Analyzing Traditional Proverbs With Science And Logic

Skippable post. Important ideas but not standalone; I don't go in-depth with the important ideas and just form some general connections with my personal observations and traditional proverbs. Not important, or to be more accurate, it's important but I cover the important ideas in greater clarity and detail in my other posts, so feel free to skip this one. I also started another project, just check out the update in my Research Interests post, and my YouTube videos, on how I plan to bridge the divide between religion and science and unite people of all faiths who believe in kindness and compassion to combat those who spread hate.

My mom sometimes says stuff like "jo jo jab jab hona hai so so tab tab hota hai" (Everything takes place at the time it has been destined to take place.) and "jo hota hai acche ke liye hota hai" (Everything that happens, happens for the best.) and for reasons that may be apparent, whenever she has use these old traditional Indian Hindi proverbs without explaining them, I push her to explain what they mean and what logical reasons or evidence she has to back up such claims.

She didn't provide me with any, so for a long time I dismissed such proverbs as things that may have been true or the prevalent belief at the time and was passed down over generations without anyone really understanding their true origin or the logic behind them, just like irrational superstitious beliefs that are also not too uncommon here.

That was that case until recently when I started getting into philosophy, and learned about concepts that I later realized share a lot of similarities with what my mother says. Let's take the first proverb to start with- "Everything takes place at the time it has been destined to take place."

I noticed that this is very similar to the deterministic perspective of the universe that current scientific evidence points towards, and that I find easier to believe in, because it intuitively seems to make sense- everything is a physical system obeying the universal laws of Physics, and a continuous chain of cause and effect with some randomness here and there- and the idea that free will doesn't exist also only initially seemed strange and counterintuitive.

In most cases it's randomness and chance- the rigorous scientific and mathematical treatment of which is called probability theory- and this is probably what people in the past meant by luck, and combined with the deterministic physical system our universe is, at times fate and destiny.

Let's turn to the second one- "Everything that happens, happens for the best." This is something that I frequently encounter phrased in another way- "Go with the flow." And I hated this idea, because I misunderstood it as letting external factors decide everything for you, all your goals and decisions, and just follow the mindless herd without questioning anything or trying to take charge.

I am of the opinion that if you don't make your own decisions, the society will make it for you, and if you don't set your own goals and act on your own, others will do it for you, because we're influence by others all the time without even being consciously aware of it, and unless we try to consciously understand all such factors, we would just be pushed around by others and be at mercy to external factors and other people's constantly changing whims and selfish desires.

If you have read my other blog posts you'd also realize how I am against the idea of letting external factors influence you, and in other blog posts I also develop this idea further and take it to another level by including in these factors not just people but also things like our genes, probability and brain processes.

But it was much later that I realized what it truly meant, and realized that there is some truth to it. In stoicism, there's the idea of focusing only on what you can control, and even though you shouldn't give up too soon or decide something isn't under your control without trying your best first- because as psychological experiments show, adopting and cultivating a growth mindset is a powerful tool- at some point of time you have to accept when things are not under you control- some past mistake, for example, because you probably can't go back in time to change it.

It's also related to the idea of rationalization and analysis paralysis from cognitive psychology as well as the explore-exploit trade off from theoretical computer science. In brief, you don't always keep analyzing all your alternatives and there is a time when you have to forget all the other alternatives and just focus on one you have chosen after a certain amount of deliberation; that's the simplified version and my understanding of it.

If that's what is truly meant by going with the flow, then it makes more sense, because at times it is impossible for you to go against the flow, and even if you try, you would most likely end up dissatisfied and unhappy. Though I still think we give up too soon and don't try hard enough to find out what is and isn't under our control, and fall prey to things such as learned helplessness and other biases.

Lastly, I'd like to turn to God. I consider myself an agnostic atheist, agnostic part hanging on to atheist just due to my belief in being open-minded and following the scientific method and rationality to update my beliefs in light of new evidence or convincing logical arguments. We can never be certain, and absence of evidence isn't evidence of absence.

But I am a strong believer in another type of god. The scientific and natural type, not some human-like person in the sky, but the one in our own brain, who manifests itself in the beauty of how we happen to be alive and experience such fascinating events which we constantly overlook, this golden opportunity to experience life with all it's ups and downs.

This is the type of god similar to the god Einstein believed in, and something the much before that was devised by Spinoza with his concept of cause and effect- the whole cycle of how nature causes life and everything is interdependent on each other- all humans depend on each other, and all our actions and the actions of all animals and even immaterial objects have far reaching effects, just look up Spinoza's god. Related- Taleb's butterfly effects. And it never ceases to be absolutely wonderful.

Please let me know if you have any comments and feel free to connect.