Universe and its Origin!

How did this Universe come into being?

“Life is but a momentary glimpse of the wonder of this astonishing universe, and it is sad to see so many dreaming it away on spiritual fantasy.”- Carl Sagan

Religion is a bottleneck for Universal Knowledge

The universe itself, our existence in it, and our ability to comprehend it, are far greater and more powerful wonders than any religion can concoct.

To offer religious (i.e., supernatural) explanations to these wonders is to belittle and diminish these breathtaking phenomena.

Religion (the superstitious element of it in particular) is dangerous, since it requires uncritical acceptance of spurious beliefs without any evidence or compelling logical reasoning, or, indeed, in the face of evidence to the contrary. Religions are not open to challenge the same way science is -- religion is, indeed, anathema to scientific inquiry. To name something as religion of the universe would thus mean rejection of the study of it.

What major religions say about the universe?

1. Hinduism

Bhagavad-Gita Quote: (Sanskrit) sutah uvaca -- Suta said; jagrihe -- accepted; paurusham -- plenary portion as the purusha incarnation; rupam -- form; bhagavan -- the Personality of Godhead; mahat-adibhih -- with the ingredients of the material world; sambhutam -- thus there was the creation of; shodasa-kalam -- sixteen primary principles; adau -- in the beginning; loka -- the universes; sisrikshaya -- on the intention of creating.

a. Translation

Suta said: In the beginning of the creation, the Lord first expanded Himself in the universal form of the purusha incarnation and manifested all the ingredients for the material creation. And thus at first there was the creation of the sixteen principles of material action. This was for the purpose of creating the material universe.

2. Christianity

Bible (Exodus 20:11): Scripture also addresses the age of the universe. The Bible teaches that the entire universe was created in six days. We know from the genealogies and other events recorded in Scripture that this creation happened about 6,000 years ago.

3. Islam

[Quran 7.54] And your Lord, Allah, who created the Heavens and the Earth in six days and then settled on the Throne...

Rational & Scientific view:

Funniest of all most of the religions completely negate scientific fossil based carbon dating and say that the universe is only 5,000 to 6,000 years old! ,where as latest fossil dating on the oldest fossils and astronomical dating by NASA has revealed that universe may be 13.75 ± 0.11 billion years.

Read more about fossil based dating here: http://www.actionbioscience.org/evolution/benton.html here: http://www.discoveringfossils.co.uk/resources.htm and here: http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/universe/uni_age.html

Imagine now where do we fit the dinosaur age in this, there is no place for dinosaurs in this religious context now!, they cannot simply exist!, its too short time span! :)

So what’s my point?

My point is all religions are baseless! they stem out of one or the other holy book and the doctrine of religions or religious beliefs which were necessary few thousand years back --> to answer questions from people; for ex: how old is the universe, then you say oh I know that its 6,000 years old!, or may be or may be not! Okay... There you go your answer! and please record that in this (holy) book so that the next generation will know that!

Wait a second, there was no science of fossil based dating then, Hmm…

Science and its discoveries have already made way too many advances to understand things around us, and unfortunately, the lies in those books are wide open and are up for scrutiny suddenly, and worst part of it major religious faith’s around the world are based on those books. I don't have problems with Morales in them my problems lie with preachings!

Now how would you handle this question?

Now what will you answer your kid if he/she asks you if the universe is 6000 years old according to the holy book or 13.75 ± 0.11 billion years old according to geological/astronomy records, as they progress towards higher education?

If you are a believer in a religion can you really answer?, or will you maintain a different stance saying I must tell partial truth?

Wait, I don’t want to shake the foundation, may be that religious faith is needed until we are really sure that every one of those believers can sustain collapse of the religious faith foundation, largely with their self-beliefs in themselves, and automatic compassion, concern towards their fellow human beings and other creatures on this planet.

Can you reason? or you do you need a superpower for that?

Being an Atheist!

Being an Atheist has profound consequences, you either are considered completely nuts by those whom you debate with, or as someone who needs grave help by those --> who are staunch believers in a superpower for their day-to-day activities.

I have had numerous debates on the coffee table, in internet blogs, and in person with several of my friends and foes alike who enjoyed being in a group and telling me that my atheistic view is also some kind of belief, --> it’s just that the belief or faith in me says GOD does not exist.

