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Showing posts from May, 2024

The War on Terror

Some phrases have a tendency to catch the imagination. War is one of them. The politicians have a tendency to capitulate on such catch phrases. There is a War on corruption and the votes starts to flow and you are a hero. There is a war against climate change and the popularity begins to soar and you are a hero. So this war is real good. There is no war, and yet there is a war and hence there is a genuine scope for being immortalized as a hero. Ok, if not immortalized, popular to sail through the next popularity contest, be it election or selection in beauty contest. But there is an inherent feature of war. War is an equalizer. You do not go to war against unequal. There is a certain equality in the warring parties. I do not go for war against Govt of India. I rebel against them. That is where even if I claim that I am going for a war against the Govt, the Govt dismisses it as a law and order problem, sends in police, who explain and make me straight while I get some difficulty walkin...

Out of Africa Theory : A scientific theory or religious one

 Science as we know, is often seeped in and originates from religion. No matter how much the followers of scientists (or scientist-bhakts) claim and flaunt their secular credentials or portray the men of science as atni-thesis of the religious ones, the effect and influence of religion on the scientific work is hard to hide or ignore. We may attribute this to the cultural aspect of the religion or the upbringing or the surrounding in which the proponent scientist is has lived in and grown up. But nevertheless, we do not want to get into why this is so, but the fact that the influence is hard to ignore or dismiss. One such scientific 'belief' is what is being discussed in this article. This belief is the 'Out of Africa' theory of Human evolution. For the uninitiated readers, here is a link wikipedia - out of africa theory that describes the theory. In short, the theory suggests that the humans or homo sapiens, as we know them,  first originated in what we know now as th...