Introspecting Aloud

The Church and Astronomy

I was quite piqued to find the other day that the Vatican has it's own observatory - the Vatican Observatory and that the chief astronomer is also the (or maybe one of the many) scientific advisor to the pope. Some more details:

The Vatican Observatory is one of the oldest astronomical research institutes in the world. Headquartered at the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, outside Rome, the observatory has an extension on Mount Graham in Arizona that is home to the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope.

Interesting. Religion and science. How do they manage the contradiction? Ok, the contradiction that I see. Well, seems they don't see any contradiction. They even claim that they have always been involved in science. They say Copernicus to be their own, however wikipedia does mention that Copernicus might have been a wee bit worried about the religious fraternity before publishing his finds. Interestingly, the chief astronomer of Vatican believes in the big bang theory and see no contradiction with his faith. And unlike many of us, who would simply be excited to know that ET exists, the chief's vision of the possibility of ET is, well, keeping with his faith. :)

Funes, who runs the observatory that is based south of Rome and in Arizona, held out the possibility that the human race might actually be the "lost sheep" of the universe. There could be other beings "who remained in full friendship with their creator," he said.

Sometimes, I think I am too simple minded to understand faith.

Quitting organized religion

Anne Rice, author of vampire books (like the book Interview with the Vampire on which the Tom Cruise starred movie of the same name was based) and other religion inspired ones, publicly announced her decision to quit Christianity a few days back. Of course, what she really meant was that she was leaving the organized religion named Christianity. She still believed in God, and decided to keep her faith an entirely personal affair without necessarily involving her entire religious community with it. I personally find this admirable, as this is precisely the role i feel faith should have in our lives. Or even lack of faith. Her reasoning was interesting though. :)

I’m out. I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being “Christian” or to being part of Christianity. It’s simply impossible for me to “belong” to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. ... In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control. I refuse to be anti-Democrat. I refuse to be anti-secular humanism. I refuse to be anti-science. I refuse to be anti-life. In the name of …Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian. Amen.

You could take Christianity out and replace it with any other religion, and it won't make a difference. Organized religion has the same impact on people of all faiths. Forever trying to homogenize the interpretation of faith over not just all it's followers, but even on the rest of the society.

Report on Cultural Policing in Dakshin Kannada

Just found out from this post about the report on Cultural Policing in Dakshin Kannada(PDF) just released by The People's Union for Civil Liberties, Karnataka (PUCL-K). An interesting excerpt mentioned in the blog post:

As one observer, who has been covering the events in Dakshina Kannada, put it, "Today saffron is the colour of power. You just walk around with a big red tilak and see how people treat you. Right from the shop keeper to the bus conductor to the policeman, everybody gives you respect. Without the tilak you are nothing, with the tilak you become a power structure." Munir Kattipalya of the DYFI echoes this sentiment when he says, "This district is not only communalized but also progressively criminalized." What is indicated by such statements is that there is a strong link between communalization and criminalization. It is precisely because the state has chosen not to act when criminal activities are perpetrated under the garb of religion that criminal elements now feel that they have the sanction to perpetrate violence and Cultural Policing in Dakshina Kannada other forms of intimidation by using the garb of religion. This possibly explains the proliferation of vigilante groups in Dakshina Kannada.

Of theocratic states,treason and capital punishments

There is a very interesting debate going on at talkislam.info after an Islamic Cleric in Harvard, no less, claimed how capital punishment is the right punishment for people deserting the Islamic faith. The common premise of those defending the cleric in the comments of that post, is that for a theocratic state apostasy is like treason. While I can't completely agree with that notion - it has to be an extremely insecure and intolerant theocracy to have such a position, I can't but help see the convenience of such a rule. Convenient for the masters of such a theocracy, that is. These masters are likely to be de-facto leaders of the state religion, and like any autocracy (I look at all theocracies as a form of autocracy) they would rather use any means necessary to hang on to their positions rather than be secure in a faith which survives by conviction alone. For faith and thought can seldom be peaceful co-dwellers. In fact, I couldn't help putting such a situation in India's scenario today. We now have a major political party, really close to gaining power in the country, which is philosophically almost completely in disagreement with the premise on this country was formed. One easy way to finding it out, is to go through their manifesto and see the number of times they talk about modifying the constitution (you know, repeal this, overturn that, enact this, etc.). The party is backed by a sinister pan-india organisation which has been at work to overturn the premise of this country from the day that we became independent. So what happens if this prominent political party eventually manages to convert this country to a theocratic state as has been their quite public fundamental aim all this while? Will we see people being executed for leaving their religion? Well, we already see a bit of their vision in what they are doing in Orissa. Will we stop debating religion as other Islamic theocracies have done? And by the way, unlike the Muslims, we Hindus do not have an equivalent of Qu'ran or Hadith or Sharia to run this country. Oh yes, I forgot, maybe the 2000+ years oldManusmriti - the document being quoted by this party to provide justification for all their social policies? Or maybe, the Gita, which regrettably far being a reference of wisdom is now quoted by people of this party as a justification for chopping off hands of people from other religions.

What truth in religion?

In an article in Guardian, Julian Baggini wrote:

Intelligent atheism rejects what is false in religion, but should retain an interest in what is true about it. I don't think many of my fellow atheists would disagree.

In response, I found Ophelia's reply to be so well articulated and to the point.

I would - depending on what is meant by 'what is true about it.' I don't think anything is true about it, if we mean factually true. If we mean something much looser by 'true' such as 'having some good things to say about compassion or peace' then I don't think religion has anything to offer that is inherent to religion as opposed to simply widely-shared moral intuitions, so again, I don't really think there is anything true about it (about it alone, to the exclusion of other ways of thinking). If I want wisdom about morality or justice I don't turn to clerics. There are other sources, who are less encumbered by beliefs that need to be protected.

An analysis of the terrorism situation in Pakistan

Was curiously browsing around for some Pakistani views of the situation in their country. If you can ignore the rare India/RAW bashing(which even one of the commentors admitted was ridiculous) and a a pro-Musharraf stance, this article at a Pakistani website provides quite a detailed analysis of the history and the current security condition in Pakistan. The suicide anatomy I also saw an interesting attempt by a lawyer in Karachi to gather signatures for a "Say no to state religion" campaign, aiming to stop Pakistan from being a theocratic state. I hope he succeeds. Looking at the responses however, it seems unlikely. :)