मनप्रवाहाः Streams of Thought

Arguments for the Existance of God

2006-02-09T21:44:00.000-07:00

Onthological Argument
1. God is a perfect Being
2. Existance is a positive attribute
3. God by definition must posess existance
4. Therefore God exists

Cosmological Argument
1.Past is infinite (assumpsion)
2. Thus infinity years have passed since we have reached this point in time
3. But it is logically impossible to count to infinity
4. Thus infinity past years could not have reached now
5. But we are here now
6. Thus past is not infinite
7. Past time must have had a beginning
8. The cause of time must be because of something transcendant
9. This trascendent being is God

Alternative version of the argument
1. Past is infinite
2. All thing we experience are contingent (temporary)
3. Over infinite time every possibilty will be actual (law of probability)
4. Thus the probability that every contingent could cease to exist at the same time is one possibility
5. That possibility would have been actual since there has been an infinite amount of past time, and so at a moment in time nothing would exist
6. Nothing comes from Nothing
7. Thus nothing should exist now
8. But things do exist now
9. Thus something not contingent supports contingent things by contributing with existance
10. This being is God

The Teleological Argument
1. Universe displays tremendous amounts of order and complexity
2. Machines made by humans show tremendous order and complexity
3. Machines made by humans are a result of design and planning
4. Similar affects have similar causes
5. Therefore the universe is a result of a design
6. Designs and plans require plans
7. Thus the designer of the universe is God.

Don't Hindus have Human Rights too?

2005-10-07T14:13:00.000-07:00

After reading source after source about Human Rights, it is always the same thing, Israel attacks so-and-so or America bombs some civilian location accidentally and so on. My question is why is it that when a Muslim is killed in some part of the world by a governement, they are being opressed, but when a Buddhist is killed in Tibet or a Hindu murdered in Bangladesh, the world remains tacit? Don't we also deserve human rights too?

Bangladesh is by far the worst place for Hindus to live. When the nation was formed in the year 1971, Hindus consisted of approximately 30% of the population. Today the Hindu population is less than 10%! Doesn't something sound rather odd here? If normal Hindu growth rates prevailed, the population of the Hindu community in this country would have been 32.5 million, but the Hindu population in Bangladesh stood at 12.5 million in 1991 Census (State of Human Rights, 1994). Therefore the missing population is at 20 million. (Ref 3). According to the figures, the Hindu population in Bangladesh is 20 million short of what it should be. Twenty-million is a massive genocide, making even the Holocaust look small, yet a majority of the world doesn't even realize this is happenning!

Now you might be wondering as to how such a large genocide could be happening without the world's knowledge, but there is a plethora of information revealing the torture of the Hindus in Bangladesh, not to mention the vast amount of proof of concurrent genocides against Buddhists and Tribal in the country as well. In the year 1991 alone, over two hundred Hindu temples were burned to the ground by Islamic militias. Young Hindu women in Bangladesh are rounded up by Islamic militias and forced to marry, and become slaves to their "husbands". If the women aren't enslaved they are gang-raped. Rita Rani Das, an eight-year old in Bangladesh was gana-rapped by Islamic militias. Isn't there something wrong when an eight-year old is raped? The rapists got away with the crime and the Bangladeshi government has done nothing to stop the rapists. The violence and destruction of these militias has forced thousands of Bangladeshi Hindus to flee to India, where they describe the destruction of their homes, or the brutal assualt or rapes of their family members. Does anyone deserve this kind of treatment? Mullahs grab Hindus and beat them to death chanting "death to the Kafir" at the end of the Friday service.

In addition to the Islamic militias, the Bangladeshi government has an organized policy of religious discrimination. The Bangladeshi Hindu is denied rights to visit Hindu Holy Sites in India as they are no longer being loyal Bangladeshis, whereas the Bangladeshi muslim is freely allowed to make pilgrimages to Islamic sites in India or Pakistan, or even granted government subsidy to go on Hajj to Makkah. An irony considering that one is not supposed to get financial aid in undertaking the Hajj, as per Islamic Law. Hindus interested in joining the Bangladeshi military (now why would any Hindu want to support their opressor) are asked before enlisting whether they are willing to eat beef (which is shunned in Hindu culture).

To make it worse, in 2001 the BNP-coalition took over the parliment. The BNP Party calls for the Talibanization of Bangladesh. The Vested Property Act, ratified while Bangladesh was still in Pakistani hands was utilized by the government to snatch upto 40% of Hindu property in the country. The BNP also is attempting to crack down on all supporters of the Awami-League, the other political party in the nation. Hindus who have generally supported the secular Awami League are now being persecuted as both a religious minority and political dissidents. The only way to stop this genocide is if people realised what is going on in Bangladesh. If the UN, India or the United States actually interfered in Bangladesh, the nation would become alot better off for religious minorities. Until then Hindus face a tragic presecution.

Even within the largest Hindu nation, Hindus are persecuted. In 1990, the Kashmir Valley became more and more pro-Wahabbism. The old idea of Kashmiriyat, where the large Hindu, Buddhist and Muslim populations could together pray in peace, was being erased in a matter of years. Violent mullahs began calling for an ethnic clensing of Kashmir from "the infidels". By the end of that year, 400,000 Kashmiri Hindus left their homes, becoming refugees in their own nation. The Kashmiri Pandits, the most erudite of all Hindus are now refugees living in miserable conditions in refugee camps in Jammu or Delhi. How can the Indian government just give into to these terrorists, and subject its own people to such attrocious treatment?

