Have you sinned today?

Have you sinned today?

Chances are you have, atleast according to the new set of ’sins‘ Vatican has come out with. So what are the new sins?

Ehm here goes:

• Pollution
• Gene tampering (stem-cell research)
• Drug-pedalling

Its nice to see that pollution and drug-pedalling are now considered to be sins. But stem-cell research? I don’t agree. I will write more on this later but now let me go confess for I have sinned! I used an automobile today.. eeks.. I polluted! Oh god have mercy (ehm on earth and on ice at it’s poles)

Meanwhile remember the ‘old’ 7-deadly sins? Know the punishments for them? I saw this at timesonline

Pride — Broken on the wheel
Envy — Put in freezing water
Gluttony — Forced to eat rats, toads, and snakes
Lust — Smothered in fire and brimstone
Anger — Dismembered alive
Greed — Put in cauldrons of boiling oil
Sloth — Thrown in snake pits

Interesting heh!

And if you are a ’sinner’ you might be interested to know what hell is like (look and feel). Silverine thinks it might be like this! 

Filed under: Religion , Religion, sin, vatican

I don’t believe in Valentine’s Day!

Don’t believe in Valentine’s day? I don’t either.. So what am I planning to do? Burning shops – negative. Disturb those poor couples who happen to believe in the tradition – Double negative!

I am planning to spend some time with someone I love on a different day, let’s say Feb 13 the day before valentine’s day. Now why am I doing this? Think of the advantages!

I don’t believe there needs to be a day marked on a calendar to express my love so I protest in Gandhian style (aka gandhigiri) by picking up random day and titling it Valentine’s day. Why do I need to celebrate it at all? Well unfortunately some people believe in this concept. It is an innocent concept which does damage to none.. Much like Santa Clause during Christmas.. So I decided to let it be.

What are the other advantages of celebrating it a day ahead? It is easier to get a reservation for movies, and halls will be less crowded too. It will be easier to book a table in a restaurant and just in case a couple gets a table on V day the staff will try to push them off, so they can get the next couple on the table and make more money. Also places like Church street and Brigade Road won’t be as crowded as it would be on V day.. the autos I am sure will hike their rates on V day!

PS: Why am I against Valentine’s day? I believe its a tad too commercialised for my liking!

Filed under: Religion, chupchap , Bangalore, gandhigiri, valentine, valentine's day

Temples, mosques, churches and money

Cross posted at Mutiny

If I were to ask any ordinary malayalee, if Kerala is a secular state or not, the answer will be an outright yes. The state hasn’t witnessed religious tension for a very long time as Hindus, Muslims and Christians co-exist here celebrating each others festivals with much joy (in front of the television of course!). But after speaking to a friend of mine I am having second thoughts on the secular nature of the Govt in Kerala.

Why oh why, should the govt have rights over all the money that comes into the temples in Kerala? In other words, why does the govt have control over the devaswams (a body that makes revenue, administrative decisions, for temples)?
In other words why is Kerala govt concerned solely about the money that comes into Hindu temples alone? Why don’t they form devaswams like body for churches and mosques in Kerala? Why?

Is this secularism? Can this be even considered to be a secular act? Why does the govt have to keep a tab on what temples are doing with their money, when no such attempt is made with churches and mosques?

So should govt have a say over monetary transactions of religious institutions at all? I would say yes to that. Because having an eye on the administrative functions of religious bodies, govt can control religious extremism which might originate within the closed doors of religious institutions.

So where has the Kerala govt gone wrong? In not making the law applicable for all religions? In other states, this wouldn’t be such a big issue because of the fact that followers of Christianity and Islam form a minority. But in Kerala Muslims and Christians together form almost 40% of the population, while in many areas they form a majority. Also, many of these institutions receive flurry of money in form of donations from malayalees settled abroad. Their income may not be as big as that of the devaswams; but they are still pretty high.

Is it right to let huge sums of money go unaccounted? No, they create problems for these religious institutions. We have already heard enough allegations (even on mutiny) on how church is misusing funding so availed for conversion and how mosques might be encouraging extremism!

Can’t govt put an end to all this by making it a LAW*, than a biased restriction?

* By LAW I mean a rule that is applicable to everyone and not to a particular class of society alone.

PS: The ‘friend’ I mentioned in the first paragraph is son of a Devaswam employee

Filed under: India, Kerala, Religion , Christianity, hinduism, Islam, Kerala, Religion