How I Am An Atheist? Part 2

One God, Many Gods?

"I contend we are both atheists, I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours."
	...Stephen F Roberts

Picking up from where I left, I would like to mention that these cultural and geographical factors influenced the religions around the world. Ancient civilizations, with their limited scientific knowledge tried to find answers in miracle, and also to maintain a balance in newly formed societies, a set of rules and regulations were formed under the umbrella of religion.

It cannot be denied that all the religions teach us to be moral and kind to others. Also, having faith in something beyond materialistic world during the times of distress provides strength and hope for a better future. Thus, faith does play an important role in one’s life. However, this faith can be precarious when it turns into superstition.

Also, too much dependence on some supernatural power and expecting them to vanquish all our problems makes one an individual who tries to hide under the blanket of prayers whenever something bad happens.

As I entered the stage of agnosticism from being a believer, the curiosity to learn more about these things made me read several different texts of different religions. It was a feeling of liberation, as if I had come out of the boundaries of one particular belief system. Should religion be a binding force or a way of liberating someone?

Even though I ceased to believe that there was someone sitting above the cloud who was taking account of all my good and bad deeds, I did start to understand and acknowledge the beauty of different religions. From the concept and reason of idol worship in Hinduism to the concept of one god in Islam, everything started to make sense.

Initially, there was a constant battle; a contradiction between contrasting beliefs. The vegetarianism of the religions of east, polygamy of Islam, pantheism of Hindus, etc. everything seemed to be a paradox when put together on one platform. The question was that if every religion teaches that God is one and the whole humanity is governed by him/her, then why do the children of same God practice such contradicting faiths? When every religion claims that their texts were revealed straight from the God then why are there so many differences in them?

It can only be attributed to the fact that there are not one but many Gods above the cloud.
The answer lies in what I mentioned before; every faith and religion was influenced by the cultural and geographical factors from where it originated.

Thus, it was clear that all these rituals and traditions, idols and prayers, although had a practical implication, they were definitely not created by a God. Therefore, it can be said that ‘in the beginning man created God in his own image’.

There are literally thousands of religions being practiced today. Here are 20 of the most popular, along with an estimate of the number of followers:

1. Christianity: 2.1 billion
2. Islam: 1.3 billion
3. Hinduism: 900 million
4. Chinese traditional religion: 394 million
5. Buddhism: 376 million
6. African Traditional & Diasporic: 100 million
7. Sikhism: 23 million
8. Juche: 19 million
9. Spiritism: 15 million
10. Judaism: 14 million
11. Baha'i: 7 million
12. Jainism: 4.2 million
13. Shinto: 4 million
14. Cao Dai: 4 million
15. Zoroastrianism: 2.6 million
16. Tenrikyo: 2 million
17. Neo-Paganism: 1 million
18. Unitarian-Universalism: 800 thousand
19. Rastafarianism: 600 thousand
20. Scientology: 500 thousand

[Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica]

To be continued...

How I Am An Atheist?- Part 1

Since the beginning, human beings have been obsessed with the divine. Myriad of faiths and cultures around the world have their own gods, their own customs and everyone thinks their faith to be superior than the rest.

The subject of religion and faith has intrigued me since a long time and has motivated me to learn, unlearn and relearn newer things about it every day.

The process of becoming an atheist started when I had entered the 20^th year of my journey on this planet and in the course of four years I transformed from being a devout, god fearing believer to a rational and liberal atheist. 

However, during the entire process I passed through several different stages like becoming an agnostic in the start, then slowly and gradually my inclination towards atheism escalated. Initially, the sudden transformation in idea turned me into a militant atheist who deemed anything and everything related to religion and god to be a farce and a useless way of wasting one’s life.

With passing time; as I got the opportunity to read, experience, interact and thereby learn more about intricacies of faith and its rational implication or reasoning, it turned me into a benign non-believer who is more open and tolerant towards the concept of religion and god.

The title of this article is inspired from a book written by Shaheed-e-Azam Sardar Bhagat Singh named ‘Why I am an atheist?’. Bhagat Singh has been a source of inspiration for me since my childhood and it can be said that his influence made me question the existence of an all-encompassing, omnipresent and omnipotent God who takes account of all our deeds and punishes or bestows us with his blessings accordingly.

Cick here to read 'Why I am an Atheist' by Shaheed Bhagat Singh

Question?

Now the problem is that most of the people, when you tell them that you are an atheist, tend to expect that you must not believe in anything related to God and obviously that you reject the existence of any supreme power. But in my case, people get confused because I usually visit places of worship and also perform several rituals with full respect and faith which makes them doubt my stand about the issue of religion and god.

However, I personally believe that anything or everything which is done in the name of religion either has a rational reason and meaning behind it or else it is just a distorted form of some old rituals which are passed on to generations since thousands of years. The problem arises when people don’t try to understand why they are doing something in the name of religion and just keep on doing it because of their conditioning or because they want to impress the good god above and ensure their name in his good books.

I do not denigrate or despise the importance of faith for humanity and thus I don’t reject the concept of god too. The interesting part is that all the civilizations and people living in ancient times that were not even connected to each other in any way, came up with the concept of God. Every civilization or group of people had their personal God and till now there are more than hundreds of small and big faiths practiced by people around the globe. Almost every faith and religion has a unique quality which is influenced by the living conditions and culture of the people who have created it.

Around the globe in 80 faiths-Click here to watch!

Perhaps, the dependence on God was what gave a meaning to their lives and a balance to their society. Imagine a world without science and all the questions cropping up in human’s mind about who created everything around them. The answer was perhaps a supreme power, a God.

According to the ‘Rig Veda’, the mother of all Vedas, “The first born was the Creative Will, The primordial seed of the mind. All else followed.”

Now if this verse from Rig Veda does not make things clear then I must quote another verse from ‘Nasadiya Sutta’ which means the ‘Hymn of creation’. It says:

को अद्धा वेद क इह प्र वोचत्कुत आजाता कुत इयं विसृष्टिः ।
अर्वाग्देवा अस्य विसर्जनेनाथा को वेद यत आबभूव ॥६॥

But, after all, who knows, and who can say
whence it all came, and how creation happened?
The gods themselves are later than creation,
so who knows truly whence it has arisen?

To be continued...

Ever wondered?

Ever wondered why evenings are so beautiful?

Why do we feel at peace while the whole world moves from light to darkness?

Perhaps it is the silence, the calm, the serenity and the feeling of retiring from the hustle and bustle of routine life and taking a pause that the evenings signify.

It can also be that we are capable of gawking at the mauve sky, the tiny stars, and the crescent moon so clearly without having to squint like we do during the day.

It makes us feel that the entire universe is spreading its arms to embrace us and we feel deeply connected to it. We feel connected to the world which lies beyond our limits and our grasp. We can see ourselves and experience the wonderful feeling of being a part of the creation.

The same trees, mountains, beaches and everything else suddenly looks so brilliantly beautiful and ecstatic under the influence of dimming light.

Can’t it be assumed that it is realized that excess of everything is bad. Excess of anything makes that it loses its value and its sheen. The absolute light or absolute dark fails to stimulate our emotional senses.

It is the balance; the perfect balance of light and dark which portrays the duality of life; the good and the evil, sadness and happiness, love and betrayal and everything that exists in this universe.

Ever wondered why evenings are so beautiful?
It is the time when chaos meets the calm!