Chennai Freethinkers Annual Report 2012

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}Chennai Freethinkers{2012 Annual Report

A compilation of reports of the monthly meets November 3, 2012

email: [email protected] 1

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mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]


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Chennai Freethinkers is the regional chapter of Nirmukta, along with 12 other regional groups in

various cities across India. Our aim is to provide a platform for freethinkers who value Science,

Reason and Secular Humanism, to voice their opinions and share their experience in a safe and

cohesive environment free from religious judgements, meanwhile trying to promote these values

in public. We have been meeting once a month for the past two years. At the end of every year

we put out an annual report of all our meets. This is the second annual report of

Chennai Freethinkers.

We are proud to say that Nirmukta Chennai Freethinkers has been growing steadily for the past

year and has brought together people from very diverse backgrounds. We have been conducting

regular meets throughout the year and have organised guest lectures and film screenings. Every

meet we see new members joining us and becoming regulars. Many have come forward to

volunteer for future events and other on-ground activities. Meanwhile our online presence in

Facebook has been growing too. With nearly 700 members, Chennai Freethinkers has the

largest membership count among Nirmuktas regional freethought groups.

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Dedicated to

Ajita KamalF o u n d e r , N i r m u k t a .

1 9 7 8 - 2 0 1 1

N o n e o f t h i s w o u l d h a v e b e e n p o s s i b l e w i t h o u t y o u .

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

First Anniversary Meet! 529th January 2012 5- by Bala Bhaskar! 5

13th Meet! 1111th March 2012 11- by Bala Bhaskar! 11

14th Meet! 1415th April 2012 14- by Bala Bhaskar! 14

15th Meet! 2329th May 2012 23- by Geetha TG! 23

16th Meet! 2717th June 2012 27- by Geetha TG! 27

18th Meet! 3112th August 2012 31- by Geetha TG! 31

19th Meet! 3630th September 2012 36

The Rearview Mirror! 382013! 39

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First

AnniversaryMeet29th January 2012

- by Bala Bhaskar

The anniversary meet of Chennai Freethinkers

took place on 29th January 2012 at a conference

hall in Nungambakkam. Twelve people

attended the meet including four new members.

We started with introduction of the newmembers.Arun Wayne is a 3D modeler working for a

visual effects studio in chennai.

Parthiban is an inhalation expert doing hisresearch in the US.

Krishnan is a professional at an IT firm inchennai.

The discussion on the topic of registeringNirmukta was deferred till the next meet as the

appropriate person (Balasubramanian) taking

the initiative could not make it to the meet.

Bala initiated the discussion about planning

an event for the National Science Day on Feb

28th. He explained that the idea sprang froman audio conference with Ajita and others

about initiating and celebrating secular

festivals that everyone can participate in. Theplan is to have a talk on a science topic in the

morning and perhaps a panel discussion in the

afternoon. Krishnan pointed out that the talkdoesnt have to be anti-religious and should

have a positive tone to promote science.

Girish said that if the talk is going to be on

astronomy then the speaker might touch on

astrology and point to its weakness.Nikhilremarked that if people interpret an attack on

superstition as an attack on their religious

sentiments, we cannot be responsible for that.Bala explained that the tactic used by

Prof.Narendra Nayak during his

demonstrations has been well tested as it acts

as a great tool to get people interested as well

as make them think. Krishnan was of the

opinion that we should create more content

rich videos on topics like evolution for

children in villages. Parthiban remarked thatpeople in villages would be more willing to

learn than the educated middle class.

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Soorya wondered if we could give the audiencesomething to take home after the event. He said

he recently received a booklet from the Church

of Scientology and that the booklet was in fact

rather impressive.Anyone who reads it wouldfeel the urge to at least visit the church once.

He said we could have a DVD or a booklet on

science topics or recordings of previous events

which we can give to the audience to carry home

after the event.

The next topic taken up was to translate Ajitasarticles to Tamil. Bala said that there are nearly50 articles in Nirmukta by Ajita. He said either

the members can volunteer to translate or we

can find professional translators who would

charge approx Rs.4 per word. GeethaCharusivam pointed out that the problem with

professional translators is that the essence of the

article will be lost.Nikhil added that thetranslator must be able to relate to the article

he/she is translating. Krishnan suggested thatwe take up the help of tamil blogger group

who openly blast religion in their posts, or we

could contact writer Gnani who would be able to

help.Nikhil intervened and said we should becareful in choosing the translator as someone

who openly blasts religion may not be the

right choice. If someone reads the translatedarticle, finds out who the translator is, goes to

their blog and finds content that is

unacceptable, the reader might relate Nirmukta

with such opinions.We have to make sure the

translators affiliation does not hamper our

cause. The idea is not to slam somebody butto gently prod them into thinking.Whenthere is a sense of anger in the way you speak

or write, that severely influences the way it

comes across to people said Nikhil. He alsoadded that the translations should be easily

readable and not use flowery language. Balasaid that if the translation is faithful to the

original article, that would be more than

enough.

Krishnan and Madhavan volunteered to takeup the translation work. Bala reiterated thatthis is a group effort. He gave the example of a

passage from The Pale Blue Dot that was

translated into Tamil after numerous revisions

by many members. Bala wondered if we couldset a tentative deadline to finish the articles.He suggested about 8 months to complete

translation of all of the articles if many

members pitch in.Nikhil pointed out that weshould look for quality over quantity. Even ifmany members pitched in, if four or five of

them translate with high quality then they are

the ones who should be entrusted with the

job. Bhaskaran at this point wondered what isthe purpose of translating these articles. Since

most of us in the group are comfortable in

English he wondered if there is an audience

for such content in Tamil. Krishnan said yes.Nikhil noted that we should have a plan to

distribute the articles once translated as

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posting them on Nirmukta alone is not enough.Krishnan mentioned that there are magazines in

tamil like Pudhiya Thalaimurai and Uyirmai who

may be willing to publish them.

Translating Khan Academy to Tamil wasdiscussed next. Bala gave a short introduction

to what Khan academy is and said that he wished

to translate those lessons to Tamil. Parthibanargued that teaching in Tamil could spoil the

children as we should encourage them to learn

in English.Venkat noted how his classmateswho were educated in the Tamil medium inschool were struggling to cope up with the

college syllabus. Parthiban reiterated that Tamilas a language will not help much in the learning

process after school. He gave examples ofconcepts like entropy and thermodynamics for

which one needs to use English to describe.

The style of Khan Academy is a typical British

way of teaching and not a good way to teach

science and mathematics, he observed.Nikhilwondered that since most higher education is in

English, will we not be denying the children the

opportunity to learn in English if we persist of

teaching in Tamil? Bhaskaran added that heread an engineering book in Tamil and couldnt

get past the first page. Bala replied that he is not

going to translate the videos word for word from

English to Tamil. He said he could teach theTamil equivalent of the English word and

encourage the listener to learn the English

word.As for the teaching style, he said he is not

trying to come up with the best method

possible but simply giving an alternative

medium to school from which the kids can

learn anytime. Geetha mentioned that a lot ofyoungsters are still learning in Tamil till 12th.Bala wondered if it is right to deprive the

children of knowledge just because they dont

know a language.

Bala noted that... we cannot

force someone to read a bookor an article or something that

we think is the best use of their

time. The best we can do isinspire and encourage and the

person should take thedecision on their own interest.

