Ignorance is bliss... sometimes?

That old adage came to mind when I was deep in thought a few days ago. It is the holiday season, and most of the civilized world celebrates Christmas. I did not have to come to the US to know of this festival. Its celebrate with as much, if not more enthusiasm back in India, and most people there aren't the least interested in Christianity or Christ (So there, fuck you Republicans).

I personally never cared too much for festivities. I treated Christmas like I treat any other occasion back then, just a day to enjoy while the religious do their thing. After coming to the US and noticing the fervent religiosity made me interested in the subject of theism. As noted in my previous posts, up to a few years ago, I never really considered the idea of God as anything but a harmless human construct used as a source of inspiration by most. But the intensity of belief in the majority of the population of this so-called most developed country in the world made me examine this construct more. One of the aspects of this is this so-called "War on Christmas". Now I tend to single out the Republicans on most religious issues, at the risk of being accused of generalization. But it is no secret that the religious extremists align themselves with that political party, so the line that distinguishes them is pretty blurry. Anyway, they go through great pains this time of the year to put "Christ back in Christmas". That brought me to the most obvious counter-argument: was there ever a Christ in Christmas? Firstly, the subject in this case, is mostly likely completely fictional or just partially based on one or more people that existed back in that period. Also, the birth of that fictional character as described in the bible does not even fall in this season, let alone the date. So why this date? The answer to this question brought me to the more sinister aspects. This date, December 25th, falls around the time most of the ancient civilizations around the Mediterranean and the Middle East used to celebrate the Winter Solstice. Even the idea of making your favorite deity's birthday happen to fall on this day is not an original. Horus, Mithra all share the same fictional birthday & predate Christianity by over a millennium. So far, its merely plagiarism. Now, moving on to the "traditions" of Christmas, they're original right? Well no, nothing is original. The Christmas tree in reality is the Saturnalia tree, celebrating the ancient festival of Saturnalia, a pagan tradition. The mistletoe, the wreaths and the holly are all Wiccan traditions. The concept of an anonymous gift-giver comes from Thor and Odin. Christmas carols? The stories are plagiarized from old legends. The idea of carols comes from the Scandinavian God Yule.

Now, these things I wrote are nothing new. I'm sure a lot of my friends know these things as I found out over the last few years. I just thought of it this way: these traditions are actually ancient traditions that were initially criminalized by Christianity. Alexandria was burned down to wipe out the existence of  paganism. Witch-hunting was responsible for the extermination of Druids and Wiccans. One could be executed for having a decorated tree at home during the middle ages. This oh-so-favorite tradition only became accepted in the 16th century. All this makes me think of Christmas celebrations as a cruel joke. They wiped out all the rich ancient philosophies, and replaced it with their dogmatic monotheism. Then, they assimilated the traditions that came from those philosophies to make it look like they belong to Christianity. Now, the argument can be made that this is not what most Christians see it as. But the truth remains. I feel this is propagating the same cruel joke. Its a lot like Thanksgiving, what people celebrate as a moment of gratitude & good nature, is actually the harbinger for the annihilation of an entire race. Another cruel joke to celebrate it as such, isn't it?

Given my disinterest in festivities and my disdain for Abrahamic religions, it doesn't change much for me. But a lot like many atheists do around this time (perhaps not with the same purpose) I will join along to bring out the true roots of these fake traditions. I guess this is like a "War on Christmas", to help remember to old philosophies. I feel a certain affinity towards them, since I come from a culture which dates back to the same time. Though Hinduism has been corrupted from within and through the effect of the invasion of forces affiliated with the Abrahamic religions, it still survives. It is a painful thought to place it in the shoes of those other more-or-less concurrent philosophies. This new realization has changed my feelings towards the celebrations at this time. Initially, it seemed the phrase "Ignorance is bliss" rang true. But I guess I'm happier knowing these things than be in so-called blissful ignorance.

