Religiosity

Time and again I see perfectly smart, pragmatic and logical people, people that I lookup to, amaze me by fervently defending religion. For millennia religions have greatly enhanced civilization across the world. As I look back in my own short and uneventful life I see lots of occasions where religion has help me and continuous to do so. I am sure there many thousands who can say the same. But what bothers me is the baggage religions come with, Mumbai massacre, Israeli Palestinian conflict etc...


My doubts are many layered but the root of which is the question If god created time space and mass/energy, what was there before, and who created that. Some people argue that god does not need to be created he is eternal, omnipotent. Then why does universe need creator then ? May be universe is god then ?

Let us agree for a moment that God does exist. Why would 1 or more entities that existed before time, space or mass/energy exited, be so much interested in what spec (human) among billions on specs (earth) among billions of specs (milkyway) in this universe, which could be one of billions of alternate universes. So I my significance to to god is .000000000......000000000000000000000......00000000000000....1 to 1.

Let us also agree god is interested, then it rises the question that why are gods actions are so biased. Like for example as per the God of Christians anyone who doesn't become a christian is going to hell, including the people he chose leaving rest of the humanity. God if Islam ensures all the infidels, subordination and/or death @ the hands of the holly warriors followed by hell. While promising 19 virgins to martyrs at his private abode Jannath. The gods of the Vedas seem to prefer the minority uppercaste over rest for liberation (Moksha) from the cycle of life and death. They all unite in one point though, giving second class citizenship to women.

And lastly why is god interested in, where and how much hair you can grow, Muslims, Jews, Sikhs and Brahmins have specific instruction on how much hair one can or cannot have. Is it because God doesn't have hair ? And also about clothing, food etc. And then comes the prayer. You almost always to go by some book. And even mindlessly rant some ancient text is acceptable over not doing so. Holding some postures, offer some things only a human would need to survive, smokey substances, some specially dressed "special" individuals (likes of Osho, Khomenei) and finally offerings for their holy cause (TD Jakes, John Hagee). This sounds like social engineering to me.

Back to the topic, you wouldn't have to go too far to find scientifically trained, very logical and pragmatic individuals who would defend their religion fervently. Some of the common reason given in defense of religion are:
"It gives meaning to life"
"It explains the unexplainable".
My humble question, doesn't the explanation have to be true ? Is it possible that we were influenced by those power feelings when we were young and impressionable. Are we simply falling to feeling of "good old days" or our favorite childhood memories/emotions clouding our vision ? Are the answers give by the religion worth the price ? I am not asking to throw baby with the bath water. Religion/traditional culture contains a lots of lessons learned by humanity over many millennia that makes human life more enjoyable or less miserable depending. I am sure society and science has evolved enough to be able separate those learnings and pass it on.

Is the spontaneous defense of something some large as religion arising in spite of their own reasoning or the lack of an encouragement to do so. I highly suspect the later because of most religions give little space for reason. There is also liberal use fear/intimidation and unreasonable rewards after once death. Its interesting to note that the pay day for bad deeds almost always sold as instantaneous in contrast what one gets for good deeds. I find it funny that, the immediacy of punishment is reserved for the most honest sincere believers, because most Hitlers, Saddams, Stalins, Polpots, Castros' never get punished. Look @ the king/queen of England, under her throne the ruthless British empire sucked the lifeblood of almost a billion people. British people are doing just fine.

Call me an atheist but the more I think about this topic, the more questions I get. And most of the saints and prophets claim the opposite ;) They all went off onto some mountains or into a forest and come back with more of the same. I can't believe they did not not have some other interests.

Embarassing or awkward or may be nothing.

This is the first time I am writing about a topic like this. But I had to write because it happened twice.

This afternoon when I was going down in the elevator, there were already 5 other women (working a different company above) involved in a giggly conversation. I was greeted by an unusual blush and smile by a south Asian looking female. I couldn't help but over hear the conversation. That is when I understood the reason behind the greeting, they were talking about tan marks and some details of how they avoid it. Trust me the door couldn't have opened any slower.