Bhaskaran wondered if a child who hasnt had

much exposure to English would be able to

understand scientific concepts. Geetha saidthey certainly can and do. Speaking fromexperience, she said that children in tribal

schools are quite sharp and when you explain

scientific concepts, they immediately relate it

to their everyday lives. Bala said that thelessons should not just be uploaded to the

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internet as that would defeat the purpose of the

exercise. Parthiban noted that not many schoolshave computers. Bala suggested that we canpackage these lessons onto DVDs playable on

DVD players, and since TV and DVD

penetration seems much higher than internet

penetration, it has a better chance of getting

used.Krishnan said he had read the article on

privilege blindness in Nirmukta and noted that

people who are using the internet are very

privileged.Yet, he lamented, that people useinternet for wasteful purposes like discussing

cinema and cricket. He said we have to try andchange the behavior of such people who misuse

the internet. Bala intervened and said that theword misuse in inappropriate in this context,

and that it is not our job to lecture people on

what is the right thing to do with the internet.He said we cannot force someone to read a book

or an article or something that we think is the

best use of their time. The best we can do isinspire and encourage and the person should

take the decision on their own interest. He gavethe example of the recent artwork he did about

the Cosmic microwave background radiation in

TV static and how it got few of his friends

interested. He said that it is like a hook to get

people interested in science.

Nikhil gave the example of Arabian nights,

where they tell a story every night but leave out

crucial ending details in order to keep the

listeners interested for the next night. He saidwe could point people to abridged versions of

classics like Crime and Punishment. If theabridged version interests the reader then

they might be inspired to improve their

English in order to aspire to read the original.The essay on Liberty by J.S.Mill, on which he

wrote his last article, is a complicated essay,

said Nikhil, but he has tried to simplify it to

get the readers interested enough to read the

original. He mentioned a website called theGutenberg press which provides many of the

classic English literature for free. Bhaskaransuggested Sujatas Yen Yetharku Yeppadi

as a good tool to kindle scientific curiosity.

Nikhil recalled an incident where he was on atrain to Jodhpur and during a casual chat with

his co-passengers he revealed that he is an

immunologist. The passengers then askedhim questions, like what is the difference

between HIV and AIDS? He said people useHIV positive and AIDS interchangeably but

there is a vast difference between the two. Heobserved that incidents like these show that

people are generally curious. It is not likethey are living in their own boxes and not

worried about anything, he said, but just that

they dont know who to ask the questions.

Parthiban noted that people in rural areas are

much more receptive of new ideas than those

in urban areas.Nikhil gave a hypotheticalexample of how a catholic priest who did his

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degree in Bible studies and his dissertation of

why the canaanites probably deserved to die,

and has served in the church for say 30 years

would find it very difficult to assimilate back into

society if he suddenly realises there is no god.We watched Christopher Hitchens video on

Free Speech and a video from the Jaipur

Literature Festival before we wrapped up the

meet.

Nikhil gave a hypothetical

example of how a catholic priest

who did his degree in Bible

studies and his dissertation on

why the canaanites probably

deserved to die, and has served

in the church for say 30 years

would find it very difficult to

assimilate back into society if he

suddenly realises there is no

god.

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13th Meet11th March 2012

- by Bala Bhaskar

This is a gist of our 13th meet. Sorry for the brief

report. Lost my notes and had to recollect a lot

from memory. Please leave a comment if there is

a mistake or if I had misquoted anyone. Thanks.

- The 13th Chennai Freethinkers Meet washeld on 11th March 22, 2012 at a conference hall

in Nungambakkam.

- We had three newcomers this meet.Dhyanesh, and Periyaswamy, both friends of

Venkat, who is a regular, are students of

Sociology. Dhyanesh aims to be in civil serviceand is influenced by thoughts of Periyar.Periyaswamy had a religious upbringing. Raju,the third newcomer, is a friend of

Balasubramaniam (Balu) and is doing his PHD

in history.

- The topic of registering Nirmukta wasdiscussed. Balu suggested we register as anassociation. Imran, who did most of the

paperwork for the registration process couldnt

be present.- We discussed about conveying sciencetopics in an easily understandable way to people

who are not particularly interested in science.Karthik remarked that topics like evolution

and big bang can sound complicated to people

not really interested in science, and that if

these concepts can be explained in a simple

manner, it would be better.

- Balu suggested that along with sciencepeople need to know the ways to think using

reason and logic and to arrive at conclusions

accordingly.

- Karthik mentioned that people heknows believe the bible literally and some

others waste their time and effort in

superstitions like shaving the head in

Tirupathi. The explanation given is thatwhatever they wish for, comes true when they

go to Tirupathi.

- Balu pointed out that this was wishfulthinking and that if you take the statistics, the

number of times their wishes came true would

be no better than because of random chance,

but they only remember the times the wishes

came true.

- Karthik said one of his neighbors wouldpoint out to some verses in the bible to show

how morally uplifting it is. Ganesh retortedsaying there are passages in Luke and Mathew

that are morally repugnant.- Ganesh gave 4 reasons why people

believe in god, Explanation, Exaltation,

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Consolation and Inspiration and said that these

can be attained without presupposing the

existence of god.

-

Karthik mentioned that even welleducated people fall for superstition. Ganeshresponded that education doesnt automatically

provide one with critical thinking abilities.

- Dhyanesh was worried if we wereimposing our beliefs on others, and noted that

everyone has a right to their beliefs, and

wondered why we needed to convert people.

- He argued that we should target prejudiceprevalent in the society rather than attacking

religious beliefs themselves.

- Balu responded that Science is not abelief system but just a systematic way of finding

the truth.- Dhyanesh reiterated that we shouldntimpose our beliefs on others.

- Balu responded with a question. Imaginethere is a sick man.And the people around himare doing poojas to alleviate his illness. If I go inthere and say stop the Pujas and take the man to

a hospital, will I be imposing my belief on them?Dhyanesh said No.

- However, Dhyanesh argued that religionstill has a social importance. For instance if we

attach religious importance to a tree, a person

might be unwilling it cut it down.

Imagine there is a sick man.And the people around him

are doing poojas to alleviate

his illness.If I go in there andsay stop the Poojas and take

the man to a hospital, will I be

imposing my belief on them?

- Bala responded that we owe the persona better reason to not cut the tree. Ganesh

pointed out that if we go by the Global peace

index, most of the top countries with low

crime rate and high social cohesion are

atheistic countries.

- Dhyanesh said that he is interested inthe topic of alternative medicine. Hementioned a person called Healer Bhaskar

who suggests simple behavioral changes for

people with chronic diseases like diabetes.Dhyanesh said that he has witnessed a

persons diabetic level plunge using such

techniques and that the doctors were not able

to give an explanation.

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- Ganesh responded that this is an anecdoteand cannot be considered proper evidence.

- Dhyanesh suggested that we should tryand eradicate the bad things within each religionand try to assimilate what is good among all the

religions.

- Balu pointed out that this is what thetheosophical society tried to do and it ended up

becoming sort of a cult.

- Bala explained that there is a connectionbetween people going to Tirupathi and a babaexploiting gullible people through their

superstitious beliefs, and it is the willingness of

people to believe in something without

evidence, and its prevalence within our culture.

- Ganesh noted that we should create analternative with our culture for people who do

not wish to identify with any faith, and that weshould celebrate science.

- Dhyanesh argued that science itself is notfool proof. He pointed out how Pluto wasconsidered a planet by science for so long and

then suddenly they revoked its planetary status.- Bala responded that this is an example ofthe self-correcting mechanism within science.

