Opinion

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Creativity and Depression: Creativity and psychological dysfunctionality have often been coupled together. Does creativi...
18/05/2021

Creativity and Depression:

Creativity and psychological dysfunctionality have often been coupled together. Does creativity necessitate the requirement of lifelong isolation and depression? Can a writer write his greatest creations only when he has lost all reasons to be happy?

Franz Kafka, one of the most widely acknowledged writers of all time, believed throughout his life that all people considered him repulsive. In “The Metamorphosis”, he writes about Gregor Samsa who woke up one day to find himself turned into a monstrous vermin. His sister, the only person who still treated him like a human, gradually grows tired of feeding him and exclaims that she wants to get rid of “it”.

James Gleick, who wrote the biography of both Isaac Newton and Richard Feynman, said in an interview that on a superficial level, the two physicists seemed completely different from each other. Isaac Newton, a virgin, who bickered with his friends almost as much as he fought with his enemies, while Feynman, a charming personality, a womaniser, a showman. Yet, Gleick explains that as he dug deeper into their lives, he realised they were both at their loneliest during their greatest achievements.

Moving away from real personalities, with their complex, multifaceted characters, let’s look at Batman. Over the years, countless comics, graphic novels, movies and cartoons have given different forms or aspects to his cult image. And yet, the central aspect of Batman remains constant. He is a symbol of darkness. All his actions are driven by death and tragedy. The death of his parents, the death ( or worse) of his Robins, his regrets, his self-loathing.

In the animated movie “Batman: Mask of the Phantasm”, Bruce Wayne falls in love and is finally happy. He realises that he doesn't need to be Batman anymore. He had never counted on being happy. He lets go of his self loathing, stops torturing himself and accepts his happiness. And yet, very soon, he feels the need to be miserable again. Batman feeds on his self loathing, his darkness, his depression. He has to choose whether to be happy or to be Batman. And he chooses the latter.

The dilemma of the association of creativity with depression is perhaps the same. If it is indeed true, what should one decide: whether to be happy or to be creative?

IC - 'Batman : Mask of the Phantasm' (1993)

The need of the abstract :Abstraction is a requirement that underlies many creative or scientific endeavours. Some descr...
05/05/2021

The need of the abstract :

Abstraction is a requirement that underlies many creative or scientific endeavours. Some description of the universe is too complex to understand without first abstracting it into a mathematical formalism of equations and numbers. Some human emotions are too complex to blurt out explicitly and instead, need something much more subtle and abstract for its complete expression. Music, poetry, or an ethereal painting of a starry night. Ethereal, yes. Removed from reality, yes! Yet, containing more than reality could.

Take a movie that spoon feeds its audience every emotion that it wants to deliver. It leads to some tear jerking moments, yes, or a laughter echoing through the packed theatre halls. Yet, without abstraction, there is nothing beyond what is being shown on the screen. Without abstraction, it remains impossible for the same movie to be reflected in the minds of the viewers in different forms. It remains impossible to be able to broaden the horizons of generalisation that precedes the realisation of an unexplored substance.

It's often the silences and brief pauses between the lines that convey more than the words themselves. That is why perhaps a book is almost always better than the movie for those who have read it. A higher level of abstraction. Perhaps that is why comfort in a shared silence exceeds the value of a great conversation. In time, like the science fiction of telepathy, the depths of abstraction among humans may reach levels where they do not need to speak anymore or use words at all.

What is even more interesting is that these are not mere philosophical rants, but can have physical implications. It has led physics into a direction where the abstract information about something is more absolute than the thing itself. The road began ofcourse with Einstein’s relativity where it was realised that the notions of space and time are relative to the observer. But it has went on now through the revolutions in understanding Quantum Mechanics such that very recently, both theory and experiments have showed that at the most fundamental level, every fact is relative to the observer. Every fact is “relational”. Turns out that our Information and relation to something really is more real than our perceived notions of reality itself.

