Science, Art, Litt, Science based Art & Science Communication

Some Qs. people asked me and my replies to them - Part 8

Q: What are the oldest things humankind still does the exact same way?
Krishna : Following rituals of all kinds, superstitions, pseudo-science, strange beliefs that have no rationality (like black magic), fearing non-existent things (like ghosts), thought process of some individuals that have origins in ancient times.

We are now chimeras. We live in modern times following modern fashion styles and gadgets based on science and technology but still we have ‘atavistic minds’.

Because we are refusing to grow with changing times!

Q: How does intelligence affect individual's ability to cope with the demands of society?

Krishna : Intelligence is different from intellectualism. Intelligence need not make you cope with demands of a society, and can make you vulnerable to it. Intelligent people can do foolish things too.
Intellectuals , on the other hand are different.
First of all if you are an intellectual, you realize ‘demands of a society’ don’t matter at all!

What is a society? A group , public, a community, population etc. etc. ? These can consist of people with strange perception of things which need not always be factual. They might consider pseudo-things as reality and make themselves followers of an illusionary world which doesn’t make any sense at all if you are an intellectual!

On the other hand a group of intellectuals can recognize facts as they are and as evidence based facts are same everywhere, they don’t demand more than recognizing and strictly sticking to them. Therefore, you don’t face any turbulence when you are with a group that consists of intellectuals.

Intellectuals therefore either prefer loneliness or a group of intellectuals. Other things don’t bother them.

They can live in peace once they attain this state of mind.

Q: What do you personally think of the people you see with low confidence?
Krishna: People differ, personalities differ. When several aspects of reality and illusions shape up your nature, you can’t expect everybody to react in a similar way to a given situation.

But everybody can lift themselves up from the holes they are living in. Several times I wonder why can’t people atleast try to gain some knowledge, and derive strength from creatively connecting it to the problems they face and solve them.

I know the answer too to this Q.

They give importance to emotions and other low lying things rather than a higher state of mind like intellectualism derived from critical thinking. That is why they can’t come out of the rut they are embedded in.

You can sympathise with a child who is afraid of darkness but can’t forgive an adult who is afraid of light.

It is their life, people have every right to live it in the way they want, even if it is living in semi-darkness or darkness.

Even if you tell them to come into the light along with you, they won’t listen most of the time.

I just shrudge and move on.

Q:Why are there so many people who believe in the new age nonsense?

https://youtu.be/ajO5MvL9pVE

Krishna: I just answered a similar Q.

We, the people of scientific community, well some of us, call them,

‘’ strange beings wrapped in high fashion to conceal their ancient mindsets’’.

New age sense is genuine science.

New age nonsense is pseudo-science propagated by people to authenticate their atavistic thinking, emotions and beliefs.

And we have people who don’t know the difference between the two and don’t even try to learn things.

Here is my evidence: Do pet animals realize if their owner is pregnant?

Visit the page to which the link has been given and read the answers.

Emotional strange perceptions, and interpretations of illusions get most views and up votes and scientific explanations get the least, even though they are the correct ones.

Then why would people come into the light when darkness is bringing them more fame and appreciation, even if it is a fleeting one?

They give importance to emotions and other low lying things rather than a higher state of mind like intellectualism derived from critical thinking. That is why they can’t come out of the rut they are embedded in.

You can sympathise with a child who is afraid of darkness but can’t forgive an adult who is afraid of light.

It is their life, people have every right to live it in the way they want, even if it is living in semi-darkness or darkness.

Even if you tell them to come into the permanent light along with you, they won’t listen most of the time.

We try to bring a change. Those who want to come into the light will come with us, others who want to stick with their groups for emotional support, prefer their illusionary world.

As long as suckers exist, exploiters will exploit.

We just shrudge and move on.

Q: Is standing up for what you believe foolish? Should I do what everyone else is doing?
Krishna : Standing up for ‘just belief’ is not a smart thing. Belief can be merely your perception and need not be a fact or reality. If you believe in Astrology, I might disprove it. What happens to you then if you still want to stick to it stubbornly? You are deviating from reality here and are trying to live in a pseudo-world built by your screwed up thought process. Here you are blindly following some others around.

