STATUTORY WARNING: All of the views expressed here are solely my own (of course they are, I’m not a plagiarist). I also expect that after reading this article, a lot of my friends will switch sides. But if my ‘friends’ abandon me for something like this, good for me.
Today I want to share with you indisputably the most fascinating story I’ve ever heard. Last year when I was in Delhi, I bumped into a guy during the lunch break at a seminar I was attending.
Now I have this habit, one that I love and which leaves the rest of the world divided. The habit of hounding my prey with questions, a lot of questions, hey sometimes, I start getting on my own nerves.
Anyway, so this guy happened to be my latest prey but thankfully he belonged to that part of the world that doesn’t hate me for asking so many questions. He was in fact pretty outgoing and curious himself. During our conversation, he came to know that I study Sociology and take a keen interest in society, people, customs, thoughts, beliefs and so on. He said, “then I have to tell you something. The story of my village. You probably wouldn’t ever find a village this fascinating, anywhere else in the World”. This was enough for me to make the transition into hunting mode and I unleashed a barrage of questions at him with my eyes stiller and my ears straighter than ever waiting for my prey to leave the slightest room for another question.
During the course of our conversation, I discovered that he hailed from the village of Rajhoot in Jharkhand. Rajhoot is a very tiny village just a few hundred kilometres away from the State Capital of Ranchi. The social structure and vital practices of the people of this village deserve a collective P.hD from the entire faculty at Oxford because it is just so remarkable and fascinating.
Rajhoot has a population of just over a 1000 people. The supreme authority in the village is the usual mukhiya who has a huge house at the edge of the village with dense bushes surrounding it from all sides. Just as he had reached this part of the story, I shot my first arrow: “How did he become the mukhiya?” (as I’ve always been fascinated with what factors determine the origin of a local governance structure). His answer was perhaps the most shocking answer I have ever heard during the course of my numerable hunting sprees. He said that no one in the village knows this, in fact no one in the village has even met or seen the mukhiya. Instantly, my hunter instincts went into a frenzy and my mouth was curling up for unleashing another round of venom, he noticed this and stopped me right there. He said “wait, let me explain”. He said that this is something that worries him and also others of his generation as well. But the moment they start thinking about finding out more about the mukhiya maybe by sneaking into his home or wondering about the idea of a new village chief, their parents snarl and stop them right in their tracks.
My senses were at an all-time high, I asked “WHY?”. He said that the parents tell them that their great-grand-parents knew the mukhiya and ever since then, the following generations have had to accept his supremacy. I said “Hey, your great-grand-parents are supposed to have met him? Then he must be dead by now, wont he? Wont he too have great-grand-children by now?”.
He replied, “that is something I or no one else knows”. I shot back “but why don’t you go to his home and find out?”. His expression instantly changed into one of extreme fear and he answered, whispering now (almost as if the mukhiya was right there in the seminar hall in Delhi) “that is a strict no-no in our village. In fact it is forbidden and is considered a sin to even go near his house. On many instances, children have been beaten by their parents for mistakenly wandering near his house while playing bat-ball”. I was wondering whether it was a bhoot-bangla from a Hindi movie or an actual house.
By this time, I had dug my teeth deep into my prey and was in no mood to let go. I went through everything again: “so no one of your generation or the one before yours has seen him or anyone from his house and no one is even allowed to go near his house. Hell, for all you know, he may have died without a family tens of years ago and all you’ll find there will be his skeleton. How can you people be so stupid? Okay fine, even if that is the case, then how is he the mukhiya? How does he take decisions and control the functioning of the village if no one has even seen him or if he never steps outside?”.
He answered: “Oh that! Munda ji controls that part” (now who the hell was this Mundaji?). He went on, “It is believed that Ramesh Munda’s great-grand-father used to be the Mukhiya’s right hand man and he used to consult the Mukhiya on all happenings within the village and come back to the people with the Mukhiya’s instructions. So now his great-grand-son (Ramesh Munda) takes care of all the matters of the village as his family are considered the custodians of the mukhiya’s authority. So everything that happens in the village is controlled by him and even all wrong-doings are punished according to his judgments”.