The War in Vietnam, as it is called by the Americans(The Vietnamese call it the American War) impacted the whole of  Ame...
20/10/2020

The War in Vietnam, as it is called by the Americans(The Vietnamese call it the American War) impacted the whole of American music and cinema, turning it into a different direction altogether. Movies like Apocalypse Now, Full Metal Jacket, and Platoon instilled into the public psyche, the absolute horror, and inhumanity of the war. The Beatles, Bob Dylan, and the hippie movement, all culminated into a shared sense of being against the war in Vietnam, throughout the country, which still persists today. It is interesting to wonder how this history would have been written in case the Americans won the Vietnam War, instead of losing it. Would there be movies and rock ballads, glorifying the war?

Time and again, in history, the winners of a war, the winners of a movement have shaped history in their own image. When we think of World War 2, Hi**er appears in our mind as the only great bad man, the Thanos whom the Avengers united to defeat. And we have movies glorifying Winston Churchill, when, he was clearly the only cause of the 3 million deaths in the Bengal Famine of 1943. And yet, he is a hero. More can be said about the other Avengers, Stalin, and Roosevelt, but that would take pages.

History appears to be too malleable a subject to be common to all. In that respect, History has not reached the status of a science,an impartial reflection of things that happened. Historical evidence can be manipulated into completely different interpretations. Perhaps, if Hi**er had won the Second World War, he would still remain the German Hero that he was in the 1940s. And yet, history took a completely different course and he is now an absolute villain.

In contemporary democracies, Wars are replaced by elections. It is interesting that in India, something similar is happening today. Jawarharlal Nehru used to be widely accepted as the great leader, who along with Gandhi, brought freedom to the country. Yet, today, as India is ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party, once again, the victors, shape history. The same historical actions and evidences can be interpreted in different ways and Nehru is now widely declared as the big bad man by the vast majority of the nation. One needs to bear in mind, however, that the malleability of history will never cease. And we will once again see, how history will be shaped by the next victor. The glorious now might very well become the next Thanos.

The book "The Little Prince" by Antoine De Saint-Exupery is considered sometimes as a children's book and sometimes as a...
23/09/2020

The book "The Little Prince" by Antoine De Saint-Exupery is considered sometimes as a children's book and sometimes as a masterfully written philosophical treatise.I am sure it can be both.The book is about a lot of things,but a main theme of one of the most popular bestsellers of all time is the concept of "Taming".

The little prince in the story comes from a tiny planet which he shares with a rose.He invests his time in nourishing the rose and attends on her, making a glass globe to protect her from the cold wind, watering her, and keeping off the caterpillars.

Although the prince falls in love with the rose, he also begins to feel bad at her vain words and he resolves to leave the planet to explore the rest of the universe. Upon their goodbyes, the rose apologizes that she failed to show she loved him and that they'd both been silly. She wishes him well and turns down his desire to leave her in the glass globe, saying she will protect herself.

When the prince reaches Earth,he encounters a whole row of rosebushes and becomes downcast at having once thought that his own rose was unique and that it was a lie.He lays down on the grass and weeps, until a fox comes along.The fox desires to be tamed and teaches the prince how to tame him. By being tamed,the fox tells him, something is no longer ordinary.It is now special and unique to the tamer. There are drawbacks,he says, since the connection can lead to sadness and longing when apart.

The prince realises that his rose was indeed unique and special because she was the object of the prince's love and time; he had "tamed" her, and now she was more precious than all of the roses in all the rosebushes of the world.The prince is disillusioned by the loneliness he observes among the people of the world in their purposeless boring lives, because of their lack of understanding of the concept of taming.

He no longer seeks to explore the vastness of the universe and instead, returns to his little planet to water his tamed rose.

