It has been long since I have been contemplating a post on this topic. In the past year or so I have been thinking deeply about my religious obligations, my spirituality and the relevance that these hold for other people in their lives. One contentious issue that I had very strong opinions on was the issue of atheism.
I believed that atheists were just ignoramus idiots.
A little background on my personal journey through the quagmire of faith and GOD.
There was a time in my life when I decided that the best way by which I could avoid the Sunday mass was by declaring myself an atheist. I was hell bent on working towards this goal in my life. Somewhere in between my plan towards achieving this goal a thought struck me. Before I announce my atheism to the world let me search for GOD and when I DON'T find him after my search I can confidently make my transition to atheism without any religious nut telling me I have not searched for GOD. To cut long stories short, in my quest for GOD I somehow managed to rebuild my faith and I just could not come to the conclusion that GOD does not exist ... (and yes though I am not completely dogmatic, I do attend Sunday mass every week).
After this realization of my faith in the existence of GOD I decided that any person who claims to be an atheist should be able to substantiate his atheism by giving concrete evidence that he failed in his quest to find GOD, i.e, he actually went searching for GOD :) ....
What I would have wanted to ask an atheist is "Have you succeeded in finding reasons why GOD does not exist after having gone searching for him or is it so that you have succeeded in finding reasons for not finding GOD and therefore disproved his existence?"
My opinion has changed ... somewhat drastically of late (actually the past two days ...). It all boils down to faith. The common denominator between believers and atheists is faith. Believers have faith in the existence of GOD and atheists have faith in the non-existence of GOD, period.
It is very difficult to get a straightforward objective answer to matters related to faith, and that is because of the personal nature of this attribute of human beings. I am strong in my faith in the existence of GOD, and an atheist is a true atheist if and only if he is strong in his faith in the non-existence of GOD, after all faith as i have defined it for myself is my personal belief of the truth...
4 comments:
i liked the line.......... "Believers have faith in the existence of GOD and atheists have faith in the non-existence of GOD, period."
that kinda sums up my opinion on the whole issue.. it's what secularism is all about..
Actually i am not a secularist... I do not believe in secularism ...
@Amith: let's take this outside!! you and me!! c'mon, put 'em up!!!
(who's treating for the sunday lunches by the way?)
I don't know whether I am an atheist or not. Because I do believe in god, but I somehow don't believe in worship. I feel there are better things to do in the universe than just worship for the sake of worshipping god. It may be anything from helping poor people to saving animals. But nevertheless, going to temple and things like meditation give a lot of peace of mind.. :)
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