This is me as 'You' in the chat.
You: Its chilly here in china
Stranger: om namah shivaya
Stranger: Astral projection?
You: its a hindu mantra..
Stranger: I'm in California.
You: venice beach? inglewood?
You: say hi to my poppa..
Stranger: Tell me about om namah shivaya.
You: om is a universal sound.. a combination of the widest spectrum of frequencies..
You: it is thought that if aliens would ever communicate with humans, it would start with "OM"
You: Namah is a Sanskrit word for humble introduction
You: Shivaya is the Lord of Destruction.. So this mantra is a call to aliens that we will destroy you..
You: that last part was made up :)
Stranger: Yeah, I see that. hahaha.
You: Did you know that hindu mythology has over 80,000 gods..
Stranger: I know he is the considered the supreme god.
You: one for each family/community,,
Stranger: I studied hinduism when I was younger.
Stranger: He is the destroyer or transformer.
Stranger: In school I was taught that together with brahma and vishnu, they make up the trimurti.
You: Do you know about the other two supreme gods?
Stranger: My teacher at the time said that the supreme being was brahma, but after doing my own research it would seem to be shiva.
You: Do you know that ashvathama was the name of an elephant also?
Stranger: No, I didn't know that.
You: ok, actually that part was from the mahabharata..
You: it is the grandest epicest tale of five brothers in war with a hundred brothers..
You: if possible, you should see the television series with the same name
You: dead again? did shiva destroy you?
You: can you tell about your religion?
Stranger: You want me to tell you about what I believe?
You: I am not really interested in your religion, I just wanted to know if you would share any cool myths you might have heard of?
You: Like He-Man of the Castle Grayskull..
Stranger: he-man is an american cartoon
You: or the 300 spartans..
Stranger: just a funny story, not a myth
Stranger: the 300 spartans is history, that really happened.
You: but not really like the action movie...
Stranger: Helen of troy is a work of fiction written over 2000 years ago.
Stranger: No, the movie is a work of fiction.
You: Then tell me something about your mythology..
Stranger: I'm an atheist.
You: But dont you like any myths?
Stranger: like no man dude I don't.
Stranger: What attracts you to hinduism over other religions?
You: Beta, you must be a hundu, or get out of my house..
Stranger: How old are you?
Stranger: Are you Chinese?
Stranger: Your name is Beta?
You: and beta means son in hindi
You: unlike the greek beta
Stranger: Your father tells you you must think something is true, or you have to get out of his house.
Stranger: However, it does not make the thing more true or less true.
You: Yeah, thats how it is..
Stranger: The thing is true or it is false.
Stranger: His threats do not make it true or false.
Stranger: If he said, "Beta, 2 + 2 = 6. Believe this, or get out of my house."
Stranger: He would still be wrong.
Stranger: And you would know the truth, even if you pretended.
You: What if I like to believe that there are 80,000 gods protecting me, and I like that illusion of safety?
Stranger: You can believe it, but it doesn't make it true.
You: Does your father have a different religion than you do?
You: Dont get offended, I was just asking..
You: In hindusim, we treat guests as gods..
You: you are like a guest
You: and I like to believe in this attitude
You: Did shiva destroy you yet?
Stranger: Sorry, I'm doing several things.
Stranger: My father is a christian minister.
You: So doesnt your family get offended by your atheist beliefs..
Stranger: I think people should believe in the truth.
Stranger: Not just in what they are told.
Stranger: We should each think about what makes sense to us and believe in what we know, not just accept everything that we are told.
You: I think you are right in some ways, yet ignoring the presence of a higher power is not really what is right..
You: it gives faith to the weakest of the weak to overcome odds
You: and these are not so called miracles, these are everyday acts of kindness
You: did shiva destroy you yet?
Stranger: I have never seen the presence of a higher power.
Stranger: If I saw it, I would not ignore it.
You: Dont you think there is a purpose to your existence?
You: being a science student, you should know that everything has a meaning
You: does your existence have a meaning yet?
You: It is precisely for that reason that you can never see the presence, only feel it..
