As someone raised within the deep folds of India’s Hindu culture, I am frustrated when non-Indians draw parallels from the Abrahamic religions to Hinduism, assuming a one-to-one, monolithic correlation… and right away stumble in their understanding. I don’t claim to have exclusive ‘insider’ status as a commentator particularly since I don’t reside within the geographicalContinue reading “Thoughts on Hinduism”
Category Archives: Skepticism
Ignorance, thy name is God.
The more we know, the less we need a god. The more we grow, the lesser god becomes. The more light shed on our past, present and future ideas, the duller the notion of god shines. The more bridges we build across conflicting systems of human welfare, the more god justifications fall through the gaps.Continue reading “Ignorance, thy name is God.”
The Religious Stockholm Syndrome
Sweden is among the least religious of countries in the world along with Estonia, Denmark, Czech Republic, Norway and Japan. So, naturally I balk at associating it, clumsily though it might be, to this concept of ‘falling’ in love with an oppressor as is the requirement for any of the fastidiously religious. Religious folk vehementlyContinue reading “The Religious Stockholm Syndrome”
71 Million Americans Can’t be Wrong! Or can they?
As I write this, the still on-going 2020 US elections has shattered the mirage of safety that Americans, and the free world by extension, had built around themselves founded on the principles of democracy. People in their personal, official and social capacities interpreted current affairs in polarizing variability, not as Republicans and Democrats but asContinue reading “71 Million Americans Can’t be Wrong! Or can they?”
The Memetic Imperative
Every living thing around us is a ratcheted, evolved response to support the immortality of the original form of life – a self-replicating arrangement of chemical molecules as a packet of information. If this arrangement happened about 3-1/2 billion years ago, most likely near deep-sea hydrothermal vents, all that happened at that moment of theContinue reading “The Memetic Imperative”
Knowledge is Gold
I have only recently begun to celebrate ‘not being sure’. It is a tremendously liberating experience – uncertainty! Gone are the rigorous truths and the mendacious confidence when faced with questions that belie simple knowledge. “Is now a good time to invest in real estate?” “What’s a quark?”, “Should I change jobs?” “Is there lifeContinue reading “Knowledge is Gold”
‘Sapiend’ing Perception
Have you considered the distance between two galaxies? How about the empty space between electrons zipping around the nucleus? When a scientist says “I don’t know” to a question can you measure the depth of knowledge required make that proclamation? Can you articulate the magnitude of synaptic firings that begin as you attempt to recallContinue reading “‘Sapiend’ing Perception”
Otherbrainly.
Many a superstition, belief system, worldview, and dogma has taken root from dreamlike stages of a brain – an influential brain – somebody convinced strongly enough of the illusion and able to convince others of its truth by pure assertion. I can conjecture two natural causes for this phenomenon: one, the cerebral-cortex-involved entanglement that happensContinue reading “Otherbrainly.”
Zeitgeist – The Spirit of the Times
I have always felt its vector. Have had a subtle sensation of its singular yet collective tug. I rely on it for my daily confidence in society (law makers, bureaucrats, movie makers, newspaper editors, writers, judges, politicians, artists, directors, editors, producers, bloggers, scientists, teachers) but fear for it too! I recognize how fragile it is.Continue reading “Zeitgeist – The Spirit of the Times”
Can’t be bothered…
My aversion of theistic or atheistic labels affixed to myself is based on a desire to go through life’s situations using logic/reason as opposed to faith-based leaps as much as possible (the ‘as-much-as-possible’ could be considered a cop-out because I don’t claim to possibly have enough data/information to make every real-life impromptu decision logically.) UnlikeContinue reading “Can’t be bothered…”
My 2 cents 