She replied, “you bumbling leper, you drunk fool! You’ve always thought of yourself, you wicked goul! Forever cursed, you are destined to die alone. While I, oh I, have many suitors — kind souls all. I love one, kinder than kind. You can only wish you were him, my wretched friend.”

Time magazine claims that 2009 is the end of the first decade of the 21st century. They argue — “Dec 31, 1999 was considered by most as the end of the 90s and the beginning of the 00s. So, it makes sense on some level to consider 2009 as the end of this one.”

Technically, this decade ends on Dec 31 2010. But hell, who cares? All that matters is that we all made it through this rough period in history. This decade, like all decades, gave us good and bad memories — more bad than good.

But I am just glad I’m in one piece. Hair of the dog — I am getting back in the next decade, what I lost in this one!

Generation upon generation of humankind has asked these questions. Some of our ancestors, insecure in their inability to accurately answer them by means of simple reason and observation, created a rather convenient answer — “why, the universe is a world created by a superpowerful, all knowing, superintelligent being.” It is easy to imagine how powerful the insecurity was — different regions of the disconnected old world have at some point, attempted to answer these questions by creating some kind of God – Jehovah, Brahma, Allah, Ra. Some looked towards the sky and observed different stars, planets and patterns created by these entities and said, “these bright lights in the night sky — they’re our Gods!” Others observed basic elements of the physical world — wind, fire, water and said, “these elements here — they’re our Gods!” Still others, created God; not from stars and planets, nor from physical elements but out of nothing at all but some really potent imagination! Each time a God or Gods was/were “created” so was religion. All religions had one common theme — subscribe now and you will be saved from eternal damnation!

Remember, these were disconnected times — so, each religion matured and grew locally. Membership to some religions could only be received by birth — these were consumed by human mortality and in a sense, they died with the race that practiced them. Other religions were receptive and even aggresively recrutive. These flourished and exist even today. As humankind discovered advanced science and technology, travel between disconnected regions of the world became possible. Civilizations clashed. So did their religions. The civilizations with advanced technology engulfed the ones with meager technology. In that way, as ironic as it may sound in the context of the raging science v/s religion debate today, civilizations with greater prowess in science and technology were able to impose their religions and Gods on those with less advanced science and technology. Yes, science helped in the propagation of all major religions that exist today.

It is easy to believe in God and have a safety cushion to fall back on all the time – I almost envy you when I think about my dry, lonely, atheist existence. And yet, some would say, it is easier to be an atheist and do what you like without the fear of reproach or judgment.

At this junction, I will ask a philosophical question — are we better off today as a species – as believers or would we be better off without God and religion? Could we have developed the moral codes and structures that have become the basis of human society on our own?

Let us look at the downside first — God and (in effect) religion has become the major cause of death and conflict in today’s world. Hundreds upon thousands of men, women and children have lost their life in wars and other conflicts caused by religion. In that sense, some would call religion the most deadly, fatal, genetic, contagious epidemic — deadly and fatal because it kills so many thousands, contagious and genetic because it has a tendency to spread within society and from generation to generation and an epidemic because almost everyone in the world is afflicted by it. Religion also makes people believe in extremely unlikely, impossible  (sometimes bordering on insane) things and events — what else can make a grown, highly educated person believe in an entity with the head of an elephant and the body of a man, born to another human-like entity with three eyes and a holy river flowing out of his mane – or in a man who was born without the aid of reproduction, to a virgin mother, was tortured and died for the sins of others and then came back to life only to arise and disappear into the heavens.