🌍🌏 Existentialism and Darwin🌏🌎"We do not have a purpose, nor will be ever have a purpose. Come to think of it, scientifi...
22/09/2020

🌍🌏 Existentialism and Darwin🌏🌎
"We do not have a purpose, nor will be ever have a purpose. Come to think of it, scientific progress has always been about us not holding a special position in the Universe."
Read our full post at : https://www.facebook.com/112214927095196/posts/183297323320289/

September 19th, 2005. It's been 15 years since, "How I Met Your Mother", aired. Today we look back at one of the most an...
19/09/2020

September 19th, 2005. It's been 15 years since, "How I Met Your Mother", aired. Today we look back at one of the most anticipated characters in history,9 years in the making - The Mother. Take a look at what our trivia corner, 'Spoiler Alert!', thought of the titular character: https://www.facebook.com/112214927095196/posts/119328603050495/

Darwin and Existentialism:It is difficult to choose an event in human history as the one most significantly impactful th...
19/09/2020

Darwin and Existentialism:

It is difficult to choose an event in human history as the one most significantly impactful thing to have occurred since the beginning.Some may say,the French Revolution or the World Wars or perhaps,9/11.For a few, it would probably be Darwin's discovery.

Its common knowledge that before Charles Darwin,nearly all scientists believed that life on Earth including human beings was created by a God thousands of years earlier and has remained unchanged ever since but we rarely appreciate how revolutionary the discovery of evolution really was.All of humanity believed that they were here,existing,because a God had created them in his own image.There was a higher purpose to the existence of Man.Humanity was the absolute centre of this huge creation.All of existence, created for us,the image of the creator.

At a time when people firmly held onto this idea of an ultimate purpose of the existence of humanity,Darwin came along and proved through considerable scientific evidence,that we were all just the byproducts of a large scale accident called evolution.We do not have a purpose nor will we ever have a purpose.Infact most of science has led us in the same direction.The abandonment of all hope for a meaning to existence,the abandonment of the concept of a priviledged central position of Man in the Universe.From Copernicus to Carl Sagan, astronomy has made us progressively humbler in regard to our significance.But nowhere has it been as distinctively influential as Darwin's discovery.

Come to think of it,scientific progress has always been about us not holding a special position in the universe.The astounding symmetries of our universe ensure that we are no different than anything else that exists.The Earth has emerged from countless accidents and coincidences of giant proportions and we,in turn, along with all other creatures,materialised through the quest for survival.In a way,the primary purpose of our existence has always been about survival.We live to survive.What better purpose do we need to exist?

Video games and free will: The 2007 game Bioshock is a first-person shooter. Throughout a major part of the game, the pl...
18/08/2020

Video games and free will: The 2007 game Bioshock is a first-person shooter. Throughout a major part of the game, the player plays the role of a man who is bereft of any identity. He does not have a past,he does not speak, he does not have a name. There is nothing in the game to kill the illusion that the player is the man and the man is the player. In one of the greatest moments in videogame history, this man, the player, realizes that all throughout the game, his actions were not his own. He has no free will of his own. He's just been following commands.

If this had been any other form of art, a movie, or a piece of literature, the effect of this revelation would not have had the effect of a videogame. The videogame submerges the player inside it's world. The player was the one who was following the commands on his computer screen. The player was the one who had let go of his free will when he started playing the game. It's the essence of a videogame that we follow orders. You have to reach there, you have to complete this mission, you have to rescue the hostages, you have to find the key. It appears to be fun to follow these orders. It is fun to let go of free will.

It is not fun, though, to apply the same thing to everyday life. There have been schools of philosophy debating free will and determinism for ages. Do we follow commands in the game of real life? You have to get a job, you have to eat well, you have to make friends, you have to sleep. It is scary to wonder how much of our apparent free will stems from biological and social conditioning. Determinism argues that our world is much like a videogame where the input of some initial conditions (the Big Bang) determines what the electrical impulses in our brain will instruct us to do now.

