Tolerance is in the DNA of Hindus

Tolerance is in the DNA of India. This Hindu nation has not attacked any other country for the last 10,000 years or tried to convert people of other faiths. It welcomed and accepted all faiths and all have lived peacefully here. The minority population has increased proportionately more and they have more rights than the majority here. But if we look at the neighboring Pakistan and Bangladesh, Hindu and Christian minorities have been persecuted and decimated.

Peace and ahimsa are intrinsic with the psyche of Indians. The hot climate and mountains to the north and East and Ocean to the South have made them self-contained and at ease. The oldest religious texts, the Vedas originated in this peaceful land. Later ones like the Upanishads and Gita advocate ahimsa and non-violence. Hindus have lived following this directive of their sacred texts ever since.

Great religions like Buddhism and Jainism, which originated in its soil, are fundamentally peaceful. They are non-violent to the core. Their followers are directed not only not to harm any living thing but also to be merciful and compassionate to them as they have the same right to exist like a human being and it is sinful to hurt or pain them. Compassion and love for fellow beings became one with the psyche of India.   

Greatest minds that have grazed this land like Gandhi followed this principle throughout his life and Indians in general follow his life example. He showed kindness to a white man in South Africa who struck him violently and threw him out of the First Class compartment although he had the right to travel in it as he had a first class ticket. He asked all his followers to practice ahimsa fully and totally in the struggle he led against the British rule and it remained a non-violent movement throughout.

During the 1940s India had both Hindu and Muslim population spread almost throughout but with concentrations of one sect in certain areas. Politicians, due to their selfish interests, wanted to partition it into two (so that two ambitious guys could become their Prime Ministers). There was blood shed in the ensuing milieu and in a few years the two countries settled and went on with their business, one becoming Islamic and the other(India) secular.

The Hindu majority nation India continued with its peaceful agenda and has welcomed every faith. It even accepted, fed and educated Muslim immigrants although it was a very poor nation. Even today it accepts other faiths. The minority, gaining strength form its secular stand began to ridicule Hindu beliefs and denigrate their gods. When such arrogance exceeded limits Hindus started to oppose the stand of those who got converted at gun point or with a sword at their necks. This is being labeled as intolerance. In India now anyone can defile a Hindu god or belittle their beliefs but not otherwise. This is unjust especially as the Hindus are peace-loving and the majority. Is there any other nation in the world where the majority is humiliated likewise?          

As a proof of its tolerance and goodwill to the followers of other faiths, one can see that minority is growing in strength and numbers in India. Minorities enjoy much more rights than the majority here and the entire media is standing for the minority. The intellectuals support them and stand for their rights. Any squabble between them is interpreted as majority intolerance!      

The Muslim and Christian population in India have been growing in geometrical progression vis-à-vis Hindus who have been growing in arithmetical progression. Between 1961 and 1991 Muslim population had grown by 133.66% as compared to Hindu growth of 89.24% - Population of Muslims in India is estimated to be over 180 million in 2015. In in 1947 was it was a little less than 30 million! Even the Christian numbers have increased geometrically. Only Hindus did not. And for that magnanimity they are termed intolerant!

Pakistan had 22 million Hindus in 1947 and in 2011  it was 8.5  million. Now it may be less than five million. Pakistan’s religious minorities are widely viewed as embattled or under attack. At the time of partition in 1947, almost 23 percent of Pakistan’s population comprised of non-Muslim citizens. Today, the proportion of non-Muslims has declined to approximately 3 percent. Where has the millions gone?

After 1951, the Hindu population that has hovered around 1.5-2 per cent mark has been subjected to hardships, conversions, and denial of human rights. Most of the 16 per cent Hindus who were present in Pakistan at the time of the partition either escaped to India or, most tragically, succumbed to the genocide that accompanied partition. Still Hindus are intolerant! 

Gods' work: perpetuate wars&conflicts

From the earliest times, tribes fought for their tribal all-father or deity who prodded his followers to defeat others and establish his superiority. Gods have partitioned the earth; each sect owing allegiance to a god carved out a certain portion of the inhabited lands.  Man has used gods to get enriched and rule others (every king proclaimed himself as a god’s representative thus assuming divine right to subjugate the masses). Later, when organized religions were established, they fought to establish their  might and it continues to this day.

The followers of the mythological religions which flourished in the Roman Empire persecuted the early Christians and murdered many of them.  When Christianity gained upper hand (as the Roman emperor accepted it as the official religion) it became the persecutor. The Inquisition courts of the Catholic Church threw thousands alive into the dens of lions, burnt more in boiling oil and killed or torched others. Even scientists were not spared for upholding the truth (remember Bruno and Galileo who were persecuted or burnt alive for rejecting foolishness advocated by the Church).  

The Islamic conquerors killed innumerable followers of the other religions and forcibly converted many into Islam at gun point.  Nobody knows how many perished in the crusades waged between Christians and Muslims! The crimson blood of the children of the oldest religion, Judaism, gushed through the covered up canyons of many countries as they upheld their faith in their Bible God. Even now the Arab Israeli wars do not seem to end.  

