"Religion is like your coccyx: While it may have played a very crucial role for our ancestors, these days you can usually just ignore it."
I don't plan to glorify about religion when I talk to my daughter, instead I want to tell her that these are mentionable initial attempts to man's age old questions. If you are open to my thought process here is one example.
Hippocrates - a Greek Philosopher/Physician, proposed a four element theory (called them as "humors") - Earth, Water, Fire, Air. He said there is a fifth element called "Love" binds all these four, and lack of it ("hate") separates them. Everything in the world is made of these and nothing else.
He (they called him father of medicine back then) took this theory and applied to human body. Blood as fire, Black bile as earth, Yellow bile as air and Phlegm as water. He said lack of harmony in these elements would cause physical or mental problems. By letting go of excess element or adding a supplement he used to cure diseases (not everyone of those, ofcourse). Imagine a patient's fate who is diagnosed with excess "fire"; they would help him/her bleed to death simply to bring back harmony!
His successors evolved the definitions of these five elements and gave slightly different meaning at different times, but the standard remained like that for 100s of years later. Does this theory sound familiar to what you have learned? "You are nothing but a manifestation of five elements" (పంచ భూతాల సహితమే ఈ మానవ శరీరం).
For someone 2700 years ago these are probably groundbreaking ideas, but not now. In the era where doctors are doing organ transplantations so effortlessly, I cannot teach my daughter what I learned as a kid and don't agree with. I don't want this five element theory confuse her when her Chemistry teacher is discussing about the elements in the periodic table.
We cannot come to terms with the idea of our own death. It is OK with everybody else's death, but not our own. It makes us feel good that there is something else out there and is better. Whether it is true or not, we want to believe it. In the name of belief, humans spend 50% of their life preparing for better next life than this one. Preparing is fine, but that makes us sit and watch the atrocities that are happening on the name of belief. This is hinderance to progress.
We are the best generation in terms of comfort and convenience. We achieved this not with the help of faith, but with the help of reason.
Leaving a better tomorrow for the coming generations should be the purpose of life, not some mukti which in my opinion is a selfish idea.
I don't plan to glorify about religion when I talk to my daughter, instead I want to tell her that these are mentionable initial attempts to man's age old questions. If you are open to my thought process here is one example.
He (they called him father of medicine back then) took this theory and applied to human body. Blood as fire, Black bile as earth, Yellow bile as air and Phlegm as water. He said lack of harmony in these elements would cause physical or mental problems. By letting go of excess element or adding a supplement he used to cure diseases (not everyone of those, ofcourse). Imagine a patient's fate who is diagnosed with excess "fire"; they would help him/her bleed to death simply to bring back harmony!
His successors evolved the definitions of these five elements and gave slightly different meaning at different times, but the standard remained like that for 100s of years later. Does this theory sound familiar to what you have learned? "You are nothing but a manifestation of five elements" (పంచ భూతాల సహితమే ఈ మానవ శరీరం).
For someone 2700 years ago these are probably groundbreaking ideas, but not now. In the era where doctors are doing organ transplantations so effortlessly, I cannot teach my daughter what I learned as a kid and don't agree with. I don't want this five element theory confuse her when her Chemistry teacher is discussing about the elements in the periodic table.
We cannot come to terms with the idea of our own death. It is OK with everybody else's death, but not our own. It makes us feel good that there is something else out there and is better. Whether it is true or not, we want to believe it. In the name of belief, humans spend 50% of their life preparing for better next life than this one. Preparing is fine, but that makes us sit and watch the atrocities that are happening on the name of belief. This is hinderance to progress.
We are the best generation in terms of comfort and convenience. We achieved this not with the help of faith, but with the help of reason.
Leaving a better tomorrow for the coming generations should be the purpose of life, not some mukti which in my opinion is a selfish idea.
