A SPIRITUALIST AND A RATIOCINATOR - A CONVERSATION ON LIFE AND GOD
The Spiritualist : Do you not have faith in God?
The Ratiocinator : I have a lot of faith in an almighty but I don't necessarily believe, in it being aware of everything that is happening. The COSMOS could be seen as the almighty. According to Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, everything in this world happens only with a certain probability.
The Spiritualist : Then what does it mean by almighty , if it is only physical? And I do believe, God might have had a big hand in fixing those probabilities. But even he cannot predict the outcome with certainty
, since, it is only a probability. Once you say it is a probability , then nobody has any say on it, am I correct?
The Ratiocinator : Nobody has any say on the outcome. But as you get wiser and wiser, you start getting a hang of the exact probabilities. Thats why even great sages talk in abstract terms. They never ascertain any of their views/sayings.
The Spiritualist : Everything in life does not happen logically.
The Ratiocinator : I would say things in this world happen with a reason. Just that, some of the reasoning is beyond our understanding.
The Spiritualist : If you can't find the reason then you have to agree that it is an event without any reasoning.
The Ratiocinator : The problem with accepting something as ' without any logical reasoning ' is that you stop trying to understand it in a rational way. The moment you accede to the fact that some things in this world dont have logic,you are doomed to apply this philosophy to everything that doesnt go your way.
The Spiritualist : Atleast u should accept you can't find out the logic ( may be beyond your reach) in few of the cases in life.
The Ratiocinator : Why should you accept until you are alive. If Einstein had accepted that he can't understand how the cosmos works, we wouldn't have had theory of relativity. He worked on it for 10 yrs before he could understand it completely.
The Spiritualist : Leave science, what about spritual things.
The Ratiocinator : I don't believe that spiritual things are any different. Anything that we cannot explain through science, we call it spiritual. But that doesnt mean it doesnt have an explanation. It is just that we haven't understood it yet. But once you brand it as spiritual, you imply that you can never understand it and that bothers me.
The Spiritualist : Are we capable of finding out the reason for each and everything happening in life?
The Ratiocinator : Yes we are capable. Given sufficient time and resources.
The Spiritualist : Don't you feel we will be wasting our time in finding out the logic for everything in life?
The Ratiocinator : That is a different issue. I don't say we should spend our time understanding everything. All I say is, our approach towards life should be one of logic and reasoning. It should not be one of superstition.
The Spiritualist : Then atleast should we accept things as it is where , the logic is not candid?
The Ratiocinator : That could be a solution for simpler issues in life. But if it is critical, you must make every attempt to undertsand it. The Universe is like a huge nuclear reaction where a few initial atomic particles start off a chain reaction. The chain reactions are events in ones life. The initial parameters for the reaction, are the initial probabilities that God sets. Once the parameters are fixed, the reaction begins and takes different courses along its path. The events in our life are the different chain reactions. Just as how you cannot predict exactly what would happen in a nuclear reaction, you cannot predict with certainty as to what events would happen in this world. God is as important to this world, as a nuclear physicist is, in starting off a nuclear reaction. The only way to learn is to analyze things logically and adjust your future responses based on past experiences. If you start going down the road of "things happen because they are destined to happen" or " I did this based on gut feeling" etc, you don't learn anything.
The Spiritualist : Were you successful so far using this approach in your carreer , life etc.
The Ratiocinator : Not sure. Lets see. But I think you should practise this philosohy beyond success in life. The ultimate goal for a human, should be, to die as knowledgable as possible. That should be everybody's ambition.
The Spiritualist : If it does not help you to understand better, then what is the use? Is it giving you happiness in life or are you just becoming a philosopher.
The Ratiocinator : The happiness that you get by gaining knowledge is something beyond anything else.
The Spiritualist : Knowledge comes to a person, who has peace of mind in life.
The Ratiocinator : I don't completely agree. Even some of the villagers in remote villages have a lot of peace of mind. But they dont have that much knowledge. All I am saying is, peace of mind is important. But we need to aim for something much beyond that.
The Spiritualist : They have peace of mind because they dont break their head with logic for everything happening in their life.
The Ratiocinator : Exactly. And so they never experience the bliss of understanding how things around them work. They dont understand that, the one thing that has brought our race so far from bacteria to mammals to apes to humans is "Our curiosity to understand things around us".
The Spiritualist : That I agree. But you can't have logic for everything happening overnight.
The Ratiocinator : At different points in evolution, man made the right decision of actually giving up superstition and trying to understand the nature around him and that is what has brought us to where we are today. That is true. We cannot explain everything overnight but we must never abandon the basic necessity of mankind which is "To understand and to be understood".
The Spiritualist : Our life span is so short, we should have a blend of logic and reality in life.
The Ratiocinator : True but nothing can be more real than logic itself. Trying to understand and improve as many things in you short life span should be the ultimate goal of every Homo Sapien. Think about it this way. Any ambition should fulfill two goals: incremental achivement which means you should be able to move closer to your ambition incrementally, so that, you dont get frustrated, and infinite scope which means that you should never be able to achive your ambition completely, or else, you will become satisfied and not have a reason to live. The quest for knowledge satisfies these two criteria beautifully. Theres a beautiful saying : "The more you know, the more you realize how less you know".
