Abhijit Naskar's Blog - Posts Tagged "scientist"
Mission of The Scientist
What is the purpose of a scientist? It is the search for truth of course. But is it all that a scientist is supposed to work for! The question that I shall be addressing in this article is what is the purpose of a humanist scientist? Now, here you may wonder, what the heck is a humanist scientist? Aren’t all scientists humanists?
A person can be a humanist in his or her personal life, but in professional life the sole identity of a scientist is a scientist. Now in this case, there is a small proportion of scientists, whom I call “humanist scientists”. The goal of a scientist is to dedicate himself or herself to the search of the raw, unfiltered, pure truth. Here comes the twist. The purpose of a humanist scientist is to discover the purest form of truth possible, and then apply it to the human society in a way that brings most positive outcome in the path of global progress.
For example, the idea of God which has been imposed on us by our society, has nothing to do with the reality. God is not an Supernatural Entity watching over earth and its inhabitants. God is exclusively a part of human consciousness. Without the humans there is no God. Without us, there is no God, that any living creature should be concerned of. However, I never attempt to take away people’s God from them, because that God is associated with a lot of human sentiments in the human psyche that act as fuel in daily survival. If you try to take away some hungry man’s stale bread, he would fight back, but if you give him something healthier and more substantial than the bread, then he would throw away the bread himself and accept your better food. The same is for God. So, instead of adamantly trying to demolish that God, I rather attempt to channel those sentiments associated with it in the human psyche towards something more productive and humane.
My mission is to make the external God of human society obsolete in front of humanity’s internal Godliness.
As a humanist scientist I focus on giving humanity something rejuvenating, healthy and productive, instead of wasting my energy on the negative elements of the man-made God. Remember, negativity cannot be destroyed with negativity. Fill the humans with positivity and the negative elements would eventually become powerless. Darkness cannot be repelled with darkness. It takes light to do that.
Being a scientist does not mean simply saying the hard truth. You can do that in your journal publications, for later scientists to have the raw data to scrutinize and then draw conclusions from. But other than that you have another important job, that is to represent the truth to people beyond the bounds of journal articles, in a way that brings most positive outcome in the society. And that’s where you turn from a run of the mill scientist into a glorious humanist scientist – a thinker by all means.
Humanism itself is the basic quality that defines us humans. And every human who gives humans preference over everything else is a humanist. And when a scientist turns this simple internal character into an important part of his or her work, that scientist becomes a humanist scientist. Then on, his work is no longer purely about the discovery of truth, but also to mould that truth in a proper fashion before presenting it to the humans. Mind you o brave scientist, your job may be to find the truth, but the purpose behind that finding is to take the human civilization a few steps forward. You are a scientist, which means, you have the most effective tool in the entire world, that can actually shape the world, both literally and metaphorically. So, use that tool called science wisely. Science is like religion – in the wrong hands, they both do more harm than good.
So, make sure that your hands are the right hands. The world is filled with scientists, yet it is suffering from the agonies caused by its people. It’s because the world lacks courageous humanist scientists. What the world needs today my friend, is not yet another researcher of science, but a conscientious scientific researcher of humanism. Now, my question to you is – are you that person whom the world is desperately searching for? Are you?
Remember, as long as you deem science and philosophy merely as your work, such work shall only be a drop in a giant unfathomable ocean. You need to make science and philosophy your life, and only then you shall give rise to a tsunami of humanistic progress. It is a tsunami waiting to happen. It’s only a matter of time that you realize the true purpose of your life and make that tsunami manifest, first within and then without. Become the tsunami of practical optimistic truth and wash away all the weaknesses and horrible stains of the human world.
Further Reading
Principia Humanitas
Love, God & Neurons: Memoir of a scientist who found himself by getting lost
A person can be a humanist in his or her personal life, but in professional life the sole identity of a scientist is a scientist. Now in this case, there is a small proportion of scientists, whom I call “humanist scientists”. The goal of a scientist is to dedicate himself or herself to the search of the raw, unfiltered, pure truth. Here comes the twist. The purpose of a humanist scientist is to discover the purest form of truth possible, and then apply it to the human society in a way that brings most positive outcome in the path of global progress.
