I consider myself very lucky. I have been born in an age when books are easily available. Information is easily accessible and very cheap. Little effort is needed to quench my thirst of knowledge, however great it might be, at times. I am lucky that I don't have to think through most of the things. I can just read them written in one book and the other and move ahead from there. It is such a blessing indeed. I don't need to find out much about the neurotransmitters of the brain and nervous system in general as I can find everything in books.
The down side ofcourse is that books are afterall opinions expressed by others and thus carry a certain slant. So in modern age most of the analytical energies of brain go into undoing those biases involved with the phenomenon rather than thinking about the phenomenon from scratch. Hasn't that shifted the pattern of thought in recent times? This critical thought is even less required in matters of objectivity. Scientific information is usually based on two way possibilities only. Either there is something or there isn't. So we don't have to spend much time analyzing the bias in writing, generally speaking. Of course there are scientific questions which cross into the realm of subjectivity and do strain the human critical mind.
But with even most objective information there is a hitch involved. The reliability of information presented. That is to say if it is not flawed in presentation it might be totally false. Take for example the case of news reporting. It is in principal scientific yes or no reporting. Either an event did occur or it didn't. But the hitch is that this reporting could be totally false. Some events occur in news but not in reality and others are just considered not worth reporting. Similarly the earth could be just straight out flat but scientists want us to believe it isn't. Infact its as round as a round table conference. How many of us have actually observed earth from a perspective to be certain that it is infact what it is said to be? We drink water made up of two molecules of Hydrogen and a loner Oxygen. How many of us have actually seen Hydrogen and Oxygen and more so them coming together to make water? But we still earnestly and honestly believe that glass after glass of that colourless liquid we drink is water made up of Hydrogen and Oxygen. Here begins the realm of conspiracy theories. Very appealing and sensational pieces of information very logically presented to a very dumb listener. We either choose to believe them or we don't. In either case it doesn't make a difference to anyone. Those who don't believe in a conspiracy theory think it is absurd. Those who do believe in it do so in the hope that one day it might come true and give them a long wanted moral boost. I would like to think that I am not alive but dead. I would like to think that it is all just a dream. I would like to think that there really is no pain. I would like to think that true is false and false true. All this just in a hope that some day it will be so and I will have my long awaited moral boost over all this miserable existence that we call humanity.
Belief my friends is one tricky business. I usually try and stay away from this animal. It has a tendency to sting you right back on. You believe in a situation, in an emotion, in a person, in a thing, in non-existance and in existence and just the very next moment that belief becomes the bane of your existence. Belief for me is an unthinkable thought which must be thought to survive in this world of possibilities but still remains unthinkable. Maybe it is the nature of belief to test you once you start having the fullest of affirmation in its existence. Maybe it knows reverse psychology better than any of us around.
While we are at it a word about reverse psychology. Reverse psychology is a product of our own insecurities.
The down side ofcourse is that books are afterall opinions expressed by others and thus carry a certain slant. So in modern age most of the analytical energies of brain go into undoing those biases involved with the phenomenon rather than thinking about the phenomenon from scratch. Hasn't that shifted the pattern of thought in recent times? This critical thought is even less required in matters of objectivity. Scientific information is usually based on two way possibilities only. Either there is something or there isn't. So we don't have to spend much time analyzing the bias in writing, generally speaking. Of course there are scientific questions which cross into the realm of subjectivity and do strain the human critical mind.
But with even most objective information there is a hitch involved. The reliability of information presented. That is to say if it is not flawed in presentation it might be totally false. Take for example the case of news reporting. It is in principal scientific yes or no reporting. Either an event did occur or it didn't. But the hitch is that this reporting could be totally false. Some events occur in news but not in reality and others are just considered not worth reporting. Similarly the earth could be just straight out flat but scientists want us to believe it isn't. Infact its as round as a round table conference. How many of us have actually observed earth from a perspective to be certain that it is infact what it is said to be? We drink water made up of two molecules of Hydrogen and a loner Oxygen. How many of us have actually seen Hydrogen and Oxygen and more so them coming together to make water? But we still earnestly and honestly believe that glass after glass of that colourless liquid we drink is water made up of Hydrogen and Oxygen. Here begins the realm of conspiracy theories. Very appealing and sensational pieces of information very logically presented to a very dumb listener. We either choose to believe them or we don't. In either case it doesn't make a difference to anyone. Those who don't believe in a conspiracy theory think it is absurd. Those who do believe in it do so in the hope that one day it might come true and give them a long wanted moral boost. I would like to think that I am not alive but dead. I would like to think that it is all just a dream. I would like to think that there really is no pain. I would like to think that true is false and false true. All this just in a hope that some day it will be so and I will have my long awaited moral boost over all this miserable existence that we call humanity.
Belief my friends is one tricky business. I usually try and stay away from this animal. It has a tendency to sting you right back on. You believe in a situation, in an emotion, in a person, in a thing, in non-existance and in existence and just the very next moment that belief becomes the bane of your existence. Belief for me is an unthinkable thought which must be thought to survive in this world of possibilities but still remains unthinkable. Maybe it is the nature of belief to test you once you start having the fullest of affirmation in its existence. Maybe it knows reverse psychology better than any of us around.
While we are at it a word about reverse psychology. Reverse psychology is a product of our own insecurities.
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