Standing up for evidence based facts is a smart thing. In this case you are living in reality and fighting for its acceptance. When you are doing this second thing, you are going against the tide most of the time and might face severe turbulence and have to fight a lonely battle. But then you become strong, self sufficient and gain personal knowledge.

Decide for yourself which path to choose now.

Q: What are the challenges faced by a single woman in the Indian society?
Krishna : None, if you are extremely strong and self-sufficient.

If you are not, even an ant crawling on your chair becomes a challenge to you.

Q:How do you deal with a spoiled 3-week-old baby who cries whenever put down, disturbing the older kids and preventing the babysitter from getting anything done? Krishna : When a baby comes into this world, it takes time for it to get adjusted to the new environment outside of a mother’s womb.
Immediately after her birth, my niece used to cry whole night, until and unless she ‘s cradled in our arms and comforted, disturbing our sleep. She used to sleep in the day time! My mother, sister and I used to take turns ( each one 3 hours ) to do that during night. It was a difficult time, but we enjoyed it. After three months, she got adjusted to the new environment and never gave us any trouble thereafter.

As adults, we should understand a baby’s difficulty in adjusting to its new environment and help it overcome it. How can you blame a cute little innocent baby for your inadequacies?

Older kids in the house must be taught why the baby behaves in such a way and how to handle teh situation. Yes, you have to do your work too. People in the house will have to co-operate with one another and take turns to handle a new born baby and do the house-hold work.

Q: What are your least controversial opinions that some people have found controversial for absolutely no reason?
Krishna : It is not an opinion, it is an established fact!

‘Science’ is ‘the best’ to follow and to establish facts of our universe.

Although methods followed by scientists have their own loopholes they also have their own correcting mechanisms, to put you on the right track. Isn’t this a fact? Why should it be controversial?

Alternatives to science people suggest are very shaky and completely untrustworthy: Consider these other sources of 'truth and advice' that place themselves as alternatives to science ... religious practices and stories that cannot show any evidence, future predictions like horoscopes/tarot/palm reading, fortune telling, witch and quack doctors who practice dubiously and use untested things to treat people, latest fad crazes, ill-informed relatives, neighbours, friends and groups, the village elders, ignorant advice columnists, cults (e.g. scientology).

Why should people have difficulty in picking the best?

Q: If you could convince everyone in the world to partake in a specific belief or mindset, what would it be?
Krishna: Scientific method which is against baseless beliefs! No other way can really take you away from miseries of all types and towards progress.

Q:When do we start to see humans in every person without caste, without colour and only as a human?

Krishna: This automatically happened to me when I developed genuine scientific understanding of this universe. When you understand how this universe works scientifically, all the walls that divide people will melt away. Read here how…

Science and Spirituality

Q: What is life and where do we go after death?

Krishna: According to science, we all belong to one universe. We were born here as a result of coming together of a few atoms and some energy and the resultant consciousness. In the end we will return to the place where we came from. The bits and energy our bodies are made of will be returned to the universe for the recycling process to continue.

After death you just cease to exist as a conscious being and the atoms your body is made up of is recycled.

We all came from star dust and energy. And go to it again. In never ending cycles, each atom of our bodies goes to other forms, including the living ones both while we are still living and after our deaths. Atoms from other bodies come to us. There will be atoms that have been inside a living cell that started 3.5 billion years ago on our planet and are still in living cells today.

After our deaths and destruction we too return back to the universe as individual atoms and energy, to the one body that recycles them and we all belong to whether we lived with our conscious bodies or existed as inanimate forms.

You will find more details here:

Science tries to strengthen our minds permanently by making us realize reality!