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14th Meet15th April 2012

- by Bala Bhaskar

The Chennai Freethinkers 14th meet took place

on 15th April 2012 at a conference hall in

Nungambakkam.Eleven of us were present forthe meeting, including a first timer Salpetta

Saamiyaar.Salpetta, who has been active on Facebook in

the Chennai Freethinkers group, works in

Dubai and is visiting Chennai on vacation. Hefound out about Nirmukta through Ajitas post

on PZ Myers blog. Sadly, the first post that heread in Nirmukta was that of Ajitas demise.Salpetta grew up in a Christian background.His father was an elder in a local church. He waseducated at the seventh day Adventist school.

As part of school routine, he had to preach every

Saturday. Through this, he learnt a lot about theBible. He explored the similarities between theKoran and the Bible and gradually renounced

his religion. Letting go of Christianity was notmuch of a shock and he says his family too

knows that he is not very religious.Bala suggested that Salpetta could network with

other members of Nirmukta who are in the

middle east, and possibly have a middle east

freethought group.

Madhavan was worried about the low turnoutand wondered how we could make the group

popular. Salpetta suggested that we shouldtarget schools. Bala noted that it will bedifficult to formally approach a school before

being properly registered. He added that italso depends on the school principal.

(Salpetta Saamiyaar)

explored the similarities

between the Koran and the

Bible and gradually

renounced his religion.

Balaji and Geetha lamented how they were

scared of breaking lab equipment during

school days, and how this kept them from

developing curiosity. Balaji said, duringChemistry lab exams, the examiner would

even give away the answer. Ganesh, who didhis schooling in Mumbai, said that his schoolwas a bit better and they guided the students

to carry out experiments. Geetha said that sheis learning more now that she did during

school days.

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Ganesh mentioned that his friend is appearing

on TV9 for a discussion with an astrologer.Balaji noted that an astrologer predicted that he

has a kandam (threat to his life) before the age

of 35. Ganesh pointed out that vaguepredictions are rarely wrong, and specific

predictions are rarely right.Venkat said thatpeople used to tell him that what astrologers

predict might come true, and that the exact

opposite might also come true. Between these

two possibilities, noted Bala, every occurrence

can be covered. He also noted how people whodefend astrology bring up an analogy with

doctors, saying that if a doctor prescribes wrong

medicine, it is not the fault of the entire medical

profession. Similarly if an astrologerspredictions dont come true, it is not the fault of

astrology. Ganesh pointed out that unlikeastrology, medical science follows the scientific

method, makes specific testable claims and is

independently verifiable.

Geetha said that she is learning

more now than she did during

school days.

Geetha pointed to a video by Babu Gogineniwhere he debunks a ghost story step by step.She said the video has been subtitled to English

by Satish on the Nirmukta Forums. Bala noted

that Babu Gogineni is well experienced for TV

appearences, like Neil deGrasse Tyson.Ganesh mentioned that although it looks

casual and natural, Neil prepares extensively

before each show. Bala noted an episode

where someone asked Neil why his upcoming

Cosmos series is being aired on Fox network

and not on any Science channels, for which

Neil replied that, if you are already watching

the Science channel, then you are not my

target audience.

... vague predictions are rarely

wrong, and specific predictions

are rarely right.

Bala also lamented that such charismatic

personality who can popularize science is

missing in the Indian media landscape.People like Prof.Dayanandhan who gave a

lecture on Evolution during ThinkFest were

not as popular as wed like them to be.Geetha mentioned that we should have

another ThinkFest like program, maybe even

a training session by Prof.Nayak. Balarecalled a plan to conduct a 3 day festival in

Delhi on June 21st that Lalit mentioned in one

of the groups. Even within our group, eachmonth one of us can give a short talk on any

one topic. Bala volunteered to give his much15


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overdue talk on Logical Fallacies next month.He had collected example videos of logical

fallacies and showed one video where Cho

Ramaswamy, Editor of Thuglak magazine,

defends sexism by using scriptural references.The gist of the video is as follows

After the Mahabharatha war, Bhisma advisesDharmaputran on various aspects of life. One ofit is about nature of women.

He says women are full of desire and can never

be satisfied.

There used to be a time when women used to be

virtuous and adhrents of Dharma.

They were becoming as pious as the Devas and

this made the Devas jealous.

The Devas appealed to Brahmadeva to do

something about the situation.

Brahmadeva gave women Desire and Anger.

From then on humanity was ruined.

If a man has 1000 tongues, Bhisma says, and he

lives for 100 years, by the time he dies, he would

not have finished reciting all the bad qualities of

women.

At the same time there are women who upholdDharma and are patient. The world functions

because of these women.

Manu describes womens dual qualities and says

that they should be protected by her Father/

Husband/Son at various stages and that they

are ineligible for freedom.

Cho later goes on to justify the sexism in thescripture by giving it different interpretation.

Bala gave another example of

how parents usually say

things like You should have

been born as a boy to girlswho are talkative, confident,

good at sports etc.

These videos are a sure way to get your blood

pressure through the roof, said Geetha. Balanoted that these comments are more

dangerous than outright sexist comments like

that made by Delhi cops recently. Here thesexism is loosely veiled with scripture and

would be readily accepted by believers,

whereas the comments by Delhi cops were

revolting to most people irrespective of their

religious leanings. Bala gave anotherexample of how parents usually say things like

You should have been born as a boy to girls

who are talkative, confident, good at sports

etc. Though it sounds inane, the underlying

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message is that girls should not have such

qualities.

Ganesh suggested that we create rebuttals tosuch videos.

Bala agreed to take up the video

work and asked Ganesh to record his audio

response to the video. Bala also noted that wewont be breaking any copyright as we are using

the video for commentary. It may also berequired to subtitle Chos tamil commentary in

English.

Salpetta narrated an incident in Dubai wherehis friend has applied for a divorce, as her

husband was having an extramarital affair. Sinceher case came under Sharia law, she was

required to produce four male witnesses or 8

female witnesses to her husbands affair.WhenSalpetta enquired why it requires 8 female

witnesses and only 4 male witnesses, she told

him that it is because women are missing a partof the frontal lobe, and that they dont say what

they think and their thought process is

different! Bala said that it is heart wrenchingwhen the victim themselves argue for the

oppressive system. Geetha noted that it is a signthat patriarchy is winning.

Venkat shared his experience with castediscrimination in his hometown of Rajapalayam.His father would be very particular about the

caste of the people he deals with. Peoplebelonging to lower-castes would call him

sami, and he used to wonder, in what way he is

superior to them. Geetha mentioned how herin-laws used to serve beverages to workers in

separate cups.

...she told him that it is because

women are missing a part of

the frontal lobe, and that they

dont say what they think and

their thought process is

different!

Bala narrated how he came out to his extended

family as an atheist recently. During aconversation, few of his relatives mentioned

how they prayed for him while he was admitted

in the hospital after a near-fatal accident.They said that it was the prayers that brought

him back alive. Bala wondered why theydidnt take him to a temple instead of a

hospital after the accident! They respondedthat although doctors saved his life, god

played a vital role in getting him to the

hospital in time and making sure nothing wentwrong with the surgery etc. Bala retorted that,since you believe in god, you attribute such

things to god, whereas for me, it is purely

human effort, as I dont believe in god. Thistook them all by surprise. Balas dad patched

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up saying according to astrology, Bala was

destined to be a staunch believer by the time he

is in is his mid 30s, and this is just a phase he is

going through. Bala noted the irony of using

astrology to predict when one will start believing

in god. When talks about his marriage came up,

Bala insisted that his marriage be a civil

marriage without any religious ceremony. Thiscaused much more opposition than him coming

out as a non-believer.

... the irony of using astrology to

predict when one will start

believing in god.

