Daily Family Prayer !

A family that prays together stays together. I don't think any sane soul will disagree with this statement. The only argument would be whether the big deal is really about 'prayer' or 'togetherness'. There are folks who argue that replacing 'pray' with 'bray' would invariably bring in the same positive results, as long as 'together' stays put. But there are others who vouch for 'prayer' being the key element, together or not.

Daily prayer for some, is a tool to touch base, interact with, and source energy from the divine. Ritual implementation of the same is expected to bring in blessings or benefits from a higher force; in this world or the other. For others it is an exercise that brings the family together, keeping the members focused on a common activity for a while, thereby bringing in synchronization and unity.

Actually daily prayer is an activity which both the parties can partake without any real conflict of interests. It is akin to two people engaging in a game of badminton, but for different reasons - one as a means of entertainment while the other as a mechanism for weight loss. We cannot argue that one of them enjoys the game more than the other, due to this varied approach and expectations; nor is one of them 'the right way' with respect to the game.

Benefits of doing things together have been researched and re-researched by folks for decades together, and there is no dearth of data substantiating the same. Most of us do follow these findings one way or other in our daily life as well. Why else do students and teams wear uniforms? Why do soldiers march, and not just walk from place to place? All these gimmicks - similar color or behavior so to speak - are mere tools to trick our brain into the feeling of togetherness and the comfort that comes with it.

Why would someone ever come up with weird associations or explanations like this? Peaceful coexistence, I say. Try getting married for a start! :)

Saints n Sinners

The church premises was unusually crowded this evening. But then I remembered its Thursday, the special day the patron saint of the church listens to matchmaking requests from the sinners. So lads from across the town and neighboring asylums travel to the church with handful of candles and garlands. I am not sure whether the garlands signify a wreathe on personal freedom or the candles represent the willingness to melt away under the asks and hypocrisies of paired life. Anyway the point is not to show marriage under bad light, but to think loud on this Tuesdays-for-saint-Walnut, Wednesdays-for-saint-Coconut business.

First it was the division of labor "..as Mr. Walnut has been declared a saint today, he will take over from St. Coconut the growing-hair-on-bald-heads department. Henceforth all hairy requests..." That is understandable, how many prayers are godly possible for the Trinity and mother Mary to handle a day, especially in these days when the sinners are choosy on ala carte orders, like the Kardashian butt, Katie Price boobies, Natalie Portman smile all fitted into a 1945 Marilyn Monroe chassis? So it makes super sense to assign St. George to handle the reptiles and horses, considering his knowledge in horse riding and dragon slaying. But experience is not the sole criteria here I suppose, as we are talking more about curing headaches and not coaching the football team. Knowing that Dispirin is for headache while Aspirin is good for hangovers is good enough for most of the situations. And what matters most I think is the magical powers, which you anyway get like an honorary Doctorate by virtue of sainthood.

So, while delegation makes sense in a world of increased purchasing power, population and demanding customers, I am still not convinced about the special-day concept. Imagine this note on the heaven's notice board "St.Walnut is busy playing pool at the club, with St. Jobless and St. Anabelle on Mondays,Tuesdays and Thursdays. So he will not be available for consultations on Belching-and-Burping these days. Sinners are requested to try St. Jinglebell in case of Emergencies". After all, all work and no play will make Walnut a dull saint.

Unlike here on Earth, looks like Saturday is not holiday out there in heaven, there are quite a lot of saints available for consultation that day. This is perhaps part of the sinner-friendly policy of the heavens... letting us submit the requests en-masse on one of the holidays. Why else is Sunday the holiestest day of all? Followers of Satan might argue that it is to keep us away from the television sets, which broadcast blasphemous shows like Mythbusters and Attenborough on Evolution. We all know that The Simpsons (after the Vatican declared that they are a catholic family), any David Blaine show (he is now an official member of the 'Super Best Friends' after he defeated Jesus in that episode of Southpark) and concerts by 'Lamb of God' are the only sensible programs on TV these days.

Whatever be the truth in the above argument, I personally feel Sunday services are 'stimulating' and hence have definitely contributed to the increase in population. (No, I am not talking about folks who take seriously the Pastor's argument 'more children more stability' and do the needful). Someone once told that grief and remorse are the perfect aphrodisiacs. If that is true, after an hour of rituals and sermon, which in English translates to how big a sinner you are, and a whole day ahead with nothing substantial to do, you can imagine what couples might get creative at. Hallelujah!

