I wrote this article way back in 2002 for our Club's bulletin.
During the childhood and adolescence, everybody has an ambition. An ambition to be someone; a doctor, an engineer, a film actress or a model and some even want to be a bus driver or a conductor. But as they grow this ambition to become someone is either suppressed by their parents or it slowly wanes away due to numerous reasons. Well! The purpose of this story is not to discuss those reasons but I want to tell you about a wonderful experience not many of us get ever to experience in their entire lifetime.
Right since my childhood, I have always had a tremendous fascination for one of the greatest inventions mankind has ever made; The Flying Machine. Even today I take great interest in anything that involves combat aircrafts. It may be a magazine, a TV program or someone employed in Air Forces. In fact I always wanted to be a fighter pilot.
Highly glamorous as well as extremely dangerous profession isn’t it? Every time you go up in the air, cruising at staggering speeds of thousands of meters in a second and heights of several hundreds of thousands of feet, you are taking a great risk. But it ought to be a thrilling experience. Indeed danger gives relish to this thrilling experience. Even today hearing the drone of an aircraft overhead, my eyes wander in hope to be able to identify it.
Since my uncle is a high ranked officer (4 posts beneath the highest rank) in the Indian Air Force, I’ve had a great opportunity to visit the airfield a year back in June 2001.
My uncle was posted to Jodhpur airbase in Rajasthan. After finishing my TE exams in early June my cousin brother and I went to Jodhpur. In Rajasthan it is unbearably hot during summers.
Early morning at around 6:45 we drove to the air base. As the Jodhpur air base is strategically important from the view point of security of the North West region of our country, the security is always tight around the base. But as my uncle is in absolute command of all the engineering operations taking place on the airbase we virtually had entry anywhere and everywhere on the base.
After initial security check ups we drove straight on to the road leading to runway.
I was thrilled. For the first time in my life I was going to see it all in front of my eyes just a few meters apart. At an intersection of the road and the runway we had to stop because two MIGs were getting ready to take off. The skies were clear and a balmy breeze was flowing. The atmosphere was filled with an electrifying sensation. We were watching those MIGs in awe. Gradually the pilots accelerated. Holy crap! It was cacophonous. I had never heard such an extremely loud sound in my life. The air was vibrating and so my heart was palpitating. To be honest I was frightened to hear such a high intensity sound.
A few seconds later the pilots released the brakes and abruptly those flying machines zoomed off the runway. A few minutes later two more MIG 21s lined up side to side on the runway preparing to take off. The airmen finished last minute check ups signalling everything is OK. The pilots beckoned with their thumbs up, made a sharp salute and took off. I envied those pilots for that. One by one the planes were taking off and landing. Next we went into the hangers, the place where aircrafts kept, serviced and taken care of by engineers. We were received by a young junior engineer. I was impressed with his smart uniform, especially the eagle badged on his right chest. For the first time I got a closer look of a MIG 27. I learned that MIG 27 s are primarily used as ground attack fighters, to attack enemy targets located on ground. The place was truly an engineering workshop. All the equipment lying on the floor, oil sprawled everywhere and the men were busy in their work. We came out and spent some time again watching MIGs this time trying to figure out the signals exchanged between the pilots and the airmen.
Later we had a cup of tea in my uncle’s executive cabin and drove back home. While coming back I had only one word on my mind “Exhilarating”. It was simply amazing. The feeling of envy did no longer exist because back home I knew people would envy me for having experienced something not everyone gets to see right in front of their eyes.
I felt sad for one thing. I couldn’t take any snaps!
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
My View of Science & Religion
The other day we have had as part of our Rotaract Club's activities a debate arranged within the members of the club and the topic was "Science and Religion: Are both necessary for a meaningful life of human beings?". It was a topic of hot discussion, members just pounced on the topic and came up with some interesting insights. I think it has been an everlasting topic of debate for scientists, religious leaders and philosophers.
We first need to understand why Man felt it necessary to have religion and why science has dominated our lives since the past few decades diminishing the importance of religion from our lives.
I personally do not believe that Science is meaningless without religion. And my belief has its roots in the answers to the aforementioned query.
Thousands of years ago, when mankind was still in its evolutionary stage and when it knew little about its own nature, its surroundings and the phenomena in nature, Religion was born. We humans were wanderers and nomads, we were barbaric and there was no certainty of life. Life was full of struggle. Fulfilling the basic needs such as food, shelter and protecting ourselves were the primary goals of men and women of those times and which they were grappling to achieve.
As they gained more control over the surroundings in terms of fulfilling the basic needs and as they started to settle down at one place along with their kins, thats when the religion was born.
A way of life that he thought if followed, his life would become more meaningful and also it offered him a sense of security. Most importantly religion was thought of as a moral way of leading human existence by its founders.
