it is not fair. nothing is fair.nothing.

But then slowly another realization occurs to you. being aware is any day better than being ignorant. but may be it's the reaction to the truth where i am missing the whole point. why fight? why not accept? accept not as in defeat but coming to terms with an unchangeable,solid reality. why not just give yourself completely to life? you can't fight against yourself. you are a product of this nature too, you are bound by its laws so whether you like it or not, you have to play along. for your own sake. for your happiness. for the love of someone. make someone happy. save a life. you are far too smart to realize that your good deeds won't place you on any higher moral ground because inherently there is no morality or goodness. your nihilist friend has told you that already. so whatever you do, you do it because it feels good that way. without expectations. they say it's a human need to be loved. i say differently. i say the real human need is to have someone to love. to see your pain in their eyes and help them to ease your inner turmoil. god left us here to fend for ourselves and the best way to express your frustration is not by taking a sword and going on a war with him but by helping another suffering soul and bringing some harmony in the chaos, some steadiness in the turbulence..

and thus, the cyclone this time has washed me away to the other, rather peaceful shore.
but slyly waiting for another blast of wind to throw me off into the water so it can again swirl me and take me to the other side from where it just brought me back.

and the sweeping of the poor me from here to there just goes on...

p.s. i am not a psychiatric patient. trust me.