Not believing in something is Faith!

I really never could comprehend to such a statement from those lot of my acquaintance ,presumably according to them not believing in superpower and pointing most unknown explanations to the statement “ science will find an answer” citing previous successful science discoveries is also a faith!! :) . The only irony is; all that we know about superpowers is from the scriptures written since Aztec’s time and the priests, gurus, imams who have been practicing these scriptures for their lively hood.

None of the followers of a superpower/GOD/Creator really know if they have answer incase, someone asks them for an example; let’s say their own kid, show me the GOD?, -->they surely run to those scriptures for an answer.

Faith and the real world

This results in they pointing their next generation towards some pre-written text or scriptures, which in turn are trying to position themselves as one and only explanation about this entire world resulting in another set of brainwashed children to be grown up as confused individuals juggling between real world problems on the one hand & pre-conceived notions of all the problems and solutions have a creator and everything usually is planned by superpower on the other.

I don’t have a problem with your faith but…

Questioning some one’s faith in something has always been complex. Blind faith does not need a reason, or logic, the only comfort that faith will comfort the believer at all times is enough not to reason it.

I personally don’t have a problem with someone having faith in something with a thinking that that faith will make them more confident, it’s just that the faith should not always overshadow reason, if I have faith in something like a super natural power to give me confidence, I should not grow my children in the same way, rather I should grow them to be self-sufficient and self-believing in way that they would understand the world and wonders of this world from their own eyes, not with a faith that I inject into their brain and they stop thinking from their individual brain capacity.

Think of our Children & The next generation!

Imagine how difficult it is to teach children about Evolution, or about the reasons to explore this universe around them, if you already tell them that you know that answer (which is not true) and they must follow that.

Faith and how it can kill!

Absolutely this is one of the main reason behind so many young men following the path of religious terrorism, largely due to the doctrine of faith imparted by their parents initially, and they start making pictures of their own religion, and then their GOD’s and then other religions and other GOD’s; and then how the other religion is much different compared to theirs; and then how some of the teachings from their own scriptures in their religion is different from others; and so many then and others coupled with a blind and illogical faith mixed with verses and hymens, and phrases from books which are literally considered as the mouthpiece of the creator as the final say gives rise to so much of hatred, group ism, fanatic behavior, and finally another illogical reason to defend the blind faith leading to murders, killings, bomb attacks with an obvious reason to prove a point that one form of blind faith is better than the other. (Imagine the 9/11 attackers in those flights and their prayers to their GOD and those people in WTC who prayed to their Gods to save them from those flights which hit the building).

Religious faith can make you blind enough!

So my point is in all cases reason in religious faith is non-existent, faith in anything with a positive mind set is fine until it helps the individual to overcome adverse situation in life, but moment it stops you from seeking answers to the unknown, the faith makes you more blind and your brain becomes a puppet of your own desire to be blind for things around you and you would start influencing your surroundings including people with your blind faith. That is wrong, being intelligent is basic difference humans have from other animals (though many of our mammals come close to us).

Aren’t we being biased towards our co-creatures in this world?

I often asked questions to my fellow friends on what do they think these animals, reptiles, birds, insects, follow as faith?, or what GOD do they believe in, there were obviously no answers for it, but I was told that humans have been created to be intelligent and these animals to be non-intelligent and in most cases to be our food. Now that topic itself is going to be food for my blog so let’s leave it at that:).

Imagine what a reasoning that was created by our ancestors to make sure we eat those tasty chicken or steamy beef! , may be this is the same reasons cannibals in deep forests would give about us, if we ever dare venture into their territory or we ever read their holy books.

Reason: is that too much to ask?

Never mind, all I’m trying to do is reason; now if you think this specific post has a reasonable reason for me to spend some time then don’t forget to leave a comment, even if you think the reasoning in this blog is beyond your reasoning still write a comment! :) don’t worry I won’t try to change you if you believe in a superpower all I’m asking from you to be is being reasonable and being rational, isn’t that the basic premise on which we as humans should be standing?

Why I'm An Atheist!

Why I’m an Atheist

Confession:

I have always annoyed believers however soft they were in the outlook :), may be its my capability to annoy people, jokes apart yes it’s been a great debate on the existence of GOD or not in the context of which side is right or wrong.

