of God, the Atheist, blind faith and people like me...

People ask me - So you believe in God eh ?

Even though it may sound to you as a pretty straight forward question with either of the two choices that confronts the poor soul- Either affirming it or disclaiming it.

Shut it Sudip....come out with it now...Yes or No ?....I think momentarily and I know.. (each and everytime!) I say loud "Yes. I do believe in God"

The answer doesn't come from Blind faith entirely.

The answer comes to me from a mix of knowledge, watching with a keen eye on things and events happening around you everyday ! and ........and.....well...maybe you want to believe that there is something, probably in the heavens (could be anywhere in fact, but looking up towards the sky is supposed to be more acceptable in society and fellow brethren than looking at the ground) that is protecting you and your near and dear.

Some of the people closest to me are literally proud to wear the Atheist tag on them. I don't blame them.

Why shouldn't I believe in god I ask you ?

And the "proud-to-be-Atheist" ask me in return "well (with a smirk, if I may add) PROVE IT TO ME HE/SHE/IT EXISTS !!!!

A suggestion here for my readers- Don't you try EVER putting this same question on me !

I have two options here depending on whether I am in a good mood or not ...

Option one - I reply back with an exaggerated smirk "well, can you explain why only 5% of the observable universe is made of of matter? and what is this dark energy and dark matter all about ?"

Option two - I ignore you and try changing the topic.....but not after warning you that the conversation that will ensue maynot be very entertaining to you, at the very least...

I am actually amazed at the confidence of the Atheist. They can be so blatantly assertive at times that it actually is quite amusing to me.

"A little knowledge is dangerous" they say. So very right !

When you don't have an answer to the biggest mysteries of the world, what gives you the right to disclaim that there maybe a force that is all pervasive ? I actually have a delightful word to name this "sub-species": "The Hypocritical I-think-I-know-it-all sapiens"

I am not discrediting scientists for even a bit cause I am one of their biggest fans !

BUT, rather than have either Blind Faith or total denial, there is a middle path that we should and must take - so you end up saying "well...ummmmm...hmmmmm...no comments"

There is something about those two words when used in combination...

"No" is not a positive word at the very least. People hate or despise those who say "no".....and people, on the other hand, love to express their comments on anything under the sun... they wish "bitching" was as habitual to them as brushing your teeth everyday or going to the potty.

Coming back to the topic - One of the toughest problems to crack in the field of science these days is the concept of Dark Matter and Dark Energy.

Now the time is ripe to explain (or even more accurate is the fact of "our" inability to explain it) the concepts of Dark matter and Dark Energy a bit further:

Dark matter and dark energy are two of the most vexing problems in science today. Together they dominate the universe, comprising some 96 percent of all mass and energy.

But nobody knows what either is !!!

Dark matter was invoked decades ago to explain why galaxies hold together. Given regular matter alone, galaxies might never have formed, and today they would fly apart. So there must be some unknown stuff that forms invisible clumps to act as gravitational glue.

Dark energy hit the scene in the late 1990s when astronomers discovered the universe is not just expanding, but racing out at an ever-faster pace. Some hidden force, a sort of anti-gravity, must be pushing galaxies apart from one another in this accelerated expansion.

Separate theories have been devised to try and solve each mystery.

To explain dark energy, for example, theorists have re-employed a "cosmological constant" that Einstein first introduced as a fudge factor to balance the force of gravity. Einstein called the cosmological constant a great blunder and retracted it. Yet many theorists now are comfortable re-employing it to account for the effects of dark energy. But it does not reveal what the force is.

Scientists agrees that these two explanations might be necessary, but they are also bothered by that complexity.

I, thus, always take (quite habituated now) the easy way out.

Till the biggest mysteries of this world have a definite explanation - I will stick on to my belief that there is a force which controls us all. This force maynot be biased towards humanity per se but the Force DOES EXIST !!!