There were two incidents that happened last weekend that made me write the second part of the Uncertainty's child series. I haven't planned the sequels yet but like the shrek movie series, I'll role this one till there is anything left out in me to write about how I feel about religion and god. Sometimes I do wonder why I take up such serious topics and not just write about day to day life or something light hearted but theology is one topic I've thought of seriously and I somehow have the urge to pour my heart out about it. Now, coming back to the topic, I was reminded of god in two instances last weekend.
I was trail walking with my friends last Saturday in coorg and it was a hike to a waterfall. Our onward journey was an event less one except for the discovery of leeches on sriram's legs and the discovery of and pre emptive strikes on a few leeches which tried to get on my leg and Marcelle's legs. We reached the waterfall after dirtying our shoes considerably much to the complaint of Marcelle about how she doesn't like to get wet and stay wet. I was wondering how did she risk a 3 km trek under overcast conditions with just warm tops and a three quarter then. I know that's because I carried my jerkin and umbrella ;-) Anyways as we walked back Marcelle had a doubt and she duly asked me how during a trek do people recognize the correct trail to follow from multiple trails on a trek. She asked me that because I kept on comparing this trek with the trek that I had gone for in Australia and I somehow projected myself as an expert trekker :-) So, when Marcelle asked me how I would recognize the correct trail I told her usually there is only one trail. As soon as I told this, our trail split into two, now how would you explain that? I guess Marcelle would've thought that I was one big fart ;-)
We followed the trail that was lower than the other and ended up lost among thorny bushes. So we decided to walk back and take the other path that went up. To be honest, I wasn't worried for me, as a guy with other guys I would say this was a manageable situation but there were girls with us along with Marcelle and I felt worried about the prospect of being lost and worried about a downpour as well. At that moment, I prayed to god to help us out. We did find help in out Japanese friend who came along and showed us the path and we reached our rooms. As I think of this now, I seriously feel that as a human being I got reminded of God only at the heights of uncertainty. Me lost on a mountain trail with my group would've been something that early human beings would've encountered on a day to day basis, a life filled with uncertainty and no wonder the belief in god and religion developed in them.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Friday, July 10, 2009
Males : Biologically irrelevant
Two days ago there was an article in bbc that said that scientists have engineered a human sperm in the lab. Its just another news article in bbc, neither was it a celebrated post not was it "breaking news" but it was news to every human male or for that case any male animal or insect in this world that the biological purpose of its existence is no more. Objectively speaking, the species of this world doesn't need a male any more for its propogation.
I seriously don't have any words to describe what those darn scientists have done. The reason that the scientists have offered for their research was seriously funny to me, those scientists wanted to help the females whose husbands/partners are infertile to conceive it seems. gimme a break man, like as though if those females donot conceive the human race would become extinct. With the world groaning with human over population I seriously cannot justify the motive provided for such research, thats why I propose a conspiracy theory. My theory is that some revengful female scientists whose partners have abandoned them, embarked upon a mission to set this world free of these philandering males and thus researched and engineered the human sperm. Man, when there are so many things that are direly needed to be engineered in this world, like say a human heart or lungs which could've stopped illegal organ traficking, why did those scientists engineer a sperm, something that is abundantly available in India and China.
There is solace for men though because of the social importance men hold, so men won't become obsolete even though they've become irrelevant now. I wonder what this means to the animal world, lions for instance where males exist just to copulate and propogate their genes and protect a pride from other lions, this research has made the beautiful lions with their wonderful manes irrelevant to lionesses(Note: lionesses donot enjoy sex like human females do, it is just an act of reproduction with no orgasm involved.) So lions exist just for the viewing pleasure of visiting tourists and wildlife photographers, I wish I could tell this to a lion.
I seriously don't have any words to describe what those darn scientists have done. The reason that the scientists have offered for their research was seriously funny to me, those scientists wanted to help the females whose husbands/partners are infertile to conceive it seems. gimme a break man, like as though if those females donot conceive the human race would become extinct. With the world groaning with human over population I seriously cannot justify the motive provided for such research, thats why I propose a conspiracy theory. My theory is that some revengful female scientists whose partners have abandoned them, embarked upon a mission to set this world free of these philandering males and thus researched and engineered the human sperm. Man, when there are so many things that are direly needed to be engineered in this world, like say a human heart or lungs which could've stopped illegal organ traficking, why did those scientists engineer a sperm, something that is abundantly available in India and China.
