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