Science, Religion, Spiritualism

 Killings by the State I am consistently opposed to death penalty -- even when this is awarded by a Court of Law, consequent to a fair trial (whatever may be the crime). And yes, for this very reason, I strongly condemn the killings that did occur under the regimes of Stalin and Mao. However when people say Stalin/ Mao "killed millions", we ought not to miss out the exaggeration; and the underlying political propaganda. For example, the millions killed in Soviet famine of the 1930s; and in the famine in China during the Great Leap Forward; are routinely counted "as instances of mass killing underpinned by genocidal intent".  [ Reference: Williams, Paul (2008), Security Studies: An Introduction, Taylor & Francis, ISBN 978-0-415-42561-2 ] If the same standard is applied for the Bengal Famine of the 1943, we would need to say "Churchill killed millions"! And this was not the only famine in the British Empire... The term "red Holocaust" was coine...

Aryans And Dravidians Most scientific evidence would seem to suggest that both the Aryans and the Dravidians were migrants who arrived in  India  from  Africa  . (The "out of  Africa  theory", that is consistent with genetic evidence too).  The differences in linguistic and physical features that we get to see today, would suggest that the Aryan and Dravidian peoples  were geographically isolated from each other for a few thousand years  (prior to around 6000 years back when they came in contact  again  in the Indian sub-continent). Only a large enough period of geographical separation  could have resulted  in these differences.  It is also true that in the past around 6000 to 8000 years, the Aryan and Dravidian peoples have been in close contact. In this period, a significant amount of linguistic, cultural and genetic inter-mingling would seem to have occurred. The visible differences  that persist today ...

  Death Penalty -- Is This A SMART Strategy? The recent [14 years ago!] award of death penalty to a person convicted for involvement in a terror attack has regenerated the old debate on capital punishment. Those who favour death penalty have the following rational reasons:- a) This is a deterrent against similar crimes by others in future b) The convicted person, if not "eliminated", may one day get free, and may re-enact the crime The above hard nosed reasons are often furbished with  more emotional ones such as of  "justice to the victims", anger, revenge, patriotic fervour etc. Let us analyse the above from our own experience -- and that of others. How smart is capital punishment as a strategy to prevent future crime and terror? Years back -- when Indira Gandhi was the Prime Minister and when terrorism was hardly an issue in Kashmir -- India had hanged another killer, Maqbul Butt of the JKLF. The fact that we eliminated (through due process of law) a prospective ...

  Is This Evidence For Reincarnation? Let us have an open mind!   Let us seriously study --  with a very open mind  -- the  circumstances  and  known facts  about the curious news reports about the UP village boy who suddenly acquired "American accent".   Just to help us recall, I give the following links to the initial reports:-   a) The Times of India news items -  http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2202364.cms   b) Debate on the subject at CNN IBN -  http://in.news.yahoo.com/070714/211/6i1bl.html     What are the incontrovertible facts regarding the case?   a) Rajesh, is a teenager from a remote village in India   b) He is today able to talk English with American accent and gestures, which is amazing, considering the unlikely conditions at his home and village.     Claims in the initial news reports that needed to be independently  validated:-   a) He has for...

What Is A "Miracle"? I would define "miracle" as a phenomenon that can be demonstrated (under controlled conditions) to in violation of the 2nd law of thermodynamics. To my knowledge, all claimed "miracles" have been exposed as fake -- that is, not satisfying the above definition of the term "miracle" (when ever allowed to be investigated by experts and professional magicians) Creating ash (vibhuti) out of nothing would be a miracle -- if this can be demonstrated under controlled conditions. But storing ash in a small hidden pouch and fooling people into believing that this is created out of nothing is a good conjuring trick, but not a miracle. Original link:  http://creative.sulekha.com/what-is-a-miracle_540619_blog

Rama Rajya Or Sita Rajya? Here is an excerpt from an article published in today's [ DECEMBER 16, 2010]  The Hindu:- "Those who study the Vedas are held in high regard. When the sages approach Rama and ask Him to kill the asuras who are disrupting the yagas of the sages, Rama assures the sages of His help. Sita asks Him how He can take their word and proceed to kill the asuras, without getting the asuras' version of the problem. Rama answers that sages have only the welfare of all humanity in mind, so they will not utter falsehoods. Their word is enough for Rama to slay the asuras." [ http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article955214.ece ] Considering the above anecdote from the vantage point of 21st century, it is difficult to agree with the ethical point being made. What is noteworthy is that in this episode, the guys (denigrated as "asuras") are not being accused of murder, rape or theft. The alleged offence is that they disrupted "the ya...

Self Awareness In some ways, we human beings are similar in structure to a computer. We too are made of material stuff. Like the computer, we too have input/ output devises, a processing unit, and memory areas to store data. We too need a constant supply of energy; and indeed, we also need to be cooled and kept at the correct working temperature. But we are also, in many ways, unlike the computers that we construct out of matter. It is said that we are "self aware", in a way that the computer is not. (Or at least, not yet so!). So what is this "self awareness" that is stated to be the vital difference between man and man-made machines? Let us first define as to what constitutes "self awareness". I suppose that this is being aware of one's own "self" -- as opposed to being aware of the reality surrounding us. But then, is one not INCLUDED in the other? Can we conceive of awareness of external surroundings, other than as an "experience...

Memes And Morality The concept of meme can be fully appreciated only if the term "gene" is well understood. It is strongly recommended that the blog  Genes and Memes  is read before proceeding further. What makes human beings distinct from the rest of the living creatures is perhaps the tool  of "language" that we came to possess, somewhere along the tortuous path of biological evolution.   Language enables us to share ideas with each other in a more sophisticated and nuanced manner than was ever possible without this tool. It is the tool of language that has led to the "memetic revolution". For those who are new to "memes", a meme is simply an idea that copies itself from one brain to another brain through language or imitation -- and which often gets mutated (altered) during the process of repeated copying. Memes are like genes -- but memes transmit ONLY horizontally among people  after  they are  born, whereas genes transmit ONLY vertically fr...

  Genes And Memes All about  Genes  [This is the first of a two part blog series which covers the  genes . I will take up  memes  in the next part]   How come Giraffes came to have such long necks? It would seem that the ancient ancestors of the Giraffe were more like other herbivores. They did not have necks that were particularly long, as these are in modern day Giraffes. How did the long necks evolve in nature? Many people believe that  early animals with normal necks had to repeatedly stretch these out to eat leaves that were higher up from the ground, and that this “effort” slowly made their necks grow longer. And that the offspring of these animals were then born with longer necks. This explanation is totally wrong! This is not the way biological evolution proceeds in nature. The observed fact is that traits that are acquired within the life time of an animal (through effort or accident) cannot be inherited by the next generation. What gets ...