Sep 5 2010

Argumnent : What, Who is GOD?

An atheist professor of philosophy speaks to his class on the problem science has with God, The Almighty.
He asks one of his new students to stand and …..

Prof: So you believe in God?

Student: Absolutely, sir.

Prof :Is God good?

Student: Sure.

Prof: Is God all-powerful?

Student :Yes..

Prof: My brother died of cancer even though he prayed to God to heal him. Most of us would attempt to help others who are ill. But God didn’t. How is this God good then? Hmm?
(Student is silent.)

Prof: You can’t answer, can you? Let’s start again, young fella. Is God good?

Student: Yes.

Prof: Is Satan good?

Student :No.

Prof:  Where does Satan come from?

Student: From….God. ..

Prof:  That’s right. Tell me son, is there evil in this world?

Student: Yes.

Prof:  Evil is everywhere, isn’t it? And God did make everything. Correct?

Student: Yes.

Prof:  So who created evil?
(Student does not answer.)

Prof: Is there sickness? Immorality? Hatred? Ugliness? All these terrible things exist in the world, don’t  they?

Student:  Yes, sir.

Prof: So, who created them?
(Student has no answer.)

Prof: Science says you have 5 senses you use to identify and observe the world around you.

Tell me, son…Have you everseen God?

Student:  No, sir.

Prof: Tell us if you have ever heard your God?

Student: No, sir.

Prof: Have you ever felt your God, tasted your God, smelt your God? Have you ever had any sensory perception of God for that matter?

Student: No, sir. I’m afraid I haven’t.

Prof: Yet you still believe in Him?

Student: Yes.

Prof: According to empirical, testable, demonstrable protocol, science says your GOD doesn’t exist.  What do you say to that, son?

Student: Nothing. I only have my faith.

Prof: Yes. Faith. And that is the problem science has.

Student: Professor, is there such a thing as heat?

Prof: Yes.

Student:  And is there such a thing as cold?

Prof: Yes.

Student: No sir. There isn’t.
(The lecture theatre becomes very quiet with this turn of events.)

Student : Sir, you can have lots of heat, even more heat, superheat, mega heat, white heat, a little heat or no heat..

But we don’t have anything called cold. We can hit 458 degrees below zero which is no heat, but we can’t go any further after that.  There is no such thing as cold. Cold is only a word we use to describe the absence of heat . We cannot measure cold. Heat is energy Cold is not the opposite of heat, sir,  just the absence of it .

(There is pin-drop silence in the lecture theatre.)

Student: What about darkness, Professor? Is there such a thing as darkness?

Prof: Yes. What is  night if there isn’t darkness?

Student : You’re wrong again, sir. Darkness is the absence of something. You can have low light, normal light, bright  light, flashing light….But if you have no light constantly, you have nothing and it’s called darkness, isn’t it? In reality, darkness isn’t. If it were you would be able to make darkness darker, wouldn’t you?

Prof: So what is the point you are making, young man?

Student: Sir, my point is your philosophical premise is flawed.

Prof: Flawed? Can you explain how?

Student: Sir, you are working on the premise of duality. You argue there is life and then there is death, a good God and a bad God. You are viewing the concept of God as something finite, something we can measure. Sir, science can’t even explain a thought.. It uses electricity and magnetism, but has never seen, much less fully understood either one.To view death as the opposite of life is to be ignorant of the fact that death cannot exist as a  substantive thing. Death is not the opposite of life: just the absence of it. Now tell me,  Professor.Do you teach your students that they evolved from a monkey?

Prof: If you are referring to the natural evolutionary process, yes, of course, I do.

Student:  Have you ever observed evolution with your own eyes, sir?
(The Professor shakes his head with a smile, beginning to realize where the argument is going.)

Student: Since no one has ever observed the process of evolution at work and  cannot even prove that this process is an on-going endeavor, are you not teaching your opinion, sir? Are you not a scientist but a preacher? (The class is in uproar.)

Student: Is there anyone in the class who has ever seen the Professor’s brain?
(The class breaks out into laughter.)

Student : Is there anyone here who has ever heard the Professor’s brain, felt it, touched or smelt it? No one appears to have done so. So, according to the established rules of empirical, stable, demonstrable protocol, science says that you have no brain,sir.

With all due respect, sir, how do we then trust your lectures, sir?

(The room is silent. The professor stares at the student, his face unfathomable. )

Prof: I guess you’ll have to take them on faith, son.
Student: That is it sir… The link between man & god is FAITH . That is all that keeps things moving & alive.

NB: This  seems to be a true story, and the student was none other than APJ Abdul Kalam, the former President of India .


Aug 31 2010

Being Happy!