We should try arranging Sunday masses to the African mammals whose population is fast dwindling (somebody from NatGeo or Animal Planet pokes their camera right in, every time a couple gets in the mood, so how the hell will the population increase!) Religion seems to me a great alternative in increasing their population and getting the 'Endangered Species' out of the Red Book. But the challenge would be in finding out a suitable story to make them feel bad about. Stealing apples .. you kidding?

Coming back to the point, most of us eagerly wait for the Friday to go to St. Bologna's church and request the death of our boss under a garbage truck, even at the risk of getting stampeded to death by the crowd. Like wilder-beast migration across the Serengity, everyone from far and around flocks around St. Bologna on Fridays with a death wish on their lips. I see the logic now... someone will definitely be dead on the spot at the end of the mad rush, or definitely later due to injuries sustained during the process... and some Dany Sinner's wish will thus be granted. It is in fact much simpler logic in case of the Dudes and the Dames who come looking for partners.. where else do you get all of them at one place to pick and choose from! The discos are a distant second option I say!

So who ever came up with this Designated-Days concept wasn't after all a fool..eh?

Conversations with Pluto - Free Will

Pluto is my neighbor's cat. Though he categorically belongs to my neighbor, he spends most of his time at my place, like many of us spend the entire day at office. He sleeps on an extra mattress in the room, topples the dustbin and eat all that's inside and torture the unfortunate cockroaches who come out for a walk in the sun. Generally he keeps quiet as he goes on with the above mentioned acts, but there are times when he decide to have a conversation. I get worried whenever he puts on that serious face, scratch his head, jump on to the table and take seat atop the pile of books. This is his favorite attacking position, having gained the 'higher-ground' advantage over me slouching on the bean bag.

So after watching 'Bedazzled' for the Nth time, when he quickly jumped on the table I knew he is on to something. I had noticed him scratching his ears vigorously during that scene where Lucifer plays dice with God on the sidewalk. So I picked up a cup of coffee and sat down, ready to face the assault. Finally after a long wait the Oracle spoke..

"How did you, me and the circus came about?", Pluto asked. 'Circus' is how he generally refers to the 'rest of the world', where according to him, his master is one of the Head-Clowns.

I gasped at the profoundness of the question and answered, "Many say that a God created all this out of love. Some say it happened when electric charge acted upon a primordial soup of atoms. There are a few who think aliens did it. And then there are the real intellectuals who say all this is a simulation"

Giving me one of those you-are-hopeless looks he said, "Ok, for the time being let us assume that God did it. Can we?"

"But how can you base a discussion on an assumption? We shouldn't have ambiguity in rational dialogs", I tried to act intelligent and interested.

"If you use the assumption only as a premise and later prove it a fact by virtue of the outcome, for which the assumption was not directly utilized, then there is no problem", he said effortlessly like a primary school kid reciting Jack & Jill, as I desperately tried to wrap my head around the statement.

Sensing the confusion he soon added "Anyway, it doesn't matter in our case as we are not trying to prove anything", nudging me back on track.

As I nodded my head in the affirmative he continued, "So if indeed God created us, then why are our actions at times judged as evil? How can his creations be or do evil?"

"Heard of 'Free Will' moron?", I tried to be my assertive best.

"Ok Theophiles, what IS Free Will?", he retorted, with a twinkle in the eyes. I noticed it was the same delight with which he corners cockroaches in the room, before pouncing on them.

"HE did not want us to act like zombies or just enact a script, and hence gave us the free will to 'choose'. So while he fixed the start and end points for our journey, birth & death, he lets us decide the path we take from A to B. Our destiny is a function of the choices we make and destiny of the world is crowd-sourced from people like us, much like a web 2.0 content aggregator. And since we make our own decisions, we are judged on our actions", I concluded.

"Amen", said Pluto. "So HE shifted the responsibility of decision making to us, so that he can sit and judge us for everything we do. Is this what you are implying?"

"No, No.. he just wanted to give us more freedom to shape our lives the way we want. Its like writing the preface and introduction of a book and letting you write the rest of the chapters", I was beaming with pride on my excellent choice of example to make the point.

"mmmm.. impressive. So, let me ask you this. What would we have done if there was no free will?", he asked scratching his balls. (Cats can do it no matter where, and no one frets about it!)

"We would have followed HIS will I guess", I replied.

