Thinking Is Authorized!

By Nash Khatri

This is intended to be a thought-provoking book that does not favor one religion over another or a non-believer over a believer. It is not about good versus evil, or foolish versus wise. Rather, it is a philosophical and concept-oriented work that contains a variety of perspectives that may not have been considered before or may have been taken for granted.

It is meant to promote self-determination of what we believe regarding nature, life, God, the future, death, prayer, and the afterlife, since the popularity of a belief does not unquestionably convert that belief into truth. While not necessarily trying to do the thinking for others, this book attempts to raise awareness and jumpstart our understanding of these concepts from an objective viewpoint.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Sep 6, 2007
• ISBN: 9781467083881

Nash Khatri

I have always been intrigued by the concepts of nature, God, life, death, prayer, the future, and so forth. My outlook on these concepts is a culmination of over two decades of introspection, reflection, observation, and especially, what I consider makes more sense compared to the numerous religious beliefs and scientific theories prevalent in society today. My life has been very fortunate overall, but I have had my share of trials and setbacks. Though religious proficiency isnt among my strong points, I consider myself to be well-groundedthats what I think helped me deal reasonably well with the unfortunate experiences of being divorced twice (and handling the associated child-custody issues). It is also what I think helped me deal realistically with a totally unexpected major brain surgery in 2001, though I had been physically active for decades and was otherwise in excellent health. My professional life has also been eventful in the sense that I went through a total shift in career from a certified public accountant and a certified management accountant to an electrical engineer. I was still in the last semester of a masters degree in Taxation in 1988 when I started the first term of a bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering.Subsequently, as part of my engineering job requirements, I successfully completed (as a civilian) a very challenging Naval Nuclear Power School curriculum for officers.

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© 2010 Nash Khatri. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 6/4/2010

ISBN: 978-1-4343-2158-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4670-8388-1 (ebk)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2007905192

Dedication

I would like to dedicate this book to those who are willing to step past the religion and science paradigms to ponder the great mysteries of life and the universe.

Acknowledgment

I owe a lot of gratitude to my colleague Ron Winkler for meticulously reviewing the book and offering helpful suggestions.

About the Author

I have always been intrigued by the concepts of nature, God, life, death, prayer, the future, and so forth. My outlook on these concepts is a culmination of over two decades of introspection, reflection, observation, and especially, what I consider makes more sense compared to the numerous religious beliefs and scientific theories prevalent in society today. My viewpoint will likely continue to evolve (as it has even in the course of writing this book) and solidify further, keeping pace with my ongoing enlightenment. I consider that to be appropriate and preferable, since experience brings new wisdom. Most likely, not everyone will share my personal convictions, which may come across to some as opinionated or unyielding. Still, I think it is worthwhile to share my assertions while not seeming insensitive.

I was born in the tropical island of Zanzibar in Tanzania (East Africa), but am of Indian Muslim heritage. I moved to the U.S. with my parents in 1981. As you may have guessed, English is not my first language. When I was growing up in the 70’s, Swahili was the official language in Tanzania, followed by English. I also spoke several Indian dialects at home and with friends.

My life has been very fortunate overall, but I have had my share of trials and setbacks. Though religious proficiency isn’t among my strong points, I consider myself to be well-grounded—that’s what I think helped me deal reasonably well with the unfortunate experiences of being divorced twice (and handling the associated child-custody issues). It is also what I think helped me deal realistically with a totally unexpected major brain surgery in 2001, though I had been physically active for decades and was otherwise in excellent health.

Luckily, the operation went exceptionally well and I was able to resume my normal routine within a few months. Incidentally, I never got the why me? or why am I so unlucky? kinds of thoughts when I very unexpectedly learned there was a golf-ball-sized growth inside the back of my head. I just accepted the diagnosis. With regard to nature, I was and still am humble enough to not take things personally, especially in light of the countless other activities, whether or not comprehensible to us, that are simultaneously happening in the world and the universe. I did not rationalize that some higher power was keeping tabs on my activities here on Earth and was perhaps punishing, rewarding, or guiding me accordingly. To do so would have been egocentrically giving myself an overwhelming importance to warrant a personalized treatment by God.

