Just one book

Books are a very integral part of my life; they are the portal to my imagination, that beast that lives within me and brings all the fantastical worlds inside books alive for me. When I first read the Harry Potter series, I imagined Harry to be very different from what I saw in the movies. This is not to say

that Daniel Radcliffe, the actor who played him, did not suit the role, because he did, but the portrait my imagination drew for me was different. Unfortunately I can't remember the exact details of his face anymore, as watching the movies made my imaginary Harry fade away, but my mind's images of him and even Hogwarts were my own, unique.

Moreover, books help me learn about our insanely beautiful world. They can be very informative, and be it my textbooks through out my education, or the non-fiction books I have read that gave me a glimpse into some great minds, my mind has been irreversibly influenced by the knowledge I gained. The decisions I take, the choices I make, and the positions I stand on, are all in some small way influenced by the wisdom I have gained from what I read. Of course, real life experiences are irreplaceable, but books give us the courage to go out and have those experiences ourselves, once we have read about them. The greatest writers have inspired men to give their lives, with just their words.

But this does not mean that I have stopped reading, having gained considerable knowledge. My voracious appetite for books is not in pursuit of a book that would be the end of my reading. Learning is a never ending process, for I know I have a whole lifetime of reading ahead of me, as no one book or even a collection of books can even begin to encompass all the facets of life. Knowing this I can never be bound by the words of just one book. In essence, what I am trying to say is, that one holy or religious book can never hope to be my sole guide to the universe. I would give a holy book just as much importance as I would to any other book of fiction, in that I might gain a little wisdom from it, but to give it the power to run my life is asking too much. Giving that much significance to one book is an insult to all the others that I have read before it, and all the ones I am yet to read. Long is the journey of life, many are the twists and turns, and the unknown destination is the greatest joy. Therefore I am glad, that I do not know it all, nor do I pretend to, for of what joy is such a journey, when the destination is known in advance?

That is why I know that I can never be a part of any of the religions, which seem to be intent on taking the joy out of my search for meaning in my life. They would tell me it is all planned out, or written down, what is to happen in my life. I can't for the life of me empathize with anyone pretending to have understood all of life with just one book. Life is not, and can never be so simply explained. Maybe some day we will have a better understanding of life, and I am sure it is the books we read explaining that understanding that will help us appreciate the magic of being alive.

Desires and other ills

Imagine if our world wasn't such a hard place to live in, if so many people didn't have to struggle for a living, if more children could live past five years of age, if the polar ice caps were not melting as rapidly as they are, if more people had access to two square meals a day and one glass of clean water to drink. Is that such an impossible dream? How much worse does the average human's life have to become before we sit up and say, let me put others before myself? Let me give a helping hand, and do what I can to change another human being's life for the better?

The concept of utopia is a far fetched and rather impossible one for most people, but to be honest we don't even need to get close to a utopia to improve the human condition by leaps and bounds. As the guys at theminimalists.com point out, many people have much more wealth, possessions and properties than they could possibly ever need in a lifetime. Saying that its your rainy day fund makes no sense in a stable economy like what many of the developed countries today enjoy, and in any case these rainy day funds are usually so bloated they could save an entire town if disaster struck. The mad chase of materialistic desires that many people today are involved in can only lead to further discontentment, for as the great Buddha once said, 'Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship'. So if we look to achieve these three things in our life, we can go closer to true happiness than ever before. Such an attitude would also enable us to help the poor and destitute, the orphaned and those whom fate has struck crippling blows. It is in helping others find happiness that our happiness lies, and this is the kind of joy that soothes the soul, and gives us contentment like no other. 

I dream of U

I dream of endless skies of blue
blotted with clouds
that lightly flew

I dream of rippling waves of seas
streaked with sunlight
stalking the breeze

but most of all
I've dreamed of you

Your curvy lips spread in a smile
your fingertips touching mine

A lock of your hair, black as sin
across your face, grazing your chin

I've dreamed of you, whispering softly
singing me a song, dancing not so properly

I run to you, to hold u close
before you vanish, utterly to my woes

Haunting my dreams, just to make me suffer
coz when I awake, in pain i utter
cries of despair, not finding u there

Dreams of joy, dreams of wonder
everyone dreams, they love going under
one would think, i am loathe to dream
on cold nights, waking to a scream

but most of all,
I've dreamed of you...

