Welcome Ryan, Crazy

[Agnostic Indian]

Please give an honest reply...Are you here or not?
May be the oldies applied human psychology to help common men to not give into their 'curiosity' lest they end up looking at the sun.I don't know whether the ancients concocted these stories to achieve a 'better safe than sorry' result' or out of their dumbfounded belief.

We know scientifically that smoking kills..yet we chose to smoke.
[This implies that a 'scientific fact' may or may not trigger the right behavior in an individual]
If there would have been a gory religious verse to ask you not to smoke..more people would buy into the thought..and choose not to smoke!

There's another reason for posting this as a new thread here.
Just wanted you to share your views on:
Suppose the intelligentsia of a state knows that 'Silver' has bactericidal propertieshttp://www.doulton.ca/silver.html and also knows that the currency of their state is made up of 'Silver coins' http://www.rbi.org.in/currency/museum/c-ancient.html.
These people care about the health and hygiene of the common men on the street who take holy dips in the local deities' pond, which leaves the pond infected with bacteria/microbes.
Should the intelligentsia
'Share the scientific facts with the common man asking them to throw two dimes of their silver coins in the pond to increase the cleaning capacity of the pond'
OR
'Concoct a story,out of an understanding of human psychology,that if they throw those coins in the pond..it'll go to their ancestors and they will bestow blessings from heavens onto whosoever follows the practice'
what's your take?

[crazy canuck]

Sorry Agnostic I rarely check exclusive room.

Here is your dichotomy:

1.Should big brother( society, elders, state) tell the truth about things which harm common man in plain words .

Or

2. They should be scared off, intimidated and lied by concoting stories in order to teach them good morals, good habits.

In ancient days No.2 psychology often worked when masses were uneducated and belived word of their elders , medicine man , priests of society. Even this approach met with limited success. Brahmins made up lots of stories to scare hindus, cheat them, made sure they got welfare from cradle to grave. Scared people with stories about bad birth in lower yoni. Scene did not change.There are lots of crooks in indian society and they knew very well Brahmins made up all those stories about curse and blessing cycles( Shrap-AAshirvad), sins, next life. There were very few god fearing hindus. All nonsensical talks made them cynical. Deep down people hated brahmins who were nothing but pure and simple beggars. .people remained same.

One smritikar mentioned that caste hindus should not eat food in dark , lest they will be born as Cats. Well I see their point, when you eat in dark you may eat bugs along with food especially in rainy season of India. The eddict was made to scare people. Many taboos of hindus had to do with health issue. In ancient time there was no other way to teach people good manners. Again this scare tactic had very limited success.

In modern day and age scare tactics, blind faith, negative psychology,braiwashing does not work. ( may be working for Islam .People need to be told truth.

About your coins:

Well in country full beggars those silver or gold or even copper coins having anti bacterial property thrown in holi pond wont stay there for long. 20 hungry beggars will jump in the pomd to chase one coin, 10 poor soul may get drawned. . There goes logic of thrwoing coin. Dead body of one desparate beggar will contaminate a pond.

This can also support all kind of superstitions and unsceintific outlooK. Better if they take water home and trow coins in pot full of water.

[Agnostic Indian]

[peacebewithyou]