God Might Exist, But You're Wrong

Recently I read an article in New York Times about the on going battle between atheists and theists:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/23/opinion/23wright.html?pagewanted=4&_r=1&ref=opinion

It is actually a very interesting article on how both atheists and theists could be wrong. You see the products of evolution, i.e. us, was a result of thousands of years of a selection process called Natural Selection, more popularly known as Survival of The Fittest. It makes sure that the fittest organisms in terms of physical and mental ability are allowed to live. And so, the most successful organisms in the world are...

If you said human beings, nice try. But the answer is insects.

But human beings are the most advanced product of evolution, we being capable of doing fantastic feats such as watching HBO for 6 hours straight, using the word "simply" in all the wrong places ("What are you doing here man?" - "Just standing simply"), or enduring a Vijay movie. But the point this article makes is that how did we gain characteristics like honesty, sincerity etc., when survival of the fittest supports characteristics which are directly or indirectly selfish. Th article argues that this gap in the explanation of human nature could be the hand of a being above us, preferrably God (but I hope its the Flying Spaghetti Monster).

There is a flipside to this argument which is also mentioned in the article. This God is most definitely not the God that is in any of the holy books. That makes both theists and the atheists wrong.

What makes me wonder is, even after thousands of years of evolution, how did we ever manage to fool ourselves into believing religion? Wouldn't you laugh your guts out when you hear of God's own fantastic feats? ("Hey Bob, you remember that guy we stripped, mocked, flogged and crucified 3 days ago? Well you ain't gonna believe this, but he's alive."). Lord Krishna probably had Google Earth inside his mouth because when somebody saw his mouth open, they saw "the world" inside. Why does the Pope alone have a direct hotline connection to God?

God may have made sense to some people, but religion doesn't.

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Got this from the Net:

Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.1. Life is not fair - get used to it!

2. The world doesn't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something
BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

3. You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

4. If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

5. Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.

6. If you mess up,it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

7. Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

8. Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

9. Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

10. Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

11. Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.


Ciao

Independence Day

Wow, today's a holiday because...its a Saturday. Added to the fact that its also the 62nd Independence Day, the day in which all the blood, sweat and tears of the revolutionary leaders who swore to end the injustice brought upon our country by the British came to fruition - it was on this day that India had broken free from the chains of colonialism and became a democratic republic. And it just so happens that its on a Saturday.

Is it too much to ask for a holiday on a weekday?

Well then, Independence Day is not just another holiday, its the day you are reminded that the indelible ink which is on the nail of my left forefinger is a result of a bitter struggle to be given the freedom of choosing a ruler of our choice. But even if we wanted to be reminded of such a thought, we have so little ways. How many TV channels broadcast shows that are patriotic? Its Kuselan on Kalaignar TV as I am typing this now. No one knows how many good patriotic movies came out in Tamil since the time of Sivaji. At least the Bollywood has Rang De Basanti to brag about. What do we have? Vijay Kanth?

Movies aren't the only way to express our patriotism, but what about books? Even in school, Indian history is given in detail up to the point of our freedom struggle but after that? Not much on the Indian role in formation of Bangladesh. Very little about the Indo-China war and the Kargil war. How many of us know that our national anthem was made official only on 1950 eventhough our country became independent in 1947?

Its sickening when you think about all of this, how easily we forget these things, things which had a huge impact on us even when we weren't a part if them...about how much it meant to those who took part in the struggle and how it has become a casual holiday.

I know that I sound preachy but when I think about all this, this is all I can be.

***

Many thanks to the Chairman of my wonderful college who didn't listen to the government's announcement of holidays on Thursday and Friday. You've been a real pain in the ass.

Ciao

Thriller

Yeah...that last post was a little too long and a little too senti. But that was great typing practice.

In the last couple of weeks I was a out of action due to a dead phone line. But nothing great happened in the last 2 weeks. Events in the last two weeks ranged from very exciting to completely boring. The exciting part was I saw the Transformers 2 movie, and it was awesome. Probably they paid the graphics people more money than the actors, because the robots are so real. The woman who reviews movies on Pix TV channel (Chicks on Flicks), said that Transformers 2 makes Terminator : Salvation look lame. I say, the amount of CGI (Computer Generated Images) used in the movie makes Ice Age look lame. But overall, I would even go so far as to say Transformers 2 is the science fiction movie of the year. It has the best graphics since Michael Jackson's Thriller video.

Talking about Michael Jackson, it seems that I'm probably the only blogger who didn't write something about MJ after his death. So hereby I dedicate this post to Michael Jackson, The King of Paedophilia...er...um...sorry, I meant to say King of Pop.

I used to believe that MJ looked so white because of a pigmentation surgery. So does, probably, the rest of the world. But Wikipedia says he got vitiligo. So do I have to get vitiligo to if I want to become fair-skinned?

If your asking why I want to get fair-skinned, don't ask. Because you know the answer - almost all the women, starting from Shreya in Sivaji to the street vendor woman like fair looking men (don't ask how I know what the street vendor likes...I just wanted to exaggerate...really). So I was thinking about how I was going to get fair (getting vitiligo is not even an option you degenerate, vitiligo is a disease).

While I'm torn between using Fair and Handsome("Hi handsome, hi handsome!"), Garnier and Nivea, I also wanted to know your opinion. Do women really like fair-skinned men or could Karuppiah get a girlfriend without a face bleach? Does looks really matter?(of course it does, but how much?). Post you answers as comments.

***

Recently I found out that many of my readers from facebook don't know that I own a blog and that I'm typing it all out in facebook. For them, news flash : I do own a blog and what your seeing in facebook in just the RSS feed from my blog. If you don't know what an RSS feed is, its technology. If you don't know what a blog is, then you're probably from the stone age.

So here are some simple instructions for the no brainer on how to open my blog and post comments:

1. Open a browser window/tab and type http://www.placeformywords.blogspot.com/

2. You'll find the nice and not so nice stuff written by me. Read and get educated. If you don't know how to read, finish you school education and come back (on second thoughts, you should be applauded for getting this far).
3. On the right side of the page, you'll find the sidebar. It will contain the blogs I like, quotation of the day, National Geographic's Picture of the Day(where one day, even your pic might be there, keep your fingers crossed), stuff about me, Blog Archive where previous posts can be seen, subscription panel and the followers.

4. I'll be really grateful, if you become my follower. Just click on join the link and provide your relevant email id.

5. If you don't understand any of the steps above, sell your computer. Your better off with and abacus or counting with your fingers.

Hope you like what I wrote and become a follower. You can even suggest what you want me to write about. And don't forget to answer the questions that I asked you earlier.

Ciao

P.S.: Don't get pissed off with the stuff I wrote about MJ. It's just for fun.