432. AT Kovoor - 1 - Great Minds on God, Religion and Science

Great Minds on God, Religion and Science

Friday, May 28, 2010

Abraham Kovoor

1898 - 1978, Kerala-born Sri Lankan academic who was a well-known crusader against superstition and obscurantism and the scourge of Satya Sai Baba and other godmen in India. In 1963, he threw an open challenge offering to pay 1 lakh Sri Lankan Rupees to anyone who could perform a paranormal or miraculous feat under fraud-proof conditions. He is the author of the books "Begone Godmen" and "Gods, Demons and Spirits".  

1. He who does not allow his miracles to be investigated is a crook; he who does not have the courage to investigate a miracle is a gullible; and he who is prepared to believe without verification is a fool!

2. Some of the worst fears of my childhood were about ghosts, charms, curses, hell, and the anger of gods and demons. Systematic investigations and rational thinking from my university days made me doubt the veracity of numerous religious myths, occultism, prophetic predictions, immortal spirits, and claims of miracle performers.

3. I was a Christian in my youth because I was born and brought up in a Christian home by Christian parents. Most of us cling on to our parents' religion because we are indoctrinated by them from our childhood. But when I came of age to think and act independently, I discarded Christianity and became a rationalist because I could not accept the Bible as the word of an omniscient god. Similarly I discarded the beautiful land of my birth - Kerala - and adopted Sri Lanka - an equally beautiful country - because most of the Sri Lankans are followers of Gouthama Buddha who taught a more rational and tolerant philosophy than the founders of any other religion.

4. Nearly everyone in our midst believes foolishly in auspicious times, lucky numbers, omens, evil eye, evil tongue, lucky colours, lucky gems, charms, astrology, palmistry, light reading, tumbler talks, planchettes, kanapuwa, anjanamelia, card reading, numerology, necromancy, demonology, spiritualism, possession, materialisation, marvellous powers of prayers, poojas, manthras, sacrifices, pilgrimages, offerings to gods, pirith nool, holy ash, crucifix, relics, talisman, sacred places, sacred persons, sacred times, sacred objects, telepathy, clairvoyance, portent of gecko's chirp, dog's howl, owl's hoot and numerous other absurdities.

5. Sincere and honest persons earn their living by sincere and honest work. Dishonest persons do so by cheating those who work and earn. To the category of dishonest parasites who thrive by cheating the credulous among honest workers belong the teachers, preachers and priests of dubious religions and cults; mystics, saints, arahants and sidhas who claim that they have acquired enlightenment through meditation and penance; gurus, babas, anandas, rishis, swamijis and yogis who claim that they have obtained miraculous powers through yogic practices or as boons from gods; oracles, exorcists, charmers, soothsayers, fortune tellers and all types of occultists who claim that they have developed their special powers through spiritual exercises, astrology, palmistry, numerology, telepathy, clairvoyance, telekinesis, precognition, necromancy, spirit possession, etc.

6.  (On his open challenge first issued in 1963) I am prepared to pay an award of one lakh Sri Lanka rupees to any one from any part of the world who can demonstrate supernatural or miraculous powers under fraud-proof conditions. This offer will remain open till my death, or till I find the first winner. Godmen, saints, yogis, sidhas, gurus, swamis and all others who claim that they have acquired miraculous powers through spiritual exercises or divine boons, can win this award if they can perform any one of the following "miracles":

7. Although no god was responsible for the creation of the Universe and the living things in it, man on the Planet Earth was responsible for the creation of numerous gods in the past, and probably he will continue to do so in the future.

8. Intelligence, a mental attribute, cannot exist without the functioning of a brain tissue...There cannot be a mind or intelligence without life and body and there cannot be life without a body. Just as there cannot be fire without a fuel to burn, there cannot be life without a body conducting respiration. Thus to speak about impersonal intelligence is crazy nonsense.

9. Spiritualists believe that discarnate soul has both life and mind. This is an absurd belief, because it is impossible to have life and mind without a respiring body. These bodiless 'spirits' are said to materialize, fully clad of course, before neurotic visionaries. How these disembodied spirits can speak without lungs and vocal cord, or how they can do physical acts without muscular bodies, or from where do they get their dresses to be fully clad, do not seem to bother these blind believers in spirits.

