A weird analyses on the results for  Top 100 Public Intellectuals Poll conducted by Prospect Magazine (UK) and Foreign Policy (US). Do you see any difference as I did?

People who voted think religious preachers are more impotent intellectuals to this world than atheists. The same crowd was mentally aright  in 2005 . Also , now there are more intellectuals in south Asia and gulf compared to west.

Looks like whole poll has intention of appeasement.

2005 list :

1. Noam Chomsky : American philosopher, libertarian socialist
2. Umberto Eco : Italian critic, philosopher
3. Richard Dawkins : English biologist , author, atheist
4. Václav Havel :  Czech playwright, essayist, politician.
5. Christopher Hitchens : British author, journalist, and atheist
6. Paul Krugman :  American economist, liberal columnist, and author (Nobel)
7. Jürgen Habermas : German philosopher and sociologist
8. Amartya Sen : Indian economist,  Professor (Nobel)
9. Jared Diamond : American scientist , author Atheist
10. Salman Rushdie : British Indian novelist,  Atheist

2008 list

1. Fethullah Gulen : Turkish preacher
2. Muhammad Yunus : Bangladeshi banker and economist
3. Yusuf al-Qaradawi : Egyptian scholar and preacher
4. Orhan Pamuk : Turkish novelist
5. Aitzaz Ahsan : Pakistani Advocate
6. Amr Khaled :  Egyptian activist and preacher
7. Abdolkarim Soroush :  Iranian thinker, philosopher, reformer
8. Tariq Ramadan : Swiss religous academic
9. Mahmood Mamdani : Ugandan Professor Government
10. Shirin Ebadi :  Iranian lawyer, human rights activist

This is what happens when kids read holy books instead of history and geography. She says “My friend Sara is Indian and I learned about her culture and realized she needs to become christian, I wanna save her but right now its not looking so good .“

Learned about her culture ??? common you dont not even know the difference between India and Africa for crying out loud. It worries me that this kid who doesn’t even know what religion is, how notorious and stupid it is, is trying to convert some one for fun (or may be a school project)!

You know what kiddo, you tried with an Indian friend. Try it with a middle east kid next time and let us know how it worked out for you…

Cartoon lifted from here

Source : Internet

This is how FBI officers find out truth.

Robert: you swear to God
Eric: excuse me !!
Robert: swear to god that everything you just told me is true
Robert: No .. I am not gonna do that , I wouldnt lie …

This is another conversation between two FBI agents.

Robert : You know why the Soviet Union empire collapsed?
Eric : …….????Good morning?
Robert : I made a carrier studying them, they were smarter than us – more devious, more determined why did they fail ?
Eric : ..?
Robert : Godlessness. Atheism

Both conversation are from Breach - a movie based on real story.

When was the last time you exclaimed “Oh my god” in public ? and which god was it ? You don’t now ?? well , you better know it. Some one might sit on your neck and prove your exclaim is very offensive to him. Also it would be politically and theologically incorrect and big time violation of his rule he has read.

Here is a guys who went on proving the same stuff all over again. To mention some:

1. God came and told me “I am god. If any other gods come and claim that they are also gods, its wrong. please note down there is no god other than me”. Now there if there are any , that is a violation.

2. God said that he doesn’t have a face , if any other gods claim to have face thats again violation, since my god said so.

so on , you ll find many such logical reasoning in this video.

This directly from senate. Someone’s god gets offended while Rajan Zed wanted pray for his God.

Technorati Tags: rajan, zed, hindu, prayer, senate, Christian, god, religion, commandments, disrupt, extremists

My test results :

The Pyrrhonian
The results are in, and it appears that you have scored 55%… Quietly confident and aloof, the Pyrrhonian recognises that religions exist and that people subscribe to them, but manages to keep well out of it all. Pyrrhonians came to the realisation long ago that all matters of faith are beyond the scope of reason or argument, and thus retains a clear-headed skeptical approach to religion in general. They refuse to place belief in anything for which there is no proof, and regard the majority of theistic claims as irreconcilable. Leading a life of tranquility undisturbed by religious concerns, the position of the Pyrrhonian is enviable, if a little frustrating for others at times.

What kind of atheist are you?
created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Apathetic Atheist, Meh… whatever. Apathetic Atheists tend towards disbelief because believing takes more work. These are the people who won’t argue religion, even if a total nutjob confronts them because arguing just seems like a waste of time they could spend doing something else.

One more ,

How Skeptical Are You?

