God - The Abundance of Scarcity

"It seems to me what is called for is an exquisite balance between two conflicting needs: the most skeptical scrutiny of all hypotheses that are served up to us and at the same time a great openness to new ideas … If you are only skeptical, then no new ideas make it through to you … On the other hand, if you are open to the point of gullibility and have not an ounce of skeptical sense in you, then you cannot distinguish the useful ideas from the worthless ones"  --- Carl Sagan

To me, no one put the varied Human tendency towards stupidity and influential hypocrisies better than Sagan and Einstein. Now one can say, what about Bette Davis or Marilyn Monroe?. But for the sake of my topic of discussion here lets stick with the Sagans. The examination of "God" or "Religion" in itself has been an acrimonious discourse since probably the evolution of a supreme power belief. Rather than being just intentionally skeptical for the sake of being argumentative or being closed like the ones who confuse old age with experience, why not just subject the archaic beliefs to scrutiny so there is a wonderful cornucopia of ideation and understanding? The reason this seems to be a persistent subject of misunderstanding among the visceral half and the theological half is the refusal on either part for an effective amalgamation of both. I attribute this to two things. One, the scarcity of patience and the unwillingness to accept the fact that there can be opinions other than our own. Two, being open about the veracity of some of the beliefs which may be against what one has been acclimated to since crawling out of that womb of blissful ignorance. The tectonic shift in the way of thinking has created a disturbing emotional and logical hollow. This in itself is an interesting discussion point. 

The world that is so dependent on science and technology do not even understand this science and technology. And when i say Science and Technology i am not talking about a face scanner on your new Ipod. There are things more important in this universe than new ways to log into a stupid communication device. The exponential growth of Science was very evident during the start of the 20th century. The progress that was made in the fields of quantum theory, Relativity and atomic energy changed the course of evolution, whether some of them were good or bad can be squabbled later. But nevertheless, the growth in the last few decades is certainly not comparable to the nuclear growth that was witnessed all through till a little after the second half of the 20th century. May be the progress is just not as spellbinding as it was, May be that used to be the golden age of Science. But there has been a mismatch in the technological advancement of Science and the Scientific advancement of technology that we are going through now. The Ipods and Google glasses are nothing but technological accomplishments. What i feel is that there is a gap between our personal technological growth and our Scientific growth. It was all good when they both grew at the same pace. Right now, the dudes and dudettes who cant refrain from even posting  "I farted today"  on Facebook, have that technological part of themselves much more advanced than either scientific or emotional part. Thus the big fat hollow between the thinking of us and our Fathers when compared to our previous generation. 

Now you might ask how do you use Scientific and Emotional part in the same sentence but that is the problem with all of us now. We never understood the emotion of Science. We were too quick to wallow in the self proclaimed brilliance of logic and proof to discard our forefather's archaic beliefs and views. I am not saying their beliefs are right. There are no right or wrong beliefs just like there are not right or wrong opinions. Even the most brilliant minds of our times have always used the word "God". Now the metaphorical usage of this revered figure is lost on most of the older generations. But the emotional part of the same is lost on our generation too. In one of my favorite quotes by Sagan, he says - 

"The idea that God is an oversized white male with a flowing beard who sits in the sky and tallies the fall of every sparrow is ludicrous. But if by God one means the set of physical laws that govern the universe, then clearly there is such a God. This God is emotionally unsatisfying... it does not make much sense to pray to the law of gravity."

The idea of a personal God sounds absolutely far fetched to me. A God that keeps scores and watches how many times you did not visit temples and tallies the same with the severity of other heinous crimes sounds almost as believable as Bigfoot. There has been a lack of Theological analysis of this among our Forefathers ( i literally mean our forefathers). When emotions win the war with Logic, wars and hypocritical societies and dictatorial governance is created. This could be within a family or a collection of such many many families that we call a religion.  The influence of a third entity in the way of our lives can never be a good thing. Religion has always been the easiest way to wage wars, exploit the vulnerability of emotionally challenged masses and lets face it, we are all emotionally gullible in one way or the other. Now, i am not going to talk in detail about Religion. I do not consider Religion evil. Religion is a fantastical thought, a way of belief. Its a non living entity. The men who helm that entity are the ones who thrust sinister ambitions for the exploitation of our gullibility towards unknown victories over non existent evil. The suppression of uncomfortable advancements is the way of Religion and Politics. But end of the day, all the stalwarts of Science and true leaders of Religion have always agreed on one thing - Science in itself cannot progress much without Religion and Religion without Science is just a cult that is against evolution.

