Just watched a part of the series ‘Young Sheldon’ where he gets a book ‘How to win friends and influence people‘ from the library ( recommended by the librarian) and tries to implement its principles in his life. The episode covers several scenes from his personal as well as school life, where his attempts to use those principles turn futile, resulting in some really socially awkward situations, providing good comic relief to the audience. I enjoyed the episode and the fun it provided. But at the same time, two memories from my past surfaced
- My friend Shenu who had come home one day, when I was college and saw some self-help/personality development books in my bookshelf, felt disgusted by them. He showed a hand symbol, showing why I ‘waste’ my time, reading all these cr_p
- My cousin once told me that, he had read the bible cover to cover ( a great feat indeed ) and could not find a single believable thing in it
I hadn’t understood why these individuals( my friend and my cousin ) felt like that, until I watched the episode of ‘Young Sheldon’, which I was talking about, in the first para. I used to believe that, knowledge in itself would liberate people, empower them and positively impact his /her life and the people around him/ her. But that’s not the case !
Knowledge in the right hands would bring in the positive changes. For most people when they receive some new piece of information, a question comes to their mind, ‘Does it fit my belief system ?’ Then one of the three happens
- If yes, excellent: I will use it the next time, when I have to defend my belief
- If no, can I twist and turn it, to make it fit my belief system?
- Even after I twist and turn it if it doesn’t help, can I try to get interpret it such a way as to fit my belief system? If none of these work, just throw it away
Very rarely, people incorporate concepts or ideas which are against their belief system. They would rather prefer to be in the world which they have created for themselves and try to defend their beliefs at any cost, even at the cost of their lives.
Please note that, there is nothing inherently wrong in this – it’s just a way of living, a way of being, that’s all. In Sheldon’s case, and like some ‘self-proclaimed genius’ I have encountered in my life, there is always an air of superiority in them which makes them try really hard to be separate from the ‘crowd’. They prefer to talk in jargon, act socially awkward and try to prove everyone wrong ( of course some people are sick and might need psychiatric intervention and I am not talking about them here) Yet, great mean and women of the past, Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, Rumi, Akkamahadevi, Shankaracharya all tried to be with the crowd and explain things to them, in the simplest way possible, even though they possessed knowledge at the highest levels.
Recently Ambika shared with me a video of a woman who prepares meals for her husband and how she plans for it, for the entire week in advance.In my opinion, this definitely requires planning analyzing, and precise execution – all showing faces of intelligence, although may not be at genius levels. Farmers growing crops successfully, accurately predicting soil and climate changes, also, in my opinion, are intelligent people. Measuring intelligence through IQ is a recent phenomenon, and even the concept of exams was introduced to this country very recently. This culture believes in perpetual learning, either at gurukul or at home.
So this is what I think: An atheist goes through the Bible, looking for textual contexts, which he could use to prove that God does not exist. An apologetic or theologian spends time coming up proofs that science is not always right. The list just goes on. At the end of the day, people continue to believe whatever they like to believe forever and nothing changes within them. I believe this gives them a false sense of security and hope and stability in their life.
Knowlege, I believe is just a tool. Your level of maturity would decide how you use that tool ( Think of the analogy of knife wielding kid vs chef usin a knife )