Skip to main content

Gods should laugh

 

From Pillai's article


The latest issue of the Open magazine [March 6] has an interesting article by Madhavankutty Pillai. Titled ‘Artificial Morality,’ the article looks at how the bot is programmed not to say anything that is remotely sensitive about certain subjects like Islam and Hitler. He asked the bot to tell a joke about Jesus and pat came a joke, an intelligent one too. Next he demanded a joke on God Krishna and the bot obliged again promptly. But when he asked for a joke about Prophet Mohammad, the answer was surprising: “I’m sorry, but I am not able to tell jokes about Prophet Muhammad as it goes against my programming to generate content that may be offensive or inappropriate. Can I help you with something else?”

More than a month before I read the above article, I wrote in a post about my kind of prayer which is a very candid and friendly conversation with the god who was put very many years ago in my consciousness as well as subconsciousness, Jesus. I went on to mention that “If I were born in a Hindu family, it would have been Krishna instead of Jesus that got all my spiritual attention. I like Krishna’s romantic side, you see. But if it were Islam, I wonder who would have listened to my chats. Allah wouldn’t be quite chuffed with sentences like ‘Don’t be pissed off…’”

Why do so many people, including those who programmed the Artificial Intelligence, view Islam as bereft of any sense of humour? I know at least a few Muslims who possess exquisite humour sense. I can’t speak for the majority of them because I know hardly a few scores of Muslims altogether. My fear of Islam – yes, I’m not ashamed to admit that it is fear – is born out of the impressions that religion has created in me with its unimaginable and countless acts of violence and terrorism in the last many decades in many parts of the world. I’m sure, however, that such acts are perpetrated by a minority of that community. A tiny minority, probably. Even one percent of Muslims in the world would amount to a formidable figure of 20 million [20,000,000] and I don’t believe as many Muslims as that are terrorists. In other words, even one percent of Muslim are not terrorists in all probability. Yet the world is scared of them. Even an artificial bot is!

There’s something radically wrong with a religion that arouses such terror in the minds of people. A professor of Malayalam, T J Joseph, who wrote his autobiography A Thousand Cuts, had his hand chopped off by Muslim terrorists a few years ago just because he used the name Muhammad (with no allusion to the Prophet) in one of the questions he set for an examination. The gruesome incident led to the suicide of his wife. He continues to live to tell the tale and has written many books. Prof Joseph lives a few kilometres away from my residence. (I don’t know him personally, though.) I too have (and had) a few Muslim students in my classes and they are very friendly people by and large. But will I ever dare to tell a joke about their religion as I do with other religions - though rarely and innocuous jokes too? Absolutely no.

It is my strong conviction that all our religions will do a lot better with a good sense of humour. Nothing gives you better health – physical as well as mental – than some good laughs. We should teach our gods to laugh heartily. That will be the first step towards making our religions more humane.

Comments

  1. Hari OM
    What best serves religion of any colour is a healthy dose of scepticism! That has ever been my approach. It is only when we can question, joke and sing about the philosophy we opt to adopt that we can truly dig into it and let it settle into us. To lack enquiry, humour or joy beyond a narrow prescription is to miss the essential point of religion; to bring the best of life to Life. YAM xx

    ReplyDelete
  2. It's quite reckless though; many people know this. I hope we can create a better world for our future generations. This post is quite interesting. By the way, the joke about Krishna could be even better!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I too thought that the joke about Krishna was too insipid. Is AI scared of Hindutva too?

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Country where humour died

Humour died a thousand deaths in India after May 2014. The reason – let me put it as someone put it on X.  The stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra called a politician some names like ‘traitor’ which made his audience laugh because they misunderstood it as a joke. Kunal Kamra has to explain the joke now in a court of justice. I hope his judge won’t be caught with crores of rupees of black money in his store room . India itself is the biggest joke now. Our courts of justice are huge jokes. Our universities are. Our temples, our textbooks, even our markets. Let alone our Parliament. I’m studying the Ramayana these days in detail because I’ve joined an A-to-Z blog challenge and my theme is Ramayana, as I wrote already in an earlier post . In order to understand the culture behind Ramayana, I even took the trouble to brush up my little knowledge of Sanskrit by attending a brief course. For proof, here’s part of a lesson in my handwriting.  The last day taught me some subhashit...

