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Episode 5 of the Nirmukta Radio Podcast features two pre-recorded online conversations that I put together. The first one is between myself and a couple of activists in India- Prof. Narendra Nayak, the president of the Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations and Rakshi Rath, a co-editor at Nirmukta. Professor Nayak talks about his tours and recent television appearances. We also discuss a couple of contentious topics that came up on the forums. The audio quality of this first conversation is pretty bad because of the technical limitations (on the India side of the conversation, me being in the US at present) that we were working with. We are terribly sorry about the quality of this first part of the podcast. The second conversation is between myself and Hemant Mehta, the author of I Sold My Soul On Ebay and creator and author of the Friendly Atheist blog. Hemant and I talk about his work with the Secular Student Alliance (he was the Chair of the Board of Directors at the time of the recording), an organization who’s mission, according to the website, is as follows :

The mission of the Secular Student Alliance is to organize, unite, educate, and serve students and student communities that promote the ideals of scientific and critical inquiry, democracy, secularism, and human-based ethics.

This episode of Nirmukta Radio will be the last of this series. I’ve had a blast recording my conversations with the leaders of the Freethought movement, putting them into the podcast format and bringing them to the Freethought community in India. But it is time for the podcast to grow and represent what Nirmukta has grown into. Starting next month, September 2010, we will be posting a new series of Nirmukta Radio Podcasts, featuring an entire team of panelists and a new and exciting podcast format. We will discuss news and opinion on the issues that relate to science, skepticism, atheism etc.

Thank you for listening to the Nirmukta Radio Podcast. Nirmukta Radio is a production of Nirmukta.com. Music is Te Laudant by Cryptocrat.

A series of high-profile incidents over the past few months have stirred up conversation among Indians online on the subject of freedom of speech. Not surprisingly, parallels between the cases have been drawn at will to make ever possible argument for and against every side of the debate. This article is an attempt to look at the subject of free speech from a democratic and humanistic point of view.

I begin by outlining the essentials of four cases from the recent past. This will be followed by a short discussion on the notion of freedom of speech. Finally the implications of this discussion will be applied to each case. Read the full story

Last week we wrote about a report by the media outlet Tehelka which, in collaboration with Cogent EMR, conducted Electromagnetic Radiation surveys of Delhi and concluded that radiation levels are well above recommended levels. Analysis by Vaibhav on the forums demonstrated the flaws in the science on which the Tehelka report rested. As Vaibhav pointed out, EMR from cell phones is too weak to cause any structural damage to DNA. However, there could be other long-term effects of low intensity EMR exposure. In this second part I look at a few of the other many inconsistencies in reporter Rishi’s article and comments in the discussion with us on facebook. Read the full story

NOTE: The comic strip below scrolls from right to left when you click on the right end of the strip. If you cannot see it, please try refreshing your browser.

This is the second in a series of introductory level essays on Philosophy for Freethinkers. The first one can be found here.

The question caught Sandanam by surprise. Without giving it much thought, she pointed at the trees through the window of the living room they were sitting in and said “It’s how the universe talks to us. We have to listen hard to make sense of it”.

The house was situated on the grounds of a small park. Sandanam has just finished her evening ritual of watching the sun set over the trees, before settling down in front of the television.

Now she was looking at her daughter who was standing in front of her. Selvi had questions for her mother- questions that were not very clear to her, and yet seemed somehow profound and central to her purpose. These questions came to her at every turn. This time she was struck when she was doing her math homework. Her little head was filled with a deep desire to understand how the rules of mathematics related to reality. After talking about it to her dog, Puli, for an hour, she had worked her way down to some really fundamental questions. She tried to give form to her ideas, but the words fell short. Now, standing in front of her mother, she cleared her throat and began again. Read the full story

In countries like India where goddess worship is prevalent, the argument is often made that such superstition actually helps the cause of women’s rights. To feed the flames, more than a few Western feminists (such as Kathleen Erndl, Sarah Caldwell) have suggested that women in India should embrace these superstitious notions and derive strength from the myths, in order to the counter real prejudice that they face everyday. I disagree with this notion on two levels. Firstly, I don’t think that it is, in practice, possible to separate ‘good’ superstitious beliefs from the ones that are responsible for increasing suffering in society, since these are inter-dependent irrational sets of beliefs that defy logic. Secondly, these superstitious beliefs about goddesses and fairies prevent us from gaining a better understanding of the problem and finding stable long-term solutions based on reason. Furthermore, other feminists like Cynthia Humes have shown that there is a difference between the view of women as goddesses and the experiences of the majority of ordinary women in these cultures. Studying the reasons for this difference is, in my opinion, key to understanding gender inequality in such cultures.

