ATHEISM
Atheism originates from the Greek word atheos which means
without god/s. The word atheist is often misunderstood to be a
condensed form of the word anti-theist when it only implies that
the person simply rejects a belief in god or the supernatural.
Anti-theists, however, go a step further and oppose any kind of
organized religion, recently they have also been referred to as new
atheists , some popular figures include Dr. Richard Dawkins, Dr.
Lawrence Krauss and the late Christopher Hitchens. Its important to
understand that not all atheists are anti theists. Atheists are a
group of people who are neither convinced by the evidence presented
for the existence of God, which is none, nor dissuaded by the fear
of hell or the prize of heaven. My personal opinion is that its
very childish to believe in such a carrot and stick arrangement, it
reminds me of the days my mother used to feed me, as a kid, by
scaring me with a scarecrow. Now, to the lament of every atheist,
atheism is NOT a religion, it is, in fact, the opposite of
religion, its a lack of belief. Atheism can be referred to as a
religion only when not running becomes an Olympic sport. Then comes
the next question, Im confident that every atheist has been asked
the same by an incredulous theist, If not in God, what do you
believe in? The answer to this is subjective and, hence, varied.
This is my answer, my belief lies in the scientific method,
something that has been proven to be effective time and again.
Religion was our first attempt to answer very deep and intriguing
questions like, who are we? , or how did we get here? , and, hence,
religion is also our worst attempt to answer these questions. With
critical thinking , reasoning and decades of tireless efforts by
various scientists the scientific method and science have answered
these questions to certain extent and also many others. With the
advent of the scientific method we now have a much more powerful
tool to attack these questions. Religion has become unnecessary.
Using religion to find answers for these questions even now is like
choosing to cross continents by swimming instead of flying, you
will certainly drown. Now the theist is all riled up, Ive uttered
the taboo words religion is unnecessary. . He/she fires back with
this intelligent question, Religion is my moral compass, what
morality and compassion will you have if you dont believe in God? .
On some level, I think every theist knows the answer to this
question, morality is not derived from or monopolized by religion.
Morality and humanity come form within us, instilled in us through
years of evolution, we are social creatures by nature. There are a
lot people who believe in God and the spiritual world but havent
read the scriptures, that so very carefully delineate what is right
and wrong, and yet are very nice and compassionate people. We have
an innate notion of right and wrong and dont really need a book to
tell us. In fact, there are more examples of religious texts being
misconstrued resulting in catastrophic consequences. The point of
this blog post was to clear the waters, make sure one understands
what they are talking about when they refer to atheism or an
atheist. And no, we dont list atheist under religion in our social
networking page, like we discussed, atheism is NOT a religion.
Aadhithya Rajasekaran.