My professional life has also been eventful in the sense that I went through a total shift in career from a certified public accountant and a certified management accountant to an electrical engineer. I was still in the last semester of a master’s degree in Taxation in 1988 when I started the first term of a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering. Subsequently, as part of my engineering job requirements, I successfully completed (as a civilian) a very challenging Naval Nuclear Power School curriculum for officers.

I enjoy recreational traveling, and have fortunately been able to visit many countries, including Egypt, England, Israel, Netherlands, Portugal, Seychelles, South Africa, and Switzerland. I have also witnessed such wonders-of-the-world as Victoria Falls, Ngorongoro Crater, the Grand Canyon, the Great Pyramids of Giza, and the Taj Mahal.

I am presently happily married to a devoted and wonderful wife, and have three lovely sons.

Table of Contents

1.  Overview

Thinking Is Authorized!

About the Book

2.  Nature of Nature

Life-matter

Shared Mysteries

Human Centeredness

3.  It’s All Connected

Unique Past

Lack of Time and Space

Undetermined Future

4.  Concept of God

Customized God

Partnership with God

5.  Beyond Religion

Religious versus Spiritual

Prayers

Death

Religion versus Science

6.  Beyond Science

Limitations of Science

Robots versus Humans

Creation, Forever, and Purpose

7.  Final Analysis

Review

Closing Remarks

1. Overview

Thinking Is Authorized!

To quote Socrates, I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think. When it comes to the great mysteries of life and the universe, many people resort to relying on opinions of others. For the most part, their viewpoint is merely that which is expected of whatever group they happen to belong, be it an organized religion or an atheistic (or agnostic) association. They essentially adopt a group mentality. Unfortunately, this prevents them from cogitating for themselves and shaping their own opinions without totally suppressing their intuition or gut feelings.

I maintain that, with respect to such concepts as nature, life, God, the future, death, prayer, and the afterlife, we are basically all on an equal footing. To quote Albert Einstein, The difference between what the most and the least learned people know is inexpressibly trivial in relation to that which is unknown. Truth can only be sought after, not owned. None of us, whether religious or not, is more qualified than the other to claim exclusive possession of truth. As such, we can self-determine what we believe (or not) based on what makes the most sense to us when analyzed independently. In order to make that evaluation, however, we have to consciously ponder these notions with an open mind. That entails willingness to recognize and step outside the boxes of religion and science. But many people—whether believers, atheists, or agnostics—appear to have reached a philosophical plateau in that respect. To quote Marcel Proust, We don’t receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us.

The title of this book is meant to convey the idea that, irrespective of our partiality toward religion or science, we do not necessarily need to have someone else interpreting for us the mighty unknowns of life and the universe. We have the capacity and faculties to contemplate them ourselves. But we have to actually exercise that ability to reflect. So, the title reminds us that it is authorized to think.

About the Book

This is intended to be a thought-provoking book that does not favor one religion over another or a non-believer over a believer. It is not about good versus evil, or foolish versus wise. Rather, it is a philosophical and concept-oriented work that contains a variety of perspectives that may not have been considered before or may have been taken for granted. It is meant to promote self-determination of what we believe regarding nature, life, God, the future, death, prayer, and the afterlife, since the popularity of a belief does not unquestionably convert that belief into truth. While not necessarily trying to do the thinking for others, this book attempts to raise awareness and jumpstart our understanding of these concepts from an objective viewpoint. In that sense, the book is intended to stretch our imagination and enlighten us in the process, irrespective of our religious views—with the aim of promoting a non-judgmental live-and-let-live attitude.

For the sake of enlightenment, we need to acknowledge and be willing to step outside the realms of religion and science. The underlying premise of the book is that there is more to life than religion and science are capable of explaining. To quote Norman Vincent Peale, Change your thought and you change your world. And to quote Marilyn Vos Savant, To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe.