Q: (based on the above one) - So, this is EXACTLY what I suspected, that our life energy upon death is recycled into the universe, but our sense of individual identity, our memories, our attachments to others, die with our brains. Even if our “souls", our “spiritual energy" “returns to the source of creation", there is no life after death if our ego identity dies, if we cease to carry on a concept of WHO we are. But, if all of this human experience doesn't matter in the end, if our sense of being dies with our brains and bodies, then why were we made to ask the questions? What is the point in developing an awareness of mortality at all? Even as the organized regions that served as an “opiate for the masses" lose favor, a general sense of “spiritual connection to a higher power", and growing evidence for a “mind body" connection remains. Why? I don't understand why evolution would lead us to ask all of these questions, and use science to find so many answers, if there wasn't some reason for it all.

Krishna: There is a reason to find out things. Now that we know there isn’t anything afterward, we have to utilize our life here on Earth our best. As there are no rewards afterlife, the exploitation of the gullible using this reward theory making them guinea pigs in suicide bomb attacks should stop. People who want to escape this life’s miseries for a better world ‘up there’, will now see there is no use in ending life here on Earth. People who want to meet their loved ones up there will have no illusions now and face reality with more courage.

Isn’t all this good ?

Q: What is the importance of belief?

Krishna: In my field (science), belief has no place.

Psychologically, we progress by being realistic and analyzing things critically USING OUR KNOWLEDGE. That makes us really confident about the situation.

We have no evidence of several things like souls, heaven and therefore, we are not under the illusion of belief that we would go to heaven or our souls will take re-birth. So we really are practical and more strong.

Aren’t several scientists around the world doing the impossible things without the help of belief? Then what is the role of belief in our labs? NOTHING!

Shall I tell you why some people need the assurance of belief like people said here? Whether they accept it or not, it is the mental inadequacies that make them take the help of some beliefs.

An acceptance that something exists or is true, especially without the need of proof is living in a pseudo-world.. . but we tolerate it as not all can be mentally strong and some need emotional boosters to move forward.

Q: Is it possible to believe two opposing points of view at the same time?

Krishna: It is possible if logic is used, sometimes, not so judiciously.

But in my field of science, true scientists cannot tolerate cognitive dissonance ( science doesn't allow for the holding of two contradictory positions). They must choose the facts and stick to them. While establishing facts of science, you cannot have two views!

Yes, you can try to understand others’ view point. But accepting them needs thorough critical analysis which is based on evidence. So if evidence is provided, it can be welcomed but only if the other - not so reliable - one is discarded.

How can you believe that ghosts exist and don’t exist at the same time? You have the fact that there is no evidence of ghosts and had been shown that it ‘s people’s wild imagination and hallucination that makes them believe in them.

But you can say both ‘meat is disgusting’ and ‘very tasty ‘ depending on two psychological or physical conditions of two people! What is the truth here? Both is correct because you have evidence of two people vouching for their taste! Truth is relative in such conditions. For a third person, who chooses to be neutral, both conditions are possible and therefore he or she can trust both views, and can think the taste depends on the condition of the person.

Q: Based on the above one:

Nice explanation.. I suspect you have a slightly different understanding of the word ‘cognitive dissonance’ though.. As per I have understood, cognitive dissonance is a feeling of discomfort experienced by everyone when they encounter a fact that is contradictory to their deep rooted belief.. So, it is a psychological phenomenon that is common to everyone. But what people do to overcome cognitive dissonance varies… For example, I may either try to overcome the cognitive dissonance by finding an illogical rationalization of my old belief (so that I can continue to stick to it) or I may face the reality and accept the fact as it is more aligned with the reality. Usually, people choose the former and let their wrong belief to continue. Kindly correct me if I am wrong.

Krishna : Cognitive dissonance (CD) is the state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes, especially as relating to behavioural decisions and attitude change. If you have a CD in your mind, you naturally feel discomfort. Yes, people avoid it because it is uncomfortable to have two opposite beliefs in your mind. For example, if your priest says,

“ Vaccination is against religion as God wants you to suffer” (yes, this is exactly what some religious people say about vaccines) and if you believe him and if I tell you, “that is humbug and if you don’t take vaccines you would suffer and even die of dangerous diseases”, then a war starts in your mind. That state is beginning of CD. Sometimes you are unable to decide which way to go and try to stick to both views like scientists believing in God without evidence! That state is CD.

