The Evil God

I've always had a tendency to relate knowledge acquired from various subjects and sources. Whether it be physics and chemistry or Compilers and algorithms. When I tried finding similar analogies between science and God, it led to tremendous contradictions. Science claims that the laws of physics and other sciences control the world. It says if you drop a coin, it will fall to the ground with an acceleration of about 9.8 m/s. The other line of thought says that that the universe is governed by this supernatural being who created the world over a 6-day period. I found it difficult to believe in both simultaneously and am firmly aligned to science.

I decided to think the other way for some time and will be basing my thoughts in this essay on the assumption that Gods exist and have powerful influences on human life. For some reason, God refuses to reveal himself to the common man. This God must have chosen the great spiritual and religious leaders and religion in general as his tools to guide people on how to go about their lives in the way that he wants. These people have been hand picked by him as the best to carry his message to the world, the others he apparently does not find worthy of any trust, nor does he find them capable to give the slightest evidence of his existence. So, we as common men must view this divine being through the eyes of the people who carry his messages. We must have faith and belief in scripts written thousands of years with no definite source.
If this were indeed the truth, the impact religion has on human life can be viewed as actions performed by the great lord himself. But, the impact of religion on human society seems extremely detrimental to me.

Religion - Arguably, the biggest single cause of human death ever.

Be it the crusades for Jerusalem or Hitler's concentration camps. More recently be it 9/11, the Bombay blasts, or the Palestine conflict. Religion is responsible not for hundreds or thousands of human deaths but millions and millions of them(Mostly innocent). I read this quote somewhere, "Surgeon General's Warning: Quitting Religion Now Greatly Increases the Chances of World Peace." How crude but how true as well. I am sure that I do not need to give more examples to convince you. You can think of tens of examples at a moment's thought.

A lot of theists will argue that these actions were performed by religious fanatics and is no reflection of what god wants us to do. But the fundamental problem with religion is the inability to question the rules laid down by authority. If you and I cannot question whether there is a god and what is the proof of his existence, how is the common Afghan to question the maulwis telling him to wage jihad against non-Muslims (Indians or Americans or anyone else). Neither should he under the assumption that our God has exposed his wishes in the great scriptures and to the great religious saints. This is after all from the holy Quran.
"2.39. But those who reject Faith and belie Our Signs, they shall be companions of the Fire; they shall abide therein."
"3.151 Soon shall We cast terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers, for that they joined companions with Allah, for which He had sent no authority: their abode will be the Fire: And evil is the home of the wrong-doers!"
So helping God by putting the Kafirs (Nonbelievers in Allah) into the fire should be a good deed indeed.

God - The obstacle to economic progress

These was a time in Europe around the 6th to the 10th Century AD when the power of the Church was unquestionable and supreme. This time is known in European history as "The Dark Age".
Closer to home I see a system where a person is not allowed to change their profession if her/her occupation has become obsolete. A quarter of the populace is treated as "untouchables" and we almost created laws banning them from changing their religion. An argument against this is that the caste system becoming rigid has been caused by corruption of the religion over several thousand years. I find this extremely hard to believe, as ours was possibly the most divided society conceivable in ancient times. It was to the extent that we had a separate language for the elites (Sanskrit) and another one for the commoners. We find in Mahabharata that a gifted child called "Ekalavya" was refused education from his teacher as he was not of the appropriate caste.
Besides there are numerous other bindings that Hinduism imposes on it's followers, though not followed in totality, the inabalility to travel abroad being one of them.

Religion - Severely hindering Scientific Progress

Galileo was banned from teaching ideas that the Earth was not the center of the Universe and his findings using his telescope. He was later subject to house arrest after getting to his knees and begging to be forgiven.
Around the year 1600, under instructions from the church, a man called Giordano Bruno had been kept in a dungeon for 8 years, later a nail was driven through his tongue, he was tied to a metal post, wood and some of his books were placed under his feet and he was burnt to death. His crime ---- he had said that the earth revolved around the sun, the sun is a star and their might be other worlds with intelligent beings on them and that Jesus did not possess god like power and souls can’t go to heaven.
This one kind of explains itself actually. Science and God have been totally contradictory, so God obviously does not want Science to progress. We must agree after our first premise that all science developed by mankind is some kind of a hoax actually so probably this point doesn’t even count.

