Miracles in Religion

B Premanand No religion would be accepted by people unless the gods of these religions are shown to have supernatural powers. Their faith in god is not because they love god, but because they have been made to believe that god is ail-powerful. Though it is argued that faith in god turns people from materialism to spiritual­ity, it is obvious that the faith is for material gains - here and in the hereafter. Everything one does in the guise of spirituality, even sacrifices, is for a better tomorrow....

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Business and Politics of Blind Faith

Ram Puniyani Sanal Edamaruku, a rationalist is facing the legal trap for abusing others’ faith. (April 2012) At the same time in another event, Nirmal Baba, who is supposed to be having divine powers and who has been flashing his paid programs in over 40 TV channels, advising people on solving their problems with various’ divine’ solutions, is facing case of fraud. Recently a local court has directed the police to register a case against him for allegedly cheating people. Both...

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Are Natural Foods Always Non-toxic?

Radha Gopalan No.  There are several naturally occurring toxins in plant and animal foodstuffs.  Toxins are poisonous substances of natural origin and can be harmful to human beings.  But food poisoning, in our mind, is usually associated with microbes or environmental contaminants.  A foodstuff is not always safe just because it is natural. Concern about the safety of food has been reported even amongst our early ancestors. Pre-historic men were primitive toxicologists...

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Were Our Ancient Ancestors Scientifically Advanced?

J V Narlikar [This essay, written by the eminent Cosmologist Jayant V Narlikar, first appeared in the April 1985 issue of Science Age, a magazine now defunct, brought out by Nehru Centre, Bombay. Though the essay is almost three decades old, it continues to be as relevant as most of the criticisms on pseudoscience are. While recommending books debunking pseudoscience,  MassimoPigliucci says in his influential book Nonsense on Stilts - How to Tell Science from Bunk that...

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Kṛṣnamiṡra’s Prabodhacandrodya - A Critical Introduction

Sita K Nambiar We earlier posted certain sections of Krsna Misra’s 11th century allegorical drama, Prabodhacandrodya, in which the character Cārvāka makes an appearance.  Though Prabodhacandrodaya does caricature Carvaka/Lokayta philosophy,  the play is an important source of our present day knowledge about materialist philosophy in ancient India. We now reproduce parts of the critical introduction written by Dr Sita K Nambiar for her translation.      ...

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Carvaka Philosophy in Prabodhacandrodaya

Almost all of what we know today about Cārvāka/Lokāyata philosophy is from secondary sources – most of which are quoted by opponents of the philosophy in order to refute or even ridicule its arguments. Not surprisingly, there was a tendency in these works to caricature the philosophical stance of these ancient Indian materialists. Yet, these being the only sources on which we have to base to reconstruct the philosophy, they – despite being outright caricatures – are indispensable for anybody...

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