When one religion disintegrated into a number of denominations, as did Christianity and Islam, innumerable wars followed. The Anglo-French wars and others of Europe in the 18^th and 19^th were between the protestant and catholic nations. It continued to the middle of the twentieth century.  In the latter half of the twentieth century we see wars becoming common between the different  sects of Islam. Continued war between Iran and Iraq, the threat of a conflict between GCC nations and Iran emanate from the animosity between Sunnis and Shiites. Sectarian Islamic warfare is spreading wherever the sects are becoming powerful. Christian nations conquered Islamic Afghanistan and Iraq killing or maiming millions for their own motives!      

Jihadists  immolate themselves in the name of their god to murder people believinhg in another god. Terror has become a real threat to the existence of man himself. The echoes of bayonet charges and fusillades of terrorists across the borders of different nations resound in deafening intensity. Meaningful harmony seems to be almost impossible as one god’s demands look conflicting with another's. Followers owe allegiance to their god and their group in an emotionally charged context and communal conflicts can arise any moment in countries where different religions co-exist and become a full-fledged war

Sun created light,sky,life&living things

The sun created the earth and life from its womb; it parented the saplings, enabled it to stand on its own leg, ensured its well-being by guiding it to a harmonious orbit and ordained its fruitful destiny for billions of years. More than any god we have been told about, the sun has been very kind to us. It kept us  at an optimum distance so that adequate but not more energy (unlike the other distant frozen planets, the earth is warm but not scorching like the smaller ones nearer to the sun) reaches the earth , its size has been made optimum so that there is an atmosphere with hydrogen, oxygen, water vapor and an abundance of elements which later, using the energy  supplied by the parent, caused the evolution of life.  The unicellular organisms evolved with the warmth supplied by the sun and diversified into myriad life-forms and the earth is now the home of a very advanced civilization.  The sun has loved us beyond even the wildest fantasy of any god or goddess. 

Gods  are found only in the thinking of man or in the books written by those who lived long back and who never understood the workings of nature and the solar system, let alone this infinite universe. There is no tangible evidence of any good thing done by any god so far.  Man’s quest for immortality, his helplessness before death makes him continue with such beliefs although they are  products of his own imagination. That could be the reason why a good percentage of the world population does not believe in any god any more.  There is no need to believe in the sun (you believe something which is not there); you understand him, he is so very real, concrete, living and the true cause of every breath you take.    

The sun is tangible, all-powerful, and it lives almost eternal-for more than 7 billion years! He made the earth, the sky, created day, night, light, all living things and each one of us. He is not an angry god like the Bible god who punishes its creations, but a benevolent one who gives out everything he has.  He is sacrificing his life and will end up as soon as his energy reserves are burnt up to keep us alive. 

In Hinduism, Surya (sun) is worshiped as a god and I do feel man is obliged to sun and sun alone for his life on this planet. When we die we will merge into the energy that makes the sun burn and shine for billions of years. 

Women are despised in the sickening OT

This sickening book (Bible) encourages readers to commit sexual violence against women and then abuse or kill them.  This book describes women, being stoned, burnt, cut to pieces after they were forced into sex.

In Genesis we read:  “Now as they were making their hearts merry, behold, the men of the city, certain sons of Belial, beset the house round about, and beat at the door, and spake to the master of the house, the old man, saying, Bring forth the man that came into thine house, that we may know him. 23 And the man, the master of the house, went out unto them, and said unto them, Nay, my brethren, nay, I pray you, do not so wickedly; seeing that this man is come into mine house, do not this folly. 24 Behold, here is my daughter a maiden, and his concubine; them I will bring out now, and humble ye them, and do with them what seemeth good unto you: but unto this man do not so vile a thing. 25 But the men would not hearken to him: so the man took his concubine, and brought her forth unto them; and they knew her, and abused her all the night until the morning: and when the day began to spring, they let her go. 26 Then came the woman in the dawning of the day, and fell down at the door of the man's house where her lord was, till it was light. 27 And her lord rose up in the morning, and opened the doors of the house, and went out to go his way: and, behold, the woman his concubine was fallen down at the door of the house, and her hands were upon the threshold. 28 And he said unto her, Up, and let us be going. But none answered. Then the man took her up upon an ass, and the man rose up, and gat him unto his place. 29 And when he was come into his house, he took a knife, and laid hold on his concubine, and divided her, together with her bones, into twelve pieces, and sent her into all the coasts of Israel. 30 And it was so, that all that saw it said, there was no such deed done nor seen from the day that the children of Israel came up out of the land of Egypt unto this day.”

Would you let your child read this? There are hundreds of passages of explicit sex, stories of raping virgins, hundreds of pages of pure violence and massacres, beheading firstborns –all of which no minor should ever be allowed to read.

The Holy Bible wants women to be burnt if she has sex with a man. “And the daughter of any priest, if she profanes herself by playing the whore, she profaneth her father: she shall be burnt with fire." (Leviticus 21:9). This misogynistic book literally makes a game of bashing, killing and horrific violence against women. This book spreads the idea that women exist for man’s sex needs and they deserve to be sexually exploited by men; they are scapegoats for male violence. It is full of hatred and contempt for women. Bible is a book with sexual violence, sexual exploitation or the abuse of women. It oppresses women throughout too. Books like this have groomed and are grooming boys to do violence against women and girls.

