Secular Atheism

“Demerits of a religion are nothing but misinterpretations of its teachings by its followers.”

The idea of atheism has been with us for a very long time. The word ‘atheism’ originated back in the 5th century in Greece which stood for ‘without gods or deities’. By the 16th century this term gained immense popularity amongst most and by the time of the French revolution in the 18th century during the ‘age of enlightenment,’ numerous activists and socialists spread atheist ideas and explained the benefits of being an atheist to the European middle-class unprivileged population. However today this word seems to have lost its original meaning and understanding, especially in India. 

Atheism is an umbrella term and it gives rise to many similar but not same ideologies, however broadly an atheist society is a society that completely denies the existence of god or any similar source of supernatural power. 

An atheist denies the importance of religious practices or beliefs which are scientifically unproven or are not documented. 

Atheism: A by-product of Communism

Communism and atheism move hand in hand. Wherever communism goes, atheism follows. A society that is both culturally rich and communist at the same time does not exist. The Soviet Union and China are some examples that explain this phenomenon accurately. A central democratic government either promotes every religion equally(India) or does not interfere in religious matters at all(Belgium’s central government has no say in religious matters, instead the country has separate community governments for different social groups). However, a communist government discourages religious practices of any kind. China has five recognized religions Buddhism, Catholicism, Daoism, Islam, and Protestantism. However, it supports none and believes in state atheism, and does not promote the building of new worship places of any type. China, Cuba, Vietnam, Laos are communist societies and do not have any official religion. Muslims belonged to the major minority group in USSR and lived in the southern part(Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, etc) but the soviet union did not recognize any religion because it was against the principles of communism to support any sort of religious practices. This was probably one of the reasons for the disintegration of the soviet union.

Is being an Athiest logical? 

If a person is truly an atheist by heart then he/she has many nonconflicting beliefs. They do not need to debate almost every time some stranger comments or offends any religion for they do not believe in religion. They do not ever get into heated debates about which religion is better than the other. They believe in scientific explanations and do not dwell on mythologies that are most of the time impossible to believe in unless you are a blind follower. Their reasons and concepts are clear and they are happy about whatever they believe to be true. Satisfaction at heart is the most important thing people seek and atheism brings it in the most literary and non-mythical way. However, a true atheist is also generally harassed for not supporting any religion. Accepting them is something that society is not very keen about and most of the time atheists are even afraid to admit their dead faith. Also, they sometimes ignore some interesting and fascinating unanswered questions just in the name of not associating themselves with religion. They do not consider the idea of looking beyond the facts and faces what lies beneath them. This makes them insensitive to deeper meanings of life which are not always accepted by society. So now there is an unanswered question: should you practice atheism? 

Today, we live in the 21st century. The definition and meaning of atheism have changed now. If you ask an atheist a simple question about his religious beliefs he would probably say that he does not follow any religion or he would say that he believes in ‘humanity or ‘human religion’, which in my opinion is completely illogical statement. What is religion? In simple words, it is just a way of living or a lifestyle. Nothing else. If two people follow different religions, the only thing that differs is their lifestyle and that includes everything(language, diet, etc). And at the end of the day, both of them would not do anything different from natural human affairs. And as far as malpractices go, they only arise in religion due to the greed of a few or misunderstandings throughout history. How hard can it be for an intellect to adopt humanitarian teachings of a religion and disregard a few demerits? So if a person says that he is an atheist and he believes in humanity it’s his restricted and confined thinking that he thinks Hinduism does not converge with humanity, it’s his restricted and confined thinking that he believes Christianity or Islam or any other religion does not converge with humanity. So following a religion with a constructive mind is always preferable to being an atheist. This however does not mean that you have to fight and always defend your religion and develop an extremist ideology. It is very important to follow your religion and have a liberal mindset at the same time. This seems difficult but is not an impossible task. 

Following a religion with a Democratic and Liberal mind

This at first may seem weird but it is a very healthy habit for a democracy. It does not matter which religion you follow, you should always welcome criticism because everyone has freedom of speech. History has also proven that if a religion is flexible and is criticized and offers freedom to its followers, it becomes long-lasting. A rigid system of any kind is always self-destructive. You have to also keep in mind that you should keep your beliefs to yourself and do not enforce them on anyone, even if it’s someone from your family. Everyone has the right to follow any religion according to their convenience. Also if someone is born in your religion, it does not mean that he has to necessarily die in your religion too. Everyone is free to practice and follow every and any religion. And all of this is not a utopia or a hypothetical situation, if a person truly adopts these practices into his daily life, it will decrease religious conflicts to a great extent. So this is what we have to do, follow a religion and stay liberal at the same time, and also laugh whenever someone says that he/she is an atheist.