Breaking the Universal Buffer

1

When I was in 4th standard in school (the year 2004), my parents enrolled me in “Balvikas”, a program run by Satya Sai Baba’s institution which teaches kids bhajans, slokas and spiritual stories. As I attended the classes, I found the stories absurd. When the teachers (or “aunties” as we called them) used to get emotional reciting some Sai Baba miracles, I found it very amusing. I am very thankful to my parents for pushing me towards “God” which catalysed my conversion to atheism.

From 2006-2011 I was a pure atheist. I was sure that there is no God. I never prayed before an exam, didn’t pray for anybody’s well-being, found my grandfather’s funeral to be a waste of money. But then, after schooling when I had to write JEE, the exam to get an admission in my dream colleges in India, I found myself praying to the non-existent Gods. I was ashamed of myself for breaking my principles - Batman can’t kill anyone <=> I can’t believe in God.
I went back to my non-belief state for 3 years in college life till placement season. Just before entering an interview, I prayed. What if God existed and my nonchalance affected my recruitment in the company? Then I realised that when we feel helpless and are low on confidence, we seek help. If a human can’t effectively help you, we turn towards imaginary entities. This tricks us into gaining hope and confidence. So right now, I use God as a tool, whenever required. However, I use it only for personal advantages. Even now, I don’t pray for a patient’s recovery nor pray that Pappu loses the elections.

During my college life, I had been thinking a lot about God and belief system. I also had developed a theory in which humans develop into a class 3 civilization and eventually evolve into what we define as God today.
Classes of civilization - Kardashev scale

When you think about it, humans are confined to earth. Earth is a part of solar system which is a tiny speck in the Milky Way, which is a part of a galaxy cluster. Millions of such galaxy clusters make up the observable universe. It hurts to think how insignificant I am compared to the universe. So, logically, nihilism is the “absolute truth”. Nothing I do really matters in the universe. Hence must I live however I want, without thinking about ethics, laws and rules? Does nothing really matter?

The answer is NO

2

Are humans special?

We feel that humans are special. We are the most superior beings on this planet. What makes us special? What is the difference between homo sapiens and other beings?

If you put a human and a lion in a small forest, the lion will dominate and be the alpha animal as it is physically stronger and it can simply rip the human apart. Now, put 100 humans and 100 lions in the same forest. The humans will talk to each other, make hunting strategies and dominate the forest. So is it our communication skills and team work that makes us special? Even ants work in teams and have excellent communication methods. Apes also work in groups and have sound based communication. So we aren’t special.

In fact, ancient humans were just another animal species who co-existed on earth. Yes, they hunted other animals even as big as mammoths, yet weren’t the dominating species on earth. This is because we were scattered in small groups whose strength was comparable to that of other animal herds. These groups fought with one another similar to monkey herds or ant colonies.

What changed then? What made us the rulers of earth? It is the birth of fiction!

The ability to imagine things that are beyond our surrounding is unique to our species. An early cave painting (16000 to 14000 BCE) of a human with the face of a bird has been found in Lascaux caves, France. A monkey can only imagine a lion because it has seen it in its life. But it can't imagine a half lion half man which doesn’t really exist. You can never convince a monkey to give up a banana promising it that if it does so, it’ll get unlimited bananas in monkey heaven after death [Sapiens].

We could imagine that there is some special force that guards us, gives us strength. This gave us confidence to explore new places and go up against big and ferocious animals. We prayed started praying mountains, the sun, trees, “drawing strength” from them. These imaginary entities united us. Various groups believed in the same deity and thought it created them and gives them power.

Imagination united us

Studies have shown that humans cannot work together in a group as peers if the number of people exceeds about 150. Anything more requires a hierarchical structure with a common goal to achieve. Most companies today have a “vision” which is imaginary. But it gives the company a purpose to work for. This unites all the workers in the company who are at various levels in the hierarchy and have different social backgrounds.

