THE
INSIGHTFUL MORTAL
Shivam
CONTENT
Preface
Page 3-4
Chapter 1 Cognition
Page 6-8
Chapter 2 Inception
Page 9-11
Chapter 3 Old Wives’ Tale
Page 12-15
Chapter 4 Satan
Page 16-22
Chapter 5 Morality
Page 23-25
Chapter 6 The Curious Case of
Indian Mythology
Page 26-28
Chapter 7 Debunking Astrology
Page 29-31
Chapter 8 YOLO
Page 32-34
Books and Websites Cited
Page 35
PREFACE
Being born into a Hindu household, I had no other options than to just blindly believe in Gods and I bet there are lakhs of them. I remember the time of my blame game anything I couldn’t get was because God didn’t want me to. I also remember begging to God for marks when I hadn’t fared well in tests. With passage of time, these things started to look stupid. For how long are you going to play the blame game. When I started my engineering in Manipal University, I still was a believer.
Now, Engineering teaches you to apply logic to everything. How could I not apply that logic in religion, and question its existence. I started googling stuff and then I found a great book from Richard Dawkins “The God Delusion”. Believe me, it was worth it. All my doubts had been clarified. If I still had some, I used to reason it with my friend Vishal. This definitely took time. It was not a matter of seconds that I became an atheist. I think it took almost a year to totally not believe in God.
On a scale of 0-10 in atheism, with 0 being very less and 10 being hardcore, I would rate myself as 9. I do not completely deny the existence of God, there might be something supernatural that has taken care of the intelligent design on Earth; but I definitely do not believe in the concept of religion. And when I say God, I don’t mean a big old man with big white beard on his face. If anything like that exists, there could just be a supernatural force causing the Big Bang, everything after that is clear as Ice. And I believe Science will soon find about that too like its counterparts. I would say religion is the worst thing that could have happened to mankind as it has created so many boundaries. Imagine a world without 26/11, 9/11, Hindu-Muslim never ending wars. Imagine no Taliban to blow up ancient statues, no public beheadings of blasphemers, no flogging of female skin for the crime of showing an inch of it. The root of almost all evils is religion.
I have completely written this book keeping in mind the Indian mindset. Things would be much different in India now if there was no religion based culture or division of people based on caste. It’s like the whole society is divided into different groups and one group commanding its supremacy over the others.
You must have got an idea of what this book is about. If you are a deeply religious person and can’t hear anything against religion, I would prefer you stop right now. This is not the right book for you. This is aimed at people who have some doubts in mind, but can’t clear it or are afraid to come out of the closet. This is the perfect opportunity for you to grasp the logic behind everything and question “GOD”.
If you feel trapped in your religion, just ask yourself, how did you become one? Just because you were born into a Hindu family, doesn’t make you a Hindu. In the same way, being brought up in a Muslim family doesn’t make you a Muslim. No child is born into a particular religion, it’s just that you were accidently born up there and you become one. I would suggest no religion for any child until they attain an age after which they can think properly and we let them decide what they want to take up- life full of rules and complexity or a life where you are your own master and you govern your life.
Another thing I would like to talk about is atheist pride. I know people who can think logically, but are afraid to come out of the closet, as they are afraid of its consequences and they will bring shame to the family. Believe me, being an atheist could turn out the best decision in your life. You can think rationally and have a logic behind everything that happens. No one wants to die without actually living their life on their own terms and purposes. I know it can be a bit difficult at start, especially in India because of its typical culture, but remember India is full of youngsters who are willing to think and take their pride to the next level. I believe there are plenty of open-minded people out there. People whose childhood indoctrination was not too insidious, or for other reasons didn't 'take', or whose intelligence is strong enough to overcome it. Such free spirits just need only a little encouragement to break from the concept of religion.
The title of the book “The Insightful Mortal” signifies the contribution of a logical person to the universe. According to Google, Insightful means “having or showing an accurate and deep understanding, perceptive” and Mortal means “a human being subject to death, as opposed to a divine being”. It definitely means that you are here for a certain amount of time, and one day everyone has to die. What’s the use of all these violence and commitment to God when there is none, and no afterlife as well. Just spend your life for the truth discovering the real answers, the logic behind everything. This book urges every reader to read this with open mind and think “Is this all worth it?”