But during later years, especially during Middle Ages religion became dominant and took a centre stage in human life all over the world. The religious teachings were never verified scientifically by anyone or for that matter nobody had dared to challenge them hitherto.
During the period of renaissance in Europe, some iconoclasts started to challenge the traditions upheld by the Church. Their belief was, the only way to find the explaination to human enquiry and curiosity into the nature's phenomena was by means of observations through our senses, their verifiability and predictability by means of experiments.
Science is the only means by which we can know about everything in our universe. Of course as much as it has made our lives easier and meaningful, it has been a cause of destruction of our environment and life. But science can not alone be blamed for that and religion is certainly not an answer to minimize its devastating effects. The widespread destruction has been caused by irresponsible, barbaric rulers and political leaders (sometimes even religious leaders); the mishandling of science and technology emerging from it at the hands of criminals is a result of social and economic inequality prevalent in our society.
So is religion the answer to this? Does science search for meaning in religion for the unknown? The answer is a clear “No”. In fact often, contrary to this notion that religion would be the savior of mankind from the devastating effects of science, it has been noticed that religion has been responsible for modern barbarism, the conflicts that have been literally swallowing millions of human lives across the globe. People are seizing weapons under the name of religion and planning crusades on others.
Karl Marx had rightly said “Religion is opium to masses”!!
What we need is the right value system. A system that believes in basic human values such as Equity or Fairness, Human Dignity, Fraternity, Service. Modern theories of social systems such as democratic socialism, humanism, liberalism etc are all based on these basic principles which are a result of scientific enquiry into human nature and study of underlying social sciences and history.
Nevertheless, all the religions in this world have taken cognizance of these principles long back and in fact proposed that human life based on these values is the right way to lead the life. But simply a lack of scientific enquiry, incorrect interpretation of these teachings and too much of an emphasis on Rituals have led to the spiritual degeneration of religion and people who follow those practices.
I am not at all against religion. It’s a very private thing and as long as one is following the basic human values it is sacred. But to say that Science is meaningless without Religion is rather preposterous.
The other day we have had as part of our Rotaract Club's activities a debate arranged within the members of the club and the topic was "Science and Religion: Are both necessary for a meaningful life of human beings?". It was a topic of hot discussion, members just pounced on the topic and came up with some interesting insights. I think it has been an everlasting topic of debate for scientists, religious leaders and philosophers.
We first need to understand why Man felt it necessary to have religion and why science has dominated our lives since the past few decades diminishing the importance of religion from our lives.
I personally do not believe that Science is meaningless without religion. And my belief has its roots in the answers to the aforementioned query.
Thousands of years ago, when mankind was still in its evolutionary stage and when it knew little about its own nature, its surroundings and the phenomena in nature, Religion was born. We humans were wanderers and nomads, we were barbaric and there was no certainty of life. Life was full of struggle. Fulfilling the basic needs such as food, shelter and protecting ourselves were the primary goals of men and women of those times and which they were grappling to achieve.
As they gained more control over the surroundings in terms of fulfilling the basic needs and as they started to settle down at one place along with their kins, thats when the religion was born.
A way of life that he thought if followed, his life would become more meaningful and also it offered him a sense of security. Most importantly religion was thought of as a moral way of leading human existence by its founders.
But during later years, especially during Middle Ages religion became dominant and took a centre stage in human life all over the world. The religious teachings were never verified scientifically by anyone or for that matter nobody had dared to challenge them hitherto.
During the period of renaissance in Europe, some iconoclasts started to challenge the traditions upheld by the Church. Their belief was, the only way to find the explaination to human enquiry and curiosity into the nature's phenomena was by means of observations through our senses, their verifiability and predictability by means of experiments.
Science is the only means by which we can know about everything in our universe. Of course as much as it has made our lives easier and meaningful, it has been a cause of destruction of our environment and life. But science can not alone be blamed for that and religion is certainly not an answer to minimize its devastating effects. The widespread destruction has been caused by irresponsible, barbaric rulers and political leaders (sometimes even religious leaders); the mishandling of science and technology emerging from it at the hands of criminals is a result of social and economic inequality prevalent in our society.
So is religion the answer to this? Does science search for meaning in religion for the unknown? The answer is a clear “No”. In fact often, contrary to this notion that religion would be the savior of mankind from the devastating effects of science, it has been noticed that religion has been responsible for modern barbarism, the conflicts that have been literally swallowing millions of human lives across the globe. People are seizing weapons under the name of religion and planning crusades on others.
Karl Marx had rightly said “Religion is opium to masses”!!
What we need is the right value system. A system that believes in basic human values such as Equity or Fairness, Human Dignity, Fraternity, Service. Modern theories of social systems such as democratic socialism, humanism, liberalism etc are all based on these basic principles which are a result of scientific enquiry into human nature and study of underlying social sciences and history.
