According to Rationalist International site: http://www.rationalistinternational.net/ the police came to his house on July 4 to arrest him.

I'm getting the feeling that the reason there are no updates on his site is because he's the sole developer of the site... and there's no-one else to provide updates. Presumably, therefore, he has been in jail since July 4.

If anyone would like to donate to his defense fund, here's a link: http://www.rationalistinternational.net/defence_fund/

Edit: His phone number is listed here: http://www.rationalistinternational.net/home/sanal_edamaruku... -- perhaps someone currently in India can attempt to contact him, to get any additional information? I'd really hate to see this guy go to jail...

Ha!

Yesterdays incident. Indian here, I stay in Bangalore.

A Fakir arrives, beating drums. Now I don't offer alms because I am dead against institution of beggary. But this guy refuses to leave and continues to beat the drum. Exhausted I offer him 5 bucks and ask him to leave. In return he asks me to put my hand forward. For a moment I thought he will give me the money back. But he gives me a black stone and tells me I going to be lucky by next Friday.

I plan to throw away the stone, and I don't generally take things like that. He comes back after 10 minutes and asks me to give 100 bucks so that we can go back and do mystic work. Now I realize this is just and elaborate plan by this guy to go back and smoke grass. So I refuse, He asks me return the 'black stone' and nevertheless thanks me for the 5 bucks.

On top of this my mom says, Its good he took the stone back, as it would have contained a Harry Potter 'Imperious curse' kind of magic. Using which he could have controlled me(Can you believe it).

Another Incident:

A Eunuch comes begging, I am with a friend in his car heading back home Friday evening. He offers her 10 bucks and a 1 rupee coin. She takes the 10 bucks, kisses the 1 rupee coin and gives it back to him. When I ask, my friend says. Eucuch's kissing the coin means 'Good luck'.

When you have this sort of belief deeply ingrained in our culture, how do you fight superstition?

Its just these things are a part of culture and everyday life. People just find it difficult to do away with.

This is the same guy who cheerfully refused to drop dead of sorcery on nation-wide live television:

http://www.rationalistinternational.net/article/2008/2008031...

This is an amazing quote that summarizes an incredibly complex problem in an incredible succinct way.

"For many, the regressive belief in superstitions and miracles is an escape from the hardships of life. Once trapped into irrationalism, they become more incapable of mastering reality. It is a vicious circle, like an addiction. They become vulnerable to exploitation by astrologers, godmen, dubious pseudo-psychologists, corrupt politicians, and the whole mega-industry of irrationalism."

The section in the penal code should have read "deliberately letting your religious feelings get hurt and attempting malicious acts intended to outrage the religious sentiments of any class or community." instead of "deliberately hurting religious feelings and attempting malicious acts intended to outrage the religious sentiments of any class or community."

Discussed here http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4215230

I am pretty sure I have attended a seminar by him in a tech festival of our college, debunking the miracles of "Satya sai baba", and spreading awareness about superstitions. That was 7 or so years ago. His is a great initiative to promote scientific temperament, and rational thinking.

A minor nitpick: The Church has not claimed any miracle, nor is this guy facing arrest for "debunking a miracle".

The complaint against him is that he made a false statement that the 'miracle' was a scam organised by the local church to make money from devotees.

full text of the Church's statement below:

Statement from : His Lordship Bishop Agnelo Gracias, Mumbai Archdiocese

STATEMENT WITH REGARD TO THE IRLA CROSS – in the light of the TV Programme on the ‘Dripping Cross’

A general Observation: The official Church is slow to attribute supernatural causes to ‘extra-ordinary’ phenomena we observe in life. As far as possible, the Church tries to see if such phenomena can be explained by natural causes. Further, the Church does not pay too much attention to these extraordinary phenomena, even though she accepts the possibility that God may intervene in human life in an extraordinary way – what we often term a ‘miraculous’ way.

Coming to the ‘dripping Cross’ at Irla: One can doubt if this water dripping has a supernatural cause. The Church has NOT made any pronouncement on it. There is a lengthy scientific process that has to be undergone before any official pronouncement is made. It is quite possible that the dripping water may have a natural explanation.

What is surely objectionable are the statements made by the Delhi interlocutor, Mr. Sanal. We point out some of these erroneous assertions:

 Contrary to the interlocutor’s claim, the Church does not advocate the worship of images. There is a difference between honouring a thing and making it divine, something to be worshipped. We respect and honour the Scriptures of any religion not because the books are in themselves divine, but because they have a special significance for the adherents of that religion. We honour a cross because it is for us a reminder of the love of Jesus who died for us

 A second gratuitous assertion is that the dripping Cross has been created by priests who are out to make money! This Cross is not on Church property and the one who is alleged to have noticed the dripping water was not even a Catholic. To the best of our knowledge, no money has been collected by any priest. And surely, priests do not build churches with such money, as is claimed by the interlocutor.

 A third unwarranted statement is that the Pope or the Church is against Science. The interlocutor would only have to go to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia on the internet, to see the list of eminent Catholic scientists and how the Church has supported scientific research since the emergence of the European universities in the Middle Ages. There is a Pontifical Academy of Sciences, founded in 1603, which seeks to pay honour to pure science, wherever it is found, to assure its freedom and to promote its research.

I realize that the interlocutor has made these and other unwarranted statements out of ignorance – he is unaware of facts. The least he could do would be to apologize to the Catholic community for hurting it, even though it might be inadvertently.

+ Bishop Agnelo Gracias Auxiliary Bishop of Bombay

Ah, I look forward to the day when all religion is an ancient relic of a bygone era. I doubt I'll see it, but I hope my kids do.

http://commonsenseatheism.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/dar...

Sad thing is, it isn't too far from the truth.

It's interesting to watch HN upvoting a religious article, from blogspam which links to New Scientist.

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