Aethists and Religion

http://bitsandpieces.us/2008/09/15/conventional-logic-vs-religious-logic/

The above link has a counter part of this image....
The above image is just a response to the one at bits and pieces......

A Tribute to the Blast Victims

I was really moved when I saw how art could motivate people through the art by Sudarshan Patnaik. This Sand Sculptures gave me the goosebumps. Thought I should share it....

Life... An Unsolved Puzzle

Life...It just is. Existence of anything is its life. What we think of as good, bad, divine, evil, dark, bright, rough, soft, tough, easy, achievable, unattainable, beautiful, ugly, dead, alive, wet, dry, dream or reality is just something that our mind tells us it is...But, no one really knows if all this that we are supposedly experiencing is a reality, or just a dream. Who knows, when we die, we would actually might be realizing that all this life was just a game, and for that matter, even that reality could be a dream. So how do you live in such a world? Do we just accept what is given to us by our supposedly unmatched 'senses'?? What lies beyond what we actually see? One explanation for it could be taken from the animation film by Disney: The Lion King. It says, " To find Hakuna Matata, you must look beyond what you see", meaning we need not worry about anything. Things just exist and existence is the biggest celebration of all. Just do the duties that are given to you without thinking of the result of your actions, just in case this world that we can see is real. Another explanation for this is given by the movie: The Matrix, as you all might be knowing about that, I will skip the discussions on it. Then what is the way for one to lead his life? For many centuries man has tried to answer this question. The quest for finding the solution to this problem is what man is trying to solve. Some of the hypothesises were considered divine and became the way of living called Religion. Every Religion has its own beliefs regarding the way of life of its followers. They all speak of some world that is beyond the one that we see with our naked eyes. Many cultures believe in having an after life. Some believe in a single entity that is omnipotent and omnipresent that makes this world work. Certain others believe in many greater forces that combine together to make this world tick with time. While some think that it is the coordination of every single particle in this universe that makes use work(The Brahman and the Atman). They are all called God. They are named differently for different religions. But if there has to be any single one of these hypothesis to be true. It would mean the others are all false(except for the Brahman=Atman concept of the Buddhist). But we forget that the others lead a peaceful life too. Thus, I conclude these could all be false. But it is not necessary for one to believe in the reality that a religion shows to exist in this world. The non-believer is just considered to be a fool by the believers. Religion is a way for the rulers to control the minds of the people. For example, consider the great Roman ruler, Constantine. He turned his complete empire to Christianity to save his people. He took this decision to stop the great empire of Rome from being torn apart into pieces. Religion is like a Moral Police and helps people coordinate in their day to day life. Things like respecting elders and greeting others are just to make people live more socially, to make us realize that we have a soul. Certain other practices like the Hindu practice of have a 'Thilak' might have acted as identification for people of a particular kingdom, or for that matter, of a group of allied kingdoms. But all these practices might seem to be too much to handle(Man are they even going to suggest me to wear only white color Jockeys now??) This is why all these practices had to be 'Divinified' and this is where the story about faith begins. So faith, huh? one would ask, why should I have faith in something that has no validation? Many might wonder how a man can have faith in something that almost seems to be impossible. My personal understanding of this is that faith gives strength to man. One can take certain decisions which could be difficult for us to make when we are without it. Moreover, The most ironical thing is that even after knowing and telling so much, I have a true Faith in my religion(I am a Hindu). This is what is called the Magic of faith. As far as I am concerned, faith binds me with strength that I don't think any thing except faith can instill in a soul. But what is this Strength that you gain from just believing in something? Does it mean that faith is like some energy drug or steroid that gives instant strength to the user? Or is it the strength or guts to fight anybody? Well most people think yes. But as you might have guessed by now, it only gives you determination in doing something that you think is right. Thus, it is very important for one to truly have faith in what he thinks he has faith. This means one should carefully judge where one's faith is to lie. But once you have faith in it. You will find yourselves above everything in this world.

This discussion will go on and on forever because, as I said earlier, we are talking about life, an unsolved puzzle.

I will keep adding stuff from time to time in my attempt to understand it.