For a long time, it seemed very scientific to believe in this deterministic universe, until quantum mechanics came along and saved the day. And so, the debate continues. Physicists and philosophers are yet to reach a unanimous conclusion as to whether quantum mechanics interprets our universe as deterministic or if our will is our own. For the time being, it does not seem impossible if one fine day, we end up as Max Payne, delivering his famed monologue:

Jeff Bezos and Santa Claus: Do Amazon deliveries get you as excited today as the gifts you used to open up on Christmas ...
28/06/2020

Jeff Bezos and Santa Claus:
Do Amazon deliveries get you as excited today as the gifts you used to open up on Christmas from the big old jingly man himself? I mean, of course, these are not gifts, these are products purchased with money, money that you have earned yourself. Very little difference remains when you remember how your good deeds throughout the year, noted down in Santa's diary, seemed to you to have earned your Christmas presents. Were good deeds supposed to be the money of "Good children"?Was Santa Claus their Jeff Bezos? Was Rudolph the Red-nosed reindeer the delivery boy who never asked for a rating? Do the Amazon notifications on your cell phone sing "Jingle Bells" to your ear? I wonder.
The drive towards an earned material reward is so ingrained in our minds, no wonder that the systems put up for satisfying these needs range from e-commerce giants to religious festivals. Perhaps it is misguided, therefore that the critics of Jeff Bezos' staunch capitalism and billionaire fortune (in contrast to his underpaid employees/elves) do not find similar faults with the concept of the children's favorite Santa Claus. The character may be fictional but the idea is grounded in the same psychological need for a material reward.
One may argue, however, that through the concept of a Santa Claus, a child is supposed to take up the practice of good deeds and acquire good morals which it might retain throughout the rest of its existence. What worries one in this line of thought, however, is the realization that the child is given these moral lessons in exchange for material rewards(or equivalently in many cases, in exchange for the fear of punishment, which is far worse). Is then the motivation of being a good person for the child, to earn rewards in exchange of their good deed currency? In other words, if one takes away the Santa Claus, does the child stop behaving in the ethics of a good human being. Either that or Jeff Bezos steps in and provides the child, in exchange for the ethical currency, its first experience of a real-life Santa Claus.

The 2008 movie Wall-E shows a  dystopian world where humanity solely communicates through social media and has forgotten...
01/06/2020

The 2008 movie Wall-E shows a dystopian world where humanity solely communicates through social media and has forgotten the essence of real-world relationships and physical contact. Technology has been portrayed as the big bad villain that keeps people away from each other in their own virtual worlds, separated. It falls to a trash compactor robot to make people realize what they were missing all this while. In the present day context, grappling with the inevitability of long distances in relationships is difficult, to say the least. Therefore, social media, becomes once again the only form of communication.

It's a fact that we have the ability to cover the entire circumference of the world to see someone in about 40 hours but rarely do so. We have jobs and we have obligations,we have strict budgets and other constraints.We have priorities that seem more important, at the moment.We have priorities, that clash with each other. And slowly, gradually the appetite for intimacy may pass away or shrink, to a minimum.

A lot of that seems to have changed, temporarily when we are facing the dangers of a worldwide pandemic. People are returning homes,to their families,their loved ones. Work and education have crawled down in their list of priorities. It's ironic that the same villainous technology as portrayed in Wall-E now provides many among the priviledged with the ability to manage work and education right from their homes and thus, give them the ability to prioritize human relationships.No wonder, we are social beings over hunter-gatherers.When the constant fear of mortal danger looms over us, we put bonds over achievements and love over success.