The Spiritualist : Do you not have faith in God?
The Ratiocinator : I have a lot of faith in an almighty but I don't necessarily believe, in it being aware of everything that is happening. The COSMOS could be seen as the almighty. According to Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, everything in this world happens only with a certain probability.
The Spiritualist : Then what does it mean by almighty , if it is only physical? And I do believe, God might have had a big hand in fixing those probabilities. But even he cannot predict the outcome with certainty
, since, it is only a probability. Once you say it is a probability , then nobody has any say on it, am I correct?
The Ratiocinator : Nobody has any say on the outcome. But as you get wiser and wiser, you start getting a hang of the exact probabilities. Thats why even great sages talk in abstract terms. They never ascertain any of their views/sayings.
The Spiritualist : Everything in life does not happen logically.
The Ratiocinator : I would say things in this world happen with a reason. Just that, some of the reasoning is beyond our understanding.
The Spiritualist : If you can't find the reason then you have to agree that it is an event without any reasoning.
The Ratiocinator : The problem with accepting something as ' without any logical reasoning ' is that you stop trying to understand it in a rational way. The moment you accede to the fact that some things in this world dont have logic,you are doomed to apply this philosophy to everything that doesnt go your way.
The Spiritualist : Atleast u should accept you can't find out the logic ( may be beyond your reach) in few of the cases in life.
The Ratiocinator : Why should you accept until you are alive. If Einstein had accepted that he can't understand how the cosmos works, we wouldn't have had theory of relativity. He worked on it for 10 yrs before he could understand it completely.
The Spiritualist : Leave science, what about spritual things.
The Ratiocinator : I don't believe that spiritual things are any different. Anything that we cannot explain through science, we call it spiritual. But that doesnt mean it doesnt have an explanation. It is just that we haven't understood it yet. But once you brand it as spiritual, you imply that you can never understand it and that bothers me.
The Spiritualist : Are we capable of finding out the reason for each and everything happening in life?
The Ratiocinator : Yes we are capable. Given sufficient time and resources.
The Spiritualist : Don't you feel we will be wasting our time in finding out the logic for everything in life?
The Ratiocinator : That is a different issue. I don't say we should spend our time understanding everything. All I say is, our approach towards life should be one of logic and reasoning. It should not be one of superstition.
The Spiritualist : Then atleast should we accept things as it is where , the logic is not candid?
The Ratiocinator : That could be a solution for simpler issues in life. But if it is critical, you must make every attempt to undertsand it. The Universe is like a huge nuclear reaction where a few initial atomic particles start off a chain reaction. The chain reactions are events in ones life. The initial parameters for the reaction, are the initial probabilities that God sets. Once the parameters are fixed, the reaction begins and takes different courses along its path. The events in our life are the different chain reactions. Just as how you cannot predict exactly what would happen in a nuclear reaction, you cannot predict with certainty as to what events would happen in this world. God is as important to this world, as a nuclear physicist is, in starting off a nuclear reaction. The only way to learn is to analyze things logically and adjust your future responses based on past experiences. If you start going down the road of "things happen because they are destined to happen" or " I did this based on gut feeling" etc, you don't learn anything.
The Spiritualist : Were you successful so far using this approach in your carreer , life etc.
The Ratiocinator : Not sure. Lets see. But I think you should practise this philosohy beyond success in life. The ultimate goal for a human, should be, to die as knowledgable as possible. That should be everybody's ambition.
The Spiritualist : If it does not help you to understand better, then what is the use? Is it giving you happiness in life or are you just becoming a philosopher.
The Ratiocinator : The happiness that you get by gaining knowledge is something beyond anything else.
The Spiritualist : Knowledge comes to a person, who has peace of mind in life.
The Ratiocinator : I don't completely agree. Even some of the villagers in remote villages have a lot of peace of mind. But they dont have that much knowledge. All I am saying is, peace of mind is important. But we need to aim for something much beyond that.
The Spiritualist : They have peace of mind because they dont break their head with logic for everything happening in their life.
The Ratiocinator : Exactly. And so they never experience the bliss of understanding how things around them work. They dont understand that, the one thing that has brought our race so far from bacteria to mammals to apes to humans is "Our curiosity to understand things around us".
The Spiritualist : That I agree. But you can't have logic for everything happening overnight.
The Ratiocinator : At different points in evolution, man made the right decision of actually giving up superstition and trying to understand the nature around him and that is what has brought us to where we are today. That is true. We cannot explain everything overnight but we must never abandon the basic necessity of mankind which is "To understand and to be understood".
The Spiritualist : Our life span is so short, we should have a blend of logic and reality in life.
The Ratiocinator : True but nothing can be more real than logic itself. Trying to understand and improve as many things in you short life span should be the ultimate goal of every Homo Sapien. Think about it this way. Any ambition should fulfill two goals: incremental achivement which means you should be able to move closer to your ambition incrementally, so that, you dont get frustrated, and infinite scope which means that you should never be able to achive your ambition completely, or else, you will become satisfied and not have a reason to live. The quest for knowledge satisfies these two criteria beautifully. Theres a beautiful saying : "The more you know, the more you realize how less you know".
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