Ahead

Come with me, astride a silver breeze
among drifting clouds, across glistening seas
along whispering blues, amid fleeting blooms
above stark peaks, and over tall greens 
I dare thee, to set your mind free
Burn thy fears in the fire of your greed

Skip no stone, turn away no chance
Learn a brave's mortal dance
For death my friend, is a cunning foe
Lures you away, whispers of woe
Take no heed, take a deep breath and charge ahead
For one true life, is worth a thousand undead

10 Reasons I dont believe in God

I have always wanted to write a '10 Things blah blah' or '10 Reasons why blah blah' article, and when I had a rather philosophical conversation with my sister and her hubby yesterday, I decided to go for it. I dont believe in the existence of a God, or in any Religion and
I think that if you do believe in a deity, or multiple ones for that matter, you have been had in what is a very old hoax that just refuses to die its natural death. So here are 10 reasons why I dont and cant believe in God:

1. Science baby!
My first and foremost argument, if I may call it so, is Science! Good old science with her theories and proofs. The best thing about science, and also the most frustrating thing sometimes is proof. When someone discovers something, or invents something, he has to prove it. Nobody has to take your word for granted and there is no such thing as faith involved. You only have to look back at the annals of history to see how many misconceptions and half truths were buried by noble inventors and scientists, who also paved the way for all the modern technological wonders we enjoy today. There's no magic or miracle involved here, no 'leap of faith' required, all well proven and well understood scientific discoveries.

Ah but say anything that religion/God doesn't agree with, and you will be persecuted and probably murdered. History is littered with great thinkers and scholars who were thrown to the gallows for daring to utter a single word against religious truths and dogma. To think that the priests and clergy would say that the earth was the center of the universe! One only needs to take one look at the stars and you know it isn't true.

2. But there are so many daddy!
When it comes to religion, one size does not fit all. Today there are six or seven major religions, each with a staggering amount of followers each. That in itself is damning evidence, if I may say so. Considering that if you believe in a particular religion, and that makes you a infidel by almost all other religions, almost everyone on planet earth is going to hell one way or the other. Though there

does tend to be a common thread running through all the religions, some of them are simply too crazy to even consider joining up, and yet they have mass followings! Makes you wonder what kind of circus we are living in, but then, all these religions together do make for interesting viewing for a casual observer like me. To put the cherry on the cake, there are more religion related and ethnic cleansing deaths than all other causes put together.

3. Oh the humanity! 

Terrorism, the only word that can make a shiver run up the most hardened man's spine, and the only word that a wise man would not speak lightly of. Religion seems to bring out the most insane, sadistic, cruel side of a human being, and this has been the case for thousands of years. Tens of millions of people have died because they either didn't 'fit in' to the reigning supernatural belief, or that they were trying to make others fit to theirs. In fact there are many countries that have shed any pretenses of secularism and proudly tout the fact that they are havens for believers of a particular religion. It is tragic that man has no tolerance for a different way of life; all must be the same, believe in the same, and many are ready to kill or die trying to make this happen. It is our differences and the variety of life that makes it all multicolored and stunning to look at. Sameness is not and can never be much to talk about. Imagine how boring it would all be, if all the world was like a fast food franchise, the same darned thing everywhere.

4. The numbers don't add up sonny!
The Bible says that the earth is 6000 years old. But there is a staggering amount of evidence pointing to the contrary. There are many artifacts, fossils of ancient animals, rock formations and a multitude of such things that are many million years old. Ask the scholars of any religion to explain the contradiction of Earth being created by God and the colossal amount of evidence for evolution that exists, and they either don't have an answer, or their answers just raise more questions. So tell me, God created all the things on earth, and then buried fossils here and there to have a little fun did he?

5. Moral compass my foot.
My theist friends always throw this at me whenever I question their beliefs; imagine the horror of being without a moral compass, for if there were no God, man would become an immoral heathen, bent on raping and murdering all that he sees. Excuse me, but I don't need a God or a religious book to tell me that raping someone is a crime.

 I know what good and evil are, what right and wrong are and I know this because of the morals instilled in me in my childhood. Doesn't good parenthood take care of most moral  dilemmas anyway? Do you really need a holy book to tell you that loving thy neighbor is a good idea, or that killing someone is not?

6. Fate - a four lettered word.

I am sick and tired of  hearing people say, 'It was meant to be', or 'its all a part of God's plan. If God has a plan for all of us, then do we not have free will? Are we just puppets in a grand show that is being played for someone's entertainment at our expense? A certain religion even speaks of Karma, where the sins of one life will be paid for in another. I find this ridiculous and hard to comprehend. Why is it so hard for people to accept that there is no meaning to it all? That there is only one life and the purpose of your life is what you make of it. That death is truly the end, and there is no afterlife or another life for that matter. If there is such a thing as fate or destiny, are children born with AIDS in Africa fated to live short lives of extreme agony and humiliation? Is that really their destiny, to live such lives? Or are they being punished for crimes of other men? When an old friend of mine passed away in a brutal accident in the prime of his life, I often wondered what the purpose of his life was. Ask a priest the same question, and he would probably reply, 'Man cannot comprehend all that God does, for if God is a human being, then our understanding of our world is that of an ant.' Such answers just serve to make me feel like I am just a puppet and a part of a cruel joke that will never end.