The Refugee camps are a terrible place to live. The Kashmiri, who have normally lived in the cooler climate of Srinagar are forced to bear the unbearable Delhi heat. They have only a single room hut to live in. Their water comes from contaminated sources, and they die in large numbers daily thanks to snake bites, heat strokes, or health problems. When the world cries for a separate Islamic state in Kashmir, they need to realise that these terrorists have commited far more human-rights violations than India has and they have forced the Hindu minority to unbearable conditions in their own nation. How can anyone even think of supporting such fanatics who use religion as a justification for genocide? Kashmir one of the most sacred places in India will not fall to the hands of savage war-mongers. India needs to do something to repatriate and protect the Kashmiri Hindus.

Basically I wonder now why we Hindus put up with all of this torture, and I am convinced that the "turn the other cheek" mentality has been in our minds for too long. This mentality looks nice on paper, but it will only lead to further opression. As the Hindu scriptures state, doing nothing when an injustice is happening is just as bad as helping the injustice. It is high time Hindus publicise their persecution so that the world can see, and assist their causes for freedom from persecution worldwide.

The Essence Western Civilization

2005-10-06T19:19:00.000-07:00

"Tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento
hae tibi erunt arte, pacisque imponere morem,
parcere subiectis et debellare superbos."

"For you to rule the masses, Romans, remember
This is you mission: to impose peace,
respect the defeated and disarm the splendid."

Aeneid Book VI 851-853

These three lines written two thousand years ago, still accurately depict the essence of western civilization. The civilization as one of power, peace, restraint, and moderation. All of these characteristics together summarise western civilization.

Power is central to western civilization. To prove this point simply look at the largest nations of all time: British Empire, The USSR, French Empire, The Romans, Alexander's Macedonia, and so on. A vast majority of nations are western nations. Even in this day and age, the west still embarks on quests to acquire greater power. Over the last few hundred years, it has been always been a western nation that has dominated the world. Starting with the era of exploration, the Spanish and Portuguese divided the world between themselves in the Treaty of Todesillas. They divided the world into half, for each nation to control. A little more than a hundred and fifty years later, the Dutch simply replaced the Spanish and Portuguese as the leading colonizer of the world. The French in turn replaced them who were eventually replaced by the British. We live in a world where a relatively new nation dominates the world, The United States of America.

America follows the same trends as its European predecessors. Although actual conquest might be shunned in today's world, control is still possible. Throughout the Cold War the United States established puppet states throughout the world. The war in Iraq and Afghanistan is simply another confirmations of this control in today's world. If the average westerner is asked who the greatest leaders were of their nations, they probably mention: Napoleon, Bismarck, Disraeli, Regan, William of Orange, Julius Caesar or Alexander the Great. What makes each of these individuals similar is the fact that they made their nation a powerful one, and helped their nation occupy more land, or control more people.

The west is does not encourage complete warfare either. War is necessary solely for control, nothing else. Peace is the ideal. This conflicts completely with certain nonwestern figures like Ghengis Khan or Attila the Hun, both of whom waged war for sport almost an had no restraint in invasions. To understand this idea better, let's take a look at the predecessors of western civilization, the Romans. Rome built a mighty empire spanning across the Mediterranean Sea. They waged war to expand their empire, but they valued peace and stability more than any war. Augustus Caesar who intiated the period of peace, the Pax Romana is greatly revered in Roman civilization.

Western Civilization is one of moderation. If one looks at a political History of England, America or most other western nations, for the most part these nations are rather moderate. The United States with her short history is easy to prove this point with. The USA has always been moderate, not giving too many freedoms too quickly, yet not being too stingy in depriving rights either. America is blessed as being probably the only nation which has never has a dictatorial regime. America even in her more liberal eras or her more conservative eras, has always been moderate, abiding by the moderate road, between two extremes. When Hippies advocated free love and an end to the war, there was still a large republican population that made sure to put up the bumper sticker "America love it or leave it" on their cars. In fact that extreme liberalism of the sixties led to a more conservative era in the seventies, when Nixon came to power, basically a Le Chatlier between two extremes to ensure balance in the United States.

Western Civilization is also about competition, nevertheless respect for one's opponent. Capitalism, probably the most revolutionary of all western innovations is all about competition. Who can make the most money or produce the best products. Capitalism is like a sport and CEOs are like the atheletes while the rest of us observe the match and vote for the athelete we like more. A majority of competitive sports are from the west, Football, Baseball, Basketball, Tennis ans many others all have their origins in many Western nations. In addition to the innovation of the sport, Western Nations lead the world in the Olympics. Tiny nations like the Netherlands or the Czech Republic amass more medals than far larger nations like India or Indonesia. The reason these small European nations can win so much is because they have the competitive spirit, which is not found to the same extent in most Eastern Nations (maybe with the exception of China).

It is nearly impossible to summarise the essence of western civilization into a few lines but Virgil came awfully close in doing so two thousand years ago. Western Civilization is one of power, peace, moderation, and competition. It is these three factors in the western mentality that allowed them to dominate the world from the days of Alexander to the modern era. The tiny European continent (along with the United States) second to last in terms of size dominated nearly the whole world by the late eighteen hundreds, due to this spirit of Western Civilization.