Without blinking an eye he asked again, "And do you think HIS will means no evil and only good?"

"Of course, that is why we do not call him Idi Amin"

"OK, so without free will we all would have done just good and the introduction of the so called free will now lets us do bad things as well? All that HE really gave us through free will is the knowledge of evil and the temptation to falter? What kind of a 'free' will is that mate?"

"Without both good and evil, how can you implement free will?" I tried to reason with Pluto.

"Choice need not always be about right and wrong, it can as well happen between multiple good options; like you choose the color of some shirt you buy. HE never thought of that possibility?" he asked as the wicked smile returned to his face.

I was quiet.

"Checkmate", said Pluto, as he jumped off the table after another roach.

The Flying Monster controversy..

I am being prayed for... Hallelujah!

No, I am not talking about my mom praying for an 'early' marriage of her son. Neither am I am talking about being included in the phrase 'pray for us sinners' by the multitude of believers. I am talking about a good friend of mine, who recently decided that I have traveled far and long in the path of damnation and hence has agreed to pray my way back to paradise. Soon the interstellar space is going to be polluted with another set of 'Hail Marys' and 'Our father in Hawaii' ...all in my name!

Now, how did all this happen? What provoked an otherwise passive and tolerant young man to swing into action and declare war on the dark forces of the world? That is quite a story.It was from a common friend that he got wind of my association with the 'Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster'. The fact that I had a picture of his holiness the FSM as the desktop background in my laptop, irked him more. For the followers of FSM, the Pastafarians, the fish bone is a symbol of his omnipresence, as much as it is a pun on another religion. But for my friend, this was outright blasphemy. While searching the web for more information on this new found fancy of mine, he chanced upon an image of the last supper where the FSM adorns the center spot, which is traditionally reserved for another bearded deity (don't want to offend him more by calling names, but definitely not Karl Marx). For a staunch follower of this bearded deity, this was the last nail on the coffin.

I tried putting on my passifier costume and put out the fire in him. He was not ready to buy my argument that this is a pseudo religion created to show people the hollow claims of other so called 'established' religions. The creation of a god out of two meatballs and spaghetti was nothing funny according to him, but some vicious agenda of Satan himself. The smooth and saucy noodly appendages of his noodlyness, which created this very universe some 300 years ago, were misconstrued for weapons of mass destruction. My attempts to explain the creation vs. evolution argument, which brought his noodlyness into the mainstream (though HE existed before the beginning of all times) only ended in threats of 'body damage' if I continue with my evangelical efforts. There is an alternate, less plausible school of thought as well, that his reactions are outcome of pure jealousy, on finding out that our god has larger balls than his!

I have been accused on multiple counts of blasphemy, irreverence and dissent by correlating with my following actions:

- Wearing only black shirts/T-shirts with satanic images (Read 'Iron Maiden, Slayer')
- Spreading blasphemous info among friends (Read 'an occasional email on the Secret diary of Jesus or so')
- Utter disrespect towards the first commandment "You shall have no other gods but me".(his noodlyness)
- Staying bachelor on the wrong side of thirty (so as to conduct my satanic business without disturbance.)
- Listening to satanic music (Read 'Enigma, Judas Priest')

Surprisingly, his correlations actually sounded like one of the propositions of his noodlyness - "there is a statistically significant inverse relationship between pirates and global temperature". In fact, such profound assessments are only possible from someone who has already been touched by the all-healing noodly arms of his noodlyness!

The good side of the prayers is that irrespective of the fact that I am saved or not, he will definitely be added into one Mr. Peter's good books, for trying to save an estranged sheep. Who knows, even his eternal accommodation in paradise might get upgraded from 'cattle class' to the Papal suite or something.

Probably these are the days his noodlyness warned about, through his prophets, the 'Guns n Roses'.

"It's hard to keep an open heart, When even friends seem out to harm you
But if you could heal a broken heart, Wouldn't time be out to charm you....
So never mind the darkness, we still can find a way
'Cause nothin' lasts forever, even cold November rain"

I have to be strong.. and I will.
rAmen!

I have problems with religion

Religion explains everything. There is an answer to every question. Ya, but what is wrong with that? Isn't having answers for every question the best possible situation? The problem here is that the answer is same for all the questions. Why are people suffering? Why is the earth revolving around the sun? Why do we all have to die? Irrespective of whether the question is philosophical, rational or factual, the answer is always the same- "Its all part of God's plan".