7. Aliens: the truth is out there.

There are billions and billions of stars in millions in galaxies throughout the universe. Are we really so foolish to think that the earth is the only place in the entire universe where intelligent life can exist? Were we one day to establish the existence of alien life beyond doubt, where does that leave all the holy books that say that the earth is the only haven for men, and all else was created for a starry sky? Would these books be then re-written to take these new alien beings into account? Not that it hasnt been done already many times over. Just the existence of the Old and New testaments are proof enough that these books don't and can't encompass all that is out there.

8. The Chaos theory
 Chaos is just as capable of creating our world as is intelligent design. In fact it is the more likely, since the minute you accept the possibility of a Creator, isnt the question of his origin automatically the next one? Some believers push the complexity of nature's creations as solid proof that an intelligent creator exists, for how could chance and a soulless nature create such wonders? Taken at face value this is a very good question. But Science has an answer. The complexity and marvels we see around us did not arise overnight. These creations are the result of a slow and stunning process called evolution. Take the example of the human eye. It is a design that is unparalleled in Science in terms of ability and complexity. But this wonder evolved over hundreds of prototypes of millions of creatures, that began from a humble single celled organism, and then hundreds of differently abled sight devices in all our ancestors. Nature's splendor is no accident or a Spiritual being's brainchild. It is the culmination of a long and much convoluted process of minute additions and improvements.

9. The arrogance of it all
 To state that all the fantastic and stunning creatures of our world were all created to make a beautiful and varied home for the human beings is arrogance of extreme proportions. All the mammals, amphibians, reptiles, birds, fish, insects and every other form of life are as much a citizen of our blue planet as we are. Even women are much inferior to men according to most religions, and to refuse to treat them as equals stinks of an ill-conceived attempt to gain the upper hand. I cannot and will not place myself above any of nature's creations, for if global warming, weather fluctuations and natural catastrophes are anything to go by, nature does not appreciate the condescension.

10. The beginning question
Where did we all come from? Why were we created? What is the purpose of it all? We are back to the same old question that has made man look up the heavens, pardon the reference, and come up with all kinds of crazy answers. A close perusal of the long dead religions of our ancestors and you will see that they were not as different from the modern ones as you might think. Yes the names and number of deities might differ, and yes the rituals and practices are changed too, but isnt it all in the same vein? That man is but a humble creation of a great power that is beyond our comprehension. I end this rant with a simple answer to all of man's origin dilemmas: the universe has just been there all the time. There is no beginning and no end, just as there may never be an end to the mass worldwide delusion that is Religion.

Ready for battle...

Why do people need love? Why do we need to be adored, and have constant affection, to be wholesome rounded people? Does being human mean that we are incomplete without being in healthy relationships? If we never knew what a healthy relationship is, and thus never knew what we were missing, would we still have problems in our daily lives? Would we all turn into damaged people, the people responsible for so many of the problems in our world?
Consider a crow chick sitting in its nest, cheeping away to all glory, for its mother to come back and feed it. The mother crow must feed its chicks and keep them safe and when the chick has grown up, it flies out of its nest, ready to take on the world with the few skills it possesses that are instinctively hammered into its brain. It needs no elocution classes, no science classes, no defense classes, not even a language class. It has all the weapons it needs to survive this world, right in its armory from the day it leaves its nest.

Now think of a human baby. Not only must a human child be fed and looked after, he must be treated with love, respect, and sensitivity and so on. He must be taught to be his own man, so to say, so that one day he can have a family of his own, people he will then pass on his learning and affection to. If his childhood is lacking in these fundamental necessities, he develops certain undesirable qualities, some of which he may not even know about until a much later stage. For example, some people who have abusive fathers, end up looking for father figures all their life, to make up for the void their incompetent fathers left. If they dont, they could end up as abusive parents themselves, thus passing the buck on when the next generation arrives. So are humans as a species really the most evolved one on this planet? Or in exchange for such evolved brains, have we lost our ability to be competent whole individuals without love and affection playing a vital role in our childhood and adolescence? In a utopian world, where every child is loved and well fed, would there not be a single issue to deal with, considering all the people are loving and well balanced? If this is true, then truly we are a most un-evolved species, for our success in our world today is largely dependent not on who we are, but who we are allowed to be. In essence, we are no different from animals in a zoo. We can only survive in the world we know, the bars of our cages clearly visible, though we choose to ignore them.

There she goes..

Once upon a time, long long ago
God sat on his throne completely bored
Mouth opened wide, he gave a big yawn
and thought to himself, This world is a chore!

Calmly he pondered how he could bring

some sparkle into man's livelihood
He looked around his heavenly lair
and his eye fell on a piece of wood

He held it close and started chipping away
what he wanted he knew not yet
The magic of night, the splendor of day
He added them all, from every which where

Some spice, some sugar, some ocean's waves
a hint of mischief, and all the world's cares
He rolled it all in, and then bound it tight
He had before him, a girl shining bright

She smiled, she laughed, she was free
the apple of his eye, a woman to be
her beauty put even the moon to shame
but she often wondered, from whence she came...