Now for the upside — without a set of rules telling us what is right and what is wrong, human beings would eventually resort to cutting each other up. Society would not develop and there would be no organization – and yes, another irony here – science and technology would not be as advanced as they are today. Because, humankind can only develop science and apply it to create technology if the basic existential questions have been answered – the questions would eat into our hearts and we would be so obsessed with finding answers that little else would occupy our minds. This obsession would not let us rise above our basic instinct – survival. Deep down, owing to our evolutionary drive to survive, we are dark, evil things. Yes, without religion we would cease to be human and would become cold, terrifying, incestuous animals. It would be interesting to see if we would be able to weave the moral fabric that religion has woven for us over the centuries without the fear of an all powerful entity watching us or without the fear of eternal damnation. With the kind of evil we have demonstrated in every generation within the scrutiny of religion, it makes me shudder to think of how we would behave without it. Oh, how lonely, miserable and insecure we would feel. Oh, how evil and meaningless our existence would be!

Having presented both sides of the story (with an obvious bias towards one), I would like to end by saying something about tolerance. Whether you are a believer or an atheist, Hindu, Jew, Muslim or Christian; it is important to be respectful and tolerant towards each other. I have a simple philosophy – You have an opinion and I have mine. And if anyone of us thinks we have it all figured out, here is the triumphant, unwavering truth – engrave it in your mind and teach it your children – no one does.

No one ever will.

Surely, that can’t be right? If so, how widely does it apply? Does it apply to your friends? How about your siblings, parents and children?  Your girlfriend/boyfriend, wife/husband?

Oh, that is definitely not right. Right?

Unfortunately, more often than not, it is.

But it’s too hard to understand, let alone apply. Sure enough, you end up wreaking something perfectly beautiful. And then you wish you’d paid a little more attention during that fateful english period in school.

And then, the world ceased to exist. Our solar system collapsed under its own weight. The sun was but a dying white dwarf. The Milky Way, like all other galaxies continued to travel through space towards that ever elusive super galaxy. Space kept expanding. Ever. Forever. What was the universe heading toward? Has this all happened before? Are we merely an insignificant anomaly in an unremarkable iteration of spacetime?

My Celestron Powerseeker telescope

Galileo peered into the heavens and saw the lunar surface for the first time in 1610. I admit I discovered the joy of interstellar observation very late. But, I am glad I did — sooner than later — and it all came to me in one fell swoop — the grand beauty of the cosmos, the smallness of our existence, the vulnerability of our being and the crowded loneliness of the experience that is human life.

The long worn uneven streets dream away at night,
of seven little tempest-tost sea rocks that became one.
The city of lepers and kings burns fiery bright,
with similes and tears of hundreds under her scorching sun.

Her Arabian sands have seen much blood,
she weeps each night for her teeming shores.
“Oh little man, of my soil and blood,
you’ve brought hatred through my hallowed doors.”

“Struck me with your indifference, your sarcasm, and more,
you forget the truth, and truth it is you know -
I’m your mother, your wife, your wretched whore,
a therapeutic escape”, she would bellow.

Behold, tiny man – I stand here as shall I forever – the truth undone,
seven little islands – destined to be one.

When I glance into a stranger’s window and see a pretty girl curled up on a couch reading Elliots’s Middlemarch, I try to imagine what kind of a person she is and what her life is like. Is she a purist like Dorothea or an idealist like Tertius — or maybe she is both.

Or when I see an old man, deeply engrossed in his cigarette, I try to imagine what he is thinking about and how old he is and almost instantly — how long he has been smoking (for most smokers or ex-smokers, an old man holding a cigarette instantly evokes their long buried hope that one can continue smoking and live to be old)

A window offers the owner and an observer many insights. To an owner, it offers a view of the world outside and all the hues and depths it has to offer. To an observer, it offers the opportunity to judge — without fear of rebuke.

For an instant, the observer and the subject (through the window) are connected by some invisible karmic bond. The subject is, of course, unaware of this intrusion of privacy while the observer’s mind gleefully soaks in details –  constructs hypothetical structures around the subject. This “spell” is broken, if the observer loses perspective or if the subject realizes that he or she is being observed.

Such “intellectual” eavesdropping is generally different from “recreational” eavesdropping. However, that does not make it any less intrusive. Or rude.