Artistic Integrity and Corporate Cauldron:Amidst the pandemic that is raging worldwide, there is one announcement relate...
31/05/2020

Artistic Integrity and Corporate Cauldron:
Amidst the pandemic that is raging worldwide, there is one announcement related to the world of cinema that grasped a lot of attention. After 3 years of the theatrical release of the movie “Justice League”, director Zack Snyder announced that his original version renamed as “Zack Snyder’s Justice League” will be released on the streaming platform, HBO Max.
As for a short recap, in early 2017 Snyder was forced to leave production following his daughter’s untimely demise and Warner Brother’s Studios was tasked with seeing it through to post-production, which in turn was mostly complete. But the WB chiefs decided that Snyder’s film was unpalatable and it did not go in accordance with what ‘the public was demanding’. Unsurprisingly, this notion was completely influenced by the raging success of their contemporaries – Marvel Studios. They hired Joss Whedon and tasked him with changing the entire tone of the film with extensive reshoots within a span of just 6 months. When the time of release came around, it was deemed as the biggest catastrophe that ever befell DC films and thus led to the contract termination of legendary DC Comics writer Geoff Johns and John Berg, who had replaced Zack Snyder as the heads of DC Films.
This kickstarted an online movement known as “ ” which aimed for the release of Snyder’s original vision of the film. It started with just a few passionate fans who liked to seek information about the film grew to gain worldwide support by many leaders in the creative arts circle, even transcending the boundaries of just the movie industry. Now, in 2020, with HBO Max just released and the need of subscribers arising, Warner Media (newly termed after AT&T’s takeover) have signaled Snyder to move forward with his version of the film and set a 2021 release.
The corporate cauldron has no agenda, nor does it have a principle, what it aims to be is simply a balance sheet. If the demands are met, their monetary returns are what they are mostly concerned with. The studio retracted upon its own decision in order to make its streaming service more appealing. But this too is not the point of attention. The point of attention is what truly made them go down that road.
In the summer of 2016, Snyder’s film “Batman V Superman”, received a lot of criticism that surrounded various aspects ranging from storytelling, script to ex*****on. But one point that resounded with most critics of the film was that “a Batman that kills” was too much for them to take. Understandably too, after the quick and well-deserved mythologization of Christopher Nolan’s take on the character, which whatever is the scenario, went vocal with a ‘no-killing’ rule. Herein, lies the true aspect of why this movement is far more important than it seems.
If this underlined anything, it underlines the fact that preconceptions about people, ideologies, characters, philosophies guard themselves with years of cultivation of a particular notion towards the subject and is met with hostility when challenged. A fictitious character’s portrayal not only contributed greatly to a studio’s financial direction and organization, but it nearly succeeded in crushing an artist who simply perceived it differently. It is of massive importance that we as people, learn to unlearn and then relearn about anything that happens around us. One must revisit what he or she has been taught in his childhood and reason objectively, whether it is valid or in accordance with contemporary times. As our situations keep changing, so must our education, our perception, and of course, our preconceived notions about any important sociological aspect must be frequently revisited. This being the case of publicly adored comic book characters and a filmmaker’s perception of them, reveals what an uphill task it must be to challenge the deeper sociological foundations of our world.
But today, Snyder’s original vision of the Justice League is set for release. This proves that as difficult as it may seem, change is always possible. The studio that perceived public demand heading in the opposite direction to that of Snyder’s, has today been convinced to change its stance. Maybe today, people are ready to take down another brick in a wall of preconception and that maybe, there is a day far ahead when there would be no such wall. Zack Snyder’s Justice League is a standing symbol of victory for both independent and corporate bound creators of the various fields of artistic expression.

