Saw an interview of Imran Khan on Times Now today. It was nice to see such positive views about Terrorism, Indo-Pak relations and Pakistan in general. I am not very well-versed with Pakistani politics and politicians, but Imran Khan today had a style that exuded tremendous confidence. Unlike most politicians in India, he was direct, logical and clear in all his responses. And from what I hear in news about the crowds he is pulling to his rallies in Pakistan, he may very well be the next Prime Minister of Pakistan.
I have always been an untiring advocate of friendly relations between India and Pakistan. I believe Pakistanis are no different from us, and partition was a terrible thing that happened. I recently read in the book Freedom at Midnight, that if the British had known that Jinnah was suffering from Tuberculosis at the time of our Independence and that he wasn't going to survive for long, they would rather have postponed handing over the reins to us, and avoided the bloody split.
A recent quote posted by a friend on facebook said - "A religious war is like children fighting over who has the strongest imaginary friend." Although it perfectly captures the ridiculousness of people fighting over religion, add to it the fact that religion is hereditary and the imaginary friend is the silly imagination of one powerful person - possibly a psycho lunatic, and you find that humans don't look capable of reason and rationale any more. One may argue that the concept of god (with a deliberate small 'g') has to be a choice of belief, and no logic can be applied to it. But I find this a very shallow and incomplete argument. One, it is practically not being chosen in the real sense. And two, for what one does not and arguably cannot know, one can consciously understand that inability, and then take a stand in that light, accepting ignorance, if one were to behave sensibly. And three, with everyone having accepted ignorance, there can't be mutual fight over respective assumptions. But the way we work, is that we have mistaken the assumptions for facts and we don't have the element of ignorance built into the belief systems at all. The result - we are obsessed with our own concepts of god without any basis and find it impossible to see other such concepts thriving, although all of them are imagined for convenience by different parties.
I am gradually inclined to forming a view that humans are made this way, and there is not much of a hope for change. Although it seems like mindsets are changing and a section of people are becoming less and less god-minded, there are sections which are moving to other extremes too. And we keep having religious massacres every now and then. Which tells me that god screws up this world in ways other than natural. But then, why separate man from nature?
I hope we can bring some sense into this whole concept of god and then have the concept of religion dealt with separately. They get mixed inevitably coz we always wanted the fear of god to keep us in the right track and not harm other humans, i.e., to guide our actions and keep them right from social standpoint. When humans across the world, with different beliefs, were not connected much, this system worked reasonably well. But now, with peoples coming in contact more easily and in ways unimaginable before, we no more have closed societies where every person adopts the same concept of god and religion. Although mingling is happening, this globalized world is also more prone to clashes, religious assertiveness and religious power struggles. And these are already happening.
I don't see a possibility of change in the near future. The only way this can be solved is if we discover everything, including god, and end the whole mystery. But we know so little of all there is, and we are such a small part of all that is, and are not even sure that what we come to know is what is and is not what is shown to us by someone who actually is, and whether that which actually is, wants us to know what is, and therefore whether we are even capable of knowing what is. It's a terrible mystery, which will never be solved. So, we'll go on fighting over it until our extinction.
I have always been an untiring advocate of friendly relations between India and Pakistan. I believe Pakistanis are no different from us, and partition was a terrible thing that happened. I recently read in the book Freedom at Midnight, that if the British had known that Jinnah was suffering from Tuberculosis at the time of our Independence and that he wasn't going to survive for long, they would rather have postponed handing over the reins to us, and avoided the bloody split.
A recent quote posted by a friend on facebook said - "A religious war is like children fighting over who has the strongest imaginary friend." Although it perfectly captures the ridiculousness of people fighting over religion, add to it the fact that religion is hereditary and the imaginary friend is the silly imagination of one powerful person - possibly a psycho lunatic, and you find that humans don't look capable of reason and rationale any more. One may argue that the concept of god (with a deliberate small 'g') has to be a choice of belief, and no logic can be applied to it. But I find this a very shallow and incomplete argument. One, it is practically not being chosen in the real sense. And two, for what one does not and arguably cannot know, one can consciously understand that inability, and then take a stand in that light, accepting ignorance, if one were to behave sensibly. And three, with everyone having accepted ignorance, there can't be mutual fight over respective assumptions. But the way we work, is that we have mistaken the assumptions for facts and we don't have the element of ignorance built into the belief systems at all. The result - we are obsessed with our own concepts of god without any basis and find it impossible to see other such concepts thriving, although all of them are imagined for convenience by different parties.
I am gradually inclined to forming a view that humans are made this way, and there is not much of a hope for change. Although it seems like mindsets are changing and a section of people are becoming less and less god-minded, there are sections which are moving to other extremes too. And we keep having religious massacres every now and then. Which tells me that god screws up this world in ways other than natural. But then, why separate man from nature?
I hope we can bring some sense into this whole concept of god and then have the concept of religion dealt with separately. They get mixed inevitably coz we always wanted the fear of god to keep us in the right track and not harm other humans, i.e., to guide our actions and keep them right from social standpoint. When humans across the world, with different beliefs, were not connected much, this system worked reasonably well. But now, with peoples coming in contact more easily and in ways unimaginable before, we no more have closed societies where every person adopts the same concept of god and religion. Although mingling is happening, this globalized world is also more prone to clashes, religious assertiveness and religious power struggles. And these are already happening.
I don't see a possibility of change in the near future. The only way this can be solved is if we discover everything, including god, and end the whole mystery. But we know so little of all there is, and we are such a small part of all that is, and are not even sure that what we come to know is what is and is not what is shown to us by someone who actually is, and whether that which actually is, wants us to know what is, and therefore whether we are even capable of knowing what is. It's a terrible mystery, which will never be solved. So, we'll go on fighting over it until our extinction.