In A World Like This

I have been listening to the whole album repeatedly, and letting it sink in. So here goes, my review for In A World Like This:

Overall, its a very solid album. They incorporated different influences pretty well, and it seems like they made a conscious effort to have a range of songs that will appeal to different tastes in the fanbase. 

In A World Like This - Great choice for the first single. Not the best song in the album, but it acts like a bridge with the old-style hooks & harmonies & does well to represent the whole album. I love the build-up in the chorus, that continues into the soaring vocals towards the end. Lyrics are typical Max Martin: vague but on the whole give an upbeat feel.

Permanent Stain - My guilty pleasure on the album. Its a dance-pop song, with generally bland lyrics, but some lines (like the pre-chorus) stand out. The chorus is especially catchy, it has this anthemic feel to it, that I enjoy singing along to.

Breathe - One of my favourites off the album. Starts with some lovely keys, and the bass-heavy sound gives a perfect somber mood along with Kevin & AJ's haunting vocals. Brian pitches in very well with his adlibs. The lyrics are fantastic too, I know AJ has been credited with conceptualising the song, but it has Brian's 'literal' style all over it.

Madeleine - This song is beautiful: Great lyrics, a pretty acoustic guitar driven sound, and Nick's amazing vocals. AJ follows through really well. I like that they didn't really build up past the bridge, this song deserves a mellow sound throughout. Flows like a nice pep-talk to a depressed person

Show 'Em What You're Made Of - Another one of my favourites. When you listen to the lyrics, it immediately hits you that they have come from a deep, personal place. Again, the AJ-Kevin team is perfect to carry the mood of this song. The chorus is simply arranged but effective, with the Boys beautiful harmonies. I like the arrangement after the bridge, where the chorus goes with a drums-only part. They've used it more than once on this album. 

Make Believe - This should count as a unique song. It has a haunting, other-worldly feel to it, right from the semi-symphonic beginning to the synth keys at the end. For me, the lyrics paint the picture of two deep-in-love travelers, running away from everyone else, imagining a perfect world for themselves. The use of synth & post-processing on the vocals works just perfect to create the right feel for the song

Try - I’m not the biggest R&B fan, but I appreciate a great R&B/soul song when I hear it, especially in a world like this, when all kinds of crap gets passed off as R&B. This song has a beautiful arrangement, along with good uplifting lyrics. And then there one more little thing: AJ SOUNDS ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE

Trust Me - Another favourite, and definitely a unique song. An acoustic song with breezy, easy-going lyrics, & some lovely instrumentation. My favourite parts are Kevin’s Dean Martin/Sinatra inspired verses & the sing-along climax with awesome raw vocals

Love Somebody - The only song on the album I don’t fancy much. Bland lyrics, typical dance-pop sound. I just like the bass+ distorted guitar riff, breathes some life into this song.

One Phone Call - Another AC leaning song, with lovely harmonies. Interesting lyrics, using prison time as a metaphor for a broken relationship. That along with the sweet synth drum beats & muffled phone-call like vocals give a nice twist to the song, which is otherwise familiar BSB territory.

Feels Like Home - If someone had asked me earlier this year, I would’ve cringed at the thought of another fan song. But I absolutely LOVE this one, its among my favourites on the album. The lyrics hit home for me, the words of a traveler. Great beats, this really is my jam.

Soldier - I wasn’t interested in this one from the initial preview. But AJ’s vocals got me interested, and overall it’s a very solid song. Howie has some surprisingly good vocals at the bridge, and there’s another use of the drums-only chorus reprise.

Bonus songs - Really liked Hot Hot Hot & Take Care. Both have extremely unique sounds, and the Boys adapt themselves really well, show off their versatility. HHH especially, its brash, with no pretense of any serious lyrics: it does perfectly what PDA failed miserably at. Light On, IYA are good dance-pop numbers, but interchangeable with any of the other couple of songs that are already on the album.

