Rational Thoughts: Unlimited

A collection of rational thoughts from a true atheist. Rationality, to me, simply means questioning all that's been established as Obvious in our minds. Questioning the obvious is just the first step towards rationalism and leading to atheism… Think about it, and be your own authority rather than trying hard to define some sort of authority (call it god, energy or whatever) outside of yourself.

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Debunking Astrology: Mars Can't Influence You

Source/Author: Jean Tate |

Posted on: January 27th, 2010

So you think the position of Mars in the sky at the time of your birth made you tall, dark, and handsome (or short, fair, and ugly)? Or lucky (or unlucky) in love? If you think believing in astrology is anywhere close to scientific, well, Dude, time to think again.

Pick two babies born within a minute of each other. One has two nurses and a doctor attending; the other, just a midwife. One is born in a brightly lit maternity ward in a downtown big city hospital; the other in a poorly lit room in a village 50 kilometers from the nearest big city. ‘Downtown’ is just a few meters above sea level; the village is situated on a 1000 meter high plateau. These local differences have far greater effects on the babies than Mars does. Let’s see how.

Nearly five centuries of physics have given us quite a few certainties, and among those are that the only long range forces in the universe are gravity and electromagnetism. And both of these, from Mars, are totally – and I mean totally – overwhelmed by those same forces that were produced by things near you when you were delivered. In a word, Mars can’t influence you.

Start with gravitation.

The gravitational force between you and Mars is greatest when Mars is closest to the Earth; let’s say that’s 56 million kilometers. Now Mars has a mass of 6.4 x 10²³ kg, so the acceleration, here on Earth, due to Martian gravity would be 1.4 x 10^-8 meters per second per second (m s^-2).

How did I work that out? By using Newton’s law of universal gravitation:
F = Gm₁m₂/r²
and:
F = ma
so:
a = Gm_Mars/distance-to-Mars².

Rationalist judgment by the SC: No voter ID for Purdah-Nashin

Source/Author: Dhananjay Mahapatra, TNN |

Posted on: January 24th, 2010

Lift veil for voter ID, SC tells burqa-clad women

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has said that burqa-clad women cannot be issued voter identity cards, rejecting the argument that religion prohibits them from lifting their veils.

Counsel for petitioner M Ajam Khan had contended that asking ‘purdah-nashin’ women to lift their veil for being photographed would amount to sacrilege as their photographs would be seen by many men working as polling agents and electoral officials.

“It will hurt their religious sentiments and the Election Commission must not insist on ‘purdah-nashin’ women to be photographed for inclusion of their name in the electoral rolls,” said the counsel arguing before a Bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice Deepak Verma.

The order comes at a time when a controversy triggered by the ban on full-length burqas has roiled France, attracting protests from clerics.

The argument put forward on behalf of petitioners failed to impress the court. The Bench said: “If you have such strong religious sentiments, and do not want to be seen by members of public, then do not go to vote. You cannot go with burqa to vote. It will create complications in identification of voters.”

Referring to the Madras High Court order upholding the EC’s insistence for a photograph without veils, the Bench said that the elections have been conducted without staying the HC order and that those who do not comply with rules on voter identification not be allowed to vote.

Appearing for the EC, counsel Meenakshi Arora said though electoral rolls were being prepared as per the judgment of the HC, it would be better if the SC gave a verdict that would help reach a closure on the issue.

When the petitioners again insisted on protection of religious sentiments, the Bench said: “The photograph is for identification of a voter. If someone comes to vote in a burqa and the photograph was also taken with veil covering the face, how would anyone identify the voter?”

Explaining that right to vote was only a statutory right and not a fundamental right, the Bench said: “Right to contest an election is an extension of the right to vote. Can anyone contest an election saying photograph of her face be not taken? Can she be photographed in a burqa with a veil and yet contest an election?”

Though the Bench made its mind absolutely clear, it agreed to a detailed hearing on the issue at a later date.

The Madras High Court had in a 2006 verdict held that faith and practice were on two different planes, saying there was nothing wrong on the part of the EC to insist on a photograph of the face of a ‘purdah-nashin’ woman for the purpose of preparing electoral rolls.

dhananjay.mahapatra@timesgroup.com

No religion please for our baby, we’re liberals, says couple

Source/Author: Mohammed Wajihuddin, TNN |

Posted on: December 27th, 2009

Fights With Municipality, Refuses To Give Their Child A Religious Identity

Mumbai: At an airy, spacious flat overlooking a verdant green patch in Versova, a three-week-old baby boy sleeps in his little cot. His mother, Aditi Shedde, glowing with newly acquired motherhood, is on her toes; she flits in and out of the room, asking the ayah to change the infant’s nappy and cover him in a sanitised towel.

The baby is kept at arms’ length when the flat’s expensive marble floor is mopped and sofas dusted several times a day.

So what’s so different about this new-born, who’s being cossetted in his prosperous home? Well, he has no religion. His Hindu Maharashtrian mother and Gujarati Muslim father have decided to leave the choice to him when he grows up. By itself, that may not be overly unusual; there are very many people who give similar choices to their children.

Where Aditi and her husband, Aalif Surti, differ is that they chose to battle an unremitting bureaucracy from the very start and refused to fill in the column titled ‘Religion’ in their child’s most basic document, the birth certificate.

It wasn’t a spur-of-themoment decision. “A few months into my pregnancy, we had decided that we would not give our child any religious identity,’’ says Aditi. “We are not against religion, but who are we to choose a religion on our

baby’s behalf ? We will expose him to the values of different faiths and cultures, and when he grows up he will be free to follow any faith — or none if he wishes.’’

Of course, getting the birth certificate wasn’t easy. The first hurdle cropped up at the hospital itself — the authorities were alarmed when the young parents said they would leave the religion column blank in the documents. Every hospital has to intimate the BMC about new births within 15 days, on the basis of which the BMC issues birth certificates.

“You will have to talk to the officer in the BMC,’’ a hospital staff member told the couple. “Since Aditi speaks fluent Marathi, I asked her to patao the municipality,’’ says Aalif, creative director with a film production and distribution company.

Next, Aditi was at the K-ward (Andheri) office of the BMC, bracing for the battle ahead.

Rational Thoughts: Unlimited

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Debunking Astrology: Mars Can't Influence You

Rationalist judgment by the SC: No voter ID for Purdah-Nashin

No religion please for our baby, we’re liberals, says couple

Fights With Municipality, Refuses To Give Their Child A Religious Identity

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