Religion hence came into existence. It gave humans a purpose in life other than the biological purpose of survival. The alpha male of Catholics, the Pope, has a vow of celibacy, which is the opposite of the biological method of the sustenance of the species by reproduction [Sapiens]. Yet the pope unites a large population and ensures the species’ survival in a phenomenally better manner than the natural way.

We dominate due to the ability to work in groups whose size is limitless. A worker in a Tata Motors plant in Chennai, Tamil Nadu works with the same zeal as a factory manager of its plant in Dharwad, Karnataka. What is driving them to work as a company? TATA group was founded by Jamshedji Tata and henceforth the leadership was hereditary. But this ended with Ratan Tata retiring. Why hasn’t the company fallen apart? It is because the “company” is not a physical entity anymore. If you remove all the Tata cars from the roads, they can be manufactured again. If you fire all the employees, new people can be recruited and the plants can be run. No physical change can remove the company from existence. Tata group is just an idea which holds together about 700,000 employees.

Hence, fiction has given us immense power to not just imagine things but to do so collectively. A large number of strangers can cooperate successfully by believing in common myths.

3

I’ve had numerous arguments with my parents when I have tried to logically explain them that God doesn’t exist – Man isn’t God’s creation, rather it is the other way around. My parents could see the truth in my logic but continued their belief. This gave me a feeling of despair.

I have been a proud atheist and a very patriotic person. I want to join the Indian Air Force. When I went to the Air Force Selection Board (AFSB), Mysore, Karnataka, I was simulating the final interview in my mind. While thinking about why I want to join the IAF, the obvious answer was “to serve my country”. This got me thinking. Why do I want to serve my country? After some introspection, I realised that I am no different from my parents. They serve God while I serve my country. They pray and sing some bhajans while I sing the national anthem.

This was an eye opener for me. This is when I realised that the idea of God, religion, nationalism are all myths to unite people and accelerate the development of our species.

Even now I want to join the IAF. But this time the reason is to fulfil my dream of flying fighter aircrafts. I still am patriotic just because it makes me feel good to be so. I am ready to sacrifice a comfortable life for the sake of my country, even when I know that my “nation” is simply an idea. Yet, it is an idea which has united 1.34 billion people as Indians.

Coming back to the thought of nihilism, does nothing I do matter?

Yes, nothing “I” do matters in this universe. But, the things “WE” do, does matter.

Humanity has developed in an unbelievable rate in the last 200 years. A person living in the 18th century could’ve only imagined the world as it is today, in the 21st century. Nevertheless, here we are, connected to every person on earth via the internet. Some of us have walked on the moon.

So, there is no harm in imagining that we can become space colonists who conquer the universe. Nihilism says that the universe has no purpose. So, let’s give it a purpose.

In chemistry, there is something called buffer solutions. If you add a small amount of acid or a base in it, the pH (total acidity) doesn’t change as a reversible reaction opposes the addition of acid and balances it out. But when a large amount of a strong acid I added, the pH drops (acidity increases). Similarly, we are currently in a buffer phase. Humanity’s actions are being cancelled out due to the universe’s randomness. So, our activities should be big enough to be significant. For that humans should acts as a single unit – as a big beaker of a strong acid. Not as religious groups, not as countries but as humanity as a whole.

We need to design a belief system, a fiction that convinces everyone to work for. For example, climate change has united almost all the countries to come together to tackle it. (In this case, even though Donald Trump believes it to be fictional, it is very real). The process of uniting humans is moving in the right direction. We were first united as tribes and clans. Then as kingdoms and then by religions. Now we have nations and a loose unity of the United Nations. But, the pace at which this unification is proceeding is very slow. We need to find ways to accelerate it.

We need a goal that is so phenomenal that we think beyond our religion and country.

As far as we know, we are the only entity in the universe that can carry out a wide range of activities. Even a star behaves in a certain way. But our behavior is unpredictable. Our abilities are unparalleled. Our strength lies in our unity. Let’s work together and rule the universe!

Thanks for reading

Note: Parts of this article resembles content present in the book “Sapiens – A brief history of humankind” as the book has deeply influenced my thoughts
Image source: Khan Academy