I was initially very skeptical of the Morgan-Prophet team, but they delivered. Their general specialty seems to be dance-pop numbers, but they did a fantastic job with Show ‘Em, and OPC is really good too. Dan Muckala has once again done some great work for the Boys with Make Believe & FLH. Max Martin did his job well to give them a lead single. I hope they work with him again in the future, they have made some magic together in the past. Not sure what I think about Justin Trugman, with just Love Somebody to judge him by. And lastly, Martin Terefe has been phenomenal. I loved how the chemistry worked out with him and the Boys. I sincerely hope they work with him again, I wouldn’t mind him being the sole album producer next time around, and they work around some central theme, even make a concept album together.

To conclude, this album won’t be replacing Never Gone (2005) on my list. But with this being the Boys’ first venture on their own, it’s a very encouraging effort and definitely goes close to the top of my list. The way they have been involved in the songwriting process and experimenting with different sounds has me very optimistic about the future.

(Photoshoot pictures courtesy backstreetboys.com, albumartist.co.uk, tylershields.com)

Religion without gods

If you have read my blog from the beginning, one of the things you might have noticed is my evolution from more of an agnostic (or deist rationalist?) to an atheist. I guess even then I made a case for an existence out of necessity of an imaginary deity. In any case, during my time in Buffalo made some good friends who happen to be atheists (closet or otherwise). Being heavily interested in science, especially astronomy, my interest in people like Carl Sagan, Neil deGrasse Tyson led me to the more "in your face" Richard Dawkins, Lawrence Krauss, Sam Harris & Christopher Hitchens.

Now my atheist friends here also happen to be Indian, so I grew curious about the situation back home & started observing social networking groups dedicated to Indian atheists. I found some peculiar differences between those groups and me & my friends. Now I don't presume that my friends & I will agree on every single idea I present. But there are some basic things that I found to be in stark contrast with these Indian groups.

I'll first broaden the topic from atheism to rational thinking in general. I have found that in pursuit of a rational dialogue, these people keep a very deep focus on completely rejecting anything associated to ancient Indian religion. I tend to feel they try to mimic Western atheists & their treatment of Abrahamic religions, and forget the differences between them & Indian religions. Hinduism has been borne out of the cultural traditions of ancient Vedic times. It is a result of different philosophies, that have changed over time, in good ways & bad, and it has no central doctrine. Another important difference, in Vedic times, schools of thoughts actually dabbled with the idea of atheism: a universe without the need of a conscious creator. Coming closer to modern times, Savarkar, the proponent of Hindutva, was most probably an atheist, who based his philosophy on combining ancient Hindu teachings with rationalism. Needless to say, Hinduism has become closely intertwined with Indian culture I find it rather hard & also unnecessary to focus on completely breaking those ties. For progress, it is important not to cling to the past, but also be aware of it. India has had a rich & long history, and our Hindu philosophy forms a very important part of this: the literature, scientific/educational achievements, architecture, socio-political philosophies. In an interview, Richard Dawkins voiced his absolute support to preserving Anglical traditions because they form an integral part of English society. And this is Christianity, a Middle-Eastern cult imported as an organized religion into Europe. And... this is Richard Dawkins!

By all means, they should continue to oppose all unscientific wasteful & dangerous practices carried out in the name of religion & tradition. But an Indian atheist shouldn't become a clone of a western atheist. A western atheist would most probably lack the context to get into a dialogue with Indian masses, and would be considered as trying to "impose their western ideals". This is where an Indian atheist has a better chance of forming a dialogue, going back to ancient Indian traditions of critical thinking, showing them that they are stuck in a convoluted, reactionary form of Hinduism. This isn't merely a rouse. Its only natural if you have a strong platform of critical thinking in your own culture, you use it to help the masses absorb new ideas from all over the world. Rather than trying to demolish everything you have & trying to mimic something else.

I suppose this extends to all ancient Eastern philosophies. Its an interesting pattern I noticed looking at other parts of the world with ancient civilizations that were lost. Watching Africa, the cradle of humanity itself, where Africans kill their fellow Africans in the name of Christianity & Islam, the religions responsible for destroying their old heritage. Or watching large populations of South Americans kneel before the Catholic Church, the very same one that authorized their slaughter less than five centuries ago. Or the heavily religious black community in the USA, with the same religions that aided their former enslavement.

