Indian Skeptic June 2010

8/9/2019 Indian Skeptic June 2010

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INDIANSKEPTIC

Terrorism Investigations -Delayed Waking Up

60 years of Secularism in India

Epistemology For Beginners

An Atheist in Periyars Land

Book Review:Making of aRural Surgeon


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INDIAN

SKEPTICNo. 01/06 June 2010

Indian Skeptic

Indian Skeptic

Indian Skeptic

It shall be the duty

of every citizen ofIndia -

to develop thescientific temper,

humanism and thespirit of inquiry and

reform

(Article 51A (h) Part IVA -

Fundemental Duties,

Constitution of India)


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INDIAN

SKEPTICNo.01/06 June 2010

Saga of a Rationalist Surgeon


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Dr Ram Puniyani is a professor inBiomedical Engineering &

Biotechnology at the Indian Institute ofTechnology, Mumbai

BS

With or without religion, good people can behave

well and bad people can do evil; but for good people

to do evil that takes religion.

Steven Weinberg

Quoted by Victor J Stenger in God: The Failed Hypothesis(2007)


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Jawaharlal Nehru as the first

Prime Minister of India

always stood for secularism.

But he could not take it to the

logical end due to pressures

from political and religious

lobbies


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Indian Constitution

QuestNew Quest

Congress Party


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The Communist Parties too!


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Scientist President APJ AbdulKalam`s Secularism


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Future of Secularism in India


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Role of Media

Innaiah Narisetti is with Center for

Inquiry-India, Hyderabad


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ATHEIST EVE

Atheist EveAtheist Eve

Atheist Eve Indian Skeptic

"My" Personal Beliefs


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Its how the universetalks to us. We have to listen hard to makesense of it.

Ma, how do we know these things Imean, how do we know that anything istrue at all? I mean

OK, lets look at this.,

What do you mean when you say the wordknow?,

It is good to firstmake sure that we both understand what wemean by knowledge before we go any

further. Knowledge has three parts. The firstpart isbelief. The second part is truth. Thethird part is the way in which we connectbelief with the truth. This part is called

justification.

Do youbelieve that horses exist?

Yes

Is ittrue that horses exist?

Yes

Do youknow that horses exist?

Yes

How do youknow that horses exist?

Because I have seen them I just toldyou its true that horses exist and you didntobject to that,


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Okay, then lets try to understand how youthink abouttruth Is truth thesame thing as knowledge?

No. Something can be true without meknowing about it.

So,knowledge is not related to truth?

Knowledge needs truth and it needs me tobe the knower.

Very good!, s Knowledgerequires both the truth as well as a personto know that truth. This person can be

called an

observer

. For something to betrue, it must exist even when there is noobserver. Then the thing can be said to betrue objectively.

Do you see that TV screen?.

Yes,

Okay. Imagine you are the only personwho can see it. Everyone else sees a vasewhere you see the TV. In a situation like

that, it would be difficult to say that youknow that the TV exists objectively.Fortunately for us, the universe acts incertain predictable ways that we can use toconstruct and justify informed beliefs. Inreality, we both see the TV. The TV existsobjectively , because we can confirm thatit would continue to exist in this living roomif you and I walk into the kitchen.

Is that justification?, asked Selvi.

One kind of justification, yes.


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In regular conversation we often justifyactions rather than beliefs. This is adifferent type of justification from the onewe are interested in. For example, I can

justify picking oranges over apples at themarket by simply stating that I dont wantapples; by pointing out that I am not

obligated to pick apples. However, this formof justification cannot apply when we aredealing with true belief and knowledge. Icannot say that I know something because Iam not obligated to believe that it is wrong.To overcome this, philosophers have comeup with various rules that can be applied tomake the idea of justification more accuratewhen we are talking about knowledge.

When you want to confirm that something istrue, you must first look for the evidence(more here). Also, you must ask howreliable is the source of the evidenceobtained (more here). Based on the type of

justification, knowledge can be internalistor externalist. To put it in a simple form,internalist justifications consider thatcomplete knowledge is possible from withinan internally consistent framework, often by

studying observations born out of sensory

experience. This form of justificationincludes some schools of thought such as

Rationalism. Externalist justifications takeinto account the relationship of an eventwith objects and events outside the sphereof the event (often outside subjectivereality). This form of justificationaccommodates the notion of causality,which we spoke about earlier.

The evidence isnt evidence also abelief?,

Yes, Each and every

observation that is claimed as evidence


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requires justification and belief. This bringsus to another aspect of justification, calledthe structure of justification.How do all the

beliefs that we hold relate to each other? And how do those relationships between beliefs create knowledge? These are justsome of the questions that are asked and

answered within the discipline ofphilosophy calledEpistemology

Ajita Kamalis the founder andadministrator of

www.nirmukta.com. This article,first published on nirmukta website,

is the second in a series ofintroductory articles he is writing on

naturalistic philosophy.

BS

People can do without religionbut they cannot do

without communion, fidelity and love. Nor can they do

without spiritualityBeing an atheist by no means

implies that I should castrate my soul! The human

spirit is far too important a matter to be left up to

priests, mullahs or spiritualists.

Andre Comte-Sponville

The Book of Atheist Spirituality (2008)


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An Atheist in Periyar's Land


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There is nogod, there is no god, there is no god at all.

There is no god

There is no god

There is no god at all

He who invented god is a fool

He who propagates god is a

scoundrel

He who worships god is a

barbarian

Periyar EVR


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www.nirmukta.com.


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God has to be preached by one. It is not enough if

one simply preaches. One must blindly believe what

another preaches. Not only that. One must be made

to believe god by force or compulsion. Unless one

takes so much pain, poor god cannot enter the

minds of others. Yet god is said to be omnipotent.

What a pity?

Periyar EVR

Collected Works (2005)

BS


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ab-initio

Making of a

Rural Surgeon

Andhshraddha

Nirmoolan Samitee (ANS)


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Making of a Rural Surgeon: An

Autobiography

Prabhakar Nanawaty

Thought & Action


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The Fine Art of Baloney Detection

The Demonhaunted World:Science as a Candle in the Dark


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Documents

Indian Skeptic June 2010