There is a lot of sex in the Bible including incest. It is written, Cain after killing his brother, knew his “wife” and begot Henoch. As there was no sister mentioned to him in the Bible he must have impregnated his own mother. Abraham married his half-sister, Howbeit and God approved of this union (Genesis 20:12-13) and had sex with her until she died at the age of 127. Lot has sex with his daughters who got pregnant from him. As one does not get pregnant overnight they must have had intercourse with him for a prolonged period. Er, Judah’s firstborn was killed by God. Later Judah commanded Onan to go and impregnate his brother’s wife. But Onan withdrew and sprinkled his sperm on the ground. This displeased the LORD: wherefore he slew him also." (Genesis 38:7-10).

Women are considered evil in the Bible. It is written, “Of the woman came the beginning of sin, and through her we all die.” Although God punishes both Adam and Eve for disobeying his directions, He places the majority of the blame on Eve for tempting her husband. God wanted women to live subservient to man. We see God punishing Eve more in the Genesis. She is made to suffer and bring forth children in pain. And the harsh punishment to Eve is applied to the entire women to come after her. This is unjust and can only be construed as a prejudiced decision of God to oppress females.   

"If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered, he shall pay the girl's father fifty shekels of silver. He must marry the girl, for he has violated her. The compensation for raping a woman is paying a few shekels to the father of the girl!  God punishes her again by forcing her to marry the man who savagely attacked her chastity.  This is  disgusting. If a man rapes an engaged virgin who doesn’t cry loud enough to draw attention, the community should consider the attack consensual if it took place within the city, then the whore must be stoned to death as per God’s instructions. (Deuteronomy 22:24). Fathers could sell their daughters as slaves to other men.(See Exodus 21:7-8) Girls who engaged in prostitution could be burned! Read Leviticus 21:9 "And the daughter of any priest, if she profanes herself by playing the whore, she profaneth her father: she shall be burnt with fire."

Collecting more wives and sex slaves was a sign of status In the Old Testament books. Among those who have several wives and/or concubines are Gideon, Elkanah, David, Rehoboam, Abijah, and Solomon. King Solomon had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines and Solomon was a great hero of the Jewish people.

Women were just like any other possession of men: “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. (Exodus 20:17) 

Brides, who were not virgins or who did not have their hymen intact (as a sign of virginity) had to be killed.  “If, however the charge is true and no proof of the girl’s virginity can be found, she shall be brought to the door of her father’s house and there the men of her town shall stone her to death.” Deuteronomy 22:20-21. But why there is no punishment mentioned for non-virgin men? Women would become non virgins only if men violated their virginity. But why punish women alone on this account, you silly God?  

After winning a war with the Midianites Moses, as God had instructed him to do, asks to save  every girl who has never slept with a man. (Numbers 31:14-18) Even God receives thirty-two virgins as his share of the spoils, but they’re handed over to the priest. The reserved virgins will be raped of course.

 There cannot be any justification for the special status that Abraham’s God gave to males making women their possessions meant for child-bearing and sex gratification. Fundamentalists are still fighting desperately to hang on to the special treatment men had and the privileges they used to enjoy in the Abrahamic faith. The early books of the Bible-all of them-show that God ordained men to rule over women. 

Religions will be out in a century?

Celebrity atheists are wide-ranging and include people like Mark Twain, Nehru, Mark Zuckerberg, Lance Armstrong, Warren Buffet, and Jodie Foster. Even so, they don’t make it on to our list of most influential living atheists. They, like so many other atheists, didn’t make a big deal out of their atheism and they lived their lives without God, but were happy to let other people live their lives with God. There are a few others who fight for atheism denouncing theism as nonsense. 



Atheists believe nature is self originating and there Is no need for a creator at all. There is no god, no soul, no afterlife-all these have been the creation of the primitive mind of man.  The universe or life does not have any purpose although individuals may harbor some purpose in life.

Faith in God should be rejected as it has been the cause of innumerable evils and waste of human resources. Tolerance of religions has been a major cause for many evils and terrorist acts. And we will be able to rid the world of religions only by creating awareness through science and reason.

Morality does not require belief in God and people behave better without faith in any god. Developed societies which are fast becoming atheistic show this trend. 

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As God does not exist and as the universe is purposeless, we can strive for a world in which happiness is ensured for the max. no of people.  We all will suffer and die eventually that is how nature has set things. But senseless terrorism and communal wars can all be avoided..

Judaism, Christianity and Islam together have inflicted a sizable percentage of all the afflictions that have befallen man in the last 3 millennia. Abolishing faiths of all kinds is necessary to get rid of a lot of evil. 

Religion makes one think it’s god’s’ will to destroy Israel, USA, France, or bomb innocent Christians of Iraq or Syria. Christians may believe it is their right to bomb Islamic terrorists or abortion clinics.  Islamic nations believe there is no place for the followers of any other faith in their country.Theology of one sect tells its followers to destroy another faction just like the protestants made wars with the Catholics for years in Europe.

All these will lead to killing and how can the world get rid of such maiming and indiscriminate massacre in the name of God? 

There is only one solution: get rid of religions altogether. rivalry between Christianity, Islam and Judaism have caused enough destruction already.

Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, Stephen Hawkins, Michael Shermera, Stephen Weinberg, Krauss, P.Z.Meyers, Peter Atkins,  Barbara Forest, David Sloan Wilson, Ray Kurzweil, William B Provine, P.A.Varghese --and so many others are working on this noble task. Religion will have to be out of the face of the earth in a century or so.  

S

Can we allow children to read Bible?

 Can we allow children to read this passage?  