Chapter one talks about cognition. Cognition is defined in dictionary as “The mental process of knowing, including aspects such as awareness, perception, reasoning and judgment. Chapter Two talks about the inception i.e. the start of the religion system, it’s base and how has it developed with time. Chapter Three is the Old Wives’ Tale. It talks about all the superstitions existing in our country and in fact the world. Chapter Four talks about Satan. Although the name looks scary, it’s not. It clears all the doubts in human mind on the existence of devil in this universe, how does that happen? It undermines the secret behind all supernatural entities. Chapter Five talks about Morality, which is a common doubt among the masses. “If you don’t believe in God, Where does your morality come from?” Well, we will discuss that too. Chapter Six is “The Curious case of Indian Mythology”. It talks about different problems pertaining in India; root of all is religion and caste. The Chapter Seven is “Debunking Astrology”. It discusses all the myths existing in India about the effect of stars and planets on you, and the scientific reason, why it can’t be possible. Chapter 8 is YOLO. Do I need to say more?
For the help in the preparation of this book, I would definitely like to thanks Richard Dawkins whom I obviously don’t know personally, but he was my mentor. I read his books; saw his videos on YouTube destroying creationists. That was all for me. He provided me the courage to stand up and write this book. I would like to thanks my Parents for their support in any phase of my life. Also, I would like to thank my friends with whom I have had many debates and reasoning especially Vishal and Balaji, who also liked to question the existence of God. How can I forget Google though, It gave me all the missing pieces I needed to write this Book. At last, I would like to thank God for his blessing, just kidding. Thanks evolution.
CHAPTER 1
COGNITION
“We are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further.”
― Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion
Okay.. Start, that’s the problem. How do I start? Especially when you have things in mind that can shatter enough of the stereotypical minds. I feel like “God” now (name it according to your convenience, trying to preach something to the mankind). Oh wait, this is real though. This is the place where problem starts, “How can you not believe God is real?” Well, I have got the same question here, “How can you believe God is real!!”
So, Time to get on point. No more bragging, no more stories, time for evidence
Loopholes, yeah you read it right, our whole religious system is full of loopholes. Let’s start with the most basic and the most common question, “How was universe created?” Now again, we might get different sets of answer here. Creationists claim to believe in Bible, Geeta, Quran or any holy book to be true. So according to them, the universe was created by God .Cool!! Then who created God? We atheists on the other hand believe in the Big Bang Theory. It seems legit enough, whole universe formed out of nothing. “But there is a problem here too”, Creationist says, “You say Universe was created by Big Bang, Fine, What before Big Bang?” Well, the surprised atheist, smiling on the sound of some logic responds” Yeah, Science has not been able to find that yet, but at least we can explain that there was a singularity of infinite density that created everything after that”, “You on the other hand, believe in some magic to happen to create the whole universe,” the atheist continues. “But God works in mysterious ways!!”, creationist replies. “Yeah, that’s the answer to everything, isn’t it?” answered the atheist exclaiming.
“What next? You talk about evolution, but what’s the guiding force behind that”, says the creationist. “There must be something intelligent superpower to design the evolution process so tidy and perfect” the creationist continues, “Yeah, that’s completely right, and it’s nice to hear you rely on some logic”, answers the atheist “Science has not been able to find about the guiding force of evolution yet, but that too will be found out soon”
“The real problem due to which atheists disprove GOD is not the concept of god but the consequences afterwards, we basically hate the concept of religion.” the atheist finally bursts out.
According to your logic of God and religion, you ALL are atheists too. A baby born in a Christian family is Christian; baby born in Hindu family is Hindu, and so on. Just think what was the probability that you were born at that place, to be part of that religion. Another great logic less point is, Christians worship Jesus as their god, Muslims the Allah, and Hindus, well you can’t count them, the list goes on and on.
The point is what if your God is not real, and you have been worshipping the wrong god all along, you will be an atheist for not believing in Allah or Jesus as a matter of fact. Turns out, everyone is an atheist from the other religion’s perspective.
This doesn’t even stop here; People leave no stones unturned to criticize other religions, and praising their lord for everything, just because they happened to be born in that religion sounds pretty weird.
