The irony of Science, Religion and Society.

Due to holidays I have suddenly found myself with a lot of spare time on hand. I have tried to break the boredom by reading some books which I found at home. Last week I fumbled across a book titled “The essence of Hinduism”. Now as most people will know I am neither a believer nor a non believer in the concept of god. But I admire Hinduism for being its true message. When I say Hinduism, I refer to it excluding the superstitions, rituals and preaching .To me a true religion needs no preaching. It is for a person to learn himself. In this regard Hinduism I feel is admirable. It is a way of thinking more than anything and provides a framework over which a person builds his own ideas.
So now that we have my views on what true a true religion is we can proceed to the topic I want to discuss. As I was reading the book one of its statements made me think quite a bit. It said all religions try to answer some very fundamental questions. One of which Being : “Where does the universe come from? And Why?”Now this struck me as a bit odd. Was this not beyond the scope of religion. Because from what I can make out religion try to explain our activities in this Universe and not beyond it. So why try to look for something beyond this. Because all our activities are defined by time and space which are very much a part of this universe and not beyond it. Our minds are a part of this created universe and hence the concept of religion is very much a part of this created Universe. Unless of course if we take it that the universe always existed. I personally reject this as everything has to have a beginning. So we agree that the universe was created(I have not mentioned by whom or how).So by definition everything created in the universe has its limitation of time and space. So religion by the same definition cannot answer the question it is trying to answer. How can it?, when it is so entrenched in the very limitation it is trying to explain?
Now what then of Science? Does science do any better? The answer of course is NO. Funnily, in view of all their differences and arguments ,science and religion have a lot in common. Science has the same limitations as religion. It fails at the same juncture. But this is hardly surprising when you analyze the origins of both science and religion. It basically comes down to the fact that we have always have tried to understand things we probably never will. Science and religion are just two different ways devised in this futile quest of ours.
Now that we have hit a road block, we tend to smoothen things by using the word “Nature”. This is a word we so often use when we cannot give a reasoning for a occurrence. The other day when I was flipping through pages of the newspaper, I stopped to read an article about the legalizing of homosexuality in India. One of the main arguments used to oppose the bill was that homosexuality was not ”natural”. How funny does this sound??Is everything in society natural? Is Marriage natural? The author of the article raised this excellent point. Nature never intended us to spend our entire life with a single partner. But society insist that we do. Clearly this accepted norm of social life is not natural. In the same vein is contraception natural? Is abortion natural? So we can now safely conclude that Science and Religion created a structured society in trying to define nature. But unfortunately this society is so often against the fundamental laws of nature.
So we have the four words which have shaped the thinking of an entire species : Nature, Religion, Science and Society. What I have tried to illustrate here is a flawed idea. From the very beginning we have chosen the wrong questions, the wrong methods and these flaws are now so deeply ingrained in our identity that we would be lost without them. Where we go from here is uncertain. But at least we know how we got here.
Cheers

Imagination

Well first of i have been quite busy for some time now which explains the lack of posts.Anyway there are so many distinct and disjointed subjects on which i would like to start of this post with so i am just going to take a deep breath and start of with the first topic which strikes me..!!
Well i am listening to "Imagine" by John Lennon and i am suddenly remembering the Spongebob episode about imagination!!Well for those of you who don't watch Spongebob this episode is where Spongebob tells a rather disgruntled Squidward that anything is possible with imagination(It really does not sound so boring when you watch it... honest!!)
Now i for one certainly think this statement is pretty accurate.Please don't misunderstand this statement..what i am saying is we are what we imagine ourselves to be(at least in our minds).And that i feel is the most important thing.
Imagination can manifest itself in many ways...Happiness,Confidence,sorrow,anger,greed and a lot of other very interesting emotions.What we perceive to be the world around us is what we really imagine it to be.The desk i see in front of me is accepted to be white by everyone who looks at it,but then how is one to know that the white i see is the same as the white the other person sees.I mean all off it is what i imagine to be white.Most of what i am saying here is closely related to perception.Now what have perception and imagination got to do with each other??Everything.Think about it what is the difference between the two???Now don't go giving me the dictionary meaning.Perception itself is a result of imagination.reality is just that imaginary perception which we think is accurate.Am i really the person i think i am or is it just my imagination which is making me believe in this "personality" of mine??!!
These are question which can probably never be answered because the questions are so much a part of the person we imagine ourselves to be.So any answer has the inherent problems which led to the questions in the first place.So what do we do??
Well i cant talk for others,but i am going to embrace this imaginary reality or realistic imagination of my life and live it as my future imagination comes along in its own pace,in its own style.
But i will know this: whenever there is that news about"Humans finally discovering ET" or "Liverpool finally win the league"(Sorry but i just could not resist that temptation :p) i will be assured by my mind that all this reality is just a figment of my imagination.Or If it comforts you Perception.So till we imagine an end lets keep imagining shall we.

This is me..

Well here I am sitting in front of my screen and thinking about stuff to write.It's an irony isn't it? When I have an entire 21 years of life behind me I have to look back and think about what i have to write.
I have spent the last couple of months thinking about who I really am and what I really want to be and am no closer to answering those questions now than when I started out.This has led me to believe that there is no definitive answer to any question.We believe an answer is right because we are told to by people whom we think know the answer.And those people in turn get the answer from some one else.One might argue with me that people might arrive at an answer based on an experience or some for of experiment.While there is no doubt that the experience got out the result,the very fact that it is an individualistic approach implies that it can vary from person to person.My answer to a problem need not match with anyone else.

When someone asks me to explain the reasons for my actions.I have only one answer to give and that is: "I believed I was right!!".Everyone believes they are right.This means for a problem given to 100 people there are 100 right ways of solving it.
But somewhere down the line we all realize that our action need to satisfy not just ourselves but also others around us.This is what makes us the people we are.Our co existence in spite of our differences.We live not just for ourselves but for people around us also.Many people might disagree with this but hear me out fully.
We are what we are today not just because of ourselves but also because of everyone else around us.Would I have been the same person today if not for my Parents,Friends and people I have met and interacted with??!!No
So then what gives me the right to say that only I influence my own decisions.Hence every decision I make is directly or indirectly influenced by the individuals around me.And I am thankful that it is so.
The final decision is surely with the individual the world and people around him surely influence him.

Coming back to my confusion though i am no closer to finding my problems i have realised that there is no point in worrying too much.What happens is what i have always wanted to happen.And that fact alone is such a comfort to me.
Cheers.