"..........Now as they were making their hearts merry, behold, the men of the city, certain sons of Belial, beset the house round about, and beat at the door, and spake to the master of the house, the old man, saying, Bring forth the man that came into thine house, that we may know him. 23 And the man, the master of the house, went out unto them, and said unto them, Nay, my brethren, nay, I pray you, do not so wickedly; seeing that this man is come into mine house, do not this folly. 24 Behold, here is my daughter a maiden, and his concubine; them I will bring out now, and humble ye them, and do with them what seemeth good unto you: but unto this man do not so vile a thing. 25 But the men would not hearken to him: so the man took his concubine, and brought her forth unto them; and they knew her, and abused her all the night until the morning: and when the day began to spring, they let her go. 26 Then came the woman in the dawning of the day, and fell down at the door of the man's house where her lord was, till it was light. 27 And her lord rose up in the morning, and opened the doors of the house, and went out to go his way: and, behold, the woman his concubine was fallen down at the door of the house, and her hands were upon the threshold. 28 And he said unto her, Up, and let us be going. But none answered. Then the man took her up upon an ass, and the man rose up, and gat him unto his place. 29 And when he was come into his house, he took a knife, and laid hold on his concubine, and divided her, together with her bones, into twelve pieces, and sent her into all the coasts of Israel. 30 And it was so, that all that saw it said, there was no such deed done nor seen from the day that the children of Israel came up out of the land of Egypt unto this day.”  

 

I have written many articles documenting several filthy, violent or Sexy passages in the Bible, including genocide, murder, raping virgins, incest, and explicit sex stories.

There are descriptions of how Lot’s daughters have sex with their  father to get pregnant! It cannot be a one day affair as getting pregnant will not happen overnight. It is written Cain, after killing his wife Abel, knew his "wife "(his own mother was was the only one woman alive at that time as there is no mention of a sister for Cain in the Bible). Abraham marries his half-sister and God approves it. Onan was asked to have sex with his brother’s (whom God had killed) wife and since Onan refused to impregnate her God kills him too.

Hundreds of pages of the Bible speak of God’s anger, vengeance,  tyranny and is pictured as an ethnic maniac who loved the smell of burnt blood, and fatty flesh. They show how God committed more crimes than Hitler and Napoleon combined.  He beheads the firstborn, massacres people and armies brutally, annihilates entire human race in a deluge and burns cities like Sodom and Gomorrah, He oppresses women, encourages slavery, and is obsessed with his tribe, Israel. He is a terror even to his own tribe. Fathers could sell their daughters as sex-slaves. Soldiers could rape virgin captives..... 

Among those who have several wives and concubines are Gideon, Elkanah, David, Rehoboam, Abijah, and Solomon. Collecting more wives and sex slaves was a sign of status in God’s book. King Solomon, with thousands of wives and concubiones was a great hero. None of us would allow minors to read such filthy stuff.

Why the Bible should be banned

The Bible is hardly something we should be teaching our children or anyone for that matter. God was so happy killing children and infants. He killed every infant, toddler and children in the deluge he sent to destroy everything. When he annihilated Sodom and Gomorrah with fire and brimstone, he just didn’t bother about infants, toddlers or kids. He had a special love for killing the firstborn in his monstrous campaigns against the Egyptians. He sends his angel to behead their firstborn. His passion to kill the first born remained alive for ever. The Israelites celebrated the Passover and sprinkled blood on their doorposts so that God wouldn't kill their firstborn children (Hebrews 11:28) like he did those of the Egyptians as recorded in the Exodus.

The Bible is not only mere falsehood or a collection of fables gathered from here and there of the ancient period, full of transmissions and outright deceit, but also an account of God’s particular love for Israel to the exclusion of all the others. He sees women as accursed and treats them as sex objects of men and oppresses them. It is dominated by a fiendish and angry God who kills the entire kingdoms of Canaan area to settle his small tribe Israel.  If another word suites the Bible God, it is Demon and his actions are simply demonic.

How can this thing be the best book? How does it become the bestselling Book? May be they are forced upon people as they force children to accept Christianity without any consent from them. Christianity has been forcing its ways upon people from the time The Roman Empire chose Christianity as its official religion. Modern day terrorists and serial killers must have learnt a lesson or two from the Old Testament practices like stoning adulterous women, raping, oppressing, beheading firstborns, massacring people and animals and annihilating entire opposition armies even by throwing heavy stones from heaven. This book needs to be banned as it leads people to violence, deceit, falsehood and treachery.

As Christopher Hitchens asks what kind of a designer or a creator can be so cruel and indifferent. What kind of a god will choose to reveal Himself to semi-stupefied peasants in the desert regions? And a considerable part of the Bible-the Old Testament-are narrations regarding their lives, animal sacrifices, rituals, wars, cruelty, social life and relationship with their tribal god.  The choosing of a small tribe, at a particular period of human history, to reveal His mind and His grand plan to redeem man from the pits they had been thrown into  with the original sin, is against the universality of any Supreme, all-loving Being. Those who lived before Christ and the vast majority of those who lived later have not heard of Him or got convinced of Him. Why should man read this stuff intended for a minuscule tribe and accessed by a minority of the world population even after the coming of Jesus?   

