By Sumit Chahal:
Every human being is taught from the very first day of his/her life that we (humans) are a creation of God. What is the definition of God? An omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent being who controls and directs all the happenings of the nature and even our lives, some say so. As you might have heard it from some people, for instance, if you studied hard and still didn’t get a particular job, then they would tell you that ‘don’t worry child, it’s God’s will’. Are you serious? Why would God not let you get that job? This is a complete lack of rational thinking. You couldn’t get that job because they simply got a better candidate than you.
The person who is saying this to you just wants to console you in the name of God, nothing else. In God, one can find strong consolation and support. Yes, the idea of God is helpful to the man in affliction and it is also true that it makes your life easier. Accepting your defeat as God’s will is easier but accepting it as your own failure is a rather tough task. That’s why humans created God, to get away from their own weaknesses and limitations. Because, as time passes, man begins to witness his weakness and limitations, then he tries to link them with some invisible supreme power which he believes controls all the activities of this universe. And with the help of this faith, he tries to overcome his weaknesses and fears, and gathers the courage to face everything boldly. Because he believes that his God will help him whenever he falls. You can do the same thing by simply believing in yourself, because here the power of belief has done the job, not God.
Yes, I do believe in atheism and my belief in atheism is not a result of my vanity, it’s because I simply believe in reality. Yes, I am not spiritualistic but it doesn’t mean that I am materialistic, I am just realistic. Atheism can be more accurately termed as Realism.
The belief in God creates an illusion in the minds of the people. It makes a person believe more on something invisible than on himself. But in my opinion, self reliance is more vital than any religion or God. I ask, what’s the meaning of religion if there are so many? What’s the significance of religion if one religion justifies something and another holds it wrong? For instance, a believer of doctrines of Hinduism never eats non-veg, because Hinduism says it’s a sin. But on the other hand, Muslims eat the same in their religious ceremonies. It seems like Lord Ram says it’s a sin to eat meat but on the other hand Allah allows it in the religious ceremonies like Id-ul-Fitr. I am not favoring any religion over another, this is just an example. Such myths and false beliefs also prevail in other religions like Christianity, Arya Samaj etc. But who created all these different religions and separate beliefs and philosophies? None else but us! Someone creates these and others follows them blindly. Blind faith is really dangerous, it destroys one’s own thinking. One should be critical of every established myth and has to adopt scientific thinking and realistic attitude if he or she wants to progress. These different philosophies of different religions lead to religious conflicts. What are these religious conflicts? Take it this way, humans created Gods, different Gods lead to different religions and then irrational humans fight with each other over who has a better imaginary friend. I believe in only one religion i.e. Humanity and I think everyone should. Only Science and Humanism can lead us to progress and growth.
My belief in atheism is not baseless, this is a result of my extensive research and interest in this topic, and moreover the critical and unprejudiced attitude towards it; I have my arguments to back it. Let me ask you a simple question – Ok, you say that God exists and he created this universe and human beings. Why? There must be a good solid reason behind it. Why has he created such a world which is no less than place of woes and sufferings, where no one is satisfied, no matter how much he has achieved in his life? Why has God created such a world which will annihilate one day without any fruitful end.
Look at it this way, you say God created the universe, it implies every creation needs a creator, then who created God? We have God behind our creation, so God must also have some creator. But who, nobody? Let me take the help of Stephen Hawkings here, when he was asked about his reasoning behind atheism, he says that to create this universe God must have existed before the Big Bang, but Science has proven that there is no ‘time’ before the Big Bang, so it means that God had no time to create this grand universe, without any time how could he be able to do so?
And if we talk about the moral sense behind the existence of God then if God is there, then there should be no woes and sufferings in this world, at-least not in the life of a noble person. If God has created all this, then why has he created evil in this world? He could program only good things in human beings. And if God has created both evil and good, then why to blame evil persons, one could say that God has made me like this. If God is seeing all this from the top, as theists believe, then why would he let one person torture and enslave another person? If he is omnipotent, if he controls everything, then why did he let Laden kill so many people in America, why can’t he stop the rapists from destroying the life of an innocent girl? It’s because he simply doesn’t exist. Neither God helped them nor could he stop them, only we can stop them, only good people can stop bad people. God is the tool of a weak person to console him in his weak moments. Theists believe that everything that happens in this world is the will of God, it means a person can justify himself after committing a crime in the name of God’s will, he is simply trying to hide his wrongdoings in the name of God’s will. But God has nothing to do with it, one has to take all the responsibility of his deeds. Every religion and every single belief in God is self contradictory, you can’t prove one.
Life, as most religious persons would say, is more than just flesh and blood, it has some supernatural realm behind it. Our true selves is spiritual, not material. But this is just a hallucination. We take birth and we die. It’s as simple as that. Life has materialistic origin and we are material and dependent on the workings of the brain. There is no afterlife and probably no heaven or hell, we have this and only this life to appreciate this amazing universe and for that I am extremely grateful.
Every society has to fight out all these myths of theism, idolatry and narrow conception of religion, if that particular society wants to progress. Some people say that religion purifies your character. No, being Hindu, Muslim, Christians or Sikh does not form the basis of morality in one’s character. Humanity and Empathy will inculcate morality in one’s character.
I know that my thoughts might not be acceptable to some people, but I have very clear conscience behind my doctrine of atheism, and I believe in it and I stand for it.