I submit that the goals of the Freethought movement are aligned with those of the women’s rights movements in these countries, and that therefore there is a practical reason for Freethought groups to actively promote the feminist cause. Read the full story

This article is developed from a post on the forums here.

You have probably heard the claim that Dawkins is arrogant. Usually this claim is directed at him from believers. But ever so often one hears it from other freethinkers, in the context of representing science and reason. The claim often is that Dawkins’ “arrogance” is actually counter-productive to the cause. Here is the video that has been quoted multiple times to make the case: Read the full story

This is the first in a series of simple introductory articles and videos on naturalistic philosophy.

Many of those of us who call ourselves freethinkers are aware that there is some fundamental difference between the way we view reality and the way the superstitious folks do. We believe in a naturalistic reality and the others subscribe to the supernatural. But what exactly is this difference? What does it mean to believe in a naturalistic reality? What is ‘natural’, and how is it different from ’supernatural’?

Note: I will avoid discussion of the nature of evidence in this article since it will distract us from our objective here.

The key to understanding the natural universe is understanding the notion of causality. This idea can be stated simply as the relationship between two dependent events, where one is the caused and the other is the cause. Science works only because the natural world exhibits causality. In physics, causality is more accurately viewed as interaction between two events, objects or situations, with each of the two being both cause and effect at the same time. Read the full story

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Blair Scott is the Affiliate Director for American Atheists, an organization founded in 1963 by Madalyn Murray O’Hair to fight for separation of Church and State and equal rights for Atheists in the US. He is also the Alabama State Director for American Atheists. Blair’s activism in the Freethought movement is not limited to his work with AA. He is also the Press Relations Director of the North Alabama Freethought Association, and has been a prominent figure in Alabama Freethought circles since he founded the organization in 2002. He uses the internet extremely effectively as a promotion tool, through social media such as facebook, twitter and myspace, as well as through his own website, alabamaatheist.org. Blair has been one of the most vocal Atheist activists in America and is widely recognized for his work in promoting Atheist and Freethought causes both online and off.

This interview covers everything from Blair’s early brush with religion and his experiences as an atheist in the US navy, to his current work in Atheist activism and his multi-dimensional approach towards promoting freethought. Blair Scott’s experience in Atheist PR makes him a valuable source of information for our quest to promote Freethought in India.

Nirmukta Radio is a production of Nirmukta.com. The host is Ajita Kamal and the music is Te Laudant by Cryptocrat

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Very few people are exceptionally well-read on any one subject, and fewer still are masters of more than one area of expertise. Only the most versatile of people extend themselves any farther than that. Dr. Prabhakar Kamath is one such man.

Dr. Kamath has been writing a series of articles here on Nirmukta, on the evolution of religious thought in ancient India. His training as a psychiatrist and his years of research on the history of India have given him much insight into the nature of the Indian mindset. Dr. Kamath is also well versed in the Bhagavad Gita. What is unique in the way Dr. Kamath reads the Gita, however, is that he reads it side by side with the known historical accounts of the subcontinent. This has given him a unique perspective, apparent in his articles here.

In this interview, we shine the light on another aspect of Dr. Kamath’s life’s work - his activism. After years of practicing psychiatry in the United States, Dr. Kamath moved back to India and through a series of events ended up founding and leading the modern consumer rights movement, the first of its kind in the country. This interview gives us a peek into the life of this great man, in the hope that some of his ideas and principles will influence us in our quest to promote freethought and rational thinking in India.

At the end of a lengthy recording session, Dr. Kamath still had much to say. We have decided that he will come on the show again to talk a bit more about his activism. Future interviews are also planned to discuss Dr. Kamath’s insights into Brahmanism and Indian history.

Introduction:

Every so often when reading books of non-fiction written by great thinkers you come across one that you find yourself hoping is wrong about the multitude of depressing facts it presents. Line after line, this is the emotion that Meera Nanda’s latest book, “The God Market: How Globalization Is Making India More Hindu”, evokes. Beginning with post-independence India, Nanda walks us forward in time, pausing at influential points in the story to build a bullet-proof case for her central assertion that- in her words- “Globalization has been good to the Gods in India”. While it is a fast and thoroughly engaging read with all references relegated to the back pages, the sheer quantity of facts is still overwhelming at times.

Since my position on Nanda’s work is familiar to most followers of this website, I will present this review in an unconventional format. I will first describe the structure and content of the book. Then I will present some popular criticisms. Read the full story