Many thinkers have laid bare the truth about the Bible before me. They have shown that the Bible is full of violence and ugly stories, with a few seemingly good platitudes and parables interspersed. Anyone who has read the Bible independently (without surrendering his/her intelligence to faith) will find it hardly worth reading. But still, preachers, teachers, priests, bishops, cardinals and the Pope himself setting aside the intrinsic controversies, fallacies, fictitious stories, misleading concepts, sexy narrations, descriptions of vengeance, anger and utter nonsenses, propagate that it is the ‘word of God.’ Their programmed brains do not see--as Robert G. Ingersoll(1833-1899) mentioned  in his book, “The Works of Robert Ingersoll”--the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and tortuous massacres, unrelenting vindictiveness with which more than half the Bible is filled. It cannot be the word of God otherwise we have to conclude, as mentioned already, the God who inspired the Bible is a demon whose hallmark is wickedness and cruelty.’

Historians didn't know Almighty God lived in Palestine!

Archaeology has frequently proved the Bible to be false as a historical record. Finds are often interpreted to fit biblical commentary. The "mighty city" of Jerusalem was a mud hut village until the time of the Greeks and Romans, yet it is portrayed in the Bible as a glorious Hebraic creation. There are numerous examples of such "literary license," a notable one being that Nazareth, for example, didn't even exist at the time of Jesus's purported advent.

One cannot claim a book that is written exclusively from the perspective of one sect to be a credible history. If the Bible is history, then only Jews are the chosen people of God and all others are detestable and to be done away with.  

Perhaps the greatest evidence against an Almighty God living in the Palestine during the 1st century is his inability to attract significant notice (much less endorsement) in the detailed contemporaneous history. There is hardly any mention of this Almighty anywhere in the historical books of his time-proving that such an Almighty did not live at all. Philo, one of the most renowned writers of the Jewish race who was born before the beginning of the Christian era, and who lived (around Jerusalem) much after Christ was crucified does not say a single word on Jesus the miracle maker.  

The 1st-century Jewish historian Josephus believes the resurrection story as an interpolation. Josephus devotes more space each to John the Baptist and James, and while reporting much minutiae over the entire period during which Jesus lived. There is some passing mention of Jesus in his writings. Some of his utterances are believed to be later additions. Other historians like Cornelius Tacitus and Tranquilus Suetonius have passing comments on a new sect and are silent on Jesus or his ministry.     

If Jesus was an Omnipotent, Omniscience and benevolent Deity He would not go unnoticed in his times. He is said to have raised the dead from their graves, walked over waters, and fed 5000 people from five loaves of bread. He gave sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf and made the crippled walk. But he had to be betrayed by one of his own disciples to the authorities! It defies common sense!  

We can glean nothing from the Gospels about Jesus--what did he did or what he said. From the moment of conception to his death incidents and stories that were the common characteristics of the mythical gods like Osiris-Dionysus. Mithras, etc. were added on to the life of Jesus and such layers and layers covered the reality. 

The contradictions and immorality in the stories of the Bible are not because God is flawed or evil, but rather because the Bible writers are flawed as they are the ones who created the entire thing independently of any god.  

But most of us believe Bible is the word of God because we have been brainwashed into believing so. If we hadn’t been initiated into Christianity since we were infants and programmed into its various teachings and rituals from very young days we would have read through the Bible like folklore or a collection of stories and ardent preachers’ teachings. Bible contains the reflections of the early humans who did not have the smallest idea as to what was going on. They recorded childishly what they felt, seemed to see and experienced. 

The Old Testament contains stories of creation and original sin to explain the misery and suffering of man, a great deluge, and narrations on human trafficking, ethnic cleansing, slavery, indiscriminate massacre and vengeance. The New Testament is about a faith healer and reformist preacher who was crucified by the Romans at the instigation of the Jews. Preacher-writers made him a ‘Son of God’ after the fashion of the mythical gods born of Immaculate Conception and doing so many miracles including raising the dead. Like the gods before him, Yeshua was made to resurrect. Later on, he was made into the Almighty God. But the reality could have been he was born, lived and died a Jew without ever thinking of instituting a new religion.

Are we alone down here?

Man is curious to know whether there is extra-terrestrial life. Today we assume that life is possible only on an earth-like-planet of a sun-like-star placed at more or less the same distance as the earth is from the sun. There are billions of galaxies each having billions of stars. There has to be lots of planets and astronomers are almost certain that there would be thousands of earth-like planets in the universe.The difficulty lies in locating them.

But whether there is a planet at all around a star was a big question until one was discovered in 1995.

During the last decade and a half scientists have been studying whatever stars they could survey, for signs of planets. They have discovered 500 or so gas giant planets of very large stars millions of kilometers away.  But they are massive, some of them much bigger than even Jupiter, and none earth sized . They are either too hot (close to the star) or too cold (far away from the star) and as they lack solid or liquid surfaces they cannot harbor life as we know it. The few rocky worlds (solid planets) discovered so far also do not fall into the ‘habitable zone’ and therefore cannot support life. Locating one for a sun-like-star, approximately at the same distance as earth is from the sun, (so that the temperature is neither too cold nor too hot) looks to be really a tough job. Remember we took thousands of years just to identify the other planets that circle our own sun. 

Finding gas giants is all interesting but the truth is that it is not just very useful to us. Discovering earth –like planets might give us hints as to whether we are alone or not.  But there has been very little luck in locating planets of the size of earth or even close to it so far.