With regard to religion, the book prompts us to reflect beyond the dormant spirituality and blind faith prerequisites. Likewise, with respect to science, the book nudges us to think beyond the time-space domain and into the lack-of-time-and-space (LTS), wherein I assert that the laws of nature do not apply. And since virtually all scientific theories take for granted the presence of time-space, the tools offered by science are confined accordingly.

Notably, the concept of LTS covered in chapter 3 is arguably the most crucial idea introduced in the book in the sense that science and its time-space-constrained tools provide singularities or undefined results as they approach LTS. In many ways, LTS is the glue that holds together the diverse ideas of the book. The key challenge is to show willingness to acknowledge the idea of LTS and to not extend what applies or makes sense in the time-space-confined universe into the LTS.

Despite my best efforts to simplify the discussions without compromising the intended meaning, it is recommended this book—and especially chapter 3—be read in manageable portions. The size of those portions will depend on your existing views and background, especially with respect to objectivity, human-centeredness, and different versions of blind faith (whether religion- or science-based). Many readers have remarked that they were better able to appreciate the significance of the ideas of chapter 3 in retrospect, after they pondered the topics they subsequently encountered in the latter chapters. From that perspective, many readers consider chapter 3 to be a formidable challenge to conquer in the book.

In light of my technical background, the approach I have often taken in this book is to first present ample supporting facts, and then use them as basis for the core message of the related discussion. You may be acquainted with some of the factual information I present, but don’t let that familiarity undermine the essence of the message I’m trying to convey.

In the spirit of not focusing on the hole so much as to miss the donut, I have deemphasized purely academic details that I consider irrelevant in the context of the applicable discussions. For example, I did not dwell on the argument of exactly how many senses we possess. For simplicity, and without compromising the intended meaning of the discussion, I considered our brain to be five-sense-bound, which is consistent with what most of us learned in school. Similarly, I did not distinguish between soul, spirit, mind, etc. Instead, I collectively refer to them as life-matter. Likewise, rather than getting bogged down with the intricacies of the concepts of Big Bang or Big Creation, I simply acknowledge that something happened at time-zero and our familiar time-space-bearing universe and its laws of nature came into existence. By the same token, I propose that whatever existed before the universe came into existence be identified as LTS, the lack-of-time-and-space.

Since the subject matter covered in this book is inherently sensitive and controversial, some words of caution are in order. Despite the rather bold or contentious opinions I may express, my intention is not to offend, anger, or alienate the readers. To those of you who may take offense, I would like to offer sincere apologies in advance. In line with Frank Clark’s quote, We find comfort among those who agree with us, growth among those who don’t, I trust that you will continue to read and benefit from the book.

Note that, though it may seem the contrary at times, I am not resolutely anti-religion.

Reviews for Thinking Is Authorized!

[dubiousdisciple · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

With a mysterious Bang! 13.7 billion years ago, an incredible universe of time and space tumbled forth. Science and religion both are fascinated by this existence, as we humans peer ever deeper into the mysteries of the universe. But Nash’s book is different: it wonders what else is out there. It invites us to contemplate what lies outside our prison of time and space. This concept is so key to the book that Nash has given it a label: Lack of Time and Space, or LTS.The greatest mystery of LTS may be life itself. Life, Nash contends, is special; we’ll never instill life in a robot, which will never be more than a construction in time and space. But where did life come from? How did emotion, thought, wonder, break into our world of time and space? Where does this life-matter go when we die? Is life truly eternal, existing in LTS? What does eternal mean where there is no time?Nash Khatri meanders through these questions and more as he probes the mysteries of LTS. Nash obviously has a religious background, though he doesn’t discuss it in the book. He at time appears apologetic (though he needn’t be) for contradicting the beliefs of various religions. He points out the silliness of some of our age-old assumptions with both humor and respect.At times, I would find myself asking: “Is this idea theologically sound?” And then, on the next page, “Is this idea scientifically sound?” You know, it really is hard to think beyond religion and science! In the end, I am unqualified to answer either question about the book, but thank you, Mr. Khatri, for encouraging me to think.