Ganesh noted that, belief or non-belief ispersonal, but tradition is a public affair andtherefore harder to resist. Balaji mentioned

how the maid in his house usually sits on the

floor by habit, even though he insists that she

sits on the chair. Ganesh observed that they areindoctrinated from childhood, just like how

some muslim women claim that the veil is a

liberating attire. Rajendran wondered if suchcaste discrimination occurs only in India.Geetha noted that it happens in other countries

too, if not based on caste, for some other

reason, like skin colour.

Madhavan wondered if it would be possible tointroduce Stephen Hawkins famous

pronouncement that god is not needed for the

creation of the universe, in school syllabus.Ganesh said, maybe as history, by not in the

science class. Bala noted how every stategovernment textbook begins with Praise to

God. Ganesh said that its only a matter ofnumbers.A child of muslim parents will not

be required to recite a Hindu prayer.Similarly they shouldnt ask a child of atheist

parents to recite any prayer whatsoever.Nagalakshmi mentioned that prayer is even

touted as a part of good habit in moral science

textbooks. Salpetta wondered if it is moreprevelant in Christian schools. Ganesh notedthat the prime motive of such schools is to

convert and increase their numbers.

Madhavan said that one of his friends pointedto a poem in the vedas which speculates about

the existence of god. Bala noted that it is thesong of creation in Rig Veda where the author

speculates about the creation of the Universe,

and that perhaps even the gods dont know

how the universe began. Believers point tothis stanza to establish how Hinduism is open

to such speculation but they fail to mention

other stanzas in the same Rig Veda which are

full of rituals and dogma. Ganesh noted howSoma Juice is mentioned so frequently in the

vedas and how many stanzas are about petty

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differences and jealous incantations between

rival clans.

Salpetta requested that we make a simple videoexplaining and refuting the Kalam cosmologicalargument. He said most believers keep coming

back to that after theyve exhausted all other

arguments for the existence of god. Ganeshnoted that we are very susceptible to self-

deception and wishful thinking. We might evenbe hard wired to believe in the supernatural, as a

product of evolution. Bala intervened and said,just because there might be a god center in thebrain does not mean there is a god.Ganesh said, if you take 20 children and

isolated them and let them grow up without any

influence from the outside world, by the time

they grew up, they would have formed some

concept of the supernatural. But they would allhave completely different versions like thedifferent religions of the world. However, if

you introduce them to scientific method, all 20

of them, given enough time, will arrive at the

same conclusion independently.Madhavan wondered why the children might

come up with the supernatural concept in the

first place. Bala speculated that its perhapsbecause it is the easiest explanation to things

that are hard to explain. Madhavan enquiredwhy we as humans find it difficult to say I dont

know to the god question, but are more than

willing to say I dont know in everyday trivial

situations when we dont know the answer.

Ganesh opined that it is perhaps safer to

assume. He gave the example of cavemen whowould rather assume there is a lion in the

rustling bush and stay safe than risk going into

the bush. Bala pointed out that during aconversation when one person assumes the

existence of god, and the other person simply

says I dont know, there is a general

perception that the person who assumes gods

existence has won the argument. Madhavannoted that as an atheist he is much more

curious to find out about things. Bala gave an

analogy of coming out of an examination and

finding out from someone else that most of

your answers (god) are wrong. Similarly, for atheist who has assumed god to be the answer

for so many questions, it might be hard to

revisit those questions to find out a better

answer.

Bala intervened and said, just

because there might be a god

center in the brain does not

mean there is a god.

Madhavan quoted Jiddu Krisnamoorthysaying, a person who believes in Jesus will

only dream of Jesus, and a person who

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believes in Vishnu will only dream of Vishnu.Ganesh told us about the temporal lobe

excitation experiment where a believer sees

visions of god but a non believer doesnt.Geetha encouraged Rajendran, Venkat and

Salpetta to share a bit more about themselves.

... why we as humans find it

difficult to say I dont know tothe god question, but are more

than willing to say I dont

know in everyday trivial

situations when we dont know

the answer?

Rajendran said that though he finds the

arguments of atheists to be reasonable and

convincing, he does not identify himself as an

atheist. Ganesh enquired if it is because of thewhite coat and khaki shirt dilemma.A personwho is new to a place, if given a choice to wear a

neatly ironed white coat, or a ragged khaki shirt,

both clean, will always chose the white coat.Similarly, Ganesh said that people associate

god-fearing believers with qualities such as

honesty and kindness, whereas atheists are

considered immoral. Rajendran enquired whyeven though atheist arguments are so

reasonable, they are still in the minority. Hesaid he is not sure what atheists are missing

out, and that if Logic is the right way to

approach things. Ganesh answered thatamong various religious sects, non-believers

are the fastest growing sub-sect in most part

of the world. Geetha mentioned that no groupis perfect, and that there may be shortcomings

within Chennai Freethinkers too. Rajendrancame back to the point that he is not sure what

he might miss out being an atheist. Ganeshanswered with an example of two persons who

have met with a loss in business. One persongoes to Sabarimala, after going through the

taxing regiment of rituals, praying for god to

solve the problem while the other person

approaches the problem rationally.Who is itthat is missing out, asked Ganesh. If it is asense of community that one wants, that is

what we are trying to build here. Ganeshreiterated that one can be a non-believer and

still be a cultural Hindu, decorating the

Kolu stand with evolution rather than

Dasavathar. Geetha said that Rajendranshould have interacted with us more so that wecould have known his position better.Bala wanted to know what Rajendran meant

when he said he doesnt know if Logic is the

answer. Rajendran answered that when he

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sees the world through logic, it feels less

colourful. He said when he looks at the stars,

there are two ways of making sense. One is tosee them as magical, and the other is to see them

as a furnace.When he sees them as a furnace,his inspiration waters down. Ganesh loosely

quoted Richard Feynman and said that the

beauty of the star is available to everyone, but

the knowledge of how the star shines adds to

that beauty and does not subtract.Venkatmentioned that his English literature professors

treat Science as their nemesis, whereas Science

teachers dont see literature that way.

... when he sees the world

through logic, it feels less

colourful.

Rajendran gave another example. He imagined

travelling at night and coming across a building.It is dark, lit only by the shining moon and has a

general beautiful mystery surrounding it. Butonce he visits the building several times and

comes to know about it, that mystery is gone. Ithas lost the imaginative charm. Bala gave asimilar example. He was told as a child that thelunar eclipse is caused by a giant snake

swallowing the moon. This story was fascinatingto his childhood imagination and he would go

up to the terrace and try to see the snake in the

sky that is swallowing the moon. Later onwhen he was told that it is only a story and not

true, he still wanted to believe in it. But oncehe came to understand the real cause of the

eclipse he let go of the fantasy. It is a form ofloss. But the true reason is much more

beautiful than the fantasy said Ganesh. Balareplied that even if the true reason is not as

charming and creative, one has to value truth

over mystery. Rajendran said he wished tohave both the truth and the mystery. Ganeshreplied that there is mystery in nature too.Madhavan quoted Jiddu Krishnamoorthy

saying that one can see nature without the

screen of knowledge.

Geetha suggested that Rajendran read thebook Unweaving the Rainbow by Richard

Dawkins in which he deals with the exact

question of does science take the charm out of

reality. Bala suggested Magic of Reality byRichard Dawkins which also deals with the

same subject. Rajendran expressed interestin reading both of them.

... one has to value truth over

mystery.

Venkat grew up in a Hindu family. Hisparents insisted that he believe in some god,

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enthusiastic about reading science, though he

used to read fiction.After he attendedThinkFest last year, he felt like he had wasted

nearly 5 years of his life. From then on hebecame an avid reader and has visible passion

for new knowledge.