Happiest people DO NOT Necessarily have the BEST Things , They simply appreciate the things they have … Warren Buffet


Jul 29 2010

An Interesting GENIUS that is Albert Einstein

Honored by Time magazine as the Man of the Century , Dr. Albert Einstein life has so many interesting stories … heres a few …

  • One day during a speaking tour, Albert Einstein’s driver, who often sat at the back of the hall during his lectures, remarked that he could probably give the lecture himself, having heard it so many times. Sure enough, at the next stop on the tour, Einstein and the driver switched places, with Einstein sitting at the back in his driver’s uniform.
    Having delivered a flawless lecture, the driver was asked a difficult question by a member of the audience. “Well, the answer to that question is quite simple,” he casually replied. “I bet my driver, sitting up at the back there, could answer it…”
  • Albert Einstein’s wife often suggested that he dress more professionally when he headed off to work. “Why should I?” he would invariably argue. “Everyone knows me there.” When the time came for Einstein to attend his first major conference, she begged him to dress up a bit. “Why should I?” said Einstein. “No one knows me there!”
  • Albert Einstein was often asked to explain the general theory of relativity. “Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour,” he once declared. “Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. That’s relativity!”
  • When Albert Einstein was working in Princeton university, one day he was going back home he forgot his home address. The driver of the cab did not recognise him. Einstein asked the driver if he knows Einstein’s home. The driver said “Who does not know Einstein’s address? Everyone in Princeton knows.Do you want to meet him?”. Einstein replied “I am Einstein. I forgot my home address, can you take me there? “The driver reached him to his home and did not even collect his fare from him .

    Einstein was once traveling from Princeton on a train when the conductor came down the aisle, punching the tickets of every passenger. When he came to Einstein, Einstein reached in his vest pocket. He couldn’t find his ticket, so he reached in his trouser pockets. It wasn’t there, so he looked in his briefcase but couldn’t find it. Then he looked in the seat beside him. He still couldn’t find it.

    The conductor said, ‘Dr. Einstein, I know who you are. We all know who you are. I’m sure you bought a ticket. Don’t worry about it.’

    Einstein nodded appreciatively. The conductor continued down the aisle punching tickets. As he was ready to move to the next car, he turned around and saw the great physicist down on his hands and knees looking under his seat for his ticket.

    The conductor rushed back and said, ‘Dr. Einstein, Dr. Einstein, don’t worry, I know who you are. No problem. You don’t need a ticket. I’m sure you bought one.’

    Einstein looked at him and said, ‘Young man, I too, know who I am. What I don’t know is where I’m going.”


May 6 2010

Nice small lecture by the world-renowned Indian author Chetan Bhagat at Symbiosis

chetan_bhagatDon’t just have career or academic goals. Set goals to give you a balanced, successful life. I use the word balanced before successful. Balanced means ensuring your health, relationships, mental peace are all in good order. There is no point of getting a promotion on the day of your breakup. There is no fun in driving a car if your back hurts. Shopping is not enjoyable if your mind is full of tensions.

Life is one of those races in nursery school where you have to run with a marble in a spoon kept in your mouth. If the marble falls, there is no point coming first. Same is with life where health and relationships are the marble. Your striving is only worth it if there is harmony in your life. Else, you may achieve the success, but this spark, this feeling of being excited and alive, will start to die.

One thing about nurturing the spark – don’t take life seriously. Life is not meant to be taken seriously, as we are really temporary here. We are like a pre-paid card with limited validity. If we are lucky, we may last another 50 years. And 50 years is just 2,500 weekends. Do we really need to get so worked up?

It’s ok, bunk a few classes, scoring low in couple of papers, goof up a few interviews, take leave from work, Enjoy with your friends, fall in love, little fights with your loved Ones . We are people, not programmed devices.

Don’t be serious, be sincere


Sep 17 2007

7 Great Quotes By Leo Tolstoy

I have quoted Tolstoy more than a few times …
I thought that thoughts that taught great lives (including Mahatma Gandhi’s and mine gulp , phew!), desired an estate of its own. So here are his most popular thoughts (never before under one roof grin )
  • A man is like a fraction whose numerator is what he is and whose denominator is what he thinks of himself. The larger the denominator, the smaller the fraction.

     

     

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    Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.

     

     

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    Everything that I understand, I understand only because I love.

     

     

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    Historians are like deaf people who go on answering questions that no one has asked them.

     

     

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    If one has no vanity in this life of ours, there is no sufficient reason for living.

     

     

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    In the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you.

     

     

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    Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way – Anna Karenina, Chapter 1, first line

     

 


Aug 15 2007

Leo Tolstoy : Man is Like A Fraction

The single quote by Tolstoy that made me his fan was

“A man is like a fraction whose numerator is what he is and whose denominator is what he thinks of himself. The larger the denominator, the smaller the fraction.”

Until yesterday, for me “Leo Tolstoy” was just a name in history. For those who are not aware … Tolstoy (1828 – 1910) was a great Russian novelist, dramatist, essayist and has been an inspiration for like of our own Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi was so inspired with Tolstoy that he went on to name his centers in South Africa as “Tolstoy Farm”.
Yesterday I happened to read a small article in the news paper on Tolstoy and instantly I became his fan too. There I was googling information about Leo Tolstoy. I read snippets of his literary work on sites ( there is quite a lot of it). He has written quite a few books including War and Peace and Anna Karenina. He also developed a kind of non-traditional Christian philosophy, described in his work The Kingdom of God is Within You, that shares some similarities with Buddhism.

Isn’t this an interesting thought!

PS. Another inspiring fact about Tolstoy … He is a VIRGO and so am I 🙂