I could write "Aswin is the God of Knowledge" today and bury it deep and when it is found in 2500, they might form a religion where i am worshiped as the God of Knowledge simply because it was written way way back. In our world, the older something is, the directly proportional it is to truth. Older people are wise, older books are more precious. This is the way it has always been. All the texts and books and scriptures are guides for us to learn and uphold and not blindly follow. Centuries ago people were much more intelligent than us actually to leave such heaps of wisdom in the form of an entertaining cover to ensure we don't get bored. But somehow decades and decades of constant editing and change has made them into an absolutely different movie altogether. Even then, why cant we ever just take the moral of the story and always have to bloody give a fuck about what caste the crow who put the pebbles in the bottle was? WHat makes it much more frustrating is when such staunch stubborn believers are so closed to change and scrutiny. There is just one opinion and there cannot be a contradicting or an opposing one. Not even a question of "why"? Why should i kill a goat in a temple or a mosque? why would a God be happy seeing a being He/She created gushing blood before him? Is God sadistic? Is he biased? Is he as human and flawed as all of us to only allow "good" people into heaven?

All of this contradicts the basic assumption of every Religious belief of God is perfect dont you think? How can a perfect entity create such phenomenally imperfect beings and differences? All these questions are blasphemous to the believers. Religion that fails to encourage the question of "Why", is just a colossal scam. And like the bazillion pyramid schemes that never fail to dupe the constant supply of stupid people in the world who keep investing in them, Religious beliefs that draw the line at logic and questions will always keep exploiting the ignorance of people and there will always be ignorant people. But then, who am i kidding with my blabbering when there are people who even follow Scientology and Mormonism which are just as ridiculous as the basis for other major religions. People will follow just about anything that offers them hope and redemption. We all crave it. We all are always filled with a guilt for everything we do. That guilt drives us to desperate attempts to book that one last ticket to the land of infinite pleasures after death.

Now what do i believe in? What is my answer to the exquisite beauty that i see above us every day and night that constitutes this universe? Again nobody can put such thoughts and emotions better than Einstein.

"an attitude of humility corresponding to the weakness of our intellectual understanding of nature and of our own being"

That is what i feel. That is what i think is God. There is only one holistic system , one vast and immane, interwoven multi-dimensional being that is part of every strand of this Universe. That non-personal, non-emotional and non-living entity which constitute every physical and spatial law is what i consider as God. Like Sagan said, it makes no sense to pray to the law of gravity. When you look up at the vast expanse of mystery shrouding all around us, you just cannot deny the existence of that tiny little spark of a thought , may be there is something beyond our power of understanding. When that understanding combined with the ability to accept the non-personal aspect of that supreme entity, we finally understand the powerlessness of our power. And then you will understand the absolute irrelevance of every thought of hatred and abhorrence that has shadowed Human evolution. There is such an abundance of hatred and such a scarcity of humility. We are not the greatest multi-cellular organisms in the universe. The universe was not created for us and the other living beings are not made for our entertainment and exploitation. We think we are so damn important in this vast universe where we are smaller than a speck of sand. That this personal God has no other job than to answer my prayers of getting an appraisal at work while thousands starve and die around the world. Humans are the most self involved and narcissistic living beings roaming this galaxy. 

 I wish we had a religion that is based on Science, based on growing every aspect of itself on questions and answers that are found not by preconceived dogma but by searching for scientific, emotional and logical understanding, that upgrades itself as willingly as your android software. That does not differentiate based on your inheritance, family history or how many likes you have on Facebook. That simply is a self sustained cognitive organism that does not need mass ignorance or buffoonery to grow.A religion that does not count on the abundance of scarce intelligence, that is not abundant on scarce humility but is build on the perpetual understanding of our minuscule presence in this wonderfully cryptic abundance of darkness.