Madhavan mentioned that he enjoys Carnaticmusic, but most of the music is in praise of god.He said that if this system of music has to go for

the truth, then it should go. Bala intervened andsaid that, when it comes to art, he would leave

science behind. He said he wouldnt want to seeCarnatic music destroyed just because he

doesnt believe in god. He still enjoys the musicfor what it is. Balaji said that music is more than

words, and that he enjoys other language music

too that he doesnt understand.

After nearly three and half hours of livelydiscussion, we had to wind up, eagerly lookingforward to the next meet.

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15th Meet29th May 2012

- by Geetha TG

We Chennai Freethinkers are a restless lot.

Once a month, a few of us get together to

discuss topics related to atheism, skepticism and

humanism. But then soon we get discontented

and plan for something bigger. We organized a

meeting last July when a few of us spoke on

some topics. Then we organized a 2-day event

Thinkfest wherein we brought professors like

Dayanandan, Narendra Nayak and the IHEU

Director Babu Gogineni to speak on various

topics. Last Sundays meet was the result of a

similar urge to do something bigger. We

planned a presentation and a short talk followed

by a discussion.

The meeting started with a short introduction.Barathi started with sharing her concern about

some of her family members being enamored by

the latest Touch therapy. This was akin to Reiki,

someone said. Arvind demonstrated this therapy

on Bala S and caused much laughter by

explaining that the key feature of the touch

therapy is that the patient is not touched. This

was followed by the ice-breaking session (also

called the ragging session!) when the new

comers are asked to introduce themselves and

share what made them atheists. This is usually

a fun time when new comers open up. One de-

conversion story which has been consistently

heard and which is cause for much mirth is I

read the Bible/Quran/Gita/whatever. I

became an atheist. Simple. What can beat

this! Once a member, Soorya Sriram, had an

even more special story he was sent for a

veda training in the kanchi mutt and he came

back an atheist!

This time too we had people sharing theirstories. Keen observation, Skepticism and anutter sense of fairness seemed to have

contributed in arriving at their conclusions for

most of the members. Twenty nine people

attended the meet. Jagannathan

Veeraraghavan from the Bangalore

Freethinkers group had joined us. The stars of

the evening were the trio from Tirunelveli,

now settled in Chennai Radhakrishnan

Selvaraj, Rooban and Rahul. They rendered an

admirable freshness and their genuine

outpourings straight from the heart captivated

the audience. It was a sheer delight to hear

them talk. It appears that Radhakrishnan is

conducting a mini CF meet in his room every

night. Ishwarya, Arun, Arvind,Vaishnavi,Haripriya and Manikanadan were the other

newcomers.

Bala Bhaskar made a neat presentation on thetopic of Logical Fallacies. His presentation

was interspersed with quotes and videos and

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the exercise was to identify the fallacies

committed by the speakers. Hasty

generalization, Slippery Slope, False

Dichotomy, Argument from ignorance,

Argument form irrelevant authority are all now

part of our vocabulary! The video clippings were

a hit and evoked much laughter. A sample of the

video clips shown were 1) Cho Ramaswamys

talks in Engey brahmanan 2) Mamata Bs

walking away from the CNN-IBN show 3)

Richard Dawkins' (oh,yeah!) what if you are

wrong video clip and so on. All of us were

engrossed in the presentation before we

realized more than an hour had passed and i

twas time to move to the next point in the

Agenda. Fortunately Bala S suggested that Bala

B need not rush to complete the presentation

but instead continue in the next months meet as

the topic was a very important one and none of

us wanted to miss the video clips.

The tea break gave an opportunity for some

light-hearted conversation and ragging of the

late-comers (no one is spared - Equality, you

see!) To the question, why at all should we learn

the concepts of logic and why should we be

familiar with the logical fallacies, it was

explained that it would come in handy when

debating or discussing with theists. Bala S added

the important point that it would ensure that we

remain aware ourselves and not commit the

logical fallacies while talking.

The next programme was a short talk byArvind Iyer. The topic was Adjusting the rear

view mirror What freethinkers are leaving

behind. Arvind a doctoral student who is on a

visit to India is known to many of us as the

meticulous commenter (complete with

footnotes!) in the Nirmukta groups and an

author of several interesting articles in

Nirmukta and Indian Atheists. He addressed

the following points:

Bala S added the important

point that it would ensure that

we remain aware ourselves

and not commit the logical

fallacies while talking.

- How coming out as an atheist is nevercomplete and there is always a "blur"

-Confronting superstitions from non-religious sources in order to establish

ourselves.

- How we need to excel in our respective fields

and merely having a title as "atheist" is never

enough.

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- Reason based alternatives to religious

celebrations, by not necessarily discarding

religious festivals, but eliminating superstitious

aspects from them.

Arvinds talk was followed by a wide rangingdiscussion on all sorts of topics. Bala S took the

role of co-ordinator of this discussion (and was

promptly given the title of Arattai Arangam

Visu by Vaishnavi). An elaborate discussion on

prejudices based on complexion, caste,

knowledge of English language followed. Jagan

explained in detail how the Brahmins enjoyed alot of unseen privileges and support from the

society. When Haripriya and Vaishnavi

explained that they too faced a lot of unfair

expectations because they were considered by

others as Brahmins, they were told that it was

not the same and not as bad as real prejudice.

Radhakrishnan explained how he overcame hiscomplex and developed self confidence. His

spontaneous delivery endeared him to all and

particularly his youthful lingo Gethu and

Ganduwere much appreciated by the youth in

the group Balaji, Girish, Vaishnavi and

Soorya. He also told how he talks about the

universe, big bang and evolution to the

youngsters in his village and how they seem toget it immediately. He shared about how he

became gender sensitized and how the

discussions in the CF group helped him to

realize the importance of reservations and a lot

more. He talked about the importance of having

the posters and videos in Tamil to reach to a

wider audience. Bala B explained his attempts

at translating the Khan videos and Arvind

talked about how the TED videos are available

for translation and that it does not require

much effort. Roobans story was touching. He

explained how he realized the importance of

studies and how his fathers simple question

Have you tried it? Why dont you give it a

sincere try? motivated him to study hard. A

reminder to all of us as to how words can

impact a life. Ganesh and Manikandan, the

doctor brothers shared their stories about how

they dealt with the superstitions of their

patients.

It was 7.30 by the time we reluctantly wound

up the meeting - a good four and a half hours

had already passed. What struck me was that

the CF meets are not just about atheism it

was a shared love for science; a feeling of

empathy for the less fortunate; a stark

awareness about privileges; an honest

recognition of the prejudices and finally an

over riding feeling of humanism informed by

gender sensitivity and a quiet shunning of

class / caste inequalities.

We propose to follow this meets format inour future meets too. Intro/Presentation/

Shorttalk/Discussion. I request members to

come forward to make presentations and give

talks. None of us are experts and we need not

be the best of speakers. We particularly look

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forward to talks and presentations in Tamil. We

realize that we can treat our monthly meets as a

platform to hone our skills andasa soundingboard for our ideas. Suggestions for topics for

presentations/talks/discussions are most

welcome.

One cant help but feel hopeful about thefuture, seeing such a group of people - all

strangers, yet connected by a bond of secular

humanism. People who felt comfortable enough

to share what they felt when they were

discriminated and who were confident that theirthoughts and feelings would be understood

without them having to justify it or explain it.

Isnt this what community building is all about.

To think that all this was made possible because

one person dreamt of building such a

community of Freethinkers!

Thank you Ajita Kamal - we strive to carry it

forward.

... all strangers, yet connectedby a bond of secular

humanism.