Religious dogma has already solved all the puzzles and enigmas in life. By the time you were ten or twelve it had already explained to you all that you ever need to know - from the origin of things you see around to the purpose of life. God created the heavens and the earth, He created every one and put us here on Earth. We all have a purpose in life which is nothing but living a good life and getting back to him in due course of time. Religion has already compartmentalized everything into two discrete buckets - the material and the spiritual. Anything that does not benefit the congregation or the clergy is labeled materialistic. Materialistic is described as the work of the devil, whose only intention is to snatch us away from God. Religion has already defined what is and what is not. You are the prisoner of the boundaries it created for you and there is no looking beyond it, unless you heart damnation.

We start believing unconditionally in an answer/explanation only when it is proven to our satisfaction, only when it could stand scrutiny and review. Till that happens we have to continue our quest for more details and a better answer. This doesn't happen with religion. None of the answers are provable and any cross examination is labeled blasphemy. Nothing dampens and destroys curiosity and inquisitiveness in life like religion. Even when science constantly reduced the scope of God through its discoveries, religion always found new excuses to latch on, and protect God and his earthly manifestation, the clergy.

Religion has over a period developed into the most profitable business after Drugs and Education. It will continue to remain so as long as there is a divide between the haves and the have-nots. The 'haves' need something to not feel bad about the amassed wealth, and the 'have-nots' need some consolation and hope to continue life. After all ,suffering and poverty are no bad things.. they are just passport to a better life in the other world... so don't crib and be happy.

Random blasphemous thoughts..

When it comes to the God hypothesis, I have difficulty in understanding some of the arguments. They simply don't make sense unless you choose to blindly believe in them, accepting the explanation that 'human beings are too shallow to understand God'. As a child I always wished that one day during the church service or at least in my dreams one of those divine figures manifest in front of me, just the way I wished a UFO fly past the sky during one of those trips to the mountains. I had great difficulty in accepting, forget believing, in a supernatural power that hides behind some clouds and do miracles.

For an average religious follower, all that matters is whether the chopstick or matchstick they believe in, take care of them once they exit this world. They are least bothered whether the arguments for such a chopstick really hold up against scrutiny. The elite in every religion who are proponents of 'theology', have been working overtime in coming up with excuses one after the other, to resurrect God, every time science or reasoning finds a loop hole in their carefully crafted folk stories. Take the case of existence of evil. Why is it that an omnipresent God who can see all evil before it happens, and who got the power to prevent it, is not doing so, if he exists? This argument when clubbed with the fact that 'evil exists', could have broken the back bone of theism. But then came the great idea of 'Free Will'.

It says that a benevolent God created us with the free will software installed by default. So when it comes to decisions and choices, we can go our own way and burn our ass for picking up the wrong choices. So should I believe that God created all of us and then let us loose in the world with the Free-Will app turned on? Theology uses free will to explain the existence of evil, which otherwise is a tricky thing for the theologists to do in the same breath they explain an all powerful and loving god. So, as C S Lewis writes in his book 'The Problem of Pain', If God decide to do preemptive evil management, like what Tom Cruise and gang does in 'Minority Report', and start guiding our thoughts and actions at all junctures, we will end up as mere puppets in his hands. He did not want to do that to his beloved creations. So to give us all a chance to screw up ourselves, he gave us free will. To facilitate this, HE had to allow the existence of other free agents like evil, even though he still swears against it day and night! How cool is that?

But why should free will always be about right and wrong? Why cant it be a choice between two good alternatives, like apple flavor or cherry flavor? Is it that God did not think about such a possibility of providing us the free will to choose between good things, thereby keeping evil out of the equation? Why did he want to see some of us choosing the wrong path? Doesn't look good on the resume of an omnipotent and omniscient being who claims to have created all that is there. Another funny argument is about God creating a distance between him and man with evil thrown into the mix, so that we will strive hard to know him and thus become better in the process. Remember we are all born sinners as our great great grandfather stole an apple!

Belief can do wonders irrespective of whether you believe in a dick shaped rock or a smooth talker who could supposedly perform magic tricks. I know the so called miracles can happen if you have strong belief. It is the extend of belief that makes it happen, and not whether you believe in the chopstick or the matchstick. Also all these miracles will always have sensible and verifiable explanations. I always hear about 'inner healing' but have never heard about an arm regrowing or a midget growing into a 6 feet tall person. Why? The standard religious explanation is lack of faith. But I have heard of a twisted arm getting better, from a 60 degree twist to a 30 degree twist! Should I assume that the person with the twisted arm had just enough faith to get it corrected by 30 degrees? Good that cartoonists and caricaturists not so often target religion for their strips. But to be frank, I just don't get it.

