Science, bitches!

Science is about more than asking questions. Asking questions most certainly is step 0. The next step is about finding out the unknown, or to build the inexistent. As I like to think, science has 2 feet: discovery and invention. While discoveries keep the clock ticking and help us solve tough problems, inventions make life easier. Using it's powers of reasoning and questioning, it has improved the quality of life tremendously over the years.

Science is also about refusing to accept "God's will" and covering unchartered territories.

For ex. People used to "naturally" die in their thirties; famines and diseases were supposed to be God's wrath for something that made him unhappy. Rains, volcanoes, eclipses and natural phenomena were mysteries. Most of them have been figured out; and we have used that knowledge to advance the life span and the quality of life.

None of this would have been possible had we taken the general religious attitude, which happens to be: things are this way because God wants them to be this way. Taking things for how they are and not questioning are the biggest disservice you can do to your life and to your power of thinking, IMHO. If you take everything at their face value, you essentially end up living a life as dictated by others. In other words, you're living their life. It makes you redundant.

I was brought up religious, and I always used to wonder: "Why does the omnipresent omnipotent God let kids die of diseases when he could have prevented them?" Essentially, I too had this doubt, and I'm certain I'm not alone:

"There's always good hidden in God's plan" was another idea I was fed as a child. This broke down when I noticed all the wars, atrocities and pain in the world happening to innocents. I mean, seriously, a 5-year old child is raped and dies. Is this God's plan? If so, I'm not sure I can have faith in that God anymore.

Recently there was a big natural catastrophe that took a life of thousands of people who, ironically, were on a pilgrimage to God's shrine. This probably was the last strand that even more strengthened my resolve in not buying this story anymore and finding out for myself.

Unless we ask questions, we wouldn't try to see beyond the craziness that the established norm is. And science is the way to do that. Science, and humor. Because sometimes you don't see how ridiculous something is unless it is shown to you in a ridiculous light.

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