Tuesday, July 20, 2010

God? Are You really up there?

In a discussion with two of my senior friends (Abdullah Bhai and Haider Bhai), Abdullah Bhai and I challenged everything that people consider REAL. Haider Bhai was annoyed. Abdullah Bhai and I were the Radical Liberals while Haider Bhai was the Strict Conservative. The following is my ideology regarding REALITY and our LIFE. Do not get me wrong, I am still a staunch Muslim and even according to this ideology, God does exist as you will see in the end! This may seem very wierd and complicated to you. Later I found out that this ideology is partially or mostly similar to the philosophy of SUBJECTIVISM.

What is “Reality?'”

My definition is that ‘Reality is everything that our mind perceives.

Another definition could be that ‘Reality is everything that the majority agrees upon.’ This I believe is wrong.

 

According to my definition, Reality is ‘created’ by our mind. Our mind decides how and what we perceive. Does that mean whatever we perceive could be wrong? An example of this is that our mind actually decides how we perceive the color YELLOW. How do you prove that the color YELLOW is actually yellow? How do you PROVE that in reality it is exactly like the way we perceive it? This means that every proof we have for things that exist around us is actually SUBJECTIVE. How do you remove the “MIND’S SUBJECTIVITY” when trying to prove the existence of something that you see, feel, hear or sense? I AM THE SUBJECT OF MY MIND AND MY MIND CREATED THE WHOLE OBJECT UNIVERSE AROUND ME. Nothing actually exists, it is all fabricated by the mind!Everything is subjective! Only I exist. For me, you don’t exist. Its like a film being played before my eyes. This ultimately leads to the phrase: “The mind is the god (with a small ‘g’).”

Now, if you argue back by saying that the color red exists because we SEE it and you agree with the second definition of reality, then how would you explain what a color-blind person sees? This is where I see the “flaw”  in the second definition of reality which says that reality is what majority decides on. What if the color-blind person is actually seeing the real color and the whole of majority is in truth color-blind? The first definition of reality can also be explained and proved by the fact that a schizophrenic’s reality is what he perceives and what his mind shows him/her even though it is not real. Thus, there is a possibility of my ideology being correct! There is a possibility that whatever I am seeing is wrong and unreal. What if I am a schizophrenic and whatever I see is just a fabrication of my mind?  THE MIND IS THE CREATOR?? CREATING AN ILLUSION?? For all it is, I could be just sitting in a dark void of nothingness or I may not have a body at all!

How do I prove that YOU exist? How can I do that in a way which does not involve my mind meddling or tampering with the actual reality? How do I know that whatever I am sensing and seeing and feeling and hearing is actually REAL and not just a fabrication of my mind? If I am alone, then does that mean everything around me is an illusion like that of a schizophrenic? Does this mean there is no such thing as religion and family and love and God and hunger and happiness and disaster and history and science?? Is it all made a part of my APPARENT REALITY just to keep myself occupied?? Just to give my mind something to play with? Does this mean I can change my reality if I truly and deeply believe in something and learn to control or force my mind into superficially making it real for me? How did I come into existence then or do I even exist?

After coming up with these series of questions, I reached a conclusion. The conclusion justified the existence of God to me…

When I sit down and think that since my mind is the master and creator of everything, then why can’t I answer some really serious questions like the ones mentioned above? Why is it not possible to come up with the true REALITY? That is where my ‘brain lamp’ lit up. This is where I realized that we are just too imperfect and insignificant to know the answers to such questions. THE MIND’S INABILITY TO ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS IS THE PROOF OF GOD’S EXISTENCE AND A PROOF THAT THERE MUST BE SOME BEING ABOVE ME! This shows that there must be a Higher Being with much more knowledge than my mind to actually know the answers and to have created something as illiterate and imperfect as my mind. A being that gave my mind a BEGINNING but not enough power to come up with these answers. God hid the answers and solutions for this very reason; to prove His own existence without ever manifesting Himself. The following is how I imagine a Higher Being reacting to my questions and my inability to answer them:

God: HAHA, see! You can’t come up with the answers! You are too insignificant! Too dumb! The reason why I never made you that smart was so that one day you realize this! I AM YOUR BOSS YOU LITTLE DUMBSHIT! You will never understand such matters. YOU DON’T KNOW EVERYTHING BECAUSE YOU ARE INFERIOR! YOU ARE MY CREATION! AND I AM YOUR “GOD!”

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Identity Crisis

 

As I stand in front of the Devil-Box, I see our past, values, traditions and culture crumpling away right before my eyes. Our forefathers fought and sacrificed to preserve and protect these same values and traditions. But now we failed them. Disgraced their sacrifice. We threw away our culture, beliefs, norms, values and traditions into an abyss of void and blackness and then blindly followed the traditions and beliefs of foreign alien invaders. Witnessing this grieves me! Tortures me! Kills me!

We have forsaken our beautiful Shalwar Kameez for tight jeans and shrunken T-shirts. We have forgotten the true melodies of Sitar, Sarang, Flute, Rabab and Tabla for the foreign Head-banging so-called music which is all about screaming and Boom Booms. We have even started to prefer bland, fatty and disgusting burgers and pizzas over tasteful, delicious and healthy Makai Ki Roti and Saag or Chapli Kabab or Driver Hotel’s Daal with Naan. We would rather have those black or orange sweet and sickening drinks like Cola instead of more refreshing Lassi or Chai or Rooh Afza or Limo Pani.

We have an identity. Or we used too…

Our identity is what make us unique and special in the whole world. Driving madly in bad traffic is our identity. The unhygienic roadside ‘tikka’ and ‘chaat’ and ‘ganey ka sharbat’ is our identity and so is Shalwar Kameez with Chapliyaan or Khhoosey and Eid and Basant. Gossiping and colorful clothes with patterns and embroidery is our identity as well as heavy jewelry and glass bangles and boys kee ‘cheapness’ and girls keh ‘nakhrey.’ Not to ignore same gender hugging and gender segregation. If there was no gender segregation then what would be the fun in ‘Poondi’ and why would girls take hours to get ready to become the centre of all Poondi? This is Pakistan and this is who we are! This is “us” as a nation! The loud, annoying rickshaws and the heavily decorated darling buses with cheap poetry on the rear window, the constant abusing and cussing of politicians and the Friday Namaz when the streets get empty, the hooting and whistling in any social event, these are what define us and give us an identity. These are what give COLOR to our lives and culture! This is what adds SPICE in our lifestyle.

LOVE PAKISTAN. LIVE PAKISTANI.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

God and Misery

(While trying to have an intellectual discussion with my best friend Luke Kneeshaw, I stumbled upon a valuable realization. Thanks Luke.)

OZZY says:
 wow! humans sure are a violent creation
God created humans as intellectual savages? civilized zombies?
Luke says:
 Well, I think he made us perfect
we're the ones who screwed it up
I personally think that god is more of a clock maker than a puppeteer
He made up to work and we should be able to do it by ourselves with his help every once in a while
OZZY says:
 you are right! clockmaker no doubt...we screwed ourselves up! he tried to keep us on track through religion...but we used religion to wage more wars.

Remember: God made us perfect. We are the ones who screwed it up. (Luke H. Kneeshaw)