I am done; I am not atheist any more. Thanks for all those who continuously tried convince me that “almighty God exists “(like credit card salesmen). Thanks for all those mails and pamphlets. Now that I have opened my mind and accepted God exists, please help me further to understand “which package” of god is suitable for my life style. I heard they come in different features. (Sarcasm is intended in whole paragraph)

And to all those who are still atheists, here is a story if a holy Barber which opened my mind (or closed … or whatever)

A man went to a barbershop to have his hair cut and his beard trimmed. As the barber began to work, they began to have a good conversation. They talked about so many things and various subjects. When they eventually touched on the subject of God,

the barber said: “I don’t believe that God exists.”

” Why do you say that?” asked the customer.

“Well, you just have to go out in the street to realize that God doesn’t exist. Tell me, if God exists, would there be so many sick people? Would there be abandoned children? If God existed, there would be neither suffering nor pain. I can’t imagine loving a God who would allow all of these things.”

The customer thought for a moment, but didn’t respond because he didn’t want to start an argument. The barber finished his job and the customer left the shop. Just after he left the barbershop, he saw a man in the street with long, stringy, dirty hair and an untrimmed beard. He looked dirty and un-kept. The customer turned back and entered the barber shop again and

he said to the barber: “You know what? Barbers do not exist.”

“How can you say that?”Asked the surprised barber. “I am here, and I am a barber. And I just worked on you!”

“No!” the customer exclaimed. “Barbers don’t exist because if they did, there would be no people with dirty long hair and untrimmed beards, like that man outside.”

“Ah, but barbers DO exist! What happens is, people do not come to me.”

“Exactly !”- affirmed the customer. “That’s the point! God, too, DOES exist! What happens, is, people don’t go to Him and do not look for Him. That’s why there’s so much pain and suffering in the world.”

In one of the last posts, I mentioned illustrations of gods in carvings of beautiful mythological stories. That was about good people like Krishna, durge bad people like mahishasura etc. Now time to write about ugly ones. The gods still living on earth, and making money…

Some thousand years a mythology writer left a space for a sequel. there is going to be tenth avatar of Vishnu. He will come and remove all the evil in Kaliyug and the name’s Bond .. James Bond.

and finally he came … !!kalki bhagvan is an ex-insurance (LIC) agent in Perambur according to Google. Estimations say his assets are Rs400 to Rs600 Cr. He and his enlightened wife went through a morphogenesis field. Read more on kalki bhagvan , and read some warnings and about money lust too.

satya sai-baba was born Satyanarayan Raju in 1926 in the village of Puttaparthi, Andra Pradesh, India. read more .

why he is god ? in his own words. “Have any of them been able to accomplish at least one-thousandth of what Sai Baba is doing? No, no, no!”

“No other individual, or no government for that matter, has been able to provide free education or free medical care”

So he must be god … eh ?

I have written about this goddes here.

“Mataji Nirmala Devi”… is founder of “sahaja yoga”. please take time and visit and get enlightened. Don’t miss a attractive flash illustrations where colored liquids move in human body up and down in tubes. That is “sahaja yoga” if you dint get it.

I have listed three of them. I am sure there will be many of them. I am planning to constantly update the list as I read more about more such gods. If you wish to contribute please tell me the god/goddess name.

Technorati Tags: Kalki, bhagavan, puttaparthi, sai, baba, nirmala, mataji, gods, goddess,

Alas… !!! Americans are fine with a caveman or a zombie as their president, than having an atheist sitting in whighthouse. Schizophrenics or cannibals are not there in the list, I guess even they get better votes than a non-believer.

via Graceful flavor

Technorati Tags: Atheism, America, president, election,

These guys have some attitude, kind of attitude only James Hetfield had copyright so far (as I know)

Nail in my head
From my creator
You gave me a life
Now show me how to live

Lyrics: Audioslave – Show Me How To Live [Artist Lyrics]

And with the early dawn
Moving Right Along
I couldn’t buy an eye full of sleep
And in the aching night under satellites
I was not received
Built with stolen parts
A telephone in my heart
Someone get me a priest
To put my mind to bed
This ringin in my head
Is this a cure or is this a disease

Nail in my head
From my creator
You gave me a life
Now show me how to live

Nail in my head
From my creator
You gave me a life
Now show me how to live

And in the after birth
On the Quiet Earth
Let the stains remind you
You thought you made a man
You better think again
Before my role defines you

Nail in my head
From my creator
You gave me a life
Now show me how to live

Nail in my head
From my creator
You gave me a life
Now show me how to live

And in your waiting hands
I will land
And roll out of my skin
And in your final hours
I will stand
Ready to begin
Ready to begin
Ready to begin
Ready to begin

Nail in my head
From my creator
You gave me a life
Now show me how to live

Nail in my head
From my creator
You gave me a life
Now show me how to live

Show me how to live
Show me how to live
Show me how to live
Show me how to live

Technorati Tags: Audioslave, metallica,

In India believers have some undefined dislike towards animal products into places of worship. They are not allowed into temples and places of worships. I really don’t buy the idea of we all started as vegetarians and animal lovers, but I feel they are introduced into the religion to convince the followers to show god loves animals too.