I am not sure whether HE will hold me responsible for all these blasphemous statements. I am sure I will get a solid smack if my Mom happens to read this, but not quite sure about Jesus. If I make it to the pearly gates, and HE ask me why did I not believe in him like rest of the herd, I will have to answer like Bertrand Russel - 'Sorry boss, not enough evidence'.

If you prefer some irreverence to go with the blasphemy, check out this video titled 'Foobie Jesus'. It tells the story of a woman who thinks her cat is Jesus. Make sue you don't miss the last scene.

Dissecting Religion..

If you look at religion, prima-facie it provides two benefits - hope to carry on, and a moral fabric for the society. Hope has always been the trump card for its success; an eternal life after death or paradise or a reward or whatever - something for the have-nots to cheer about. A perfectly plausible reason for the deprived to be happy about their depravity, the oppressed to be happy about their oppression and their oppressors. Religion even teaches that God gives more challenges and problems to the people he loves more. So what if you have nothing in this world - which is a fleeting moment compared to the eternal life with HIM - you will have everything once you are dead while those with all luxuries in this world will rot in hell. You even got a place called 'limbo' where you are kept for a while if you are a moderate sinner, for your redemption, and then promoted to heaven in due course. Nobody thinks of an equal possibility - this life on earth is all we got.... nothing less. What if this is not some preparatory class and is the real deal?

Religion is not the source of our moral values, they were NOT put in place by some decree from heaven. Are we stupid to think that people on earth used to 'kill' and 'loot' at will, at every chance they get, before God gave his ten commandments through Moses, which says 'Thou shall not steal' and 'Thou shall not kill'? I am not discounting the fact that people do refrain from doing bad things fearing the wrath of god. But that is a situation we created over a period of time through careful education of the 'punishment and reward policies' of heaven incorporated. We had a past when we used to be nice to each other and did nice things without thinking about god or heaven, just because it served us and those around us well. Being nice and helpful was the best thing to do for common good and survival. It is religion that made us believe that we are inherently sinners and can't take care of ourselves in the absence of religion and its moral code!!

Why don't we look at the history of religion side by side with that of the human race and see that religious stories and conventions are nothing but a reflection of our life itself? Why do we allow something that we created to take control of our lives? According to evolutionary theories, religion has some survival advantages as a meme, or it is the byproduct of something else which had a definite evolutionary advantage for the species. Lets look at a few things thats common between our history and the history of religions and see whether we can figure out something.

Primitive man feared all that he could not understand or control. The options in front of him were to either fight and conquer the natural forces or please them and be at peace with them. So he attributed divinity to all that is fearful - fire, rain, wind, lightning and so on. If you look at any of the ancient religions you find that the deities are all shaped after such natural forces.

We had a matriarchal society in place initially where the females used to control the tribe, a practice you still find in many other animal species. But gradually the society got converted to a patriarchal one due to practical reasons. The primary reason for this transition was her inability to protect and be in control of the group at times, due to her other duties like childbirth and raising children. We see a similar change in the personality of God over ages - most of the ancient religions had a Goddess, in place of the male God portrayed by most modern religions.

Sacrifices - human and animal alike - were an integral part of religious worship once upon a time. As we grew in consciousness and started appreciating the value of others and life in general, we moved away from the sacrifices and bloodshed. The metamorphosis of God's personality from a fearful, blood loving, warlord to that of a loving and caring 'father figure' also mimicks the transformation of human race from a primitive hunting community to a sensitive and emotional race of social animals. The angry, biased, egoistic and jealous God of Abraham mellowing down to 'gentle Jesus meek and mild' is probably the best example.

Ancient religious acts were more expressive in nature with dance, role play, masks, elaborate clothing etc, something which matched the life in the pre-language era. As we developed the language, rituals become less expressive and more vocal with symbolism replacing many of the actual artifacts and actions.

So if we look at the characteristics of religion, the most impressive of all is its adaptability. It was able to transform itself with mankind, never looming large or threatening, but always walking side by side, adjusting to all the changes we ourselves were going through. It was this adaptability that made it a highly successful meme, which gradually and unknowingly took control of our psyche, transforming us all into irrational toys in its hands.