Should we be religious fanatics?

For those who suggest that all the above was the result of religious fanaticism, and we must apply our heads before believing what we are told. I feel compelled to point out the double standards you are using. On one side you are wiling to believe that there is a super powerful super good God somewhere who is responsible for everything that happens in the universe. If you do believe in this you must honor his message whether it be to kill kafirs or to burn people who contradict the bible of treating a quarter of the populace as untouchable. If this god does not prove his existence to you directly and you religion is all you must rely upon, you must do all this or he shall punish you in your afterlife.

Specialization

The author in me tells me repeatedly that he wishes to switch to a Product and pre-sales type of a role (For the uninformed, this division in Trilogy is responsible for conceptualizing products and does not deal with the actual implementations- read creation of content). Here are some of his concepts and ideas to write about.

• Trip to Paradise - For the Goa trip earlier this year.
  
• Elliptical orbit - For my first year at college. (During their elliptical orbits comets are so close to hitting the surface as well as so close to attaining escape velocity!!)
• Mindless chatter - Simply for mindless chatter
• Just me

But how do I create the rest of the content? Do i get Ukranian outsourcers to do the job for me? After all they seem to be doing pretty good jobs at some of the Trilogy projects. After considering the economics of such a project I have ruled out that option as being financially unviable. I must first write a book and sell a million copies before I can do any such thing.
I have been trying to tell Mr writer that our start-up (this blog) requires him to take up a much more broader role in the organization. But he threatens to leave the organization and go back to hibernation if i push too much.
My organization decided to look at other possible alternatives. We thought we should fire this writer and find another one which has the potential to win a booker prize, will be willing to reside in my body and last but not the least will work for free. I searched tirelessly all over the net for a suitable candidate. I also contacted recruiting firms but no-one will help me on this extremely important issue. I guess these companies just dont have it in them to take up challenging tasks. Also the internet seems too disorganized.
I will continue to try to persuade the writer in me to help me create more content. Also I will feel extremely grateful if my readers refer suitable candidates for a replacement. I am ending this post in a hope that i will have a writer in time for my next post.

-Prashant

My dilemma

For as long as my memory serves me, my contribution to the literary world has been an absolute zero. And I will even fall low enough to count an essay written in class.... Today after centuries of hibernation the writer in me has awoken and is all set to win the next booker prize. Wow, looks like i have a knack at dramatizing things!
As with any great essay in the history of time, I realize I need something to write about. Well, I havn't written a thing in the last 20 years or so, I should have a lot to write. I could write about the numerous trips that i'd been to all over south India in the last fews months. But unfortunately i seem to have a knack of going with lots of authors and poets and they'll definately do a better job at that. I could write about my rather interesting time at TU. That'll make for some nice reading. Maybe a well written work on it could sell better than 5 point someone. No way in hell, it'll give me nightmares even if I win the booker for that.
I could write about my time in college. "My four year holiday" as i often call it. Well the first year was by far the most exciting and dramatic year of the four. It was the time when I had just entered college and was willing to take on the world. Two weeks old in the hostel me and Rahul had plans to beat up any senior who came to rag us (Although that plan was not actually implemented atleast at that time). But alas, i dont seem to remember it well enough to write about it.
The final sem at college was mayhem. From me organizing the fashion show to scolding the HoD for not giving me my project of choice. Well I took up the job of the fashion show inchare thinking it would be a hep thing to do and will be gr8 fun with all the college chicks around. Turned out to be far from that. And I can now bear testament that organizing a fashion show is far tougher than any programming challenge I have faced in my life. As far as scolding the HoD is concerned, I will leave that narration to naveen who was the hero of the whole episode. I was mearly a "side actor".
Ok, I've decided to look at other forms of writing, I could write my thoughts on atheism for instance. About how by logical thinking, the absense of god is so clear. Or I could just give u a link to the original work from where i derive these ideas. How I'm thinking of somehow escaping when my mom takes me to a temple when i go home. Unfortunately, escape has to be done in a way as to not hurt her. I can pretend to oversleep but cannot really say no. Nah, this one would take a little too much creativity which is really beyond my capabilities at the present time.
The voices of the literary genius are dying again within me and I think i will have to finish my post here.

-Prashant