For example, the idea of God which has been imposed on us by our society, has nothing to do with the reality. God is not an Supernatural Entity watching over earth and its inhabitants. God is exclusively a part of human consciousness. Without the humans there is no God. Without us, there is no God, that any living creature should be concerned of. However, I never attempt to take away people’s God from them, because that God is associated with a lot of human sentiments in the human psyche that act as fuel in daily survival. If you try to take away some hungry man’s stale bread, he would fight back, but if you give him something healthier and more substantial than the bread, then he would throw away the bread himself and accept your better food. The same is for God. So, instead of adamantly trying to demolish that God, I rather attempt to channel those sentiments associated with it in the human psyche towards something more productive and humane.
My mission is to make the external God of human society obsolete in front of humanity’s internal Godliness.
As a humanist scientist I focus on giving humanity something rejuvenating, healthy and productive, instead of wasting my energy on the negative elements of the man-made God. Remember, negativity cannot be destroyed with negativity. Fill the humans with positivity and the negative elements would eventually become powerless. Darkness cannot be repelled with darkness. It takes light to do that.
Being a scientist does not mean simply saying the hard truth. You can do that in your journal publications, for later scientists to have the raw data to scrutinize and then draw conclusions from. But other than that you have another important job, that is to represent the truth to people beyond the bounds of journal articles, in a way that brings most positive outcome in the society. And that’s where you turn from a run of the mill scientist into a glorious humanist scientist – a thinker by all means.
Humanism itself is the basic quality that defines us humans. And every human who gives humans preference over everything else is a humanist. And when a scientist turns this simple internal character into an important part of his or her work, that scientist becomes a humanist scientist. Then on, his work is no longer purely about the discovery of truth, but also to mould that truth in a proper fashion before presenting it to the humans. Mind you o brave scientist, your job may be to find the truth, but the purpose behind that finding is to take the human civilization a few steps forward. You are a scientist, which means, you have the most effective tool in the entire world, that can actually shape the world, both literally and metaphorically. So, use that tool called science wisely. Science is like religion – in the wrong hands, they both do more harm than good.
So, make sure that your hands are the right hands. The world is filled with scientists, yet it is suffering from the agonies caused by its people. It’s because the world lacks courageous humanist scientists. What the world needs today my friend, is not yet another researcher of science, but a conscientious scientific researcher of humanism. Now, my question to you is – are you that person whom the world is desperately searching for? Are you?
Remember, as long as you deem science and philosophy merely as your work, such work shall only be a drop in a giant unfathomable ocean. You need to make science and philosophy your life, and only then you shall give rise to a tsunami of humanistic progress. It is a tsunami waiting to happen. It’s only a matter of time that you realize the true purpose of your life and make that tsunami manifest, first within and then without. Become the tsunami of practical optimistic truth and wash away all the weaknesses and horrible stains of the human world.
Further Reading
Principia Humanitas
Love, God & Neurons: Memoir of a scientist who found himself by getting lost
Why I am not Atheist
I say things – things that would most gloriously make me appear as an atheist to people, such as – “God is a human creation” – “scriptures come from humans” – “forget the gods and pay attention to humans”. However I never hail myself as atheist, and you never hear me saying out loud that I am an atheist. And it is because one simple reason, I hate discrimination, I hate bigotry and I hate creating walls. I don’t wanna create an wall between me and all the peace loving people in the world who are just happy with their religiousness and they are not trying to impose on anybody’s else’s beliefs. Now, these are the people are I work for, just like I work for all other humans who want progress, who want the world to be a better place, if not for us, at least for our children. That’s why I don’t call myself an atheist.
Because when you put a label on yourself, that label comes along with a log of psychological baggage. And in most cases you may not be aware of these correlated psychological elements, but those who listen to you may do. So in their brain they would draw an image of your personality. And they will give that image qualities based on their subjective understanding of the label that you imposed on yourself. Like when you say you are an atheist, usually the religious population of the planet would very easily deem you to be against all of their religiousness – religiousness that is a part of their identity. And you cannot take away that identity – if you try, then there would be no difference between you and the religious fundamentalism.