Nevertheless, all the religions in this world have taken cognizance of these principles long back and in fact proposed that human life based on these values is the right way to lead the life. But simply a lack of scientific enquiry, incorrect interpretation of these teachings and too much of an emphasis on Rituals have led to the spiritual degeneration of religion and people who follow those practices.
I am not at all against religion. It’s a very private thing and as long as one is following the basic human values it is sacred. But to say that Science is meaningless without Religion is rather preposterous.
Sunday, September 11, 2005
The media (books, film, music,tv etc) tend to create rather than reflect the values of a society.I think this issue has two diametrically opposite faces.The first one supports the view that media helps to create rather than reflect the values of a society. The second one clearly opposses it.Here the aforementioned media types such as books, films, music and television differ significantly from each other in terms of its presentation, content and the correseponding impact on our society.
Today TV and cinema have comparatively deeper impact or an ability to influence our minds than print media. Because of its inherent vivid and real life like nature, visual media has more potential to create rather than reflect the values of a society.But such is not the potential of books and magazines to bring about a change in the value system followed in a society.
Lets illustrate these two points with few examples.You will realize how powerful TV and cinema are when it comes to influencing the root of our existence, our value system. Hollywood is an excellent illustration.
A lot has been written and debated about the impact of violence shown in hollywood movies on children not only in USA but worldwide.Movies like Terminator, Lethal Weapon, Face Off that portray blood and gory in all its glory where the hero goes on a frenzy of gunfiring after his family is killed or for any other numerous reasons. Then there are movies about psychopathic serial killings( Silence of the Lambs, Kiss the Girls, American Psycho) that delve into the mind of a psychopath only after showing in detail the execution of 3 or 4 brutal murders. Although serial killers are more prevalent in USA, the movies are watched through out the world. And who knows somebody (may not be a psychopath) may think it is justifiable to kill people and subject them to inhuman torture. As exaggerated as it may sound, there have been cases of using similar violence arousing techniques being used by youth in developing countries. Surveys conducted throughout United States indicate that at such an impressionable age so much violence may have detrimental effects on their mental health and may result in distorted value system. A recent survey done in UK on arrested criminals suggests that crime investigation tactics shown on TV serials like CSI Miami, Law and Order are increasingly being used by law breakers to outwit the police.Same is the case with drug culture. Your 10 year old daughter watches her favorite rock star in a concert on TV performing under a haeavy dose of cocaine, how do you think she is going to view all this? The celebrities are worshipped by not just adolescents but also by adults. They become their idols and whatever they do whether it is in congruence with our value system or it is right or wrong, children have a tendency to follow their lifestyles and everything. The point is as far as TV and film media is concerned it tends to create rather than reflect the values of our society to some extent, not completely.
The way human relations are handled and depicted on screens also calls for a stimulating debate. More later.
Today TV and cinema have comparatively deeper impact or an ability to influence our minds than print media. Because of its inherent vivid and real life like nature, visual media has more potential to create rather than reflect the values of a society.But such is not the potential of books and magazines to bring about a change in the value system followed in a society.
Lets illustrate these two points with few examples.You will realize how powerful TV and cinema are when it comes to influencing the root of our existence, our value system. Hollywood is an excellent illustration.
A lot has been written and debated about the impact of violence shown in hollywood movies on children not only in USA but worldwide.Movies like Terminator, Lethal Weapon, Face Off that portray blood and gory in all its glory where the hero goes on a frenzy of gunfiring after his family is killed or for any other numerous reasons. Then there are movies about psychopathic serial killings( Silence of the Lambs, Kiss the Girls, American Psycho) that delve into the mind of a psychopath only after showing in detail the execution of 3 or 4 brutal murders. Although serial killers are more prevalent in USA, the movies are watched through out the world. And who knows somebody (may not be a psychopath) may think it is justifiable to kill people and subject them to inhuman torture. As exaggerated as it may sound, there have been cases of using similar violence arousing techniques being used by youth in developing countries. Surveys conducted throughout United States indicate that at such an impressionable age so much violence may have detrimental effects on their mental health and may result in distorted value system. A recent survey done in UK on arrested criminals suggests that crime investigation tactics shown on TV serials like CSI Miami, Law and Order are increasingly being used by law breakers to outwit the police.Same is the case with drug culture. Your 10 year old daughter watches her favorite rock star in a concert on TV performing under a haeavy dose of cocaine, how do you think she is going to view all this? The celebrities are worshipped by not just adolescents but also by adults. They become their idols and whatever they do whether it is in congruence with our value system or it is right or wrong, children have a tendency to follow their lifestyles and everything. The point is as far as TV and film media is concerned it tends to create rather than reflect the values of our society to some extent, not completely.
The way human relations are handled and depicted on screens also calls for a stimulating debate. More later.
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