Of course, this is atheism & rational thinking we are talking about, so comparisons with such extreme cases are out of place. The only point to take away is that a complete abandonment of your self-identity is never a good thing.

Of knowledge & arrogance

I want to start off with small anecdotes about two revolutionary thinkers I admire: Johannes Kepler & Charles Darwin.

My interest in the universe goes back to when I was 8-9 years old, and I laid my hands on "The Universe" from the Childcraft series.I first came across the notions of Ptolemy of a geocentric universe. I disliked him in those days, thinking what a fool he was. That has changed since I grew up, and realized he was merely trying to make sense of what he saw, and did it better than anyone else in his time. Those notions, as I saw on the next page in the book, were challenged by Nicolaus Copernicus over a millennium later, at the risk of being put to death by the church who preferred to waddle in their ignorance. He was a hero who started a  revolution that spawned generations of scientific thinkers who challenged the dogma of the authorities & slowly took the world out of the dark ages. One of those thinkers was Johannes Kepler, who furthered Copernicus' heliocentric model. I only learnt of Kepler's discovery of planetary motion in the book, but about the background much later from Carl Sagan's Cosmos. Kepler was a deeply religious man, and very fond of mathematics. His idea of the Creator was that of the ultimate mathematician, who had designed the universe with grand equations which ruled all the objects in the universe. One of his earlier works about planetary motion involved the concept of concentric polyhedrons that governed the motion of the earth & the other 5 known planets at that time. He passionately persisted on this theory for several years. The idea was in sync with his belief in the celestial mathematician and he believed with all his heart to be true. But to a scientist, mere belief isn't satisfactory. He worked for years to fit this model with observations & calculations of motion, but to no avail. He struggled with it for years until at the crossroads, he decided to let go & pursue new possibilities. And after this he discovered that the sun was not the sole center for a planet's orbit, but was one of two focii, as the planetary orbits were elliptical. And this discovery became a monumental leap in the understanding of planetary motion.

When Charles Darwin set out on the HMS Beagle he was definitely not being guided by the devil, as some people would like to believe. His original intentions were to study how God had created & arranged different species all over the world. His first study led him to the discovery of natural selection, and ultimately to the origin of species. He had never intended to oppose the idea of God, but his research just led him to the conclusion that all species arose from a single common ancestor, and the stories of creation that were being propagated through some religions were just untrue. He struggled with the magnitude of this discovery as any person would, before finally publishing "On the Origin of Species". Along with staunch opposition from self-proclaimed religious authorities who know next to nothing about reality, Darwin's magnificent work wasn't clearly understood until the 1960's, with the discovery of a large array of fossils & advances in genetics helping to prove that the theory of evolution is inescapable fact.

Now, in popular media the stereotype of scientist is always that of an arrogant person who scoffs at common people. This image persists in the public as well. The idea of painting any group like that seems absurd, since arrogance is a personal emotion. Sure, there would be some scientists that are arrogant, but its just as likely as any kind of person in general. If it can be applied to any group, I would personally nominate hardened followers of any religion. Some would argue that those who have faith & bow down before a God cannot be arrogant. But it is faith that makes them arrogant: to believe that only only their God out of the hundreds created by man is true, that this God has chosen a specific group of people & they are part of it, that their beliefs have to be given even the slightest of respect without a shred of evidence. Now that is arrogance. Like I said before, there will be people in science who act arrogant. But the greatest scientists are always those who accept their failures & are willing to change their most passionate beliefs in the face of concrete contradicting evidence. 

