Religion & Rationalism

I recently saw a YouTube of a very powerful exposition on Rationalism by Jawed Akhtar, when Shoma Chowdhary featured him in “Algebra”. Jawed Saheb forcefully argues for Reason and Logic and debunks the Faith and Religion as the domain of charlatans.

I consider Jawed Akhtar as one of the modern Maharishi of the Indian sub-continent. Jawed Saheb is always listened to with an eagerness mixed with awe and admiration.

The Video is here : https://youtu.be/W1sMKzK67PM

Why Jawed Saheb is an atheist? He responds pithily, “Because I think”.

And he goes on to define for us the ideas of faith, belief and equates these to stupidity.

Now that rankles!

Is this 'show business’ that he is in, or plain ‘word smithy’, again his forte?

Most of the humanity, the middle 68% (as per the Gaussian Bell Curve) invests most of its mindspace to just putting the ‘bread on the table’ or in meeting the basic needs a la’ Maslow.

They need some pegs to hang their fears of the unknown; To seek solace in the otherwise scary world.

Admittedly, the Faith or Religion, is not the domain of logic or intellect, but a very large and important part of human existence.

The Gurus serve a very important purpose in human lives, while a few “dhongi babas”, or shall we say “word smiths”, exploit them and betray the trust reposed in them. 

We can conclude that such exploiters fall on the extremities of the Bell Curve. Aren’t Jawed, Modi and Asaram, Nityanand two ends on the distribution; +ve and -ve?

Pew Research Centre estimated in 2017 that Religious populations or beliefs are no where near any abatement under pressure from logic and science. Please see the table below (copy /paste without permission) :

So like all Gurus, Jawed Saheb, should also be heard and understood with caution. But that calls for application of mind and mindspace. And we complete the circle !!!

And that is the irony of human existence. Delicious !!!

Atmosphere of Fear in India

The Right has shrugged off accusations of having created a culture of Fear and Intimidation in the country by saying that the incidents being reported are nothing but a continuum. Data is trotted out to prove that India has always seen such atrocities against minorities and marginalized.

Therefore the people and media are biased against the current regime. Such persons and media are then viciously trolled and threatened by targeting them as anti-nationals, unpatriotic, at best dismissed as Congis etc., who in turn fume helplessly.   

In the TV show Virtuosity with Vir Sanghvi young Swara Bhasker provided the most telling argument and evidence of the Culture of Fear and Intimidation being created in the country.

See the full interview here


https://www.news18.com/shows/virtuosity.html#t=63





Swara accepted that such incident occurred in the past and the media reportage is now extensive and intense.
But now a days the perpetrators of the lynching of Muslims and Dalits are emboldened to record these as heroic deeds with no fear of action or retribution from administration.
And nothing does happen to perpetrators ! Even ministers make supportive noises and obfuscate.

(Also please recall Mulayam Singh Yadav on rape and boys? My shield against trolls....)
In fact the subliminal message encourages others to commit similar acts with impunity

Political Funding - 3

Individual Donors

This intervention will be most useful for furthering democratic values in the Citizenry, as it will improve its interaction with the Political system .

Let us provide for a PDD (Policy Development Deduction) to individuals, again 2x of the funds given be allowed as deduction from Taxable Income (U/s Sec 35?).

Now, please visualize a politician approaching individuals/group for funding – who are not averse to funding them as 60% is being paid for Tax deductions. The involvement with politics improves.

Citizen’ concerns get transmitted to the Political establishment more forcefully. The Political power shifts somewhat to Citizenry – the hand that feeds(?)

The Political System, on a back of the envelop basis requires around Rs 6,000 Crores per year which is about 0.0005 or 0.05% of GDP – a pittance.    

The Govt will forego tax revenue of Rs 3,600 Crores, again a sum that will not hurt Countries fiscal situation.

The gains in reduction of Black economy will more than make up for these Tax deductions