Two things I'd like to see in my lifetime

First thing: A fast forward way of demonstrating evolution and creating life. One possible way is to fill a huge transparent cyclinder with Hydrogen, close the lid and press a button. After one hour we see the results of millions of years of evolution. It could be some life form similar to something on earth or some completely alien life form.

Actually, if someone could do a computer simulation of evolution, that would also be very nice, though it won't please as much as seeing it happen live.

Second thing: No countries. There is just one world and we are all world citizens.

P.S: As a bonus, I'd like to see us banish God from our lives and live in the age of reason. But I don't think I can see that in my lifetime.

In the footsteps of the Mahatma

Mahatma Gandhi is a source of inspiration for my vocal campaign on atheism. I could have easily continued to live my peaceful life without taking up the task of spreading awareness about Atheism. Like most Indians, I have also been heavily influenced by the life and principles of Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi could have easily continued to his career as a lawyer in South Africa. But once Gandhi realized the truth that India was a slave country to England and India would be better off by obtaining freedom from the British, he took it upon himself to spread the same awareness among the rest of India.

Gandhi realized that the British were not really bad people, but were misguided by their sense of racial superiority. Therefore he adopted the means of Truth and Non-Violence to educate the British that freedom was the most important thing for India and the British eventually left India (without having to fight a war -- unlike many other British colonies, including USA, where lot of blood was shed). It’s very depressing and at the same time ironic to note that millions of people were killed in the name of religion during the partition. This ugly stain has forever defaced India’s path breaking approach of obtaining freedom using non-violent means.

Coming back to the freedom struggle, many good things too came out of the British rule. India got very good civil services, railways, postal system and the most important of all – command over English language. Today, India is shining in the outsourcing market primarily because of our command over English.

While everyone acknowledges the benefits of British rule, I’ve not met a single person who says that we made a mistake by getting freedom from the British. Agreed, India has its share of problems with the corruption, poverty, over population, illiteracy, exploitation etc. And, it is arguable that India might have been better off by being under British rule than a free nation (take the case of Hong Kong as an example). But the “Truth” is that living a poor life of freedom is better than a rich life of slavery.

In the same way, I believe that the “Truth” is that freedom from the delusion of God is better than leading a richer life based on the falsehood of God. While people can easily perceive the benefits of believing in God, many find it difficult to understand the pain and misery that mankind has suffered because of the false belief in God. Mahatma Gandhi, who was a devout theist (though he seemingly believed in all religions, even though most religions are mutually exclusive), said in The Degeneration of Belief, “The most heinous and the most cruel crimes of which history has record have been committed under the cover of religion or equally noble motives”.

Most of the theists are very good people, so the Gandhian principles of Truth and Non-Violence are applicable to make them see the light of freedom from religion. In the footsteps of the Mahatma, I want to contribute my bit to humanity by spreading awareness about the “Truth” about the non-existance of God. I wish Mahatma Gandhi were alive today to spearhead the freedom-struggle from God.

Scared to be an Atheist in India

I've been reading about Darwin's theory of natural selection, evolution and evolutionary psychology for a few years now. I am also an engineer by background and appreciate the scientific methods. I used to be an agnostic before this (the kind of agnostic about space aliens; basically didn't spent any time thinking about these issues). But after reading these subjects, it was not possible for me to be an agnostic anymore. I don't remember how and when it happened, but suddenly sometime late 2006, I suddenly realized that God does not exist. There was too much evidence staring in my face against God.

Then I started reading about Atheism and was pleasantly surprised that there are millions like me, which was very reassuring. I'll talk about these resources in some other post. I also started realizing the pain caused to humanity by religion. However, it was not until read Richard Dawkins' 'The God Delusion' that I got enough courage to come out of the closet and do something about it.

But frankly, I'm quite scared. Though by and large, India is a very tolerant society, there are lot of fundamentalists and extremists who can get away with murder. I'm scared to take any steps on educating people on atheism because I fear some religious group will issue a bounty on my head. Bounty is an overstatement. Somebody might just be inspired to break my bones for free.

So, I repeat, I'm scared. Now I'm thinking that I'll use subtle means to educate people about the evil effects of religion.