At the barbershop

I can't believe that I had a religious discussion with the barber today. It started innocently enough with his asking me about my line of work. I told him I write computer applications for a living. He mentioned that god had blessed me with a good brain to be a computer programmer. I told him that I don't believe in the existence of gods. And so it went. I was his last customer for the day. Although he finished with me at 8pm, he was very ardent in continuing our religious discussion, so I obliged him and chatted with him until 9pm (closing time). It was a very strange experience.

The barber is a Buddhist, which happens to be one of the more favourable religions that I like. I like the Buddhist philosophy of living life with moderation (the Middle Path), the 4 Noble Truths about life and suffering, the Eightfold Path to Enlightenment, Karma, and the practice of meditation. I always felt that if you want to believe in religion, Buddhism is the most intelligent of the lot that one can possibly profess to. However, I don't subscribe to the ideas of Reincarnation and Rebirth. Notwithstanding the Dalai Lama and how Tibetan Lamas are selected, I just don't believe that people who have died can be re-born with their memories and thinking intact and transferred to a new baby born into this world (the transference of souls). I don't think the evidence for Reincarnation is compelling at all. Other than my vex for the more mystical aspects of Buddhism, I have no qualms with Buddhism at all, and am personally quite partial to this religion as compared to Christianity, Hinduism, other religions etc, and Islamism.

I single out Islam last specifically because I think that today, Islam is the worst religion in the world. What with all the suicide bombings, beheadings of innocents, kidnapping of civilians, the ugly demonstrations and the spewing of hatred for non-Muslims, the barbaric treatment of women, the senseless violence etc. Islam has completely failed to live up as a "religion of peace" that it always profess itself to be. But words must be accompanied by deeds, and all the ugliness of Islam I read everyday in the newspaper tells me otherwise.

Personally, I think Islam needs to undergo an Age of Enlightenment like what Christianity and Western society underwent. Without reforms to eradicate the violence, there is no way Islam can ever restore its prestige or its respect in the eyes of others.

I learnt that my barber friend believes in the Chinese school of Buddhism, which is a variant of the Buddhism heavily influenced by Chinese deity mythology. The barber believes that deities like the Jade Emperor, God of Hell etc are real. I told him that I only treat these characters as myths as they simply cannot be true (where is the compelling evidence?). I found his belief in the deities to be very jarring. I always felt that the philosophical aspects of Buddhism are appealing enough as it is, and often wondered why Buddhists would also need to believe in the stories of deities that are obviously supernatural in origin.

I told the barber that I am a person of science, and that I do not believe that humans have been ordained with special gifts by the divinity. The presence of humans on Earth are due to an accident of circumstances, and not because a "god" made us so. Humans (ie. in the form of homo sapiens) have been walking the Earth for only the past 100,000 years. In contrast, dinosaurs ruled the planet for at least 160 million years (although they were suddenly wiped out 65 million years ago). The story of humans have not even covered 10% of 1 million years, so why should we think we are special, or that we will last forever? Indeed, if we are not careful, human beings may just go the way of the dinosaurs.

Evolution has given humans incredibly powerful brains, which allows humans to contemplate. It is because of the contemplative nature of our brain that we want to find a solution to every mystery. Humans crave solutions so desperately (as is the craving for sex) that we must have an answer to every question, regardless of whether the answer is right, wrong, or incomplete.

Our ancient ancestors, with their limited knowledge base, have tried to find answers (to the questions of life) that marries with what they knew back in their time. However, we are now living in the 21st century, and our knowledge of science is millions of times more advanced than what our ancestors knew. Surely we should re-look at these answers, and perhaps attempt to answer the same questions but with the viewpoint and understanding of a modern scientific person? Why must we blindly accept unsatisfying answers from antiquity when new, refreshing, and more rational answers can be provided?

God is not a satisfying answer to the mysteries of life. For every question that theists answer with an attribution to god, I can provide a more compelling answer using purely reason and science, and that has no need to resort to an imaginary god. God doesn't exist. Answers involving imaginary beings are never as convincing as answers that are based on physical realities.

Treatment of Women in Islam

Seriously, this is what some Arabic sheik believes is the difference between Man and Woman:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5KmIXZM-V8

I don't understand why more Muslim women do not protest against the sexism that is advocated in the Quran. The Muslim holy books were written way back in the 7th century, and surely the religious norms and practices that are observed then are no longer relevant today. However, because these holy books are accepted as inerrant even in the 21st century, they allow Muslim clerics to condemn women as "Deficient in Intelligence":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MylrCU3u6V8

And here is a Muslim lawyer (a doctor no less) who describes how the wife should be beaten by the husband as instructed in the Quran:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nUI3TUdFCk

Indeed, the sorry treatment of women in a fundamentalist Muslim society is still thriving today because all these chauvinistic conduct against women rights are actually endorsed by the Quran! In the 7th century, the status of women is pretty low (practically non-existent) - and women are often compared to property or livestock. Even Prophet Muhammad himself had 11 wives, and his last wife, Aisha, is a mere 6 years old when betrothed to Muhammad. Although Muhammad "only consummated" this marriage when Aisha turned 9, we would call a person having sex with a 9 year old child a paedophile in the 21st century! Today, these Quran writings are being held up and used to perpetuate such abhorrent practices!

Luckily, there are some brave women who are speaking out against the barbarism of fundamentalist Islam (at great danger to their lives, no doubt, as fanatical Muslims are prone to violence against anything they don't like):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wPglHZQf-0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPioGIjS4vc