Eclipse Ecstacy

I walked out of the room for my morning jog and immediately noticed that the streets looked unusually empty. I double checked the time and I wasn't early at all. Then I remembered that it is the day of Solar eclipse. People were mostly inside their houses and there were very few vehicles on the road as well. Even the temple by the roadside had a small board hanging outside the gate saying "Today's morning services delayed due to the eclipse". My neighbor was sharing with me yesterday his beliefs about the 'Dos and Don'ts' during an eclipse. According to him we shouldn't even take a piss during an eclipse, forget eating during the time or looking at the sun.

I am not questioning these so called superstitions because I know most of them were introduced into the society for good. In a society where access to information was a privilege of only certain segments of the society, it was necessary to introduce concepts in a little cryptic format. It was useless trying to explain to people about sun's ultra violet rays when most of them worshiped it as a benevolent god. So a story had to be built around the event of an eclipse to prevent people from staring at the sun during that time and getting hurt. The only way to ensure the instructions are followed was to associate them with God and his wrath. Fear has always been the ultimate weapon for controlling masses.

But it is another story when idiots try to interpret and implement these beliefs quite literally, without understanding the real reason behind them. Women are still not allowed to enter a place of worship during her menstrual period. The popular belief even now is that a woman is 'impure' during this time and we don't want her to desecrate the God's abode, do we? In a patriarchal society where polygamy was the norm and women were treated like shit, associating some religious myth was the only way to let her take some rest during this physically exhausting times. That is why the 'wise men' ordered that women should be denied entry inside the kitchen or a place of worship and confined to a room outside the house. The instruction was out of concern for her health and not to imply any impurity on her. But who cares about the reasons.. we are happy following the herd. Probably because that's a more energy efficient and convenient way of life.

Irrespective of how much we have 'supposedly' prospered as a civilization, we still have our soft spots, the ones we keep close to our chest without letting rational or reason touch it.

Is there a GOD?

Is there a God? A simple YES or NO can close this debate for ever, but this has remained one of the most perplexing questions ever since we acquired consciousness and imagination. The theist and atheist camps are quite vocal in expressing their opinions, and that is the closest either of the camps have come to solving the puzzle. The question has also swelled immensely in its complexity that we now have to prove the identity of the God as well, if one exists. There are so many of them around us in different names, forms and numbers. For the uninitiated it can't get any complex than this.

From the theist point of view, proof of God's existence has always been a function of his so called 'actions'. These actions vary from the creation of everything to some of the day to day happenings. Anything beyond our understanding and reasoning used to be attributed to the Gods traditionally. There used to be a rain god of sorts in every ancient civilizations till we understood how evaporation, cloud systems, wind and atmospheric pressure creates it. Same is the case with the gods of fire, wind and the ocean. But this understanding has not prevented people from offering prayers to these Gods. So what has happened over time is this reduction in the scope of God's direct actions. HE might still be answering prayers and accepting offerings, but not actively involved in trivial things like rain and rainbows.

His claim on creation of life is also on shaky grounds these days as we understand more about origins of matter and life. With advances in evolutionary and molecular biology we are almost capable of discounting the Adam & Eve story of creation now. But what will you tell the creationists who argue that it is God who controls evolution and the 6 day creation story is a metaphor for 6 billion years of evolution? Even if you try to explain the blind and ruthless nature of evolution, it only goes well with God's ways, atleast a few Gods are indeed ruthless and cruel!! So in this debate if anybody has to eventually win, it has to be the theists, because for them every answer becomes the next question with a 'why' appended to the very end.

When this question reaches the Philosophical plain, it gets even more interesting. Science can explain origin of life with the 'primordial soup' theory, but who put those Carbon and Nitrogen atoms there, asks the theist. If you turn the clock backwards and try to explain the origin of those atoms with the 'Big Bang' theory, the next question will be 'Who created the Big Bang' or 'What was there before the Big Bang'. As we still don't have much knowledge about the early universe, science will have to wait a little longer to answer beyond the Big Bang. But the theist argument will still be there - Somebody should have started the thing that caused the Big Bang, how can something start from nothing or nobody? But if the same argument is posed in the context of God, the outcome is different. If there is a God, who created him? There has to be something or someone who created God? This endless regression takes us nowhere.

