Let me comment on the posts below by Dr. Jiten Roy and Mr. Q. A. Rahman.
First on Dr. Roy's comments:
Our knowledge is limited, lack thereof is unlimited. So, I would say, Dr. Roy has some thought provoking questions, for which I do not have definitive answers. However, that does not mean that God, re-birth and virtue/karma in various lives are the answers. Of course, when we can not comprehend, it is easy to give up, and explain it with the irrationality of the concept of supernatural powers. It is much more difficult to explore with patience to find out. If we look at the progress of human civilization, we can see that some of the old supernatural kinds of mysteries are no longer mysteries. Just imagine, for example, when people did not know that air was a matter, they used to consider it as a god and pray to it (or to God's expression in the form of air). For another example, even in today's world, some people pray for rain when there is a drought; of course, the technology-based irrigation works better than the prayers.
We need to realize that it may take too many generations of human intelligence to unravel just one mystery; and some mysteries could remain unsolved even on the day when Earth is destroyed (by natural phenomena according to the rationalists).
Having said the above, let me make two generalizations. While some exceptionally remarkable discoveries may take place here and there by accidents, most of the unraveling of mysteries and solutions to problems are accomplished via systematic studies. While some remarkably brilliant individuals may come from poor environments, most of the talents do come from the environments of talents.
Now, on Mr. Rahman's comments:
Talking about the race factor, I have a CD of Shyama Sangeets, where I like the tunes of some of the songs. When I hear one particular song, I think, what kind of a deprave is this devotee? It goes like, "tui kali mekhe, jyoti dheke, parbi ne ma faki dite ……" (by covering your glow with black ink, mother, you can not deceive me). The idea is, "even when you disguise yourself as black, I still recognize you, and am fond of you." Now, Syama (Kali) is supposed to be actually black according to the Hindu belief. However, this devotee is praying to this god of his as if she is actually white, just disguising as black. In other words, he has to imagine the black god to be white while praying to her! Black can not be prayed to, even when she is the revered motherly god!!
Now, I am not suggesting that most devotees are like that when it comes to the goddess Kali. But, there is no doubt that for the religious and backward sections of the Hindus, white is clearly more desirable and revered than black.
As for Mr. Rahman liking the "wisdom of many Hindu scholars", I would say, that probably is because Hinduism, whether religion or philosophy, is not too prescriptive, and many of the so-called scholars are not up to following exactly what was written in the religious books in ancient times.
Well that's all for now,