By this time, my senses were at wit’s end and I just couldn’t fathom all that was being unleashed at me. For once in my life, I hated myself for asking questions. How could people be so illogical, irrational and bloody superstitious? I scoffed at him sarcastically: “I hope this Ramesh Munda is at least visible with a human body and not some invisible bird believed to be residing on some forbidden tree”. He calmly smiled and replied “oh of course, we meet him daily and he takes care of us”.
My hunting instincts were starting to die down thanks to the sheer disbelief I was feeling at what I had just heard but I didn’t want to hurt that poor guy just because I didn’t agree with the customs of his village. I asked him what I assumed to be one last question: “Anyway, is this Mr. Munda doing a good job of running your village? No problems I hope?”. Instantly, he bowed his head down and in a matter of seconds, his eyes turned wet. I felt so guilty for maybe having asked the wrong question or unintentionally hurting him. As I was about to place my hand on his shoulder to comfort him, he replied “What can I tell you Sir? All of us are so troubled and worried. In the past one year, six women have been raped and four of them have been murdered. My wife was one of them. My kids are left without a mother now and we have to bear the stigma of a ‘rape-victim-family’. We don’t even have any money to shift outside the village to another one.” With tears in my eyes and an instant urge to help him with all I’ve got, I asked him “Didnt Mr. Munda help you and what about the culprits?”. He replied “Oh the two brothers who raped and killed my wife stay right next to us and they share a wife. Mundaji said that it is your matter and I cant do anything to help you. You help yourself”.
WHAT, WHAT, WHAT THE HELL. I stood up with the pace of a NASA Rocket and was swelling with enough rage to give birth to a gun and go to his village right then to shoot the two brothers as well as the bloody Munda guy. He noticed the wrath in my moves and placed his hand on my shoulder, asked me to sit down and said “please, don’t make this any worse for us than it already is, Mundaji is great. He has passed the right judgment. We have to obey him; his family is very close to the Mukhiya and their word is law. I have accepted what happened as a bad memory and a test for us and have decided to move on. In fact, my parents are looking for a girl for me from the neighbouring village”.
As much as I wanted to hug and kill him simultaneously, I decided it was best to leave that room right then. I barged out and was almost running for I don’t know how long, then I rushed to the first pillar that I found and lay my head to rest on it for what seemed like days. I asked myself what I will ask you now.
As the writer of this article and as someone who has either moved or bored you more than ever before, I request you to pause a bit here and think – What would you do – 1. From a third-party perspective? and 2. Putting yourself in that guy’s shoes? Please think of all possible answers and only then scroll down.
Assuming that you are a cheat like me, I’ll come up with an unimaginative remedy and insert a huge space below to make cheating a bit tougher for you:
What answers did you come up with? Let me tell you mine. At that point of time, I wanted to take a gun and shoot those two brothers, the self-proclaimed custodian of the Mukhiya – Ramesh Munda, go to the Mukhiya’s house and shoot whatever I found there (even his skeleton) and then go to each and every one of the 1000 villagers of Rajhoot and drill some sense into their dumb superstitious heads. That is what I wanted to do. If you don’t agree, you are either asleep or Gandhiji or maybe a criminal yourself (feel ashamed and go surrender to the police).
Even to this day, every single one of the details he mentioned, first the ridiculous ones, then the gory ones and then his atrociously unbelievable take on all of it, is as clear to me as if it were just yesterday that I met him. Every time I recall that strange and painful day just as I did now, I feel the same amount of anger and pain that I did then.
Now let me come to the most intriguing part of this article...
This story was just that – a story. All of this never happened. I never met anyone who told me any of this. It was all false – BIG BIG LIES. RAJHOOT village does not exist and is in fact just JHOOT. There is no ‘guy’, no mukhiya, no munda family, no rapists.....nothing. You must be feeling like how Anil Kapoor’s character must’ve felt at the end of ‘Chocolate’. Ya I know you want to kill me, but read on (kill me later).