Another fallacy of this 'who created whom' argument is the assumption that things should always evolve/originate from something that is bigger/more intelligent than itself. The necessity of a God or super intelligence is by virtue of the complexity of things we see around. The theist argument is that how can something so complex and sensitive emerge out of nothing; there has to be some higher intelligence carefully designing all this. Their favorite example is the impossibility of a hurricane blowing through a scrap yard creating a Boeing 747 by sheer chance. This argument might look so credible at the face of it, but how can you ignore the things that happen all around us which disproves this theory? Evolution is the perfect example how larger and more intelligent organisms can evolve from smaller, less complex living things. Evolution is not something that happens in a few minutes or hours like the hurricane. It takes time and every successful, evolved organism also tells the story of a million other variations which failed to survive or evolve.

So, if a million hurricanes can sweep across the said scrapyard one after the other, each of them creating a different scrap combination by chance, and also shares the experience with the following hurricane, it is quite possible for them to create a Boeing 747 eventually. In nature, an adaptation developed by a small organism to make life better, can be considered as the scrap combination created by one hurricane. if the adaptation was a useful one, the organism will survive, passing on this newly acquired feature to its offspring. If the adaptation was harmful, the organism will likely perish before it could procreate, thereby closing further experiments in that direction. In case of the organism with the useful adaptation, it created a next generation of 'more advanced' individuals with this 'additional feature'. The genetic material will carry this acquired information between generations and this is how complex life forms are created from less complex ones. So a superior intelligence is not at all required if we are trying to explain complexity.

The fact is, even with all these arguments in place, believing or disbelieving in God is more a matter of convenience for most of us. Conviction plays a very little role here. Most of us believe in the 'belief in god', as Philosopher Dan Dennet says. Probably there are no true Theists or Atheists.. all are technically Agnostics.. nobody knows for sure that there is or there isn't a God. Those who are practically theists are comforted by the majority and the practicing atheists believe in Fairies and Unicorns as much as they do in a Super human intelligence.

Meet God online..!!

Religion is my pet topic to bitch about... not because I am against religion, but mostly because I don't agree to the way it is being preached and practiced. It has in fact grown into such a menace, perhaps a bigger one than AIDS (which just affects your body and not the mind). Anyway my intention here is not to emphasize how this monster has gone out of control.. but to laugh at how we have adapted religion to suit our needs.

I received an SMS the other day titled 'New Service' from my service provider. Thinking this might be one of those regular 'internet over mobile' or 'Reduced ISD charges' intimations, I looked at the message. But what I saw was beyond my wildest imaginations.. Now you can make an offering to God through an SMS and the service is called 'Reach the Gods'. Send an SMS with the 'temple/church-Code' and the amount you want to donate, and the same will be done by your mobile operator and charged to your monthly bill.. Amazing..!! And if mobile telephone companies still follow the marketing funda of studying the potential of a service before offering it, this should mean there are enough takers for the service.. Ridiculous..!!

I think its high time the courier and cargo companies get into the business, acting as transporters of holy-bribes and divine blessings. There are numerous possibilities in there... You can collect money from devotees for various ceremonies at places of worship, deliver it to the temple/church, get the rituals done and bring back some 'prasaadam' or 'holy water'. You can collect things (vehicles/flowers/statues) from people, get them blessed at the temple/church and deliver them back. Not a bad business idea..!!

This is not a totally new trend. There are sites which allow you to offer online prayers. These sites become active during festival seasons with facilities to offer incense, flowers and fruits to the God of your choice.. all by clicking buttons. In short, we can get the rituals done on the computer screen.. quite convenient..!! This service can also be extended to online telecasts of rituals at famous places of worship. Or think about a 3D animation of your favorite place of worship on the web, allowing you to take a virtual walk all around the place and to the sanctum sanctorum to see the God himself... without standing in queue.. without traveling all the way..!! Add a dash of virtual reality into it and you can even get the 'Webxperience' of it..!! What if God becomes easily accessible through e-mail.. like something shown by Jim Carry in 'Bruce Almighty'.. just type in a mail and send it to God@whothehellcares.com.. and you shall be heard. mmm there are some wonderful possibilities out there.

All the God-men who used to make big money by branding God will now have some stiff competition and will find it difficult to attract people to their 'Aashrams'... unless they catch up with this new way of 'weblessings'. Not far are the days when we get an "@" God who lives in the "dotcom" world and another stupid religion made around it.