Steven Vogt, Paul Butler and other astronomers found out a new planet, Gliese 581g, around the star Gliese 581 raising hopes.  Detected from the minuscule amount of gravitational influence it exerts on its star, the planet was a mere 20 light-years away in the constellation Libra. The planet is the sixth world discovered around its sun and the fourth most distant.  It was classified as a super-Earth, a category which incorporates planets exceeding the mass of Earth but smaller than 10 Earth masses. On April 21, 2009, another smaller planet orbiting the same star was announced. Things looked very bright.

But later studies have made scientists doubt whether such planets exist at all!  The planet hunting game is not  easy  as we  are dealing with light-year-distances. (Light travels 300,000 kms in a second and hence it goes 300,000x60x60x24x365 kms in one year!) This is a huge distance and hence the work becomes harder. 

 

Even the largest planet of another star cannot be seen with any telescope in the world. Scientists have to assume the presence of a planet from the ‘wobble’ of a star.  Two heavenly bodies, say, like a star and one of its planets, will have to revolve around their common center of gravity to keep equilibrium. If one of them (obviously the planet) is very small, the common center of gravity will lie within the star—separate from its own center of gravity--and the planet will be revolving around this point. The star will be thus just wobbling and not revolving as that point is well within it. By analyzing this back and forth movement we can infer the size of the planet. Scientists also theorize the presence of a planet by studying the light obstructed by the planet. The intensity of the dimming throws light on the size of the body. Astronomers have another way too: they study the bending of the light emanating from the star as it passes a planet. All these methods imply arduous work and long observations, analysis and calculations. 

The search for an earth like planet is reaching a feverish pitch. The huge Kepler telescope, which has been orbiting the sun since it was launched in January 2009, keeps gazing more than 10,000 stars. It studies the wobbles of the stars, the bending and dimming of rays, and provides valuable data for the scientists.  The Astronomers from around the world have revealed data regarding the planets so far found. More than 100 planets of similar size to earth have been reported to have been discovered.  The innumerable number of stars out there makes it almost inevitable the presence of an earth-like-planet. But the difficulty is in accurately locating the same. But if astronomers succeed in identifying one, the real search for earth-like-life will begin.   

A planetary system 1200 light years from Earth was thought to contain two worlds entirely covered by global oceans. Kepler 62e and 62f are in the habitable zone of a roughly Sun-like star. Each planet is slightly larger than Earth. But nothing came out of this hypothesis too

Aastronomers have recently discovered the first Earth-size planet orbiting a star in the "habitable zone" -- the range of distance from a star where liquid water might pool on the surface of an orbiting planet through Nasa’s Kepler Space telescope. The discovery of Kepler-186f confirms that planets of the size of Earth exist in the habitable zone of stars other than our sun. While planets previously found in the habitable zone, are all at least 40 percent larger in size than Earth and understanding their makeup is challenging. Kepler-186f is more reminiscent of Earth. Although the size of Kepler-186f is known, its mass and composition are not. 

As of now we know of just one planet where life exists. None has been located that mimic earth.  

Paris massacre

129 or more lives were brutally cut short by the gunmen during Friday's atrocities in the various locales of Paris. Many of the coordinated terrorist assaults occurred only minutes apart. Most of victims were fresh-faced youngsters who had hoped only to enjoy a night out at a rock concert or a friendly soccer match.

More than 100 innocent people were killed in the Bataclan concert hall alone when they were enjoying music from the American band, ‘Eagles of Death Metal’.  Kalashnikov-wielding gunmen sprayed bullets into them shouting at the people trying to flee, 'if you move, we'll kill you'. The jihadists paused briefly to move up to the balcony, where they reloaded and opened fire again at the concert-goers in the pit downstairs. The Jihadi gunmen continued slaughtering innocent concert-goers while they were trying to escape dragging their bleeding friends along the ground to safety.  After shooting the people packed into the pit dead, the jihadists used their vests to blow themselves up. French Special Forces evacuated people including the injured from the Bataclan concert hall following the fatal shootings. 

Another site for the Jihadi carnage was the La Belle Equipe restaurant. About 12 but possibly as high as 19 of the victims were from the La Belle Equipe, Rue de Charonne, a popular bistro in Paris. The gunmen were outside of La Belle Equipe when they started shooting. They aimed at  people who were sitting on the terrace of the cafe. One witness said the shooting lasted about three minutes. Then the gunmen reportedly got back in their car and headed in the direction of the Charonne station. 

Two explosions occurred near the sports stadium, the Stade de France, apprently by a suicide bomber, as the German and French national teams were playing a friendly soccer match. The Explosions killed three people and left several more injured. The French president Mr. Hollande who was among the spectators was quickly evacuated.  

The casualties were much more than during the massacre at the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and related assaults around the French capital by Islamic militant extremists less than a year ago. These attacks have traumatized France and the whole world. Hollande has declared a state of emergency in France. Fears of such religious extremist acts from violent jihadists radicalized by the conflicts in Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East, have been escalated in Europe, USA, India and a few other nations.

Thousands of people have taken to the streets of Paris to pay tribute to the victims of the horrific attacks. Vigils have been held around the globe as the world's iconic buildings-- Tower Bridge in London, Sydney Opera House, the 408ft spire of One World Trade Center in New York, the Empire State Building, San Francisco’s City Hall, the CN Tower in Toronto and the High Roller Ferris wheel in Las Vegas  were all lit-up --bathed in blues, whites and reds (French tricolor)-- as an eloquent expression of solidarity  with the French in the wake of Paris attacks.