You refuse to even consider my facts and try to stick to what your priest said because you feel uncomfortable assessing the facts and that is the result if you are a layman and orthodox! That is what one Srikant is doing on your YOUTUBE video page. I gave him seven links to show him what pseudo-science is but he even refused to consider them!

But a genuine scientist will consider both views, then analyze them thoroughly and stick with evidence and data based facts. Science doesn’t allow CD. It says, although you consider all views, you have to stick to data based evidence, and accept it as a fact. You have to discard all proof-less things.

That is what I mean when I said science doesn’t allow CD.

Q: (based on teh above one) -

thank you… that is my favorite topic… I think if our education system teaches about topics like cognitive dissonance, critical thinking, confirmation bias, belief perseverance, authority bias, wishful thinking, illusory truth effect etc in high school itself, within two generations India will become a lot better in development.

Krishna: That is what I am trying to do on my science communication network. Teach people all about them.

Q: Yeah..I saw your conversation with Srikant.. He is living in his own mentally constructed reality..

Krishna: How can we deal with people like him is bothering me now. :)

Q:How do we learn to love and respect everyone, even if we were raised in a racist religion and country law? Krishna : Learn to think critically. That makes you love everyone irrespective of their country, religion, race, region, skin colour, caste etc.
Respecting everyone as human or living beings will also be brought with critical thinking. But … yes, there should be a but here, although you respect all living beings, you need not respect their inadequate thought processes.

What if their thoughts and the resultant conduct are based on racial prejudices, hatred, pseudo-science, misconceptions, ignorance, superstitions, anti-science and irrationality? How can you respect such things? No, you can’t!

Q: How does criticism affect your self-esteem? What is the best way to handle it?
Krishna : My critical thinking trained me to be emotion free. It takes a lot of effort to control your emotions and analyse things neutrally and from a distance if it involves you. But still I could achieve it.

When you first hear/read a criticism about yourself your immediate reaction would be discomfort if it is not true.

I first think about it and analyse it fully. Like what type of person is using those words, whether his perception of what I said is correct or not, what his intentions would be in saying those words, etc.

Then I analyse myself - like what in my behaviour or words did make that person say those things. Am I really right or wrong? Did that person understand fully why I said those words or did something.

My answers after thorough analysis lead me towards my reaction to the criticism. If I think the criticism is right and constructive, it helps me improve myself. That is really good for me. If it is based on misunderstanding, I try to make things clear to the person. If it is based on things like cognitive dissonance, jealousy, the person’s overreaction because he is sensitive, inability to understand me properly - this usually happens because people cannot understand my science-based explanations and views which are completely opposite to their perceptions of the world- closed mindedness to my facts etc. , I just hit the ignore button and move on because it is not me at fault in those situations.

Just because somebody criticised me doesn’t make any difference for my self-esteem if I am right. It only tells a lot about the person who criticised me and help me understand his nature. The person is exposing himself before me without his knowledge. He is giving me clues about his weaknesses. I just smile and thank him in my mind for that!

Q: What type of person always believes they do nothing wrong?

Krishna: A very confident one! And this person goes wrong very confidently too!

Q: Why do you think you will need to change thsi society and mindsets of the people around you?

Krishna: I don’t agree with people that say, you have to change yourself, not others. I changed myself a lot. I got rid of all irrational thoughts. But still I see several people around following them and causing damage to others. Like this …

Bathinda shocker: Woman kills grandchildren in bid to ward off evil spirits

Parents allow exorcist to kill daughter, rape body. Wanted to appease god for gold

https://in.yahoo.com/news/parent...

How To Get a Vaccine Religious Exemption

Baby death: Parents convicted over vegetable milk diet: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-eu...

Women throws coins into engine of a plane for good luck and safe journey but in fact endangering the lives of people on board!

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/06/2...

Endangering others’ lives: Superstitions don't have any science behind them!

Just watching these outrageous things happening around without doing anything is a highly irresponsible way of dealing with the world.