And though I am not anti-religion, I am anti-fundamentalism. Fundamentalists do not make up the whole religious population on earth. As a scientist, as an educator, of course I am against indoctrinating children, I am against teaching them biblical stories as factual truth, I am against prayer given more attention than actual human contribution in the society. Still I am not against religion, because of those people who identify themselves as religious but do not take their scriptures literally and have the brain capacity to think which part of those books are good and which are not. And this process of taking the good things from the scriptures and ignoring the primitive ones, happens in most of the religious psyches of the world quite unconsciously.
I am not an atheist, because of these peace-loving religious people who are simply good people and they accept people from different religious orientation as equal. And no, not all religious people go around their neighborhood screaming the exclusive superiority of their religion and God over all others. They love their religion, but they don’t make a fuss over it, like the fundamentalists do. Religion is simply a part of their cultural identity, nothing more – it is fostered as a supremacist ideology only in the head of the fundamentalists. The fundamentalists are the enemy because they are driven by the elementary primitive notion of their religion being superior to all others, and hence other people are lesser humans. Fundamentalism is the enemy, not religion. In fact, fundamentalism is an enemy of religion itself, because in a progressive civilized society religion means realization of your inner divinity, not meek obedience to books of the dead people.
I am a scientist, and as such one of my core purposes is to understand the truth behind various phenomena of the universe with as much accuracy as possible And one of those phenomena is religion. And in order to understand it with as less subjective biases as possible, I must refrain from being called either “religious” or “atheist”. Now that’s the scientific reason for me to not hail myself as either atheist or religious. And as for the humane reason, which is more appealing to me as a human being, it is that the only label I go with is “human” – because that’s the label I received from Mother Nature. And that’s the label that makes me a part of human lives in human society, regardless of religion, regardless of race, regardless of gender and regardless of sexual orientation. The label of human is beyond race, beyond religion, beyond gender and beyond sexual orientation.
Further Reading
Principia Humanitas
Illusion of Religion: A Treatise on Religious Fundamentalism
Because when you put a label on yourself, that label comes along with a log of psychological baggage. And in most cases you may not be aware of these correlated psychological elements, but those who listen to you may do. So in their brain they would draw an image of your personality. And they will give that image qualities based on their subjective understanding of the label that you imposed on yourself. Like when you say you are an atheist, usually the religious population of the planet would very easily deem you to be against all of their religiousness – religiousness that is a part of their identity. And you cannot take away that identity – if you try, then there would be no difference between you and the religious fundamentalism.
And though I am not anti-religion, I am anti-fundamentalism. Fundamentalists do not make up the whole religious population on earth. As a scientist, as an educator, of course I am against indoctrinating children, I am against teaching them biblical stories as factual truth, I am against prayer given more attention than actual human contribution in the society. Still I am not against religion, because of those people who identify themselves as religious but do not take their scriptures literally and have the brain capacity to think which part of those books are good and which are not. And this process of taking the good things from the scriptures and ignoring the primitive ones, happens in most of the religious psyches of the world quite unconsciously.
I am not an atheist, because of these peace-loving religious people who are simply good people and they accept people from different religious orientation as equal. And no, not all religious people go around their neighborhood screaming the exclusive superiority of their religion and God over all others. They love their religion, but they don’t make a fuss over it, like the fundamentalists do. Religion is simply a part of their cultural identity, nothing more – it is fostered as a supremacist ideology only in the head of the fundamentalists. The fundamentalists are the enemy because they are driven by the elementary primitive notion of their religion being superior to all others, and hence other people are lesser humans. Fundamentalism is the enemy, not religion. In fact, fundamentalism is an enemy of religion itself, because in a progressive civilized society religion means realization of your inner divinity, not meek obedience to books of the dead people.
I am a scientist, and as such one of my core purposes is to understand the truth behind various phenomena of the universe with as much accuracy as possible And one of those phenomena is religion. And in order to understand it with as less subjective biases as possible, I must refrain from being called either “religious” or “atheist”. Now that’s the scientific reason for me to not hail myself as either atheist or religious. And as for the humane reason, which is more appealing to me as a human being, it is that the only label I go with is “human” – because that’s the label I received from Mother Nature. And that’s the label that makes me a part of human lives in human society, regardless of religion, regardless of race, regardless of gender and regardless of sexual orientation. The label of human is beyond race, beyond religion, beyond gender and beyond sexual orientation.
