Of Heaven and Hell

Here are some thoughts that have been on my mind regarding heaven and hell. Assume there is a heaven, as described by the major religions of the world. Given that heaven is so desirable, I'd would like to know :

• Will there be sports in heaven? What can an ardent fan of Indian cricket hope for? Are there going to be leagues? Who do I root for?
• What languages will be spoken in heaven? Maybe everyone in heaven communicate via telepathy. And if so, how far does thought travel? How does one listen to individuals with so much thought out there? Are there distances in heaven?
• Does heaven have any entertainment? I mean if we aspire to spend eternity there, it should have all the channels of all the worlds, and in HD to boot! I don't remember any of the scriptures alluding to 60 inch Plasma TVs or HBO. Is it because the authors of the scriptures were not cognizant of 20th century electronics? Or is heaven a place that is beyond the ways of TV, radio and you-tube? How about music?
• Do people breathe air? If they do, why should they? If they don't, there is no need for air. And if there is no air, how can you have music?
• I am told that in the sweet hereafter, I will be re-united with all my loved ones. If so what "age" would my loved ones be? The age that everyone died? Or the same age -let us say 23?
• Which brings me to the next question - if a woman's husband died when he was 28 years old, and if she remarries another man at say, 35...in heaven, does she live with both her husbands?
• Do people reproduce in heaven? Or would all sex be for recreational purposes only?
  
• What the heck do I do for all of eternity? Play the Wii? Oh, wait....
  
• There is probably no hunger in heaven. If there is, what kind of food would we have? Mexican or Thai? Fruits and vegetables, and grains? What, no Brazilian steakhouses in heaven!?? OK, if all of heaven is vegetarian, who cleans up all the banana skins and the corn husk? Or maybe it is going to be all-you-can-eat buffet. With champagne and caviar!
• Would brandy be from Cognac and whiskey from Scotland? Maybe they have better stuff up there.
  

Can you be good without god?

This is one of those questions that have no short answer, as it depends who the questions is posed to.

The first group believes that all morality originates from god. God has decided what is good and what is bad. To these people, it is inconceivable that goodness can exist outside the realm of a theistic world. To them, all goodness is sourced at god, and all evil, from the Satan. And those that are good without believing in god, are so because they have learned morality from their environment of theistic neighbors.

Then there are those that have a theistic, secular bent of mind. To them, man can be good without a god to prescribe moral behavior. They are convinced that goodness is part of human nature, just as evil is. But choosing the right path them just gets them closer to god, their definition of ultimate reality.

The third group of people believe that morality does not require the existence of god for they have arrived at the realization that morality and altruism is a by-product of evolution. They have observed that society has prescribed certain coded of conduct to coexist peacefully. And therefore, each society has derived specific codes that might seem strange to other societies, and hence the concept of relative morals. Cannibalism might seem extremely immoral to the west, but seem perfectly natural to the tribes of Java and Sumatra. These tribes consider the World Wars that have killed hundreds of thousands of people to be a crime.

Atheists aren't that bad

Came across this video, which is very much along the lines of what I said in my last post : Atheists aren't that bad

Couldn't agree more.

Divine Performing Arts and Atheism

Saw the Divine Performing Arts show in Richardson, TX last night. The show was vibrant and spectacular, though a bit longer than expected/needed. What pissed me off was a song (they had lyrics displayed by an overhead projector), that had the following lyrics: "Beware of the harms that atheism brings". My understanding was that the Chinese philosophies were largely atheistic/non-theistic.

Hmm...let us take a look at the pantheon of atheists (or non-theists) and the damage they wreaked on humanity:

• Albert Einstein :"I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religion than it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it."
• Arthur C. Clarke: "It may be that our role on this planet is not to worship God, but to create him."
• Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar: "In his later years, Chandra had openly admitted to being an atheist which also meant that he subscribed to no religion in the customary sense of the word." Vishveshwara, S. 2000. Leaves from an unwritten diary: S. Chandrasekhar, Reminiscences and Reflections
• Benjamin Franklin : "I have found Christian dogma unintelligible. Early in life, I absenteed myself from Christian assemblies"
• Jawaharlal Nehru, Indian statesman (1889-1964): A self-professed atheist, he said of India, "No country or people who are slaves to dogma and dogmatic mentality can progress." [Key Ideas in Human Thought]
• Vincent Van Gogh: "I can very well do without God both in my life and in my painting, but I cannot, suffering as I am, do without something which is greater than I am, which is my life, the power to create."
• Thomas Jefferson (Deist) : "History I believe furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance, of which their political as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purpose. " – Thomas Jefferson to Baron von Humboldt, 1813". "Religions are all alike – founded upon fables and mythologies."
• Thomas Edison: "Religion is all bunk."
• Baba Amte (1914–2008): Respected Indian social activist, known for his work with lepers
• Bhagat Singh (1907–1931): Indian revolutionary freedom fighter.

The list of lumanaries are too long. I shudder at the very thought of the damage that Sagan, Nietzsche, Betrand Russell, Sartre, Roger Waters, Freud, Warren Buffet, Shelly, R.L. Stevenson, and other atheists unleashed on mankind!

Anyway, I am livid at those lyrics. Turns out that I am on the only one. Austin Cline has blogged about this. He says that Divine Performing Arts show which is touring the United States, is a propaganda piece for Falun Gong, is a spiritual discipline founded in China by Li Hongzhi in 1992.

TED: Of Bonobos

I watched a video of presentation on bonobos: Apes that write, start fires and play Pac-Man by Susan Savage-Rumbaugh at TED. Absolutely fascinating stuff! I could not help but see the remarkable similarity between these lovable apes and us.

Carl Sagan's Cosmos

Carl Sagan's Cosmos was the first TV program that enthralled me, and filled me with curiosity about the world around us. Here's a short animated clip on evolution:

I remember seeing this in 7th grade or so on the national TV broadcast on a Sunday. The world has made a lot more sense since then. We miss you, Carl!

Defining me

Of late, I have been contemplating the word "atheist", a label that I had slapped on myself to define and encapsulate my convictions. While "atheism" does define one aspect, I don't think it is adequate. Most people seem to think that an atheist is a person who BELIEVES that there is NO god. I don't take this stance, as you can't prove a negative. Thus, I define an atheist as a person who sees NO REASON to believe in god. Just the way I feel that there is no empirical evidence to believe in ETs and UFOs. Maybe "non-theist" is a better definition of such a position.

While atheist/non-theist answers the question of belief in god, it does not describe me fully. Just as "Catholic" clarifies more than a broad term like "Christian", "atheist" relates to only 1 aspect. The other aspects that are:

• I value knowledge and its pursuit
• Universal brotherhood of mankind
  
• A secular, earthly basis for morality

I think these values fit more under the definition of "Humanism". "Atheism" fits under the umbrella of Humanism.