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16th Meet17th June 2012

- by Geetha TG

As I sit to write a report on the Chennai

Freethinkers 16th meet that happened

yesterday (17th June), I am struck by the thought

that the CFT members would be right now ( a

routine Monday morning), engaged in diverseactivities in all sorts of offices and colleges for

we have members who are doctors, software

professionals, entrepreneurs,governmentemployees, film makers, students of arts /

science and so on. It is in this context that I find

the overwhelming response to Nirmals talk

astonishing. But then I am getting ahead ofmyself and so I start from the beginning.

The format for the CFT meets has evolved

through the months. For the first few meets we

did not have any major agenda it was a heady

feeling to meet fellow freethinkers with whom

we could discuss topics related to Science andRationality. And so we were content to get to

know people, share anecdotes about how we

confronted superstition and irrationality in our

lives, exchange details about good books and

blogs and occasionally watch a video or two.Last October we organized Thinkfest which was

very satisfying as we got to hear lectures by

some stalwarts. But then we realized our

monthly meets should also be more than

chatting sessions (not to undermine the

importance of such chats as it gives a lot of

space for people to open up). We also realized

that we have amidst us members who may not

be professional speakers but had good

knowledge on certain subjects and that their

presentations would benefit everyone in the

group.

We tried a new format last month

Introduction by new members,Apresentation, a short talk followed byinteraction and found that it worked well. This

month we planned the second part of Bala

Bhaskars presentation on Logical Fallacies

and instead of a short talk we asked Nirmal

Rajah to make a full length presentation on

Paleontology and Climate change.

We had several new members joining us thismonth. The ice-breaking session was fun as

usual with members sharing their

enlightenment stories. Hs story was our all

time favorite: I read the holy book of my

parents religion thoroughly and turned an

atheist! Nirmal regaled us by recollecting the

exact date he turned an atheist. He was taughtby professors who started their lectures saying

that they did not believe in Evolution but

taught because it was in the syllabus. Though

he was plagued with doubts about the

existence of god seeing that most of his

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prayers went unanswered, the moment of

realization dawned on the day he visited an area

in South India which was rich in fossils. Ds

story was touching when he explained how he

learnt to come to terms with his disability and

how he had to face the prejudice of people

around him. We had quite a few members who

said they were not atheists but joined the meet

because they had a lot of questions. One

member who attended our meet a year back said

that he did not attend the later meets because he

did not agree with the purpose of our meets. But

later he started studying and browsing science

related stuff and was happy to join us again. Rao,

a film maker said he was against all kinds of

inequalities.

Though he was plagued with

doubts about the existence ofgod seeing that most of hisprayers went unanswered, themoment of realization dawnedon the day he visited an area in

South India which was rich infossils.

Arjun, a student who had come on a visit from

USA attended the meet with his father who said

he was not an atheist but against rituals and

traditions. Sunday happened to be celebrated as

Fathers day and it was refreshing to see a

father and son duo who obviously did not

agree on everything but were magnanimous to

give each other a lot of space. Haripriya whohad attended the meet last month for the first

time had brought two of her friends and they

too said that they had come with an open mind

to learn. We were happy that this group is not

seen as a rigid group which welcomed only

members who are atheists but is considered to

be a place where ideas can be discussed with

an open mind and where you go hoping to

gain some knowledge. We would have liked

our new members to share their ideas more

but as we had lined up two presentations for

the day, we were hard pressed for time.Bala Bhaskar gave a short recap of his last

presentation and continued talking about

further fallacies. What made it easier to

understand the concepts were that the

examples were taken from what we confront in

our day to day life. Dr.B.M.Hegde in his

article in The Hindu that morning had given

us a lot of fodder for thought. The video clips

shown to identify the logical fallacies were

what we see in our televisions regularly a

clip from the Tamil programme Neeya

Naana, quite a few clips from Engey

Brahmanan (it was dripping with fallacies!)

and debates in the English news channels.

There were a few clips of Richard Dawkins

and Sam Harris trouncing their opponents by

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pointing out coolly the fallacies in their

arguments. We had a tea break and then it was

time for the next presentation.

Before his talk Nirmal Rajah was a bitapprehensive about his talk being not too

academic our response that we did not wantan academic talk as most of us were novices in

the field, was a relief to him. Once he startedtalking, we found his passion infectious and we

were thoroughly smitten by the topic. A couple

of members had studied Zoology in College

the rest of us were students of the world wideweb some of ushad lapped up what RichardDawkins, Stephen Jay Gould or PZ Myers had

written and some did not know much about

Evolution or Paleontology. Not to forget the

fact, that in all probability none of us are ever

going to sit in any class and hear a Professor

lecture about the Cretaceous era or see fossils of

any kind except maybe in a museum.

But when Nirmal gave his talk on Paleontologyand showed us his collection of fossils, the

Chennai Freethinkers were captivated and

listened in rapt attention. Of course we

committed the error of interrupting him with

our eager queries but that can be forgiven as the

folly of enthusiasm!We saw many fossilsincluding a Trilobite fossil. He explained to usthe time periods and talked about the 5 major

extinctions. Most of us had goosebumps when

we tried to contemplate the age of the fossils.Nirmal told us that Ariyalur near Trichy has a

rich collection of fossils but sadly not much

care is provided to protect the area. He had

prepared meticulous slides and it was mind

boggling to understand the work of a

paleontologist. We had several questions

about the manner of collection of fossils,

dating them and studying them. It was a very

vast topic and Nirmal patiently explained to us

how the past climates were and what

continental drift was. The presentation was for

nearly two hours but we hardly noticed the

passage of time.

It is to the credit of the members that they

showed great interest in understanding what

the fossils meant and what the scope of the

subject was. Of course we took an occasional

jab or two at the young earth creationists. It

never ceases to amaze us how fascinating theworld actually is and how petty the religious

stories finally are. Carl Sagan has put it

beautifully in his Pale Blue Dot, How is it

that hardly any major religion has looked at

science and concluded, This is better than we

thought! The Universe is much bigger than

our prophets said, grander, more subtle, more

elegant? Instead they say, No, no, no! Mygod is a little god, and I want him to stay that

way.

For some time now Chennai Freethinkershave been planning to move out of the

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conference halls and make a trip as a group. We

have had plans of visiting the Planetarium, the

Crocodile Bank and going on a Tree walk with

Nizhal to identify the common trees in Chennai.

Added to this now is a Fossil hunt at Ariyalur,

Trichy with Nirmal! It took some effort for us to

move from our comfortable afternoon chat

sessions to organize presentations and talks. It

might take similar effort to organize an outing

but we realize that the benefits would be

immense.

We seek topics for our future talks and we alsowish members would volunteer to make

presentations. One suggested topic is a Book

review. In time we should be able to organize

debates amongst ourselves.We realize theimportance of having freethought related

material in Tamil and so we seek translators. We

hope to have a member present a talk in Tamil

next month. We request members from other

city groups to join us in our meets and also give

short talks. We also intend to set atleast an hour

for interaction since we generally spend quite

some time sharing experiences, talking,

cribbing and ridiculing about issues which we

dont get to talk openly otherwise. That was

missing in this meetbut we will compensate inour next meet!

To conclude I would like to quote Richard

Dawkins from Unweaving the Rainbow After

sleeping through a hundred million centuries

we have finally opened our eyes on a sumptuous

planet, sparkling with colour, bountiful with

life. Within decades we must close our eyes

again. Isnt it a noble, an enlightened way of

spending our brief time in the sun, to work at

understanding the universe and how we have

come to wake up in it? This is how I answer

when I am asked as I am surprisingly often

why I bother to get up in the mornings. To put

it the other way round, isnt it sad to go to

your grave without ever wondering why you

were born? Who, with such a thought, would

not spring from bed, eager to resume

discovering the world and rejoicing to be a

part of it?