Stranger: I think we give meaning to the things we do.
Stranger: I think meaning is what we think it is. Events are neutral, it is we that decide if it has meaning or not.
You: Ok, stop for a moment, and try to look at your self from a third person perspective..
You: This body, these abilities that you have of locomotion, digestion, respiration
You: dont you think these are not coincidences?
You: That you have some purpose?
You: Did shiva destroy you yet?
Stranger: No. These are products of evolution.
Stranger: We have very good scientific evidence of why we move, digest, and breath.
You: Even so, how did evolution put life into organic matter?
Stranger: We can look at the body and our history and show by science and proof exactly why we do these things. We don't have to say that magical invisible gods did it, because we know why we do these things.
Stranger: Evolution did not put life into organic matter.
You: Then what do you think shaped our character into the only possible shape and structure that we have
You: Infinitely many paths are possible through decisions, and yet we chose one..
Stranger: We can only chose one.
Stranger: You would say we chose one no matter which path we chose.
Stranger: We took this path through evolution.
You: Why do you think that every new-born creature is an exact replica of its parent?
You: you would say it is the property of reproduction
Stranger: We are not exact replicas of our parents.
You: but dont you think that it is the perfection of a higher power?
You: and yet we have our own differences..
You: Did shiva destroy you yet?
Stranger: We know why children are similar to their parents. It is because their parents pass down their genetic code to them. That is how reproduction works, and how species are sustained.
You: What do you think passes this genetic code?
Stranger: It doesn't show that there is a god or gods. We can explain it.
Stranger: Sperm and ovum.
You: And who put these genetic codes into sperms and ova?
Stranger: Our bodies did automatically.
Stranger: Any body that failed to do that never passed on its genes.
You: explain that with science..
You: Did shiva destroy you yet?
Stranger: If you are interested in how sperm and ovum are created and why they contain genetic code, I would suggest you look it up on wikipedia.
You: WIkipedia is a creation of scientific minds and comminty effort
You: and its knowledge is limited by our human thoughts..
You: and scientific effort
Stranger: You asked me to explain how genetic codes are put into sperm and ova, with science. This is very simple science, and is taught to students in high school.
Stranger: Science is not limiting. It is educational.
Stranger: We have never been limited by science.
Stranger: In fact, most of the great mistakes we have made in the past which we have fixed with science were actually made by religion.
Stranger: For example, we used to believe the world was flat. Scientists discovered it was round, and the religious community put those scientists in jail.
Stranger: Eventually the evidence was overwhelming, and the religious community had to admit it was wrong.
You: Religion did not jail scientists, some misguided priests did..
You: Religion did not believe earth is flat
Stranger: Fair enough. It was done in the name of religion, then.
You: some hypocrites and fat bellied priests did it..
Stranger: Science is not limiting.
Stranger: We learn from science.
You: But where does science learn from?
You: But where does it all start?
Stranger: We learn from observing our environment, and analyzing what we see.
Stranger: Learning starts from curiousity, I suppose.
You: That is our perception of science, but what really created science?
You: Did shiva destroy you yet?
Stranger: Lol, I don't think Shiva is going to destroy me tonight.
Stranger: Science is the process of asking questions and finding answers through proof.
Stranger: Science is a theory. It was never created, it was only named.
You: Did you know Vishnu was stronger than Shiva..
Stranger: It was first practiced by the first man to solve a problem by thinking about it logically.
Stranger: I didn't know that.
You: Vishnu was like Batman over Superman
You: Vishnu had cunningness..
You: Did you know there is only one temple of Lord Brahma in India?
You: No one is allowed to establish a temple elsewhere..
You: Did you self-destruct yet?
Stranger: I didn't know there was only one temple of Lord Brahma in India.
You: Its a loong story, do you want to hear it?
Stranger: Well... probably not, if it's that long.
You: Okay, I wasnt going to start anyway..
You: You read any Batman comics?
You: Did you self-destruct yet?
You: My gmail Id is thundercoder@gmail.com
You: would love to chat some other time..