Further Reading
Principia Humanitas
Illusion of Religion: A Treatise on Religious Fundamentalism
Sonnet of Science | Handcrafted Humanity
Science is but a bridge of time, it can,
Either take us forward or dump us in prehistory.
Science alone does not ensure our advancement,
Unless it's practiced with warmth and accountability.
Sheer reason without any sentiment is,
As dangerous as sheer sentiment without any reason.
In order to forge a world fit for humans,
We must break the ice between reason and emotion.
Problem is that we like picking sides,
Either we are too emotional or too rational.
A civilized human ought to be none of that,
A civilized human acts upon the need of the situation.
So I say o mighty human, be not an intellectual moron.
Science is a means of service, not intellectual gratification.
Either take us forward or dump us in prehistory.
Science alone does not ensure our advancement,
Unless it's practiced with warmth and accountability.
Sheer reason without any sentiment is,
As dangerous as sheer sentiment without any reason.
In order to forge a world fit for humans,
We must break the ice between reason and emotion.
Problem is that we like picking sides,
Either we are too emotional or too rational.
A civilized human ought to be none of that,
A civilized human acts upon the need of the situation.
So I say o mighty human, be not an intellectual moron.
Science is a means of service, not intellectual gratification.
Sonnet of Fields | Handcrafted Humanity
Art is a mirror of time that shows,
What's been, is and could be.
Science is a bridge of time,
That helps us build the future to be.
Philosophy is a spank on the tank,
That makes us cautious of mistakes.
Faith is but an imaginary friend,
That fills in when the sky darkens.
Education is a liaison to social lanes,
That arms us to engineer new lanes.
Medicine is a keeper of health,
That helps us overcome sickness.
Each social field has a noble cause,
Whether they fulfill it depends on action of ours.
What's been, is and could be.
Science is a bridge of time,
That helps us build the future to be.
Philosophy is a spank on the tank,
That makes us cautious of mistakes.
Faith is but an imaginary friend,
That fills in when the sky darkens.
Education is a liaison to social lanes,
That arms us to engineer new lanes.
Medicine is a keeper of health,
That helps us overcome sickness.
Each social field has a noble cause,
Whether they fulfill it depends on action of ours.
Mess With A Scientist (The Sonnet) | Dervish Advaitam
Mess with a police officer,
You may end up in prison.
And you may end up dead,
If you mess with a politician.
Mess with a bureaucrat,
You may end up exploited.
Mess with a programmer,
You may end up humiliated.
If you offend a teacher,
Your children might suffer.
If you offend a preacher,
You'll be deemed a blasphemer.
But mess with a scientist, that’s your ticket to hell.
Neither dead nor alive, you'll dangle in the middle.
You may end up in prison.
And you may end up dead,
If you mess with a politician.
Mess with a bureaucrat,
You may end up exploited.
Mess with a programmer,
You may end up humiliated.
If you offend a teacher,
Your children might suffer.
If you offend a preacher,
You'll be deemed a blasphemer.
But mess with a scientist, that’s your ticket to hell.
Neither dead nor alive, you'll dangle in the middle.
Energy and Ethics (The Sonnet) | The Gentalist
One AA battery lights up a house with an LED,
Or it can be used to set fire to it with a spark.
Energy has no ethical polarity, only potential,
Ethics of energy lie in the hands of its wielder.
Society just needs an excuse to escape the blame,
Sometimes they blame science, other times politics.
The real problem is none but the society itself,
Particularly our age-old selfish histrionics.
No society is born human, not yet anyway,
It falls on the original humans to make it human.
Choose science, faith, politics or civil service,
Touch of a human makes medicine even out of poison.
Science doesn't define the scientist, scientist defines the science.
Hence I'm a servant scientist who uses science for deliverance.
Or it can be used to set fire to it with a spark.
Energy has no ethical polarity, only potential,
Ethics of energy lie in the hands of its wielder.
Society just needs an excuse to escape the blame,
Sometimes they blame science, other times politics.
The real problem is none but the society itself,
Particularly our age-old selfish histrionics.
No society is born human, not yet anyway,
It falls on the original humans to make it human.
Choose science, faith, politics or civil service,
Touch of a human makes medicine even out of poison.