“Well, if you don’t believe in God? Where does your morality come from?” questions the creationist. “Aah, I have been waiting for this question all day long and here it comes” continues the atheist “Don’t get me started on that. Have you ever seen any atheist kill anyone because of “morality”? “But yeah, you might have totally heard this, Terrorist hijacking planes and killing so many innocent lives, just on the name of religion, communal violence between Sikhs and Hindus, Hindus and Muslims, in India, just on one basis “RELIGION”, which itself is totally baseless, the irony.”
People have become so blind in faith that they can’t even think properly. That’s where Cognition comes into picture. The effort is to make every reader know what they do, and let them think on that. The subsequent chapters will again focus on the effects or side-effects, if you prefer of the religion system, and the logic to why everything happens.
CHAPTER 2
INCEPTION
“The more thoroughly I conduct scientific research, the more I believe that science excludes atheism.”
Lord Kelvin
Not the inception of the universe, but a much greater deal, inception of religion, how did it start?
Very Very long ago, when human mind had lot to explore, they might have created some thumb rules which had to be followed to be part of a community, since primates have evolved that way, they have always needed the warmth of company. There would have been lots of chaos before, and once the rules were created, it would have created much civilized community. But that does not explain different religions existing on Earth. Or wait, does it? Earth has been divided in various landforms and oceans, and the people existing on different landforms had no contact whatsoever with the other community. So there exists, another set of rules for another community.
Humans have always feared the things that they did not know about. There was a time when stars, sun and moon were considered to be monsters. Whenever eclipse used to come, people feared that the sun would eat the moon, and they shouted continuously for 2-3 nights, hoping the moon is spared. And to their surprise, in that interval, moon used to appear again, and they thought the trick worked. And then Galileo came. He observed the celestial objects, studied there patterns, and tried to explain people about what it is. People on the other hand tied to their superstitious belief, ordered him death, since he was questioning their god.
It has been working on like this. People are still counting on their superstitious beliefs and criticizing the people who are doubting the integrity and thinking logically. Although the recent trend has been pretty good, People have started thinking, and they have begun questioning the existence of God or various superstitions at least.
The roots of religion are firm in India, Pakistan and other neibhouring countries as ever. Remember, India and Pakistan partitioned due to religion in the first place, which accounted for so many lifes. All this was done, just because of the thinking that the imaginary god they are worshipping is the greatest.
The origin of the religion might have started in a good way, but it has definitely crossed lines now. Instead of stopping chaos, they are spreading it more than ever, just because of people who cannot think of their own and have been believing stuff written in a book, countless years ago.
I am waiting for the time when an apocalypse comes, everyone dies, and a book of Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings gets buried under rocks, and when another civilization comes and finds the book, there will be whole new GOD, assuming the intellect level to be same as of present human being. What a fun it would be imagining Gandalf, as the supreme God, and Bilbo Baggins his messenger. And yeah, Harry Potter, the wizard boy, son of God. How can I forget Emma Watson being the beauty Goddess, although she is one now too!!
It sounds pretty funny but things are no different even now, People are literally worshipping characters based on some fiction work. No one would have any problem if they just worship, problem comes after that, people are forced to pray a certain god. Children are killed; Girls are raped just because of this imaginary character.
The only solution to this problem is to let children be independent of any religion till they attain an age when they can think on their own. The main reason of people
getting into religion is that they have been brought up that way since childhood, they have always seen that. So, they grow up worshipping, damaging their thinking process.
The incognitive thinking can only come if children are raised to think and question everything they so or do. They are born that way, they question everything, and when they question about God, the common answer is “He is your imaginary guide, and you have to worship him or he will curse you”. One hell of logic, that is.
Another common question arises in every atheist mind is” If God is indeed a super creature and has worked everything out so complex with such ease and flawlessness, he is bound to be a highly logical person, wouldn’t he like his disciples to be logical too, thinking about everything”
CHAPTER 3
OLD WIVES’ TALE
"The church says the earth is flat, but I know that it is round, for I have seen the shadow on the moon, and I have more faith in a shadow than in the church."
--Ferdinand Magellan
Superstitions, we are all aware that superstition is a popular belief held by people without any reason or logic; i.e., it is an irrational belief system without any proof practiced by the ignorant mass. This type of superstition is basically divided into two subparts, first being folklores, which are essentially irrational stories that are accepted by the general population. The other type of superstition is the religious false notion which is rooted in the belief of supernatural divinity.