Stranger: I was talking to someone else
Stranger: I like some comics, not batman so much.
Stranger: The Dark Knight by Alan Moore is pretty good.
You: That is the best Batman work ever..
You: So are you employed?
You: seen Full Metal Jacket?
You: Which type are you, the fat one or short one?
Stranger: http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/5742/260911847557v.jpg
You: Do they torture you like in the movie?
You: Any specific field of specialization?
Stranger: I don't think there was torture in Full Metal Jacket
Stranger: I'm a rifleman and a network specialist.
Stranger: What do you mean 'torture'?
You: The fat guy was bleeding.. and bullied, that led to his suicide..
You: Are you off duty now?
Stranger: Yeah, I'm in my barracks room.
Stranger: He wasn't bleeding until he shot himself, lol.
Stranger: we had a couple of people in boot camp try to kill themselves, but they failed.
Stranger: One jumped from the third level, but he was ok
Stranger: another tried to cut his wrists with razor blades but they caught him and sent him away
You: Must be a tough guy..
You: the first one, I mean..
Stranger: If you land on your feet you probably won't die.
You: How high have you jumped?
Stranger: not more than 12 feet.
Stranger: Water, much more.
You: My friend can jump 13 feet, is he qualified to be a marine?
Stranger: Marines do more than jump. ;)
You: He can run 100 m in 10.7
You: Can he join the marines now?
Stranger: To be allowed to try you have to pass intelligence tests, have no medical problems, you have to be American, and you have to have a high school diploma.
Stranger: And then you can try.
You: He has an IQ close to 160 I think, and a Bachelor Degree in Engineering..
You: The problem is that he is not American
You: Can you work that out for us?
Stranger: I'm just a normal Marine.
Stranger: he could immigrate, he may be allowed to join for citizenship.
Stranger: He may not like it here, though.
Stranger: It's not a lot of fun.
You: I will tell him, actually he's in Indian Navy
You: training for Marine Engineering
You: Did you self-destruct yet?
Stranger: That's cool, though.
Stranger: Indian Navy. Hm.
You: Protecting the Arabian Seas and Indian Oceans from Somalian Pirates..
Stranger: I wish America did more protecting and less attacking.
Stranger: It's out of my control, though.
Stranger: Obama is less war-mongering than Bush, though.
Stranger: I like him better.
You: Our Prime Minister Shri Manmohan Singh is also cooler than Bush
You: Maybe even ccoler than Obama.. never attacks or offends anybody..
You: Plays defensive game everywhere.. in international, as well as domestic politics..
You: are you a Bush supporter?
Stranger: I support my president always because he is both my president as an american citizen and my highest officer as a marine.
Stranger: I am loyal to him.
Stranger: But I did not vote for him, I wish Al Gore had won instead of Bush.
Stranger: I am glad Obama won.
You: Bush was a very energetic president, they compared him to a monkey..
You: Always jumping around..
Stranger: They compared him to a monkey because he has small eyes and big ears and he does not speak well
Stranger: he speaks as if he were not a smart person.
Stranger: So they call him a monkey. It is an insult, to disrespect him.
You: I am sorry for Bush..
You: Clinton was good too, before his accident..
You: The Monica Lewinsky accident
You: He was very close to Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee..
You: You should see Shri Atal Behari Vajpayeeji's videos on youtube
Stranger: I will look it up now
Stranger: Can you send me a good one?
You: ok, I will find one for you..
You: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjufY0_n4ss
You: mind the Hindi though..
Stranger: He seems angry. I don't like it.
You: It was when he was young..
You: I could not find the latest video..
You: Indian Railway Minister in Parliament
You: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JekaXmlrohw
You: See this, it is funny.. He speaks English too..
Stranger: I don't understand why it's funny.
You: Oh ok, its his dialect that we find funny...
You: I have to go now, have to finish my engineering project..
You: You are a funny guy, nice to meet you
You: I'm coming to States next year..
Stranger: What do you mean?
Vote for me now! Blogomania 2010 sponsored by Odyssey360 | The 24 hour online book store with 5 milion books to choose from.