10. The so-called soul is a combination of both life and mind since life and mind cannot survive the body it is meaningless to talk about "an everlasting life", or an immortal soul. Gouthama knew this truth and preached the doctrine of 'anathma' more than twenty-five centuries ago. It is unfortunate that the doctrine of re-incarnation, a Brahminical belief which militates against 'anathma' doctrine, crept into some Buddhist Scriptures long after the death of Goutama, the Buddha.

11. We have to accept the scientific fact that everything in the universe is material. The old distinction between matter and energy, matter and mind, material and spiritual, no longer exist in the light of modern science. The fundamental particles that constitute matter are nothing but energy. Thus the "mind over matter" concept of philosophers is now an out-moded one. Mind is purely material in origin and working.

12. The renowned neurologist, Walter Hess, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for his marvellous discoveries about the working of the mind has proved the material natre of the so-called spiritual values ot spiritual attributes such as love, compassion, kindness, metta, muditha, karuna, etc. He has demonstrated that mental emotions such as love, hatred, compassion, cruelty, kindness, anger, hunger, amor, sympathy, apathy, pain, pleasure, dislikes, fear etc., could be induced at will by stimulating the respective brain centre with electrical impulse. Thus Walter Hess proved that the so-called spiritual values are nothing but electro-chemical activities of the neurons, and not divinely inspired.

13. Is there any purpose in nature? From our observation of nature we can derive no adequate basis for such a belief. On this Earth, which is a minute speck of the universe, simple algae can evolve over centuries of time into a magnificent forest. Again, the same beautiful forest can be destroyed by a tornado. There is no plan or purpose in all this.

14. If we look around us, we see good as well as bad things in nature. It is not understandable why a benevolent God has created so many evil things. If there is a creator, all things both beautiful and ugly, good and bad, must come from him. And why has a benevolent god created so many evil things? If everything that happens in the Universe is pre-ordianed by god, then the mysterious being should take full responsibility for all the miseries, murders, torturing, wars, genocides, famines, plagues, rapes, robberies, and all types of vices. But no; religions have always had to have it both ways: while god was omnipotent, man was also responsible. He had free will, and so was accountable for his evil thoughts and actions. Should not the blame fall on the omniscient creator who gave man free will to be evil?

15. When one looks at the immensity of the Universe, in comparison to which our Earth is less than a minute particle of dust, surely an intelligent power that could create such an immensity  would have little interest in the Earth, let alone the man on it. Why should an omniscient god create a vast Universe for man when he cannot see even a billionth part of it? It just does not make sense.

16. What are the qualifications needed to become a successful godman? First, he must be skilled in woolly talks using meaningless jargon such as self-liberation, self-realisation, self-purification, ultimate reality, cosmic force, cosmic intelligence, cosmic soul, discarnate life, extra-cerebral mind, karmic force, nirvanic consciousness, divine force, divine light, extra-sensory perception, kundalini, etc. Secondly, he must be able to perform a few conjuring tricks under the pretext of 'miracles'. The third and the most important requisite is to have a few publicity agents to spread numerous cock-and-bull stories about the miraculous powers of the godman through books, newspapers, films, radio and the TV. With suitable publicity, devotees will gather around a godman like flies around a decomposing carcass.

17. Some of the local devotees of Sathya Sai Baba found fault with me for writing about their godman undergoing a surgical operation for appendicitis. One doctor devotee had the audacity and credulity to say at a meeting of devotees, without any feeling of shame that it was not for removing his own appendix that Sathya Sai Baba underwent surgical operation. "Out of compassion for a devotee whose appendix was giving him trouble, the Bhagwan took the diseased appendix into his own body in exchange for his healthy one, and it was that diseased appendix of the devotee that was removed from the Bhagwan's body."

18. Why do people fall easy prey to these charlatan cultures? The answer is mass hysteria. When two or three persons genuflect or prostrate before a godman, the others will simply follow. These imitators lack independent thinking and reasoning. If someone shouts "Haro Hara", "Hallelujah" or "Sadh Sadh" they too will shout. While the imaginary gods like jehovah, Allah, Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, etc do not exist, godmen do exist, and are a menace to humanity.

19.  Though all religious teachings postulate a 'life after death', there are no valid reasons or evidence to believe in it.

20. Stories about children recalling their memories of their previous life have to be discarded as "pure myths". All those who have investigated such cases dispassionately and scientifically have been able to discover the fictitious nature, and the fraud behind such stories.