Childhood and Confusion!

In My Childhood days I always thought at least until I was around 12 year old that GOD did exist and I use to frequent all the temples on each auspicious day. Indian traditions each GOD or Goddess have a special day dedicated to them and I used to follow it regularly, this way I was good to my parents :).

Nevertheless, I still remember one night with a small telescope and peeping into a vast clear night sky, I was amazed how this all could be, what is out there, what are we made of and so many loads of questions.

When I went back to my parents and my grandparents, and some friends with that question, the answers were pretty vague or pretty straight forward, something like "obviously a superpower created it", most answers though may not be in those words but basically the same.

Seeds of Rationality

This obviously didn't satisfy the extremely questioning brain I had :) ( I was unpopular with my teachers because of this), so I started putting in equations, good and bad, truth and lie, Hindu and Muslim, poor vs. rich, beggar on the street vs. the guy looking out of his car window.

So it started to become clear to me that the world is basically not all that rosy, perfectly done and answering all my questions in my brain, may be this is the point where my mind started thinking there is a possibility that after all what I have been taught from my childhood about GOD, religion, creation, the universe (interms of super power creating it ) may be ultimately wrong, so yes it started with a vague thinking that there are so many wrong things in the world then obviously GOD has not made it even for everyone - Be it the hungry kid in Sudan, or all the cuisine food that the next rich neighborhood was throwing in his dustbin.

Somehow it all didn't add up, I got frustrated and I started reading the literature these religions have produced over years, yes I subscribed to Bible Society of India and they sent me a "New Testament “copy for free and I had a copy of Bhagavad-Gita in my home anyways due my parents religious inclination as Hindus,infact I also tried getting other religious scriptures but that is not very important here in this blog.

Holy Books and What I understood

This flummoxed me, here you go a lot books spawn around talking about nearly the same thing that is superpower but are written or have a timeline in different earth years and all they are trying to do is bring in some amount sensibility in human behavior and at the same time telling you to be afraid of the super power and the telling you that particular reference GOD in that particular book is the only GOD you should believe in.

(2012 and 100 B.C.) Now and then

This for me seemed like an intelligent piece of work to convince some set of people or humans beings in those medieval times where general brain capacity to think beyond lightening as a GOD's act was limited. I specifically say "General" because those days there were people who had their brains matured to understand little more complex things, like they could see that Moon could be revolving around earth and its force may be the key thing in tides not some extra natural power. It's just that they could not convince the general mind set those times with the limited tool set they had like -->(telescopes, or international space station we have right now in our orbit).

Stars, Galaxies, Nebula's and GOD

Now there was a question in front of me, do I believe that all that is around me is created by a superpower and simply get a good night sleep feeling comfortable that I know everything /or allow my questioning brain to say no there is a chance that I can still try to know what is around all of us. The earth, the people on it, the different religions that make it, the different languages we have, the different species that give us company on this blue planet and above all the vast universe around us, the small Galaxy we are in and the smaller solar systems we live under. The bigger nebula's, the quasars, the black holes, the empty dark matter which spreads to unimaginable distances, and the eternity question what holds all these? :). That was a lot of text in one paragraph! ;).

The different Path

So I choose the difficult path that is not believing that all this has a creator, that I need to find what are we made of, do we have neighbors, how the other planets look like. Then I understood the entire human life is not enough to understand this, so what! it is for me better than sitting in my couch and thinking Ah! I know my answers someone has crated it.

Science is my supper!

So still today I keep understanding science, and the way it explains things around me, Yes I do agree there are questions to which we don’t have complete answers, but Science has only just started so give it some time, it has to tread cautiously on a path called Faith which has a long history and has already started taking baby steps in understanding the vast, huge universe around us and to the question who are we, why are we here apart from enlightening me every day from a darker side of my brain to a side of understanding, with reasoning and with clear evidence wherever possible.

I would rather imagine time travel, and putting my efforts in building a machine to go back in time and see my childhood day rather than counting towards my end thinking oh! that day I would see the GOD.

That’s why I'm an Atheist, and I'm proud!'

By the way this is just a prologue to a book that I'm writing ;)