People are spreading misinformation like autism is caused by vaccines. Now as a microbiologist I know it is 100% wrong information that is causing lots of damage to the society and killing children. There are several such things that are bothering the scientists. Shall I become insensitive and keep quite and become foolhardy? Definitely not.

People around are going into the harm’s way without knowing the scientific facts about several things. Shall I allow them to suffer even if i can help with the expertise I have?

Sorry, I am not an insensitive and irresponsible person. That is why i am trying my best to educate people despite my busy schedule.

If one person changes, it will not have much effect on the world. Whole mindsets of majority of people have to be changed to bring a radical change.

Q: Do people become (more) religious when they get old? If so, why?

Krishna: That depends on the person.

Usually when people become old, they lose control over several things. Their bodies become weak. Financially also, after the retirement - from jobs, work, business, etc. - they have to depend on less money and their children. Because of the old age related health issues, they suffer a lot. As they approach death, a sense of helplessness engulfs them. In such situations they need external emotional assistance. That is where God and religion fit the bill. For majority this is true.

(That is why wise men say man invented God to boost his own mental support)

While for a few others who don’t need this ‘external emotional support’ because of strong mental abilities that can overcome other inadequacies, God and religion don’t matter at all. They can stand on their own mental power despite the negativity old age brings. I have seen such remarkable people and really admired them.

Q: Why do Indians fight over religion at an age where one should be concerned about development through science?

Krishna: Most people can’t think critically overcoming traditional, cultural, religious, emotional and political conditioning of their minds. And if any person who can critically analyse and tell people around why they are going in the wrong direction, it can become ‘hurting peoples’ religious sentiments’ and therefore that person can be reported, arrested and can be externed or banned!

When we ourselves have written this immunity against the critical thinking and progress in such bold letters, how can you expect development? Forget it!

Q:What do liberals make of the news that cow urine has shown to cure cancer? Would they accept it because it is a scientific claim by real scientists and not just some politician saying it?

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/videos/city/ahmedabad/cow-urine...

Krishna: While it is true that urine can contain tumor antigens, there is no evidence (in the form of peer-reviewed published papers in high standard journals) to show that drinking, massaging with, bathing in, or any other application of urine will stimulate antibody production or in any way fight off a cancer. The quantities of substances, including tumor antigens, present in urine are typically minuscule compared with those already present in the blood and elsewhere in the body. The bottom line is that drinking urine has no known medical benefit.

Contrary to the claims of alternative therapies that say urine has curative powers, urologists and nephrologists say that the increasing concentration of toxins will quickly do more harm than good. The American Cancer Society states that "[n]o well-controlled studies published in available scientific lite...."

Scientists’ work become scientific facts only if it is published in a peer-reviewed high quality journal and gets proved over and over again ( gets established with the help of reproducibility factor). Just one claim doesn’t become ‘science’. Get that right. If journalists report it in a news paper, it doesn’t become science even if it comes from a lab! “Acceptance” in science has a special method and quality. Ask your ‘scientists’ to follow that method.

If what ‘was shown’ is right let them publish in any of these journals given here: Cancer Journals | CancerIndex

I want to see the results published in one of these journals and then get reproduced. Game for that?!

Q:What is the most insane superstition which you have heard of? Krishna: All superstitions are insane (irrational, crazy, disturbed, unbalanced). Because they harm and hurt not only those who are following them, but several others around too in innumerable ways.

Q: How does a person not lose hope in the worst of circumstances?

Krishna: By being realistic. If you think you did all things right, if you have full confidence in your abilities, you know you would definitely win one day and you will not give up your walk towards your goal easily. It is not hope, it is your grit and determination that decides your success.

On the other hand, if your work doesn’t match your expectations and if you are just positive, your picture becomes hazy and you lose your way.

If you are not confident at all, if your fight is not upto the mark, if you are not well prepared to beat the opposition, you are not on the right track at all to reach your destination. Success will definitely evade you.

Some Qs. people asked me and my replies to them - Part 8

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