21. To say that child prodigies are born with the memory of the acquired knowledge of the previous birth is as absurd as the assertion of some rebirth investigators like Prof. Ian Stevenson, Prof. H.N. Bannerji and Mr. V.F.Gunaratne that physical characteristics such as facial features, complexions, wounds and scars can reappear in the reborn bodies. If it is true, it will be a death blow to the Eye Donation Society. Fear of being reborn blind will prevent people from donating their eyes.

22. If minds can have extra-cerebral existence capable of being reborn again and again, where were these minds before life originated on our planet? Can there be thought without a thinker, memory without a person to remember, or consciousness without someone to be conscious?

23. Although astrology furnishes no true guide to the characters or fortunes of men, and although its pretensions to science are false, it will continue to flourish as long as there are gullible fools in this world. Astrologers give their clients excuses for the past, praise for the present, and hope for the future.

24. I have made a large collection of astrological predictions made by the so-called eminent astrologers of various countries. My analysis of such predictions has clearly showed that none of those astrologers has scored anything above the operation of simple chance.

25. While astrologers are mostly deluded persons, I cannot say so about those who claim to possess Olas or Saptha Rishi Vakkiam containing the horoscopes of all people dead, living and yet to be born, written by Rishis of old. They are utter frauds because such a thing is a physical impossibility.

26. Neurotics and psychotics in meditation, who claim to have rceived divine revelations, who claim to have achieved enlightenment, who claim to possess paranormal miraculous powers, and those who profess to possess the power to know all the secrets of the unknown and the unknowable, are all fit subjects for the psychiatrist's couch, and not saints and sages to be adored or worshipped. Diversity in religions is due to the diversity of the hallucinations of their respective founders.

27. When illiterate and ignorant persons suffer from mental aberrations, they are branded as lunatics, and nobody attaches any value to what they say. On the other hand, if the victim of hallucinations happens to be a talented intellectual, he may be able to convince his hearers and readers that he has experienced super-consciousness, ultimate reality, enlightenment, oneness with god, self-realisation, etc., and it may be that he will have numerous devotees and disciples. Mentally deranged persons of extraordinary ability often become founders and preachers of religions.

28. He who believes in sacredness is sure to get mentally tormented by acts of desecration too. Psychology tells us that such mental traumas are the causes of neurotic afflictions, mostly among the credulous and mentally feeble types. Among the numerous neurotics brought to me, I have found by statistics that the prevalence of neurosis among communities is directly proportional to the extent of superstitious beliefs held by them. Even in such communities, there are more women neurotics than men for the same reason.

29. The so-called beneficial effects of sacrifices, pilgrimages, offerings, prayers, blessings, worships, vows, consecrations, dedications, ordinations, Lourdes water, theerthams, prasadams, sacraments, baptism, anointing of holy ash, yagna, pooja, etc., are merely subjective experiences without any objective reality. Similarly curses, charms, 'vas kavi' hoonyams, ill omens, inauspicious times, horoscopes, evil spells, etc., can be harmful only to gullible fools.

30. Academic education and intelligence need not be considered as marks of non-gullibility. In fact, some of the highly educated persons in exalted positions are extremely gullible, even resorting to witchcraft. It is only persons capable of rational thinking who can free themselves from credulity. Blind believers are mentally blind in spite of their intelligence and education.

31. According to the well-known Bibliologist Marshall J. Gauvin, no other book in the world has such perverting influence on man than the so-called Holy Bible. Lying, cheating, stealing, slavery, murder, cannibalism, genocide, incest, prostitution, adultery, nudism, pornography, sexual permissiveness, tyranny and torture are some of the crimes the Bible sanctions and defends...Considered as a moral guide, the Bible is the most dangerous book in the world...Those Christian apologists who clamour for the teaching of the Bible in our schools should read their Bible themselves before they press their demand.

32. Yet we may admit that the vast majority of mankind today are living in a much more advanced condition morally, socially and economically than in any previous age. The burning at the stake, the torture chamber and the casting into the den of lions are things of the past. To what cause should this progress be attributed? Certainly not to any one of the existing creeds or religions. Religions, at all times, did their best to keep human beings in ignorance, superstition and divided among themselves.

33. The forerunners of the French Revolution, the great Holbach, La Mattrie, Descartes and Leibnitz in Europe, and Franklin, Jefferson, Adams, Paine and others in America prepared the way for the new age, 'the Age of Reason'... It was rationalistic and atheistic science and philosophy that inaugurated the age of Humanism with the new morality based on a real brotherhood of man regardless of race, creed, colour or caste.