World leaders have condemned the attack in unequivocal terms. President Obama said: . “This is an attack not just on Paris, it's an attack not just on the people of France, but this is an attack on all of humanity and the universal values that we share."  World leaders have made clear that they will stand together with France in the fight against terrorism and extremism. 

World mourns the lives lost. Only emotional attachment to a god can make men do such evil as that in Paris now, earlier in the Twin Tower massacre and in the Mumbai blasts. The world should take concerted action to wipe terror from the face of the earth with or without Islamic nations’ support.  

Develop your personality-1

  

Have you ever thought why some people have lots of friends while others do not?                                                                                                                    

Why some are climbing up the ladder so effortlessly while others remain at the lower or middle rungs?                                                                                          

Why are some welcome in any group while others have to lead a lonely life?

 The difference is largely due to the type of personalities these people have.                                              

While some people are likable, well-mannered, ambitious, smart, healthy with articulate communicative ability: others are negative, unhealthy, least interested in dressing and grooming and difficult to deal with.

Try to observe parties and you will notice how those who are confident, always smiling and going out of their way to talk with others are the life of the party, while there are  those who prefer to stay in one corner, all by their lonesome selves.  

People have different characteristics that are reflected in their social and interpersonal interactions with others. Some are: sociable and enthusiastic,  

friendly and kind,  

Organized and hardworking  

§    Calm and tranquil

§    Intellectual and creative     

 

                                                                                                                                          

There are those who are not sociable, friendly, organized, hardworking, intelligent or calm.                                                                                                    

These five personality dimensions provide a very broad overview of one’s personality. Most people’s personality is a combination of each of these personality characteristics. For example, someone can be highly social, hardworking and extremely creative but unfriendly and highly emotional. Any number of permutation and combination is possible with these characteristics. Someone who is high in intellect and sociable can be creative, witty and humorous. On the other hand one who is high in Intellect but low in sociability will be more reflective. A few are neither intelligent, agreeable nor sociable.   A number of us are highly sensitive, hot tempered and impulsive although intelligent.

Whatever these combinations and permutations are, your personality sends out a signal that others read and respond accordingly. Hence it is all the more crucial we develop a positive, capable and dynamic personality.

There are researchers who maintain that personality is stable throughout life depending on one’s early childhood experiences, education, profession and marriage.  Making people understand that they can develop or improve their personality is not all that easy. Sometimes it is an overwhelming task as many feel they cannot improve their personality at all. Anyone who is sane can take command of his personality and develop it the way he wants to. There are many new concepts and techniques available now which have been laid out before you by the experts. 

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 You have the potential in you to change your personality for the better. You may have good IQ, good emotional set-up, good education, good health and so on enabling you to take your personality to higher levels.

You need first to desire and dream to change it for the better. Probably that is why you are reading this. You can easily develop a better one by knocking off the rough edges, polishing the rusted parts, and making the whole appearance shine. You need to change fundamentally your thought patterns and beliefs too.  

India-poor and corrupt

The previous governments have made the middle and upper classes  believe that India is almost a developed economy and a super power. There are people here who believe India is the third or so largest economy in the world! What is the ground reality?

About 50% Indians defecate in the open (626 million Indians do not have a toilet!) 25-30% of the entire population lives below poverty line. 300-360 million Indians live with Rs20/- (about 30 cents) a day. They do not have a square meal a day, a dwelling, water-supply or sanitation. They sleep in ramshackle huts or on pavements or in slums or in blighted areas. Another 30% live on the brink of the poverty line. The rural folks, the vast majority of whom are peasants, are all emaciated without adequate nutrition, health care or sanitation.  







Infant and maternal mortality rates are very high. One out of two children suffers from malnutrition; they are sick or stunted. Women are the worst sufferers. Being a patriarchal society they are suppressed,   they cannot select a career or decide their fate. Almost 50% of them are illiterate and two-thirds are confined to the four walls of the house producing children and working from early morning to late night. The urban women who land up in a job have to work double: at the office and at the house. Thus half of the Indian citizens do not partake in nation building.  How can a country progress in this scenario?

India houses more of the poorest and more of the hungry stomachs of the world than any other nation. More children are stunted or emaciated here than anywhere else. Still the priorities of the central government had been elsewhere. Our defense spending had been one of the highest in the world.  Still India is nowhere near the defense capability of China. A considerable percentage of the entire money has gone to the pockets of the concerned politicians. Massive weapon buying had been initiated by the rulers seemingly for the kickbacks.

 The funds earmarked for the poverty alleviation programs landed up in the pockets of the politicians and the public servants. The black money in foreign banks got built up every day. India has a huge bureaucracy which is corrupt to the core as they follow the Congress leaders. No wonder India is ranked as one of the most corrupt nations. Wrong priorities of the government had been in themselves suicidal!

When half the population was illiterate and below poverty line the government was sending rockets to the moon to find out whether water existed there! They exploded crude nuclear devices and spent billions on weapons which become useless in a short time as they were sourced wrongly from socialist nations like USSR for kickbacks. No significant effort was done to contain population increase, or to empower women. And the educated middle class was made to believe India was advanced, progressive and powerful!           

Is there true democracy in India?