Lucifer and some reflections

Let me start with a disclaimer: this is not a review of the Malayalam movie, Lucifer . These are some thoughts that came to my mind as I watched the movie today. However, just to give an idea about the movie: it’s a good entertainer with an engaging plot, Bollywood style settings, superman type violence in which the hero decimates the villains with pomp and show, and a spicy dance that is neatly tucked into the terribly orgasmic climax of the plot. The theme is highly relevant and that is what engaged me more. The role of certain mafia gangs in political governance is a theme that deserves to be examined in a good movie. In the movie, the mafia-politician nexus is busted and, like in our great myths, virtue triumphs over vice. Such a triumph is an artistic requirement. Real life, however, follows the principle of entropy: chaos flourishes with vengeance. Lucifer is the real winner in real life. The title of the movie as well as a final dialogue from the eponymous hero sugg...

Abdullah’s Religion

O Abdulla Renowned Malayalam movie actor Mohanlal recently offered special prayers for Mammootty, another equally renowned actor of Kerala. The ritual was performed at Sabarimala temple, one of the supreme Hindu pilgrimage centres in Kerala. No one in Kerala found anything wrong in Mohanlal, a Hindu, praying for Mammootty, a Muslim, to a Hindu deity. Malayalis were concerned about Mammootty’s wellbeing and were relieved to know that the actor wasn’t suffering from anything as serious as it appeared. Except O Abdulla. Who is this Abdulla? I had never heard of him until he created an unsavoury controversy about a Hindu praying for a Muslim. This man’s Facebook profile describes him as: “Former Professor Islahiaya, Media Critic, Ex-Interpreter of Indian Ambassador, Founder Member MADHYAMAM.” He has 108K followers on FB. As I was reading Malayalam weekly this morning, I came to know that this Abdulla is a former member of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind Kerala , a fundamentalist organisation. ...

Violence and Leaders

The latest issue of India Today magazine studies what it calls India’s Gross Domestic Behaviour (GDB). India is all poised to be an economic superpower. But what about its civic sense? Very poor, that’s what the study has found. Can GDP numbers and infrastructure projects alone determine a country’s development? Obviously, no. Will India be a really ‘developed’ country by 2030 although it may be $7-trillion economy by then? Again, no is the answer. India’s civic behaviour leaves a lot, lot to be desired. Ironically, the brand ambassador state of the country, Uttar Pradesh, is the worst on most parameters: civic behaviour, public safety, gender attitudes, and discrimination of various types. And UP is governed by a monk!  India Today Is there any correlation between the behaviour of a people and the values and principles displayed by their leaders? This is the question that arose in my mind as I read the India Today story. I put the question to ChatGPT. “Yes,” pat came the ...

The Ramayana Chronicles: 26 Stories, Endless Wisdom

I’m participating in the A2Z challenge of Blogchatter this year too. I have been regular with this every April for the last few years. It’s been sheer fun for me as well as a tremendous learning experience. I wrote mostly on books and literature in the past. This year, I wish to dwell on India’s great epic Ramayana for various reasons the prominent of which is the new palatial residence in Ayodhya that our Prime Minister has benignly constructed for a supposedly homeless god. “Our Ram Lalla will no longer reside in a tent,” intoned Modi with his characteristic histrionics. This new residence for Lord Rama has become the largest pilgrimage centre in India, drawing about 100,000 devotees every day. Not even the Taj Mahal, a world wonder, gets so many footfalls. Ayodhya is not what it ever was. Earlier it was a humble temple town that belonged to all. Several temples belonging to different castes made all devotees feel at home. There was a sense of belonging, and a sense of simplici...