Thursday, August 03, 2006

My God

My God - Have been wrestling with this thought for I can not remember how long …
Was having tea with D yesterday … casual chat … conversation wandered on the discovery of what look like lakes on Titan and how the topography of Titan looks a lot like that of erstwhile Earth. Quite obviously, we speculated about life on Titan and that not all life does not have to be carbon based and that there may be life-forms which may be at ease at 290 degrees below 0 Farenheit. The human body is not (most definitely) the optimal design for most situations!

And as usual I went into my zip-zap-zoo-hoom phase-out mode … for the uninitiated it’s the mode when I look at the large(r) picture ... really really large picture ... and then all my problems become inconsequential … I see myself in my chair and then I begin zooming out - home, city, country, planet, solar system, milky way, andromeda galaxy (don’t ask why), all the galaxies , the universe … pitch black … and then I say – “The universe is infinitely gigantic but still we cling on to our religion, our god and our problems as if they were the most important thing in the world – when really we are just on Earth which is one infinitesimal fraction in the grand scheme of things. Our Gods, our holy books, our religions and their leaders, our wars (for peace) … they all presume that there is nothing beyond Earth.” And then I told D that all these crazy fanatics fighting and bickering over god & religion today – if they just took a minute to think about the size of the universe and how small we really are – they would probably drop their weapons and make the best use of their remaining time (one would hope). But maybe I’m fooling myself … I don’t know.

The simple fact that religious books mention Gods talking only about us humans (on Earth) and worse – about specific countries (India, Egypt, Israel etc.) let alone cities within each, are a clear indication of our dreadful narrow-mindedness. We are expected to believe that God is bothered only about a piece of rock on the third rock from the sun! Surely we must be mad to even propose such blasphemy – let alone be fanatic about it. But guess what … I look around and that’s a lot of what I see … senseless … a horrible waste of life … and time! And oh – we pamper ourselves by calling ourselves “intelligent life”.

A couple of quotes
“If we are alone in the universe, what a terrible waste of space” – Carl Sagan
“Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us." – Calvin

And oh – if you don’t forward this to 10 people, then the gods of lightning (of planet Earth) will strike you and you will go to hell (which I’m guessing is a burning-raft in the Bermuda Triangle, since no one has lived to tell!).
Amen.

3 comments:

Sarat said...

I would like to be on any craft thats going out to "colonize" space. I figger I should do to other aliens what the British did to us.

But, before I lose myself in the sense of my own insignificance though in the vastness of space, I'd like us to run over England and reclaim our Peacock throne and the Kohinoor. I'd also carry Sade back with me (assuming she still lives in England) and plead with Sally that all 3 of us coexist. And then I'd take both of them with me to space - just in case aliens (esp. those who are not carbon-based ) don't have females in their species - and males aren't very good looking either!

Before the spacecraft gets to Titan though, I'd probably end up as the spacecraft floor mopper - using recycled pee to do the job. And when we do land in alien land, Sade and Sally would sell me off to slavery to Jar-Jar and split the very tiny sum they get in return.

Jar-Jar would then *&%^$* $*%*&^$ me for the rest of my pathetically miniscule life. And all that time I'd be cursing you Venky for making me think about how insignificant our lives are!

Venky said...

@sarat - LOL - that was funy.
1. Coexistence with Sade ... you're dreaming right? No no - not about Sade but about the co-existence part ;)
2. spacecraft floor mopper ... hmmm is that a subtle hint dude?
3. Why Jar-Jar?
4. And why stop at the peacock throne + Kohinoor?
-Venky

brij said...

WRT Sade it remains to be seen who will have more problems - Sarat or sally:)

About the Peacock Throne and Kohinoor - WTF - I do not ever understand why we need it back???