We constrain ourselves very often to a particular subject or field of abilities.Our educational system and career prospe...
02/05/2020

We constrain ourselves very often to a particular subject or field of abilities.Our educational system and career prospects are designed for individuals to eventually specialise in a particular profession with limited scope.Either businessmen or writers or scientists,we are always expected to walk towards a fixed goal.Never be uncertain,never falter or alter our course.
Interestingly,however,great minds that have significantly contributed to the advancement of the human race,are often the ones who failed,faltered or remained uncertain,yet never bothered to stick to a rigid line.Their genius had a fluidity that allowed them to cross the boundaries of social rigid distinctions between subjects.
Leonardo Da Vinci,Steve Jobs,C.V. Raman,Charles Darwin,Aristotle,Rabindranath Tagore,Brian May,there are countless such examples.Satyajit Ray finds himself among the most noteworthy of such intellectual polymaths whose versatility remains unparalled.
Satyajit Ray did his Bachelors in Economics from Presidency College, then went on to study fine arts in Santiniketan.He,then started work as a visual designer at a British advertising agency where he made cover designs for classic Bengali literature.He finally began his glorious journey in the world of cinema when he found a film society in Calcutta where he screened the foreign films that would strongly influence his work later in life.He worked as a location scout for Jean Renoir and was encouraged by him to go ahead make his own movie.
Even as he found success as a movie director and a screenwriter,he never gave up his fluidity and refused to stick to one rigid profession.He continued to be an eminent graphic designer and illustrator.He composed several musical scores and wrote accompanying lyrics for his films.His contributions to Bengali literature were so immense that they alone ensure his immortality as an artist.He was a master of calligraphy as well and could mimic every form of visual art.
Today,while admiring him for winning the Honorary Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement as one of the greatest directors of world cinema, let us also remember how throughout his life,he never stopped in his tracks and never had a fixed goal,how he embraced his uncertainty and how he faltered and altered his course.

Death  of an Actor:There are two ways in which an artist is remembered after his death.Through a study of him as a perso...
29/04/2020

Death of an Actor:
There are two ways in which an artist is remembered after his death.Through a study of him as a person, or through the art, that he has left behind. Often, an artist cannot be separated from his art. One cannot talk about the revolutionary influences brought on by Stanley Kubrick or Salvador Dali, without mentioning their eccentricities and plain madness. A director or writer or painter cannot help integrate aspects of his own personality with the subject matter of his own creation.This is where acting goes its own separate way.
An actor is provided with a character and a motivation by the director.It is trusted upon him to carry forward the vision of another mind.Yes,he can add touches to the character to make it his own, but the admiration of his art by the audience is derived from how much his portrayal is distinct from his own personality.We admire how he can transform from one role to the next.This is in stark contrast with the generic movie hero or the "Superstar" idolized by their fandom for their personality rather than their roles.Instead,we admire how a great actor can make us forget who he really is while remembering only the character. Therein, lies the bittersweet remembrance after the passing of a great actor.
For years hence,as we appreciate the great art,he has left behind,we will watch him again and again as the deeply spiritual Pi Patel, from "Life of Pi",as the cynic widower Saajan Fernandes from "The Lunchbox",or as the gentle father Ashoke Ganguly from "The Namesake".They will all be etched out in our mind as memorable characters that lit a spark,but we will not remember him as Irrfan Khan,and therein, lies his achievement.

Comedy and Free Speech:Offense in comedy is a pretty widely debated issue around the globe.Some popular comedians like R...
28/04/2020