And so I extend a warm welcome to join us in

our monthly meets and experience an

enlightened way of spending our brief time in

the sun and to work at understanding the

universe.

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18th Meet12th August 2012

- by Geetha TG

The Chennai Freethinkers meets keep

morphing over time. What started as a group of

mostly lonely atheists who found each other

through the world wide web soon moved on to

explore areas of common interest. We quickly

found that we shared a passion for Science. TheNirmukta Facebook groups and the Nirmukta

blogs gave us a lot of food for thought. We

organized seminars on topics relating to

Evolution, Alternative Medicine and

Humanism. Then we held presentations on

Paleontology, Logical Fallacies and a

perspective on what freethinkers were leaving

behind. Of course, once in a while we dedicated

our monthly meets to exclusive interactive

sessions. These were important, for it gave us

space to open up and vent out in ways we could

not do even with family members.

Time and again we realized that we had to

educate ourselves on a number of issues like

patriarchy, misogyny, casteism, class issues etc.,We have members like Geeta Charusivam and

Udhav Naig who serve as resource persons

whenever we need clarifications on

discriminations based on caste and on the need

for affirmative action. We have quite a few

feminists in our group who speak up

whenever we come across gender

discrimination. Recognizing that ignorance isnot an option, we are open to receiving ideas

and willing to introspect. We strive to learn

from the experiences of other groups all over

the world. Every meet we talked, listened,

questioned and came up with a lot of ideas.

Keen on sharing our love for Science with the

general public and more importantly with

children, whenever we got a chance, we

grabbed it. Dr.Ganesh Veluswami

participated in Radio programmes and talked

about our rationalistic and humanistic point of

view. Venkat Narayana and Soorya Sriram

participated in a Television talk show (Neeya

Naana) and strived to dispel myths thatdreams convey a message about the future. It

was a brave attempt given the amount of

misinformation and pseudoscience that was

thrown around by many other participants.

Nirmal Rajah made a presentation on 15thAugust on the topic A journey to the past a

talk on fossils, to a group of childrenatMythri Art Academy, Chennai. The children

were completely bowled over and promptly

named him Fossil Anna. (Anna elder

brother in Tamil). After the talk some of the

children stayed for more than an hour to talk

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to him and take photographs with him. This was

the first attempt by Chennai Freethinkers to talk

exclusively on Science topics to children and not

mention religion or atheism even once.

Dr.Ganesh has offered to make a simple

presentation on Evolution. We plan to approach

organizations conducting summer/holiday

camps and offer to talk to children on scientific

topics.

...caste is the most sophisticatedoppressive system in the whole

world

And then there has been a steady trickle of new

members to our meets. We were happy that our

community is growing we realize that we have

something special and that we should not fritter

it away. Recently when a member shared a clip

from the documentary Seruppu (Footwear) in

our Facebook group, we saw an opportunity.

The issue of casteism is perceived in varied ways

and the topic of affirmative action evokes mixed

reactions. Not all of us realize what privilege

means and what reality is for most of our

compatriots. So we arranged for the screening

of the film and an interaction with the filmmaker

Amudhan on 12th August 2012.

The documentary gave us a jolt. It talked

about the layers of casteism and the nuances

involved; it recorded the lives of a group of

people belonging to the Arunthathiyar

community who are engaged in making

footwear. In a painfully casual manner it

showed the sad lives of the children who are

denied basic education. It brought the topic of

Dalit Christians into our conversation dalits

who had hoped to escape the shackles of caste

discrimination found the same sorry state in

Christianity too. It shocked us, angered usand depressed us. Not that we were all in a

cocoon and were totally unaware of people

struggling with issues of poverty and caste

discrimination. But to see it all up close was

shocking. Immediately after the screening we

were quick to react. Isnt religion the real

culprit we asked. Shouldnt they be told about

rationalism. Has anything been done to these

people. Did you go back there after the taking

the documentary? The questions flew thick

and fast. In our enthusiasm we did not initially

realize that the filmmaker had ably recorded

the stark lives of a dalit community and it was

not his responsibility to reform their lives nor

to offer solutions. He had done a wonderful

job of documentation and brought to light theplight of people living in unfortunate

circumstances. It was to the credit of Director

Amudhan that he handled all our questions

with grace and composure.

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In India everyone is born with a caste and is

identified by it whether he or she likes it or not.

You can change your religion but you cannot

get away from your caste. It is better in urban

areas but in rural areas the viciousness is real.

He explained in detail how the caste system

operates in villages. Geeta Charusivam added to

it by sharing her experiences in working with an

NGO. Every village has a place called Ooru

which is the main area of the village and a cheri

or colony where the dalits live. There is an

invisible line between these two areas and all the

facilities like schools, public health centres and

government institutions are located in the

Ooru. Dalits find it difficult to access these

facilities and have to take massive effort to

access the basic facilities braving not only the

discomfort of distance but the cruel words and

looks of those who consider themselves as upper

castes.

For a woman who complains ofdiscrimination inside achurch ... atheism might be aliberation. But offering that as a

solution might alienate them.

We first need to ensure equalityfor her or at the very least weshould support those who fightto end such discrimination.

Not much has changed for those people,

Amudhan said. But then he was happy that

there is a move to recognize the term Dalit

Christians and the recognition that

reservation needs to be given to them too is

slowly dawning. Discrimination inside

churches is also being recognized and some

efforts are being taken by a few church

personnel to counter them.

Maybe we were too quick to point out that

religion was the offender and offered

rationalism as a solution. And we wereprobably nave to believe that the lives of those

documented would be somewhat better now.

It took some time for us to realize that

dramatic changes do not happen and that

there are layers and layers of issues involved.

For a woman who complains of discrimination

inside a church (such as not being given the

opportunity to read the bible during a prayer

as one women said in the documentary),

atheism might be a liberation. But offering

that as a solution might alienate them. We first

need to ensure equality for her or at the very

least we should support those who fight to end

such discrimination. This is one pre-

competitive issue we need to address standing

shoulder to shoulder with theists.

The interaction with Filmmaker Amudhan

continued and the conversation covered a lot

of ground. A couple of members said that they

avoided speaking in Tamil Brahmin lingo.

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One member said this was because he feared

ridicule and another said it was because he did

not want to be identified as a brahmin though

people invariably asked him if he was one and he

felt violated. Amudhan responded by saying that

the Brahmin lingo was associated with power/

prestige and ridiculing it was an attempt at

subversion by those outside the circle. Later on

reflecting, I realized that, even in casual

conversations it is effortless for Brahmins or

other so called upper caste people to identify the

caste label of their parents even if they rejected

the caste identity. Even class inequalities are

comparatively easily addressed. There have been

atleast two instances of members talking about

that part of Chennai they hailed from which was

not considered so upper class. But identifying

as from the oppressed caste? Never! I dont

remember a single instance in a meeting when a

member identified himself / herself as a dalit

and it is definitely not for lack of dalit members

in the group, speaking from my knowledge.

What is it that makes them demur, we need to

introspect. Of course, it is absolutely not

necessary that a member needed to reveal if he

was a dalit. What got me thinking was that

frequently we have had members who confessed

that they belonged to the communities thatoppressed others and that they felt ashamed of

it. They shared experiences about how when

they were young they would address the elderly

people from the so called low caste who

worked in their farms/houses by name and

without respect. They felt sad about it and said

they have changed those habits now. I hope

for a day when members from the oppressed

communities come out openly and talk about

their experiences. For it is these shared

experiences and shared learning that would

goad us to grow and provide a safe space for

all the minorities, be it caste, class or gender.

