I was reading "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins a few days ago (as well as watching his documentary, "The Root of All Evil?"). I haven't finished the book yet (probably would not for a while, cuz I go bored), but one of the points that he was emphasizing was the unfair respect that religion gets, i.e., when we (rationalists) treat all other ideas with critical justice. why don't we treat religion in the same way? Why the need to respect false beliefs? When someone says "I am Napolean Bonaparte", we treat him with ridicule, but when someone says, "I believe there is a God", we prefer to keep quiet and let him have his beliefs. Why this unfair fear of hurting sentiments? In all probability, he's right - we have been clinging to religion for too long now, and have been giving it a special status, which is entirely undeserved. Though I can understand the "why". The other day when Porny said "Nirvana is the most overrated mediocre band in history", I was infuriated. How dare he talk like that about my band? How dare he talk like that about my religion? I would have his body dismembered and fed to dogs! That Satan-pig!
Kudos to Dawkins for coming out so straightforward and, as he himself says, showing us the elephant in the room. May this world be cleansed of all things irrational. Amen ;)
p.s. - read the description here, and a few reviews too. The major context of the book is Christianity, Judaism and Islam, but a few things may apply to Hinduism as well. Haven't read it completely, but seems to tackle everything :- why this should be of a matter of concern to you, why one should not believe in god and other superstitions, how it is possible to be moral without being religious et cetera. A must-read for the half-religious and the half-atheist.
In the meantime, listen to "Nutshell" by Alice in Chains, which tackles the other big problem : society which destroys the self. More on this later, when I talk about Ayn Rand's "The Fountainhead".
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Here comes the first post on Nonlinear Wisdom in almost two years :) . Someone said we should revive it, so I'm trying. Do comment.
11 comments:
living things resist change...period
the thingy is, if i say nirvana sux, you could just put on a few tracks and i'd be forced to shut up. and if i didnt, it would just be a matter of opinion...
unfortunately, when someone berates your god/religion, you dont have much substance so show as your proof of the contrary, which is why people resort to vague hand waving and say shite like 'you have to experience it' or 'you have to spend 17 yrs of the purest renunciation'
by the way, you stole my copy of fountainhead..arse, ill send my minions after you, and then youll wish you were never born
@moosum : itne saal physics padhne ke baad ye ??? :O :O
ALL objects obey newton's 1st law..period
Lex I: Corpus omne perseverare in statu suo quiescendi vel movendi uniformiter in directum, nisi quatenus a viribus impressis cogitur statum illum mutare.
me? :O wo lallan ke paas hai.
haan aur nirvana waala cheez to hai hi, lekin log senti hote hain bhagwan ke naam pe, jaise ki main nirvana ke naam pe tha..ye wala point bol raha tha
mwahahahhaha
i still hold forth on my nirvana comment
but i also do realize that music has an emotional side that cannot be gauged by technical proficiency of the musicians involved
similarly, there is an emotional side to religion that we do not completely comprehend, and we dont reason about...
Now the question is, why would i criticize your musical tastes with impunity, and yet stay away from your religious beliefs, no matter how ridiculous they might be to me?
I think that has to do with the fact that religion was the first irrational thing that came up in the course of civilization
animals are never irrational ...you have to be able to rationalize to be irrational.
religion was the first irrational thing that came up...we thought, and what we could not explain, became the core of religion....
so such an old edifice is proportionally immovable, and attempting to move it would be proportionally inhibiting
so, we dont question it
ahem
see, THIS is exactly how people get away with crap, saying that something is beyond reason, or that you have to feel it emotionally. this is why society is plagued by all sort of mindless conventions and rules.
isnt saying that there should be no rules and conventions a rule?
and a potentially deadly one at that, in fact, if in nothing else, in its scope....
its a single rule that can result in a 1984 type dystopia, eh, dont you think?
"lekin log senti hote hain bhagwan ke naam pe, jaise ki main nirvana ke naam pe tha..ye wala point bol raha tha"
'log' laude hote hain. agar unke bhagwan itna bakchod hai to mere use gaali dene se use kuch hona nahi chaiye. aur nahi hi kurt cobain chutiya hai kyunki kisi arbit nashedi ne use mediocre bola hai :P
its just people today are sensitive about others 'sentiments' getting hurt. this is like a whole way of life...'i exist, and i have sentiments. and the sole purpose of my existence is to guard my sentiments from being hurt, and suing those who hurt them.'
and all this from a guy who used to wake up at 5 to do aarti :D
and kobain IS technically inferior to many lesser known musicians,...
if you cant appreciate that, sell me your guitar...you dont need it
if it was about technical proficiency, rock would be nowhere. i never woke up at 5, more like 7 :D
abe technical proficiency ke liye music sunte to sab log Joe Satriani sunte rehte...aur Kobain is not that bad as you make him out to be, listen to Love Buzz and Endless Nameless, for instance.
And your "pretentious" point was bullshit.
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