Again this evening I was @ the gym. Again 5-6 ladies around me but mostly senior citizen and a TV in front playing inside edition. And then comes the moment, a closeup shot of oversized stretch marks filled middle section and a doctor drawing out the portions that could be removed to make her look pretty again. The two ladies next to me gasped for a second before starring @ each other and giggling. I guess that was the first instance when I actually was relieved @ an ad break.

May be I am just old school, it at least awkward and weird that it happened twice today.

Pray for Indian pseudo democracy

Head lines Farooq opts for Omar as J&K CM

Congress party leaders voluntarily chose Indira Gandhi (emergency, blue star, killed), when she died they ran to Rajiv (IPKF - Killed) then to Sonia, then now grooming Rahul Gandhi. This is a sham democracy.

Laloo installs his wife as chief minister and runs the state from the prison.

MGR dies his wife Janaki is installed as a puppet. then his concubine Jaya are running a reign of devils. PMK Dr. Ramadoss' son, Murasoli Maran's son ...

Sheikh Abdullah, Farooq Abdullah and now Omar Abdullah. The family whose shoddy governance is a huge factor in the militancy in the valley.

These are not exception, though one would hope it to be. Nepotism and dynastic rule is across the board (From prime minsters to the Chaprasi in the lowly Panchayats. I guess people don't even seem to think this as another form of corruption. Which spreads incompetence and costs everyone dearly.

Pacific NW under seige ... by the governments in action.

Cliff mass has a nice blog that contrasts the problems of the Pacific NW snow storms to others. No matter what the problem is it has come @ a great cost. Entire pacific northwest has been under virtual house arrest since Dec 18th. It has hurt the local economy in more than one ways. With economy hurting it is the worst time for them to fail. It has not only ruined the Christmas gifts for thousands, it prevented employees from getting to work and hitting them hard on their wallets. Plowing could have also provided hard to come by jobs for 10s of drivers from construction industry. Cost of plowing loses hand over fist to cost of lost productivity and tax revenue

One of the biggest stumbling block here is, the fact that Government is running low on cash. Nobody wants to spend money preparing for an event that happens every 5-8 years. Plowing cost is not just the cost of the plows. The cost of renting and operating plow trucks. Cost of hiring plow drivers. Cost of sand/salt. There is cost in running a big operation like that in terms of choosing when and where to apply those resources effectively on the fly. I hope there is someone with a reasonable answer for complicated question.

Secret service "protecting" the president

Secret service has become secretive in service, they ware no where to be found when needed. When disgruntled Iraqi threw his footwear at the president, President Al Maliki did more than the entire service @ that point. He put his hand in front of presidents face. May be they were provide their service in complete secrecy, May be they have some invisible agents who came and covered the president.

Al Maliki celebrity guard service



Now a days Secret service, NSA et al are so busy spying on American citizens they have completely forgotten how to do their their real jobs.

British Bigotry Corporation aka BBC

When Muslim citizens of Britain bomb London they call it "Rocked by TERROR". When Pakistani based, terror camp trained, terrorists come and shoot random people and foreigners they are just gunmen. Why don't we just go ahead and call them freedom fighters like Pakistan does.

I am disgusted by the double standard that clearly shows the hypocrisy and colonialist attitude of BBC. I guess I don't understand, barbarians from third countries do kill each other meaninglessly and hence they don't necessarily have to be terrorists. See it for yourself, try to find the word terror anywhere in this page or related pages that is page from BBC reporter/Writers, ie not in double quotes.

In defiance to the threats from the terrorist thugs

My hats off Mumbaikars. Within a matter of days after the Mumbai terrorist massacre was over I saw pictures of Cafe Leopold buzzing with life, not withstanding the scars of terrorism in every picture. My special kudos to its international patrons who not only chose to stay instead of fleeing, they even chose to come back to the place where the terrorist came to make a point. So to make a counter point that you cannot cow us down, next time I go Mumbai, I have decided to go eat in Cafe Leopold, Stay @ Oberoi Trident or Taj Mahal Palace hotel and stop by the CST train station too. I saw bold and defiant statements from Tata who owns the Taj Mahal Palace to bring it back to its full glory and from the Chabbad organization to start a bigger place. I hope the world business community makes such bold decisions too.