Embracing Atheism

I don’t exactly remember why I stopped believing in the concept of god. But I do remember that it was after my tenth standard when I was 15 and half years old. I live in a religious family as most families in this world are irrespective of where you live. My mother reminds me that as a kid, I refused to eat even a mouthful until they were accompanied by fancied stories from the Hindu mythology. Until I became an atheist, I could vividly recall that I never went to school without a short prayer and the ‘tilak’ on my forehead.

But in spite of all this, I came out of the concept and I certainly believe that it is one of the important decisions which changed my perception. Stepping out of the realm invoked reason and inculcated the spirit of questioning. Questioning unlocked many portals which remained invisible. Rationalism stems from many foundations but Atheism is the strongest of all. It is the root of all questions which demand ‘evidence’ and proof. The seed of reason which starts from religion spreads to multi realms of society which fuels the mind to challenge all forms of discrimination from gender to caste and irrational practices.

Most people mistake atheists as people who are ignorant of religion but the truth is mostly the opposite. Any practices based on grounds of science are accepted. For instance, touching the forehead occasionally stimulates the pineal gland which is the basis for the practice of applying ‘tilak’. Thus, only those norms which fail reason is battered, like the ones which say that a cat crossing the road is a bad omen.

I do accept the fact that there are many scientists who believe in the concept of god and pioneer new discoveries and inventions which improve our lives every day. But my point here is to stress that to break away from unethical practices and norms of the society atheism serves as a strong requisite.

Understanding the reason why humans are bound by religion is simple – fear, the fear of death, the loss of life and love, aversion to failure and importantly greed. When one realizes that he is minuscule of an ever-changing universe, a drop in an ocean one does not covet god. Rationality reveals that that the concept of ‘god’ was created for man’s own comfort.

Mahatma Gandhi, a great leader and one of the most complex personalities to have lived produced a masterpiece in his biography ‘the story of my experiments with Truth’. Finishing the book, I wondered whether a man could be so truthful to himself and to the world. Throughout the book, one could find various instances where his experiments entered all dimensions. In such a book he writes about an incident between a heckling atheist and a clergyman at the end of which he says, “This talk still further increased my prejudice against atheism”. I wonder what would have been the great man’s result of the experiment on the existence of god.

Photo Courtesy: Dennis Jarvis

Though I used to have harsh conversations regarding the existence of god, I have stopped involving or initiating them lately. It was because it does not help both the parties involved in the talk and I did not want anyone to develop any prejudice over atheism. Living without the concept of god has shown me the bright side of life. Embracing Atheism made me miss the lighthouse only for the Sun. 

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(1)Dennis Jarvis