This post is for making better use of people who are similar to me, for furthering the promotion of rational thinking. ‘X is similar to me’ is defined by the following qualities:

1. X is a rational thinker.
2. X would like to contribute to promotion of rational thinking (in cash, kind, time, effort etc.)
3. Contributing towards promotion of rational thinking is way down in X’s list of priorities.

Let me provide an example – myself.  I try to promote rational thinking in my circle of influence, in small ways – at work, at home, and among friends and relatives.  For example, at work, I have championed the campaign to do away with forced religious holidays.  As a result, now we don’t have compulsory holidays for Christmas, Diwali, Bakrid etc. Only the state holidays (Gandhi Jayanti, Independence day, Republic day and a few other secular holidays) are mandatory.  The earlier compulsory holidays are now added to the employee’s vacation, so they can take them whenever they wish. Read the full story

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This report of a follow up of the Psychic Yoga Challenge reported here on Nirmukta.

May 31st 2009, Bangalore: For those who do not have the time or inclination to go through the details, here’s a one line summary. The challenge did not happen — Narendra Nayak was ready with his envelopes but no one from Dhyan foundation took up the challenge.

It was disappointing. I had invited my friends (both believers and non-believers) to witness something that had the potential of conclusively proving me wrong and shut my trap forever.

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Rational thinkers have been pointing out superstitions and irrational concepts since the beginning of recorded history, but these ideas still abound.

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Religion and Medicine

I recently came across an article about a gentleman named Naresh, who lost both his legs in an accident at a very young age, and later studied at IIT and now works at Google. The article, titled “From banks of Godavari to Google on wheel chair“, is a very inspiring story of the triumph of human spirit against several odds. Hats off to Naresh.

One of the things that struck me as odd about Naresh is his superstitious nature. The fact that he has made it into IIT is proof of his capacity for rational thinking and scientific background. I have personally met several scientific minded people who are very smart, yet they are superstitious. I’ve read statistics which say that around 95% of the top scientists are atheists, where as 95% of the general public are believers. I have always been bewildered by how scientific minded people can be superstitious. I think I have figured out one possible reason and would like to describe it in this article.

cc:Suwaif

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Golu

My two school going daughters are now learning more about Indian mythology — in their schools, comic books, TV shows and cartoon movies. The fresh perspective they bring in when they are learning Indian mythology is very interesting. I’d like to share some examples here.

cc: Ravages

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