Comedy and Free Speech:
Offense in comedy is a pretty widely debated issue around the globe.Some popular comedians like Ricky Gervais claim that offense is the collateral of free speech and that all jokes should be banned because every single one of them offends somebody.In this regard,he is only partially right though.A joke is always made at someone's expense,yes.You have to laugh at someone, right?That is the basic necessity of comedy. However, there is one way of offending nobody while cracking a joke and that's when the joker makes himself the subject of the laughter.That's actually the only convenient way of being a comedian.That's what Charlie Chaplin did for example,or Rowan Atkinson as Mr Bean or most movie comedians who create a character and then make the character the target of the humor. However, many comedians argue that like other forms of entertainment,comedy should also carry a message or should raise awareness about issues while mocking them. That, inevitably carries offense along with it.
Maybe we should consider more of Ricky Gervais' argument on the subject.Other than offending people when carrying a message that suppose, challenges one's religion or politics,he also argues that even serious facades of life, tragic real-world issues should be made fun about, in order to hold onto happiness in the worst of scenarios.One may joke about a cancer patient, one may joke about sexism,one may joke about genocide,one may joke about anything as long as the joke does not have a bad intention behind it.He suggests that joking about something evil doesn't mean advocating for that evil.It means we can be happy and positive people even in the face of all evils.
Instead,in reality,the present scenario about offense in comedy is a much more dire one.Comedy about healthy sexual activities are reported by many as inappropriate. Comedians making jokes about religious practices and political parties are individually targeted and death threats are made on them for being offensive.You can be arrested today,for making a joke or making a meme that offends somebody.Interestingly,although many criticise comedy on socio-political and religious affairs as a modern-day sin,the first known form of stand up comedy was Chakyar Koothu in 17th century, Kerala, India.It is fascinating that the comedy in Chakyar Koothu was based on religion and sociopolitical issues(drawing comic parallels of Hindu scriptures with contemporary events and local situations) along with poking fun on the members of the audience somewhat like the comedy scene of today.They were not persecuted, however, or claimed as being offensive.But,times have changed.

Dogmatism and Rational Thinking:It's difficult to separate an ideology from it's followers when passing judgement on bot...
26/04/2020

Dogmatism and Rational Thinking:
It's difficult to separate an ideology from it's followers when passing judgement on both, at the same time,together.Therefore,lets talk of an ideology that doesnt have many followers.Let's say one of the ideas or opinions that I have is that a world of witchcraft and wizardry is being constantly kept from me as it is from a billion other muggles.I join a group full of other people who believe in the same idea.We meet every Sunday and discuss the world of magic and wonder when our Hogwarts letter will be finally coming in.
That does not necessarily mean that we, the followers of this ideology spend the rest of our week doing nothing else.Oh,no,we are journalists,we are businessmen,we are scientists(yes,a lot of scientists do believe in magic),we are artists,we are a whole lot of other things.But we are absolutely obsessive Potterheads.
However,let's say some of us go a little too far.They start to analyse everyday events and natural phenomena and try to come up with a way of explaining all of these through the concept of magic.They go on to write books explaining answers to questions that had even been open until now.The people who read their explanations begin to believe that our understanding of the universe has been fundamentally wrong,that science is not the only way to understand the laws of nature anymore.When questioned upon the evidence to support their reasoning they give the justification that we as Muggles cannot verify magic experimentally,that we can only understand magic theoretically until the wizarding world comes forward and reveals themselves. Therefore, there remains no possible way to disprove their ideology as false.
Is it all that bad?Isnt it comforting and somewhat satisfying to know that there's a wizarding world out there with Harry Potter and Hermione Granger straight out of the books,casting spells with their magic wands,fighting Dementors.What we wouldn't give,to be a part of such miracles?How is it then,harmful?
The rationale of evidence-based explanations, central to all of the academic world today does not however,aim to verify things that are fundamentally disprovable. The basic paradox underlying all of human ideologies which are not based on evidence but on the absence of evidence to the contrary,(termed as dogmatism) is a paradox which science doesn't concern itself with.Instead,the philosophy behind science is completely unrelated.It's concerned with things that can be proved,whether directly or indirectly.And even when proved by evidence and reasoning,one still is open to the fact that we might soon find evidence to the contrary and have to abandon a chunk of the belief system.
On the whole, it does seem a pretty unsatisfying state of affairs in a rational treatment of any subject that the whole ideology behind doing it is that you are 90 percent sure that there will be a better way to explain this in the future and you are almost certainly incomplete in your thinking. Come to think of it,evidence-based reasoning while trying to overcome ignorance is just, acceptance of our doubt and ignorance.Unlike the hypothetically obsessive Potterheads who claim the satisfaction to have explained all of reality in its entirety,a scientist needs to be comfortable with his ignorance while simultaneously trying to overcome it.

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