Chandrayan 3 of-n-by apro ISRO is set to make history. Very soon, just a couple of days later, on August 23, it should manage to soft land on moon, and successfully this time around.
As a part of the inner core team, a senior scientist at and the director of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Prof. Annapurni Subramanyan exuded confidence that the moon landing this time would be a success as it is meticulously planned. There was a word of caution though. She opined that the space is vast, and hence all the co-ordinates cannot be completely controlled or contained.
That, in my opinion, is the scientific temper, aware of base axioms, rational, logical, objective, and yet honestly aware of the X factor. Unfortunately, the entire debate carried on at the time of the launch centered around such power women's traditional look!
Well, just because you wear revealing clothes, smoke/drink/eat non-veg, do not wear a bindi or jewellery does not mean you are rational(ist) or modern or liberated or feminist! Such simplistic axioms ruin the valency of the scientific temper debate or the feminist analysis.
Similarly, without knowing even an iota of truth, or at least her version, castigating an absolutely innocent woman of any thought/belief crime she neither committed nor even thought of, is hardly rationalist! Nor does it reveal any scientific temper!
Horrible it is equally to malign a woman (as a witch or a crazy nut or a bad bitch) just because she is not interested in your candidate whom you are promoting for your own ulterior selfish motives or to ruin her possible growth! Absolutely irrational, fascistic, and unscientific!
In other words, no mafia, especially of the intellectual variety, can say that theirs alone is the only truth, just because they are the power group or because they are promoting or are powered by X political party with huge tentacles.
To begin with, the 'with us or against us' binary is very silly because the scientific temper is aware that paradigms shift constantly, and in a truly volatile way in the current times. Hence, in this vast universe, to tom-tom one's piddly perspective as the only/absolute truth is the real fascism. Opening up one's own sanctified beliefs to an alternative vision is the real scientific temper!
Pratima@Scientific spirit lies in humility, in knowing the bounds of one's own beliefs, and their limits.
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