Then why did I take the pains of imagining all of this, writing it down and taking up the past so many minutes (exactly how many depends on whether you are Wordsworth or worth any words) of your precious life? Simply to use this carefully constructed story as an analogy to explain my take on the most serious topic there is.
Imagine – the Mukhiya is God. The Munda family are self-proclaimed custodians of God (or sons of God or messiahs/prophets or saints/sadhus/mullas). And the ‘guy’, the two rapists, their shared wife and all the other 1000 odd inhabitants of Rajhoot are us – you and me –common conflicted mere mortals.
What happened? All the wrath you felt at the Mukhiya, the Mundas and the rapists is gone, right? The Mukhiya was God and the Mundas were custodians of God, so everything is forgiven, right? And the others were just us, we are born saints, washed with milk (borrowing ridiculously from a Hindi idiom), how can we ever be wrong, right?
The fact that your answer to all these “Right?”s is “yes” or not entirely “no” is reason enough for an atheist like me to think, write and propagate my beliefs.
For once in your life, let go of all our assumptions and existing beliefs about GOD and think about this neutrally (don’t worry, your parents are not quietly peeping into your computer right now, be brave).
The MUKHIYA is GOD because:
1. Just like GOD, The Mukhiya is only a ‘he’.
2. Just like GOD, no one has seen him and asking or inquiring him is a strict no-no and almost a sin.
3. Just like GOD, the whole aura surrounding the Mukhiya is described to the new generation with more ‘do-nots’ than ‘dos’/more negatives than positives/more fear than love
4. Just like GOD, although there are absolutely no signs of him, he is still considered the almighty and the supreme unquestioned (using ‘unchallenged’ here would be a far cry) authority.
5. Just like GOD, everything that happens in his village is credited to him and of course everyone is expected to conveniently credit the bad stuff to themselves and forget it as either a ‘test’ or a ‘bad memory’ and move on
RAMESH MUNDA is the self-proclaimed custodian of GOD because:
1. Again, he is a ‘he’
2. It is rumoured that centuries ago, someone from his family used to be close to the Mukhiya and conveyed his messages/commandments onto the people thereby very cleverly creating a position of authority for himself
3. Even today, based on everyone’s illusion of a Mukhiya who supposedly existed so many years ago, the self-proclaimed custodians of the Mukhiya’s authority do what they like, how they like and no one can question them
The ‘GUY’, the ‘RAPISTS’, the ‘SHARED WIFE’ and the other 1000 odd ‘INHABITANTS’ of Rajhoot are us because:
1. Most of them were again ‘he’
2. Sharing a wife gave them an obvious edge in terms of the power equation between the two genders
3. They committed crimes and made mistakes
4. Most importantly because we are stupider, superstitiouser and ridiculouser than all inhabitants of Rajhoot since we, as a collective, bear a thousand times more than them, still credit all the good to a non-existent illusionary GOD, justify all the bad as either ‘God’s will’ or ‘a test for us by GOD’ and revolve our entire lives in one way or the other around GOD and practices that seemingly appease GOD.
The main reason for which I decided to use such an analogy and de-construct the whole concept of GOD is because nonsense in our Society has reached an extent where we don’t question something the way it is. It becomes necessary to discreetly compare the existent to the imaginary and later contrast them.
Every moment of my life, the world has forced the concept of GOD onto me. This is my first public answer to all those who have. If you deserve the right to propagate your views, I too will settle for no less. And if you think I don’t, then you better close this web-page and switch to your Facebook page or your favourite porn site for no amount of arguments from my side will convince you otherwise (read my earlier ‘Kya logic hai?’ for a better understanding).
If you are still here, you are either a fellow atheist (Hello Comrade) or an open agnostic (Good, stay here, you are a potential target) or a disguised theist (Be brave yaar, the atheist community is larger than you think). There is a very limited possibility of you being a staunch theist and still being here (mainly because you are a theist and will obviously not want to be questioned or challenged for you know that you wont have good enough valid answers).