Major three or four religions in India want its followers to be vegetarians. Most of the followers successfully convince their gods, that they will be vegetarians on specific days of the week (Fridays Lakshmi, Saturdays Vishnu etc).I saw so many of them while ordering in a hotel “two Rotis … and then …hmm… today what ..??Tuesday… alright … Butter chicken!”.

People don’t enter temples if they had taken any non-veg that day, and most of them can’t explain why?

These all confusing rules, people made them and the same people find loopholes not to follow them, Then why to have them at all. Why restrict only to temples.

There are some more of them

• Kerosene are not supposed be used in any of places of worships. They are considered to be animal product, came into form by tones of animals and plants died billions of years ago.
• Sugar is not used in any of the Hindu religious ceremonies. The reason is sugar is prepared from Jaggery, and while doing it they polish jaggery with some animal product (I guess it is leather). So any sweet is cooked is using Jaggery directly.

I have listed certain things which are missing in those rules.

• All gods and goddesses wear silk. All Shwethambaras and Peethambaras presented to gods are silk, which are results of boiling thousands of silkworms. Similarly honey, which is obtained killing or burning thousands of honeybees.
• Worships are accompanied with drums, which of course cannot be made of plastic. One priest explained me (proudly) drums (and similar) have leather of camel (lizard leather for small ones) and sting instruments have horse skin (stings made out of that).
• Krishna idols have feathers on his head. Idols have Hamsa-thulika-thalpa (bed made out of feathers of a swan), and Chamara (Fans). I am sure no peacock or swan volunteer and donate its feathers, it I supposed to be bought from a hunter

I see similar so many things, which animal loving people are forgot to mention in the books.

Two things to conclude.

We were never vegetarians originally. Sacrifice wouldn’t have had a meaning otherwise. Neither were we animal lovers (remember Ashwa-medha-yaga?). Every now and then priests get bored they create something like this ,  “vegetarians only”.

Following Friday Vegetarianism religiously is just hypocrisy.

Searching flickr tags I found some wonderful and funny pictures on atheism. They are on god, atheism and religion. I have posted four of them here. Yenajoy

God, the imaginary friend, originally uploaded by ronco.

Atheist GOAT, originally uploaded by beef_mage.

Refrigerator Magnet, originally uploaded by redtimmy.

Religion, originally uploaded by www.DaveWard.net.

People find different ways to satisfy their egos. They see themselves big. So big they want to have a fan base who bows to them. Who will bow to them? Don’t worry there are big names who don’t know why they are bowing.
They are above every one, you, me, law and the nation… yes nations. Generally “they” are called to be “jagadguru”, or “shree shree shree…” (“amma” or “Mata” for females) i.e. gurus of the world (universe to be specific).

Check out these photos. This lady is a goddess (oh no … not one more). And she wants national flag below her legs. “Mothers’ are above nation you know.

“Mataji Nirmala Devi”… Never heard of her. Seriously. Search results say she is founder of “sahaja yoga”. If you interested to go there don’t miss a attractive flash illustrations where colored liquids move in human body up and down in tubes. That is “sahaja yoga”

photos via mutiny

Technorati Tags: mataji, nirmala, sahaja, yoga, goddess, natioanl, flag, india, disrespect, jagadguru

Jaya and Vijaya were twins who worked in a security company. They guard almost all Hindu temples.

Some five hundred years ago General of Aurangazeb army mallikafur who was running a demolition drive, stopped by. That time he had an assignment to demolish illegal building from India’s map. The criteria were, the building is illegal if it was hindu/Jain/Buddhist places of worship. Technologies ten was not advanced then, or may be they dint import a bulldozer or a land mover. He used to manage with hammer.

He stopped by here

Malli: Dude … who is inside??

Jaya: “God…!” (In “mere pas ma he” style)

Malli: no way…Man..!! he ain’t no here…( he used his 7 th scene here, he supposedly had 8 scenes and also IQ number 8 )

Vijaya: “he is, name’s keshava… Chenna keshava. (Bond style)

Malli: That’s bullshit man…!!! There is no god except mine… Guys lets have a party…This building is illegal.

Jaya: All gods are same.

Malli: Guys… first cut these two hands….

Over. Remaining photos are here and here. Jaya-Vijaya lost their jobs here. Their decedents are teaching India secularism. Mallikafur got a great reward, later he had similar assignments for a long. His decedents are working with Taliban. Aurangazeb was best emperor ever in India. The secularism defined by him is widely adopted in India, even after 500 years. Some time later Mohammed bin tughalak (IQ 4) gave a tough competition in terms of taking important decision.