There is solace for men though because of the social importance men hold, so men won't become obsolete even though they've become irrelevant now. I wonder what this means to the animal world, lions for instance where males exist just to copulate and propogate their genes and protect a pride from other lions, this research has made the beautiful lions with their wonderful manes irrelevant to lionesses(Note: lionesses donot enjoy sex like human females do, it is just an act of reproduction with no orgasm involved.) So lions exist just for the viewing pleasure of visiting tourists and wildlife photographers, I wish I could tell this to a lion.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Uncertainty's child - Part 1
I keep thinking about god and religion, and the relevance and importance of both in my life, thanks to the choices I've made till date in my personal life. I am not an atheist and I'm a Hindu who is fond of vinayagar but that has not stopped me from questioning the relevance of god and religion. Being a hindu has given me the freedom and liberty to even question my faith and god alike, unlike Christians or Muslims who do not have such privileges. I know questioning one's faith is a sin for Christians, for that matter, questioning even the Church is a sin for Christians, but as a Hindu I'm free to do all I want. There are no organisations, priests or imams who would control my thoughts and beliefs. In IT language I should say Hinduism is like open source.
Now back to the point of questioning the existence of god. I kinda realized that there is one thing that humans fear the most, Uncertainty. Uncertainty like luck is an abstract concept, it doe snot exist in this world as a physical entity that humans can counter. Uncertainty is something that even the world's powerful men have to live with and uncertainty has been there from time immemorial. I guess people in ancient times faced hell a lot of uncertainty than we do as modern humans. for instance everyday occurrences like night fall lead to uncertainty, therefore I feel humans started worshiping nature because they would've considered the uncertain nature as omnipotent and as something they cannot control or predict.
As times changed humans became accustomed to nature, seasons and excelled even in astronomy so I guess as humans unravelled the mysteries of nature, nature and the world around them that they worshipped did not seem so uncertain, so I guess humans started moving away from nature worship. As humans advanced they became organised, organisation did give humans the power to counter uncertainty. By being organised the early humans who roamed around as tribals countered the biggest uncertainty they faced during their times, survival. The advancement of humans into organized social animals gave them strength and courage to counter enemies, gather more food and consequently to survive. the birth of organized life sowed the seeds for the birth of religion and god.
Religion and god thrived from their inception mainly because of two reasons, one was that god and religion were an answer to the uncertainty faced by humans and two was that humans found that organisation gave them power. I would say that religion and god was something that started as a concept to provide solace to humans in an uncertain world and then ended up as outliving the purpose they were conceptualised for. Its a classic case of an idea or product being devised to full fill a purpose but was later used for a grander scheme.
Now back to the point of questioning the existence of god. I kinda realized that there is one thing that humans fear the most, Uncertainty. Uncertainty like luck is an abstract concept, it doe snot exist in this world as a physical entity that humans can counter. Uncertainty is something that even the world's powerful men have to live with and uncertainty has been there from time immemorial. I guess people in ancient times faced hell a lot of uncertainty than we do as modern humans. for instance everyday occurrences like night fall lead to uncertainty, therefore I feel humans started worshiping nature because they would've considered the uncertain nature as omnipotent and as something they cannot control or predict.
As times changed humans became accustomed to nature, seasons and excelled even in astronomy so I guess as humans unravelled the mysteries of nature, nature and the world around them that they worshipped did not seem so uncertain, so I guess humans started moving away from nature worship. As humans advanced they became organised, organisation did give humans the power to counter uncertainty. By being organised the early humans who roamed around as tribals countered the biggest uncertainty they faced during their times, survival. The advancement of humans into organized social animals gave them strength and courage to counter enemies, gather more food and consequently to survive. the birth of organized life sowed the seeds for the birth of religion and god.
Religion and god thrived from their inception mainly because of two reasons, one was that god and religion were an answer to the uncertainty faced by humans and two was that humans found that organisation gave them power. I would say that religion and god was something that started as a concept to provide solace to humans in an uncertain world and then ended up as outliving the purpose they were conceptualised for. Its a classic case of an idea or product being devised to full fill a purpose but was later used for a grander scheme.
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