Atheism

When I was in my mid teens, I devoted much energy to promoting the cause of atheism, I was young, enthusiastic and wanted to convert everyone. Then one day, I read the blog of a former atheist, one of her chief complaints was that she felt other atheists tended to be whiney and overly argumentative, trying to pick fights with theists wherever they could. No way, she was wrong, she couldn’t be right, could she? Sadly though It was true, atheists are a bunch of aggressive buggers. So I shut up, though I didn’t become religious, I didn’t begin to try to convert everyone I saw, I still argued for atheism, but only when the occasion warranted debate.
Atheism, I have found is a neglected phenomenon in India, people just don’t believe it exists. I mean we have a word for it in Hindi, nastik, but I have found that for some people the concept does not convey the same meaning as the English word. I remember in college I was called into the office to fill in some information missing on my form. The two categories I hadn’t filled were religion and caste. So I went and was confronted by the slightly dim-witted accountant/head-of-office.

“Tumne religion aur caste nahi bhara hai” (You’ve left religion and caste blank)
“Sir main nastik hoon aur mujhe apna caste nahi pata” (I’m an atheist and I don’t know my caste).
I wait while he digests this.
“Theek hai caste chhod do, lekin religion bharo” (Fine leave caste but fill-up religion at least)
“Sir main nastik hoon, mera koi religion nahi hai” (I’m an atheist I don’t have any religion)
“Par koi toh religion hoga” (You have to have some religion”)
“Haan, main nastik hoon, who likh loon kya?” (I’m an atheist, should I write that down then?)
Horrified, he replied, ”Nahi, nahi, who nahi, kuch toh religion hoga” (No, don’t write that, you have to have some religion”)
This went on for about five minutes till I finally gave in and angrily wrote Hindu on the form. I have a Hindu name, so he’d already figured I was going to write Hindu there, and didn’t expect any sort of resistance from me. I think my problem rose from the fact that he didn’t really understand the concept of atheism. That Atheism is not a transient way of thinking but a serious philosophy on its own.
Most dictionaries would define atheism as a lack of belief in god or something else along those lines. This definition as is frequently pointed out is fundamentally wrong. Atheism is a belief that there is not a god. There is a big difference between the two. For instance talking about a hypothetical lighter on my table, if I were to say “I don’t believe in the lighter on my table” it would imply that I don’t believe in some fundamental component of the lighter that contributes to is being a lighter, maybe I don’t believe it is capable of lighting a cigarette. As you see that statement doesn’t really dispute the presence of the lighter. Were I to say, “I believe there is not a lighter on the table,” it would clearly indicate my views on the subject. This is all there is to the philosophy of atheism, which lies not in any particular code, rather in a rejection of all religious codes. Atheists aren’t unified in their beliefs like theists are and neither are they unified in their disbelief, as one would be tempted to assume. As atheism has no unifying texts or codes unlike religion, there is no common thread of belief running between all atheists. Unlike religion, which lays down principles by which the faithful are to lead their lives, atheism does no such thing. Atheists have no epic texts, no deities and no places of worship. That’s why I say atheists are not unified in their disbelief, apart form a single common principle we have nothing else to hold us together.
It’s common for people to look for others who share their beliefs, we all want support and companionship, especially those who have recently abandoned their faith, however atheism is not particularly well suited to group discussions and suchlike. Just like you can’t have an atheist temple because there are no deities to worship, an atheist discussion quickly degenerates into a theist bashing session, that’s why atheists online sound whiney. I think atheism is a personal philosophy not really meant to be discussed, debated maybe with a theist, however these debates have fast grown clichéd and frankly they bore me. Douglas Adams, a genius writer and an atheist to boot, illustrated this rather well in an interview printed in American Atheist;

American Atheist: What message would you like to send to your atheist fans?
Douglas Adams: Hello how are you?

There is a common misconception among theists that atheists adopt their views as result of some tragedy in their lives that has shattered their faith in god, something I call the Deewar hypothesis after Amitabh in Deewar. Another myth is that atheism is a consequence of an individuals desire to rebel and that they will eventually grow out of it. Unfortunately both are wrong in the case of most atheists, for whom, atheism is an informed, deliberate and intellectual decision. In the case of the Deewar hypothesis, such an individual’s philosophy is better defined as a lack of belief in god and not a belief that there is not a god (see my previous arguments on this), not really atheism.
Personally I feel that religion is an atavism, something essential in early human history but which has outlived its utility. Religion helped early humans deal with a world they didn’t fully understand, so we invented fantastic gods with supernatural powers to comfort ourselves in the face of a cruel and often dangerous world. Later it developed into a tool wielded to politically unite people under a common god. Now it is an atavism, capable of causing more harm than good.
Though it may sound like I bear a serious grudge against religion, I really don’t have much of a problem if it is worshipped quietly. Spirituality is best developed alone, not in the middle of a rampaging mob. Religion is okay if you consider an individual country, sharing a single belief, however sadly its not possible in today’s world and unfortunately the moment you put two groups of people of different religious persuasion together, they cant help but to bicker amongst themselves, much worse than any group of atheists could.