Atheists

The belief in God, His existence or non-existence, and more importantly the role and the extent of His reach into our lives is a very subjective and personal thing, according to me. Faith, by definition, is blind --- whether on a human subject or something beyond. Therefore, it doesn't matter what arguments one may present to prove His existence --- you will still be guessing that He exists. So I am not going to go into that debate here. Instead, I want to talk about some common trends that I have observed in people who don't believe in the existence of anything called God.

Historically, churches, caliphs, pundits and village godmen have held their sway on a large part of humanity for the largest period of known history. In a society where a large part of life revolves around religion and the various rituals associated with it, there are bound to be fanatics in its name. To come out and actually proclaim that you are an atheist is therefore, something that requires courage and conviction. Perhaps being an atheist was much more tough in those times than it is today. It is not the fear of fanatics, but the society in general seems to consider anyone who openly proclaims himself or herself an atheist as taboo. I have seen mothers secretly telling children not to mix with such people too much, I have looked at elders despise younglings who dared say that God doesn't exist in front of them, and I have seen mothers grow suddenly fearful and horrified when their sons/daughters tell them that they are not really "believers", per se. Maybe as an atheist they don't go beating a drum about it, but then it perhaps also doesn't make pretty conversation when they proclaim the fact. To say the least, it is complicated.

Inevitably, I have observed that these people are also among the most educated: usually high academic degree holders, champions at debates, school/college top rankers and wonderfully witty minds. You can have good conversations with them, and debate fluently and furiously on topics right from God to the colour scheme of a website. I am not trying to tell you that education necessarily "spoils" your religious senses and makes you an atheist, but there is the trend --- only if you are a thinking individual and don't accept anything that comes your way will you begin to question things in life: the concept of God inclusive. And I have observed that these people are fundamentally good people, trustworthy and rational people. Perhaps they add some meaning to the statement, "It is better to have a clever enemy than a foolish friend".

In general, these atheists also do not impose their views on anyone else. Which is good, because mocking someone else's belief just because they don't agree with you is demean and degrade oneself: and that is never good. There are always those among us who want to push our beliefs down others throats at all costs, and so I have seen some friends crying blasphemy upon knowing that someone is an atheist. They took it as a personal goal in life to make the non-believer see the 'truth' and thereby offer him salvation from hell. Lets just say that they weren't exactly able to make him see the light. Some of my friends who are atheists go through the religious rituals and customs nevertheless, because more than being symbolic of a prayer to God, these ceremonies bring a sort of heritage value and bond people together socially. I've seen others defy all customs and refuse to go inside temples or participate in other ceremonies: the extremists, so to say.

However, like all things in life, I shouldn't generalise goodness. Some people I have known turned atheists because it was the cool thing to do --- sort of a passport into the neo-intellectual peer group. Then there are the fence sitters, who change colour depending on the company or whatever suits the company or the occasion the most. There was this one guy who I had a discussion with and he was wondering about the existence of God in the aftermath of the Gujarat riots. And I have known one atheistic fanatic as well: he used to pick a debate with whoever he could and try to induct more people into his club, so to say. Perhaps at the end of the day it doesn't matter whether you believe in God or not. What matters is whether you a good human being or not.