When the topic turned towards who were the

most oppressed of all, Dilip shared his

experiences during a Documentary shootwith Transgendered people and said that theyare one of the most oppressed and

discriminated lot.A lot of issues werethrashed in the open that day. Sometimes the

arguments looked like it would turn heated.

There was a rush of questions and not

everyone got the chance to air their views

because of lack of time.We plan to watch theother two documentaries Shit and Notes from

the Crematorium by Amudhan and he has

promised to attend our future meets and

interact with us after screening his films. He

said that he enjoyed the open minded

interaction with our group and was happy to

consider himself a part of our group.

The film, the interaction and the conversationthat followed left us cold. There was no sense

of completion that day. In a way we had

challenged ourselves to question our

privileges, explore reality and inform

ourselves about the sad state of affairs all

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around us which we had learnt to ignore for the

sake of our convenience. And we emerged a

little more informed and empathetic about the

lives of people who are no different from us and

deserved our consideration. Each one of us

carried home a message that day: equality and

opportunity should never be denied to any

human being and that it is criminal to be selfish

and oblivious to the privileges enjoyed by each

one of us. We hope that this message would

manifest in our thoughts and actions and we

would have the courage to speak up when a

friend or colleague or family member makes ill-

informed comments about the oppression and

discrimination in society. It is hopes and

experiences such as these that make us cherish

our community and bring us back to the CFT

meets month after month.

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19th Meet30th September 2012

The 19th chennai freethinkers meet was held at

the Malles Manotta conference hall in T Nagar

on 30th September 2012 at 2.30 PM. Three

talks by Prof. Narendra Nayak, President of

FIRA, Sonja Eggerickx, President of

International and Humanist Ethical Union

(IHEU), and Babu Gogineni, Director of

IHEUwere planned for the event. All of themwere on their way to Tanjavur for another event

and had an one day stop-by in Chennai. We

decided to utilise this and organised the event in

accordance with their travel plans.

There were quite a few new members for the

meet. Usually we would have a raggingsession where the new members introduce

themselves and share their thoughts on

Freethought, Humanism, Atheism etc. It really

helps break the ice as members share heartfelt

stories of religious indoctrination and abuse,

things they would not be able to share anywhere

else. Not to mention the hilarious anecdotes

they would narrate which fills the hall withlaughter. However, for this meet, since we were

running short on time, we decided to skip the

introduction session and go straight to the talks.

So with the hall nearly filled to capacity, about

thirty participants eagerly waited to hear from

the speakers.

Prof.Nayak spoke about the need to reach

common people with ideas of rationalism. Henarrated various incidents from his decades

long career of traveling the length and breadth

of the country to urge people to think

critically and rationally through his miracle

debunking programs. He insisted that though

science education is important, the easiest

way to dispel so-called miracles by alleged

godmen is to perform them oneself. In hisusual style, Prof.Nayak narrated how he could

explain in detail to a superstitious person the

principles of Leidenfrost effect and how it

helps people walking on burning embers so

that they dont burn their feet. But after all the

explaining, the person would still demand

Prof.Nayak to walk on the embers himself and

show. He noted that the reason why the new

generation of godmen in the country were

largely refraining from performing such

miracles is probably because they realised

that their tricks will be exposed by rationalists.

Sonja Eggerickx spoke about her experiences

with Humanist and Ethical education for

children in Belgium. She narrated how thehumanists fought to bring in a secular syllabus

and non-religious schools in every town in

Belgium. She shared her thoughts on teaching

children secular non-confessional ethics,

which is the equivalent of Moral Education in

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Indian syllabus but without any religious

undertones. She admitted that she is not happy

with the term non-confessional to denote

secular ethical education as it has a negative

connotation. She said, during public meetings,she does not refer to people as Religious and

Non-Religious, but as Freethinkers and Non-

Freethinkers. During Q and A she touched on

the topic of Euthanasia which invited a lot of

questions from the audience.

Taking Humanism to the common man and

woman was the topic Babu Gogineni spoke

about. He said that though it is necessary to

have academic discussions and debates about

Humanism, Atheism etc, they are not of much

use unless they somehow help the citizens. He

narrated various incidents where superstitious

beliefs have been used to oppress and intimidate

people and how the ideals of Humanism have

actually saved lives. He urged people to not

hesitate in calling themselves Humanists and

Atheists. A lively Q and A session followed the

talk.Apart from the three seasoned speakers, we had

an impromptu speech by Arun Gogineni, Son of

Babu Gogineni. The 8 year old regaled the

audience by volunteering to talk on the topic of

Humanism!

In spite of studying well, if I

dont get good marks in my

Exam, what can I do? Is there

a short-cut to get good marks?

Arun confidently answered

No, you have to work hard.

There is no shortcut

He said Humanists dont believe in god; they

are nice people and work very hard. He signed

off by saying that when he grew up, he wanted

to be like his Dad. There was a Q&A session

too when a member asked him, Inspite of

studying well, if I dont get good marks in my

Exam, what can I do? Is there a short-cut to

get good marks? Arun confidently answered

No, you have to work hard. There is no short

cut. Watch out for this budding Humanist

speaker.

On behalf of Nirmukta, we would like to thank

all the four guests who, despite their hectic

schedule and in spite of being sleep deprived,

took their time to talk with us. It was

heartening to hear from the audience how

much they enjoyed all the talks and how they

wanted more. With the satisfaction of having

conducted another successful meet, we

dispersed, with the promise of meeting again.

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The Rearview Mirror

At the end of last years report, we proposed a few activities/projects to focus on during 2012.

Here is a look at where we are with those.

Proposed Activity Status

Organising In-group

Seminars

As seen in the report, we have conducted a number of

seminars during the year, with both in-group members aswell as experts in the field. Also we took the opportunities to

meet-up with experts like Prof.Narendra Nayak and Babu

Gogineni whenever they are in the city.

ThinkFest 2012 ThinkFest was a huge success last year. The work for

organising a ThinkFest this year is going on. Once the date

and the speakers are finalised, we will be announcing the

event.

Improving Audiovisual

Capabilities

We have streamlined our video capturing process during

seminars to enable quick turnaround between the event and

uploading the video onto the internet for others to watch.

We bought a few equipments to improve the quality of the

audio, as can be heard in our latest videos.

Translating Khan

Academy Videos

This project has morphed into producing original Tamil

Science Educational Video content.

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2013

Here are a list of ongoing projects as well as proposed ideas for 2013

Ongoing projects/Proposed Activities

Description/Status

Producing Tamil Science

Video Content

A few of us have taken up producing video versions of the

individual chapters in Richard Dawkins latest book, The

Magic of Reality. We found out that we had good voice

talent within the Nirmukta community. We have finalised

the script for two chapters and are currently recording audio.

Audio Podcasts During our monthly meets, a few of us can assemble a bit

early and have an off-the-cuff discussion about a specific

topic. This can be recorded and uploaded as a regular

podcasts. This idea is proposed because,

It will give members who are yet to attend one of our

meets, an idea of what goes on in our meets.

Podcasts have shorter production period and can be

published regularly.

Face-to-Face discussions would be much better and

spontaneous than online discussions.

This was actually requested by many members in Facebookwho are not in Chennai but would love to attend the meet.

This will capture the spontaneity and humor during the

discussion which would be lost in a scripted production.

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Documents

Chennai Freethinkers Annual Report 2012