ARE YOU RATIONAL?

What is rationality?

It is the ability of a human to ask questions, get answers, debate, discuss and reason to arrive at a stand point using a set of generally agreed logical rules. It is the opposite of the ability of the human not to think, not to reason, to suppress debate and then come to a standpoint by citing a certain idea which is considered unchallenged and unquestioned.

According to wiki:

A simple philosophical definition of rationality refers to one’s own use of a practical syllogism.

For e.g. I am cold. If I close the window, I will not be cold. Therefore, I close the window.

The irrational way of looking at it is:

I am cold. If I close the window, I will not be cold. But I will not close the window because my God Vayu will be offended according to this book written thousands of years before man was born. Therefore I will open all the windows including those of other people’s homes even if it means others will get cold. And if someone stops me, I will bash him up because I am carrying the message of God, which is the ultimate truth.

Most people think it is another set of belief system, just like religion. The way we say, you have Islam, I have Hinduism. These people want to say, you have rationality, I have blind belief. They think it’s a choice we make between two different ideologies, like choosing one between Vegetarianism and non-vegetarianism or Congress and BJP.

Earlier in history, one of the ways to resolve conflicts was to impose one ideology on others suppressing others’ opinions, voice and freedom. If one disagreed with the other, the killed the other. If you were different you were tortured.

Not very long ago, in communist Russia, one could be sent to Siberia to be tortured and killed just because you had different set of beliefs. In modern days we still have this practice in place. Everything has an expiry date. Similarly the blind beliefs also should have had an expiry period. But Indians are doing the best to join the elite club of such irrational regimes.

Modern nations have been able to guarantee rights to its citizens, resolve issues through discussions and debates, give equal opportunity and access to fair justice, all because they had embraced tools of rationality.

Tools for resolving Ram Sethu Controversy:               

A rational way to deal with Ram Sethu is to debate about it., study what evidences we have and accept what is known as known and what is unknown as unknown. Discuss the pros and cons of such a project in terms of its effect on environment, the fishing population, the national security implications etc.

An irrational way to deal with Ram sethu is to come up with stories, fables, mythology, fantasy and mix it with history, science, archaeology and facts and then stopping all the debate saying, “There’s God, that proof is enough.”