During the 65 years of Congress rule, the peopole have been incapable to get rid of corruption, red-tap-ism, total inefficiency  pervasive in the government departments or to reduce the massive spending on weapons, military aircraft, submarines, arms and ammunition. This poor nation had been the biggest purchaser of these in the world which become obsolete in a few years as they have been sourced mainly from socialist countries like the USSR,notorious for inefficiency and low quality. The poor do not know the predominant interest had been kickbacks: (remember Bofors) and the not-so distant opportunity for another purchase. We do expect a change in all these with the advent of the BJP government.
  

The poor, emaciated, sick, hungry, sick masses can be swindled this way or that on simple emotional or religious issues. Anything is possible with wealth (leaders have amassed plenty of it) and political acumen to sway the mood of the masses playing on their sentiments. The Congress politicians have made the masses understand that corruption is an essential trait of the Indian psyche and none can overcome the malaise. The Nehrus have created a corrupt political machinery and a huge bureaucracy There had been no count of the wealth of the political leaders in foreign secret accounts and as every effort is thwarted to reveal the names, even the middle class do not know the extent of the looting of the wealth of this nation.
  

If a lie is repeated thousand times it becomes a truth. The media-both print and visual-had been controlled largely by the political rulers or their sycophants and they write/broadcast all sorts of lies to confound even a sane man. They had been saying India is poised to be a super power (we are very poor and we receive massive aid from the developed world even now). They do not mention that one out of two houses in the rural areas do not have a toilet and that half of all our children are mal-nourished, stunted or sick.This highly corrupt  nation is high in hunger, poverty, infant mortality, backwardness of women and maternal mortality and very poor in health care and living standards. 

Illiteracy rate is so high that almost half of the electorate cannot read and write. Almost 50% of the entire population is so poor that they are always preoccupied with fetching the bare necessities to survive.  In the live or die survival scenario nothing else matters. They do not and cannot know who is a better politician, which party is good for them or what the rulers have been doing with the national wealth so far.   

Our political system has not been a true democracy in the real sense of the term but richocracy' the rule by the rich and the powerful for the poor and the average. Even the judiciary can be influenced by the wealthy and the powerful leaders. The vast majority of poor Indians living in the rural areas and urban slums without proper housing, electricity, drinking water, food, schools have no say in anything. The government servants, traders organized unions, and employees decide the elections. The vast majority, the poor cast their vote as they have been 'swayed' by means available to the  political parties and their candidates.    

Yahweh had a consort!

El and not Yahweh, was the original God of Israel who was the chief of the Canaanite gods, described as kind and compassionate and the creator of all creatures. He lived in a tent on a mountain from where all the fresh waters of the world came forth. EI presided over the Assembly of the Gods with the goddess Asherah as his consort.  The pair made up the top tier of the Canaanite pantheon of gods, the second tier was made up of their children, the seventy sons of Asherah.  Baal was prominent among them. His home was on Mount Zaphon and he gradually became the dominant deity. El had all the executive power and Baal was invested with the military power in the cosmos. Thunderstorm was his realm with its life-giving rains and naturally he was also a fertility god. The third tier was made up of craftsman and trader deities and the fourth tier consisted of divine messengers and the like.

Yahweh, a southern warrior and storm god, somehow  joined the pantheon headed by El who became a generic term for God. Each member of the divine council had a nation under his care. Chemosh was the god of the Moabites, Milcom the god of the Ammonites, Qaus the god of the Edomites, and Yahweh the God of Israel.   Israel's battles became Yahweh’s battles, Israel's victories his victories. He would procure his people a fertile resting-place.

 In each kingdom the king was also the head of the national religion and God's viceroy on Earth. Each year the king presided over a ceremony at which Yahweh was enthroned in the Temple of Jerusalem.  

In November of 1999  Prof. Ze’ev Herzog of Tel Aviv University announced:  the Jewish God Yahweh had a female consort - the goddess Asherah! The identification of the goddess Asherah (Asherat) (Eelath) as his consort leads to some explosive conclusions about the identity of the Jewish/Christian God. 

Curiously, Baal’s consort was also his mother, Asherah.

According to biblical scholars Yahweh as a name is first used with Moses in Exodus, and is indicative of monolatory (exclusive worship of one of many Gods) rather than monotheism. The name Yahweh can also be translated as "I am who I am", literally a way of disguising his true identity.

   

And El Shaddai is one of the versions of God described in Genesis. The obvious question is, why did Yahweh reveal himself to the patriarchs as El Shaddai? El Shaddai is still venerated in the Jewish faith in some form.

According to scholars Yahweh is prone to violence and seems to despise his chosen people. He is a perfect match for ISH.KUR (Hadad), whose land is occupied by the Amorites and Hittites, and is a known demonstrator of violence and contempt for his worshipers. ISH.KUR’s image, traits, and symbols match those of Baal. He is also anti-Babylon and anti-Egypt, as is Yahweh. And like Yahweh’s, the real name of the Canaanite Baal (Hadad) must not be spoken.

On the basis of Herzog’s discovery, the following is a logical conclusion and solution to the identity of the Jewish God of the Old Testament: ISH.KUR = Hadad = El Shaddai = Baal = Yahweh.  

This indicates, as does Herzog’s work, that the Jewish people evolved from polytheism to monotheism by promoting a god, who had been known by a variety of names, into the supreme God. For this purpose, they adopted not the supreme God of the Pantheons, El, but his son known under various names- ISH.KUR, Baal, Hadad, El-Shaddai-who was in an open revolt against his father El. His mother and consort,  Asherah, aided him in this revolt.