A CLOCKWORK ORANGE - REVIEW ( Warning:SPOILERS )

Once in a while the world witnesses a movie that takes cinema to a level that it deserves, a movie that does not fall under the realm of conventional film-making. A Clockwork Orange is one of those rare creations which I would say invented a new genre in cinema. Produced and Directed by Stanley Kubrick, one of the most controversial and influential filmmakers of cinema history, the movie was adapted from the dystopian novel of the same name authored by Anthony Burgess.






A Clockwork Orange tells the bitter sweetly ironic tale of sociopath Alex DeLarge (Malcolm MacDowell) who lives for two things: Beethoven's 9th and what he calls "the old ultra violence". The film is set in an unspecified English city sometime in the near future when crime rates are soaring and prisons are suffering from congestion. Alex DeLarge is the leader of a gang of young ‘droogs’, who wreak havoc and perpetrate violence wherever they go. Their average day comprises of beating up helpless drunks, breaking into houses and raping the women there and bandying with the rival gang. During one of their ordeals they gain entry into the house of Mr. Alexander, a writer, and violently rape his wife while Alex sings “Singin’ in the rain” all the while. But soon fissures develop in the group when two of the group members question Alex’s authority. Alex attacks them in order to establish his leadership. That night they enter the home of a woman who runs a health farm and lives alone with her cats.  Alex bludgeons her with a statue and tries to flee when one of his own gang members he assaulted smashes a milk bottle across his face, leaving him to be arrested by the police.


Alex is tried, convicted and sentenced to 14 years in prison. In prison, Alex earns the trust of the chaplain and takes a keen interest in the bible, primarily in the more violent characters. He comes to know about the Ludovico technique, an experimental Aversion therapy for rehabilitating criminals and eagerly volunteers when the Minister of the interior arrives at the prison. At the facility he is forced to watch extremely violent films of rape and torture while under the influence of drugs that induce negative reactions to them. One of the films runs with the soundtrack of Beethoven’s ninth symphony.  This results in revulsion for the symphony as well in spite of Alex’s efforts to avoid it. After the treatment is finished it is demonstrated to the audience. Alex does not respond to any epithets thrown to him by an actor and is enveloped by a feeling of fear and sickness when presented with a young naked woman. He is then declared cured and released.


Alex goes to his parents’ home where he finds out that they have rented his room to a lodger, leaving him on his own. A vagrant, whom he had attacked previously sees him on the road and calls on his friends and attacks him. Two policemen break up the fight and Alex realizes to his shock that they are his former gang members. They drag him to the countryside and brutally assault him. Alex, injured and bleeding, stumbles to the home of Mr. Alexander, a victim of his past who does not recognize him. He tends to his wounds and is quite familiar with the effects of the Ludovico technique. But his sympathy is short lived as memory of the assault comes back to Mr. Alexander when he hears Alex singing “Singin’ in the rain”. The Movie further progresses to an extremely effective and haunting climax.


A Clockwork orange is not an easy movie to watch or digest. Believe it or not, the sex and violence are easier to digest than the sharp satire that Kubrick so accurately depicts to us by addressing the dehumanization of people. The movie reminds you of Terry Gilliam’s Brazil, which is another futuristic political satire. Though the satire is not as trenchant as Kubrick’s classic Dr. Strangelove, it affects us deeply. This is easily the greatest performance in his career by Malcolm McDowell. Charming, sympathetic and despicable, he immortalizes the character of Alex DeLarge. Kubrick makes us think about the sacrifices we are ready to make for our own security. The colorful and lurid set designs by John Barry, Milena Canonero’s costumes (how can one forget Malcolm McDowells fake eye lashes!), mesmerizing score by Wendy Carlos and flawless cinematography by John Alcott makes this movie a treat in every sense. A Clockwork Orange is the first movie to use the Dolby Sound system. It was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best film editing and Best Adapted Screenplay in the 1972 Academy awards.


The movie conveys a very relevant and disturbing message. A message not everyone will be comfortable hearing. It is not made to please the crowd or offer a soothing and comfortable experience to average movie goers but demands thought and attention. Multiple views are required to understand the depth and brilliance of this landmark movie. The slap of truth hurts you long after the credits roll up. A cinematic treat from one of the most highly acclaimed and original directors in cinema history. Do yourself a favor, watch it!