Template for a religion

A young man brought up in difficult conditions seeks to change the society he sees around him. He is supposedly a revolutionary who rebels against the injustice being practiced in society around that time. His acts earn him a dedicated group of followers. Soon, the powers that be are threatened by his growing influence and supposedly torture & kill him brutally. After his death, a lot of people begin to associate themselves with him to gain people's trust. They see how mesmerized the people are by the dead man, and soon make up stories about his divinity. Casting him as a Messiah, they prepare texts making them out as words of their Messiah straight from God. In them, they insert commands & rituals to fit their own personal needs. This group grows & the powers that be now seek to reconcile with the agitated people. Seeing that the majority has now turned over, they switch their allegiance from the old religion to this new one. And after handsomely rewarding the "leaders" of this new religion, they create the official version of the "word of God", taking lessons from the leaders, and tailoring it to their own selfish needs. The leaders & their successors in turn are granted unquestionable moral authority for centuries to come. Together the powers that be, & their moral "advisors" enjoy a  continuing reign where they feed off the ignorance & subservience of their people. This template is followed by others, and twisted & concocted even more. These other Messiahs don't  even need to be good men. He can be a charlatan or a murderer, yet as long as he commands influence over a group and says the magic words "I heard the voice of God", he becomes a Messiah & a new religion is born.   Also notice how its always a he never a she. The words in their "Holy books" are used to command them to fight & kill for their respective religions. The powers that be sit back & plan out new regions to conquer with their brain-washed armies. Some of the religions are then forced to give up their violent ways. So they try silent brain-washing to influence people to change the laws of the land, so they can continue to rule. 

And there you have it, a template for creating a religion, that continues to be used to this day. 

If religions stopped fighting over who is right, and think over where they have all gone wrong, the world would be a much better place

Mars & Beyond

[Curiosity hi-res photo of the Gale Crater: Image courtesy: NASA]

Let me start off by saying how much I'm loving the attention the latest Mars mission is getting. Ever since NASA released it 7 minutes of terror video in the build up to final weeks of Curiosity's landing, the news & social media has been buzzing about it.

And now that Curiosity is on the ground on Mars, the possibilities seem endless. If the space enthusiasts among you recall, it is very much like the first few weeks of Spirit & Opportunity. We are getting newer photographs of the surface of another world: so much like ours, and yet so different. So what is different about the Curiosity mission then? First off, the rover is much bigger & has a lot more gadgets on-board. Its a mobile Science Lab, that will analyze rocks on Mars. There were limitations to what the previous rovers could do, and Curiosity will now fill the gaps. It has landed within the Gale crater, and will continue to drive to its rim, using its powerful lasers to cut off sedimentary rock from multiple layers along the sides of the mountain. Scientists hope to find glimpses of the history of Mars in these layers, much like we do on Earth. Curiosity is on its own for the most part, roaming the lifeless planet, picking up rocks & studying them, as long as its solar-powered batteries hold up.

NASA has already gone ahead and decided on its next mission. They will be sending another space-craft to Mars in 2016, aimed at drilling through the surface to learn about its core. It won a vote over two other missions: one, to explore the methane lakes on Titan, and another to land on a comet. Personally, I feel disappointed that NASA is down to picking & choosing missions. I'm not exactly sure its a direct result of budget cuts, or just a logistical problem of doing several missions simultaneously. I do suspect the budget cuts have a large part to play in this. I would personally be thrilled at the prospect of an actual mission to Titan in the future. Along with Europa, it is one of the two potential places to look for the possibility of life within our solar system.

Is there any help for NASA? Private companies have come forward for low orbit launches, but long-term missions need government help. Other countries like India & China are taking positive steps for this. India is preparing for the Chandrayaan-2 mission that will involve landing a rover. China is planning an orbital mission to Mars some time in the next decade. Its clear that NASA continues to remain the one best equipped to expand the frontier of space travel. Here's hoping the powers that be can take notice of the interest the Curiosity mission is generating and spare a penny for NASA.

The Requiem

We swim against the rising waves
And crash against the shore
The body bends until it breaks
The early morning sings no more
So rest your head, it’s time to sleep
And dream of what’s in store
The body bends until it breaks
Then sings again no more
’Cause time has torn the flesh away
The early morning sings no more

- Final verse from 'Until It Breaks' by Linkin Park from the album Living Things