Scattered Aurora

Fairytales don't tell children that dragons exist.
Children already know that dragons exist;
Fairytales tell children that dragons can be killed.

I haven't written anything on any of my blogs for so long (make that a few days) that now I feel as hesitant as I would feel stepping into an office for an interview or going into my dads room to ask his permission for something I know I really don't want. And I really have no idea as usual what I'm writing about. Maybe I'm just writing for writing's sake. But even if that's the case why do I still want to write. I mean I can just take a break can't I? Its not like anyone is paying me to write something every day here. Then why do I have to feel this stupid sense of responsibility towards my blog when I don't even have a damn readership. Why do I start feeling so bad about not writing something, anything at all. No make that something worthwhile. If I write anything at all in my blog I feel really ashamed as if I somehow haven't really come up to everyone's expectations. I mean it has to be really really perfect and really literary or philosophical or some jargonic bull, with lots of flowery confusing phrases and with at least half the dictionary put in. Why can't I just put all my feelings and thoughts in simpler words instead of releasing them in a torrent of creative outlets that sometimes no one can even understand. Why do I have to make everyone get lost in a jungle of words and expressions? What do I have to prove? That I know the language and I can speak and write it quite nicely? Who do I have to prove it to anyways? To my friends, who already fantasizingly associate more with my language skills than the reality; or to my parents and relatives, for whom the knowledge that they put me in a 'good English-medium' school is sufficient and now they really don't care if I wrote a book on how to use the English language. If not to these most important people in my life, then to whom? To the strangers whom I don't even know and who don't even know me. The people of this world, who are unknown to me and whose existence is questionable in my eyes (forgive me I've been reading Heidegger). Who may live or die for all I care, and I wouldn't even know the story of their life or they the story of mine. What is it then that is forcing me towards writing these pieces in a way which I clearly despise. I don't know. And I'm scared to search for the answers even. I just say I don't know and I don't even want to know. But I do, no matter how much I deny it, I really do, but as I said above I'm just too scared of finding the answers. Now this is the strangest part of all. I know what I am and basically I can even sense what is wrong with me and there are a few things that are very wrong which I regard as the flaws of my being (talk to my mom; that's the understatement of the year). Even if I don't know what is the main reason why I do what I hate but I know basically in which flaw of my being this comes under (you see there are different headings). The strange thing is that even if I am peripherally aware of what is wrong then why the hell am I scared to go in deeper to look for answers. I am not saying that suspecting the reason should force me to look for the answer but just that there should be a different emotional excuse for my deliberate circumvention of the issue. I should be uninterested, happy with the way things are, or even sad but I shouldn't be scared. Maybe I'm scared because i fear that the true answer might somehow make me hate my flawed being even more. sigh. Sometimes the reasons behind our stupid arguments can be even more stupid than the arguments themselves. Man should really be proud of the level of stupidity he can achieve single-handedly. And I should really stop taking philosophy so much! Its making me go crazy!!!

P.S. It's funny how we all start our blog post with I-have-no-idea-what-to-write-about sometime or the other and usually that post ends up to be one of the longest ones in our archives. Man and his eccentricities. Tchh Tchh... *shakes head* ;p

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

Prof: So you believe in God?

Student: Absolutely, sir.

Prof: Is God good?

Student: Sure.

Prof: Is God all-powerful?

Student: Yes.

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

(Student is silent.)

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

Student: Yes.

Prof: Is Satan good?

Student : No.

Prof: Where does Satan come from?

Student:From...God...

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

Student:Yes.

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

Student: Yes.

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

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

Student: Yes, sir.

Prof: So, who created them?

(Student has no answer.)

Prof: Science says you have 5 senses you use to identify and observe the world around you. Tell me, son...Have you ever seen God?

Student: No, sir.

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

Student:No, sir.

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

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

Prof: Yet you still believe in Him?

Student:Yes.

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

Student:Nothing. I only have my faith.

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

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

Prof: Yes.

Student: And is there such a thing as cold?

Prof: Yes.

Student: No sir. There isn't.

(The lecture theatre becomes very quiet with this turn of events.)

Student : Sir, you can have lots of heat, even more heat, superheat, mega heat, white heat, a little heat or no heat. But we don't have anything called cold. We can hit 458 degrees below zero which is no heat, but we can't go any further after that. There is no such thing as cold . Cold is only a word we use to describe the absence of heat We cannot measure cold. Heat is energy . Cold is not the opposite of heat, sir, just the absence of it .

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

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

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

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

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

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

Prof: Flawed? Can you explain how?

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

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

Student: Have you ever observed evolution with your own eyes, sir?

(The Professor shakes his head with a smile, beginning to realize where the argument is going.)

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

(The class is in uproar.)

Student: Is there anyone in the class who has ever seen the Professor's brain?

(The class breaks out into laughter.)

Student : Is there anyone here who has ever heard the Professor's brain, felt it, touched or smelt it? No one appears to have done so. So, according to the established rules of empirical, stable, demonstrable protocol, science says that you have no brain,sir. With all due respect, sir, how do we then trust your lectures, sir?

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

Prof: I guess you'll have to take them on faith, son.

Student: That is it sir... The link between man & god is FAITH . That is all that keeps things moving & alive.

I am proud to call myself a Muslim and a Mujahid. I am no suicide bomber. I am no terrorist. Yes, I blow myself up, take my own life and thousands others along with me but I'm no murderer. I am not a killer or a psycho path. I do not do this for fun. I do it so that those infidels who call themselves Muslims and disgrace the name of my religion and my Allah can be punished. There are no innocents who die in this jihad. No blameless men who are just victims of circumstances. They are those heretics who just for the sake of it embrace my Allah and later go against His every word. And Allah has writ for them to die with me. My destiny is to purge this world of these munafiqin who have sold their very souls to the Devil and have no such religion. They are the ones who talk of Islam as if its something to be ashamed about, something that should be hidden from others in fear of what they would think. They have no right to live in this world that Allah has created for His believers. My hands are drenched in their blood, yes, but this is the blood which I spill in the name of Allah; the blood which will carve for me the path to Heaven, which will eradicate all the years of pain and misery I had to bear in this world. I plead innocent!

Everyday I wake up to reflect on whether I will be here tomorrow or not. Or will I be killed in the warfare taking place in my motherland. I look in the mirror and see a young army officer standing in full uniform. I thrust out my chest and see the medals gleaming. I stand up straight and my mirror image reminds me that I am the son of this land. My first and foremost duty lies in defending my country from these infidels who have infiltrated my motherland. I have to purge them from my country and cleanse the destruction they cause. I kill many of my enemies everyday but I also see many of my fellow soldiers being killed by them. But I am not afraid to die, in fact I consider it an honor to die for my country. Those infidels call themselves freedom fighters. We call them terrorists. What freedom do they fight for if they believe in forcing people into the confines of a religion born in their convoluted minds. I fight for the freedom of my people; freedom from these oppressors. I capture these terrorists and I kill them even but I am still no murderer. My hands may be drenched in the blood of these heathens but the soil of my land has soaked up a lot more blood of the innocent people of my country. The blood of my enemy means the life of my people. I plead innocent!