Science doesn't define the scientist, scientist defines the science.
Hence I'm a servant scientist who uses science for deliverance.
Sonnet 1037 | Aşk Mafia: Armor of The World
If a scientist has no humility,
what’s the difference between
a scientist and a computer!
If a doctor has no warmth,
what’s the difference between
a doctor and a butcher!
If a teacher has no curiosity,
what’s the difference between
a teacher and a circus trainer!
If a filmmaker has no originality,
what’s the difference between
a filmmaker and a photocopier!
If a cop cannot practice self-correction,
what’s the difference between
a cop and an executioner!
If a theologian has no integrative spirit,
what’s the difference between
a theologian and a mumbling parrot!
If a modern human cannot balance reason and warmth,
what’s the difference between a sentient human
and a creature from the swamp!
what’s the difference between
a scientist and a computer!
If a doctor has no warmth,
what’s the difference between
a doctor and a butcher!
If a teacher has no curiosity,
what’s the difference between
a teacher and a circus trainer!
If a filmmaker has no originality,
what’s the difference between
a filmmaker and a photocopier!
If a cop cannot practice self-correction,
what’s the difference between
a cop and an executioner!
If a theologian has no integrative spirit,
what’s the difference between
a theologian and a mumbling parrot!
If a modern human cannot balance reason and warmth,
what’s the difference between a sentient human
and a creature from the swamp!
Only you can remove your anxiety | Vande Vasudhaivam
“I don’t make baseless claims like – I’ll remove all your fears, I’ll remove all your anxieties, I’ll remove all your insecurities. I am a scientist, not an influencer – which means, I am dutybound to adhere to the truth, no matter how inconvenient they are, instead of peddling comforting lies for exposure. And the truth is, if bombarding people with some fancy facts about the mind removed their worries, every household with a DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) would be the happiest place on earth.”
“Only you can remove your anxiety,
Only you can bring you clarity.
What the hell are you doing at the feet of fraudsters!
Go out and discover your own reality.”
“Only you can remove your anxiety,
Only you can bring you clarity.
What the hell are you doing at the feet of fraudsters!
Go out and discover your own reality.”
Sonnet 1142 | Vande Vasudhaivam
Naskar the scientist says,
Science that lifts no human condition,
is not science but superstition.
Naskar the monk says,
Inclusion is illumination,
discrimination is delusion.
Naskar the philosopher says,
Better lose truth, than lose humanity –
Better lose truth, than lose love.
Naskar the sufi says,
Sense yourself till
you sense nothing but love.
Naskar the humanist says,
I don’t care about your belief or disbelief,
all I care about is your behavior with others.
Naskar the humanitarian says,
each human must earn their admission
into the human race with humane actions.
The spirit of love speaks of love,
no matter the faith and field.
Hate is but a mark of narrowness –
When you expand heart and soul,
whole world becomes kin and kith.
Science that lifts no human condition,
is not science but superstition.
Naskar the monk says,
Inclusion is illumination,
discrimination is delusion.
Naskar the philosopher says,
Better lose truth, than lose humanity –
Better lose truth, than lose love.
Naskar the sufi says,
Sense yourself till
you sense nothing but love.
Naskar the humanist says,
I don’t care about your belief or disbelief,
all I care about is your behavior with others.
Naskar the humanitarian says,
each human must earn their admission
into the human race with humane actions.
The spirit of love speaks of love,
no matter the faith and field.
Hate is but a mark of narrowness –
When you expand heart and soul,
whole world becomes kin and kith.
DEI Sonnet | Visvavictor
I call it curiosity,
You call it science.
I call it integrity,
You call it defiance.
I call it contemplation,
You call it philosophy.
I call it accountability,
You call it sociology.
I call it correction,
You call it revolution.
I call it existence,
You call it inclusion.
All I see is humans
finally living a human life.
You with your brainy fancy
philosophize it as DEI.
You call it science.
I call it integrity,
You call it defiance.
I call it contemplation,
You call it philosophy.
I call it accountability,
You call it sociology.
I call it correction,
You call it revolution.
I call it existence,
You call it inclusion.
All I see is humans
finally living a human life.
You with your brainy fancy
philosophize it as DEI.
