Painting: 'The Paranoiac Face' by Salvador Dalí
We humans are knowledge seeking creatures. The knowledge that we seek is based on two fundamental aspects viz. to find a connection between ‘Cause and Effect' and to search for a ‘Pattern' in it. For example, let us take the case of 'Day and Night'. If the rotation of earth around its axis is the cause then sunrise and sunset leading to day and night are the effects. And here the pattern is that this happens in every 24 hrs. approximately. Let us take the case of ‘Gravity'. If falling of an apple is an effect then the gravitational force between the earth and the apple is the cause behind it. And here the pattern is that it happens between every two bodies that have their own mass. If we can understand and explain things in this manner we call it to be a Scientific Explanation.
We are so obsessed with these two fundamental aspects of knowledge that we apply them to each and every thing that we come across in our life. But this obsession can sometimes lead to madness. You might have heard the term 'Pareidolia'. It is a sub-category of 'Apophenia' which is the tendency to mistakenly perceive connections and meaning between unrelated objects. Such as seeing shapes in clouds, seeing faces in inanimate objects or abstract patterns or hearing hidden messages in music. Some of popular cases of Pareidolia are 'Moon Rabbit'; 'Monkey Tree Syndrome of Singapore'; 'Satan in World Trade Centre' and 'Jesus in Notre-Dame de Paris Fire'.
The Organ Player in Neptune's Grotto, Sardinia
Pareidolia was at one time considered a symptom of human psychosis but is now seen as a normal human tendency. What does it mean? Are we becoming mad in our so called ‘search' for meaning and knowledge?
And moreover what about those things that we are unable to understand and explain as per the aforementioned manner? Questions like, What is before life? What is after death? Or let us take some examples of real life events like who will win the toss or jackpot? Why some people die too early? Why some people by birth are differently-abled? Why some people fail despite lot of efforts? Can we change our fate? Can we at least know where we are heading towards? Why some people are born into poverty whereas some enjoy their silver spoon?
We don’t have answers for the above mentioned questions. But as I have explained it earlier that we are obsessed in searching for explanations we did something unique. We invented the idea of God. And God answered most of our questions that we were not able to.
Painting: 'Nativité by Nicholas Poussin
Now let us try to re-answer the questions mentioned above. What is before birth and what is after death? ‘Only God knows the answer. He is the supreme power both the creator and the destroyer.’ Can we change our fate or can we know about our future at least? ‘No, because we are just pawns in the hand of God.’ He has his unique plans which we lesser mortals can never comprehend.
However there were times when God failed too. Who will win the toss or jackpot? Why some people die too early? Why some people by birth are differently-abled? Why some people fail despite lot of efforts? Why some people are born into poverty whereas some enjoy their silver spoon? While answering these set of questions if we used God it looked as if God was unjust. It looked as if God did partiality. As if he favoured someone more than the other. But how can we let that happen? Although God was born with disabilities still God is our own child. Therefore in order to save God we invented one more unique thing. A walking stick for God. And the walking support was nothing but…….(To be continued..)
Until Next Time,
Ashutosh
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