Fact: this place is badly butchered. Every person embedded in wall lost any one of their body part. Main Idol had public execution. Ornaments, money, valuables etc are taken away.

Please note : I dont have any sentimental attachment towards any religion and faith. They are all same stuff for me. But i hate someone tries to prove ” my shit smells better that your shit “. Please call yourself pseudo-secularism ( exmples by sandeep) .

Technorati Tags: jaya+vijaya, india, karnataka, sculpture, doorkeepers, secular, taliban, temples, aurangajeb, mallikafar, hoysala

This video tries to give a complete picture on history of religions. It covers five major religions, major events which changed course of history, and how they spread/vanish in last 5000 year. It’s a beautiful video.

But few questions on it…

They start first religion to be around 3000 BC, started with birth of Krishna. What was there in India before him? (Rama is not a Hindu??? What about Veda’s). Historians are very much fond of including Ramayana and Mahabharata into history. I really don’t know how they justify all the events happened in those epics.

Why not go back to 10000 BC and include all the epics and holy texts (all of them ) into history? I heard they are interesting, like “Adam, Eve and dinosaurs walking side by side”.

purAnamityeva na sAdhu sarvam , na chApi kAvyam navamityavadyam
santaha parikshatart bhajante, muDhah parapratyayena buddhihi

पुरणमित्येव न साधु सर्वं न चापि काव्यं नवमित्यवद्यं |
सनः परीक्श्तरत भजन्ते मूढः परप्रत्ययेन बुद्दिः ||

- Unknown

Can be interpreted as :

Concepts need not be valid just because they are told in books (holy books especially )), mythologies etc. Nor things are right if they are modern. Gentlemen test and then trust, fools believe what is told and written.

I don’t remember who wrote it, guess it is Brutruharai. This is the best spelling I can give for the quote here. If anyone finds better please comment. And also if you find a similar one.

Quote is quite relevant. People when can not justify what they are practicing and what they believe, just hold some outdated books responsible. “Since it is written in…”

Related Posts : The weak, the god and sacrifice

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Tags : sanskrit quote britrihari atheism holy+books religion subhashita faith

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ashvam naiva gajam naiva vyaghram naivacha naivacha |

ajaaputram balim dadyaat devo durbala ghatakaha ||

अश्वं नैव गजं नैव व्यघ्रं नैव च नैव च
अजापुरत्रं बलिं दद्यात देवो दुर्बल घतकः

It translates something like this: They don’t sacrifice a horse, neither an elephant. Never ever a tiger. A poor lamb is sacrificed. God hurts only weak

Ever since God/protector was created, people wanted a way to “give back” in return to all the protection, mercy and other things he is offering. It is natural to think that god, who exists need to take something from us, when he doing so may miracles (like birth, death etc.). Now having created god, what one can naturally think about him, is “he is like us”. He eats what we eat. He likes ornaments like we do. And he likes to eat goat/buffalos like we do. This can be one answer.

The other what I can think about is. Relaxing the rules! So many religious rules, so much less time to follow. Or life is so advanced that, either one can not afford to or not allowed practice. So what the best solution is follow the rules which are convenient, comfortable. Or Change them according to your convenience and say this is actually the way.

Now in this context rule (bloody rule) was sacrifice is blood. There is always a concept that almighty asked them blood, but never mention when, how and where he asked. Initially there were people who were getting sacrificed. A fighting fit person will always show resistance, so women and kids. If the tribe has a feeling that they are their own, take someone from neighboring tribe. All these are about satisfying god.

As days passed, we became more civilized. We chucked human beings and started sacrifice what we tame. If it useful animal like a horse or a camel, again No. Find something where sacrifice is also some and we can eat it also later. Now what vegetarians do? Don’t laugh, they sacrifice a pumpkin!! and there is no blood in it, so put some “kumkum” (red powder) and make it look like flesh. Ultimately what people do if what is very convenient to them, and justify it.

One more point to say which is not highly relevant to the context. There is a practice that “shave off” head in some pilgrimage places. They keep justifying it as sacrificing something that belongs to them, to god. Alright why don’t you give something important… like a finger? Or at least peel off a finger nail and come back. It hurts, isn’t it? Shaving has no pain. I actually asked someone this question. He said “god doesn’t need blood”. Well he doesn’t want hair either.

All social and religious rules are written based on the rule maker’s conveniences, his beliefs and his place of living. Ultimately what followers do if what is very convenient to them, and justify it.

Technorati Tags: God, atheism, india, sanskrit, hymn, weak