What I believe. And what I do not.

What I believe:

  1. I believe our planet has the resources for us to live comfortably and sustainably if we control our population and share our resources.
  2. I believe we should try and provide everyone with the basic necessities of life. These include shelter, food, clothing, healthcare and education.
  3. I believe morality and ethics vary from society to society but there are some basic foundations which should be common to all. These can be arrived at by the use of the 'Categorical Imperative'. As Kant said: "Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law." In other words, when considering a course of actions think about what would happen if everyone were to follow the same course.
  4. I believe both Capitalism and Communism have failed. Capitalism concentrates wealth into the hands of a few and leaves many in poverty and suffering with no means of emerging from their circumstances. Communism failed because it removed incentives to work. A layered system in which the basics are provided to everyone and the luxuries need to be earned would work better. For all practical purposes, many countries in Western Europe have already arrived at something close to this system.
  5. I believe that automation and robotics will allow more and more of our work to be done by machines allowing us more leisure and time to focus on important and creative activities. However, in a capitalist society, automation will lead to unemployment, poverty and even greater concentration of wealth into a small number of hands. The structure of society has to change.
What I do not:

  1. I do not think there is any reason to believe that our universe was created by an entity which exists outside the universe. The hypothesis merely introduces the idea of a larger universe, containing one or many Gods, each creating one or more universes. It is futile idea which increases the complexity of a hypothesis for no good reason. The idea regresses infinitely 'who created the creator?'
  2. I do not believe in the concept of a soul. As I understand it, a soul is something which continues to exist after the death of a person. It can be rewarded, punished or reborn. The concept of reward and punishment assumes that the soul can feel physical or psychological pain and is accountable for the actions and intentions of the person while alive. I see no reason to believe that such a thing exists. I think the concept, common to all religions, reflects a reluctance to face our own inevitable mortality. It also explains the success of all religions which ultimately can be reduced to 'don't worry, you won't really die.'
  3. I do not believe in the existence of an objective cosmic balance of justice. I see no reason to think that evil is punished or good is rewarded. Whatever reward and punishment exists, arises from the structure of our society. The concept of 'Karma' seems to me to be a harmful one. The idea that there is a cosmic, objective accounting of our actions becomes reason not to develop our own systems for deterrence. An evil person or act gets away without punishment and we say 'God will punish him' or 'Karma will catch up with him' or 'he will be reborn as cockroach who drowns in a sewer' and absolve ourselves from improving our systems to discourage acts of evil. A child dies of starvation and we say 'must be punishment for something he did in his previous life' instead of working towards a world in which all children are taken care of.
  4. I do not think Democracy is a good way of selecting leaders. We end up with 'leaders' who are good at convincing the masses to vote for them instead of leaders who understand the issues they are required to deal with. We should be training leaders in much the same way that we train Doctors and Engineers and Pilots and Astronauts. We should have safeguards in place to remove a leader who becomes dangerous and progress up the ladder of leadership should be based on ability to process data and make good decisions instead of proficiency at demagoguery.
  5. I do not think countries are a useful concept any more. I understand that society has evolved from small tribes to larger ones but it is time to evolve beyond the tribal concept and remove barriers between people. 

Comments

  1. adarshAugust 31, 2017 at 11:14 PM

    I feel exactly same..

    ReplyDelete
  2. MukeshSeptember 1, 2017 at 5:22 AM

    Keep on going Sir. Let us (at least me) learn to think rationally with your inputs instead of blindly following our parents or elders suggestions.

    ReplyDelete

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