Why do I not believe in God? Simple:
1. I cant believe in something I cant see, hear, touch and most importantly - feel. Three-fourth of the people on Earth, parents and Society indoctrinating children with this concept is not a good enough reason for me to believe in something. Come on, ask yourself – had you not belonged to a strict theist family and not been forced to practice religion every single day of your precious childhood, would you still believe in God? Or would you believe as much as you do today?
2. Why does someone have to be invisible, live up in the sky, walk on water, make the dead alive and be larger than life to be God? Why cant someone in our everyday lives who we can see and feel, who loves us, helps us and is kind to us be our God? Think of all people around you. Do good people and their kind nature get the response they deserve? We don’t value everyday people who do us good even though we can see and feel their deeds, still we worship an illusion who has done nothing for us and in fact only harmed us!
3. If there is a God - why is the World what it is today? Why do most people in this World have a life that is worse than the worst? Why do most people suffer as a result of other people's doings? I am not willing to accept any stupid justifications (like the usual “God’s will”, “His test for us” or “Karma”) on this one because we wont understand this till we experience their plight. Theists will have to answer for and justify the plight of all those people.
8 years ago in Gujarat, I had seen the photo of an unborn foetus (who had been cut out of his pregnant mother’s womb with a sword) pinned to the roof of his house with a sword through his stomach just because he belonged to a certain religion. Believers should try to go and explain “the power of God/how it was a test for the unborn child and his mother/how it was God’s will/how the unborn child must have some piled up bad karma in his past life” to the dead child and his dead mother. Should I mention more examples? Because I assure you that there are crores more.
Think of the limited positives in the name of GOD, if any, that you can come up with and weigh them against all negatives in the name of GOD. And if you justify this by saying that that is man’s fault, then remember – you yourself claim that everything and everyone has been made and is controlled by God.
4. If there is a God and if this is the way he runs this world, if this is the way he ‘punishes’ us, then I considered him the most cruel phenomenon this World has ever known and would take great pleasure in punishing him the same way I would have punished the Mukhiya.
I have a long list of various atrocious negatives in each religion separately but I don’t want to go into those since my intention is not to hurt theists, but simply awaken them from their conscious slumber. Think about all religions yourself. Can you name one that is not patriarchal, that does not propagate a single entity’s power over the rest, that came up with stories that are fully believable and practical?
Now let me come to a revolutionary take on Religion and God, one that will shake the foundations of theist and atheist belief from the core, one that will provide an entirely new perspective, one you can never imagine – Karl Marx’s perspective:
“According to Karl Marx, religion is like any other social institution because it too is dependent upon the material and economic realities in a given Society...In Marx’s opinion, religion is an illusion that provides reasons and excuses to keep Society functioning just as it is. For him religion is irrational, alienating and hypocritical. Religion is irrational because it is a delusion and a worship of appearances that avoids recognizing underlying reality...It negates all that is dignified in a human being by rendering them servile and more amenable to accepting the status quo; the state of being oppressed. It is hypocritical in the sense that though it professes valuable principles, it sides with the oppressors.
Marx says that religion is meant to create illusionary fantasies for the poor and the middle classes. The poor are dominated and ruled by the ruling class, which owns the forces of production. Religion becomes the opium of the masses by making them accept their reality and stopping them from fighting against it under the pretext of ‘fate’ and waiting for illusionary happiness in their ‘next life’. Religion also makes a virtue of the sufferings produced by oppression. It is preached that those who bear the deprivations of poverty with dignity and humility will be rewarded for their virtue in afterlife, in a way making poverty more bearable...”.
WOW. If there must be a God, he should be Karl Marx. If you consider yourself mature, knowledgeable and exposed enough, then ask yourself – Is all that this man said more than a 100 years ago true or false?
Let’s move on to all possible arguments people come up with for their belief in God:
1. “I have faith in God” – Give this a thought. What you now assume to be faith, would it have even been born had you not been indoctrinated by all quarters of social life?
2. “There has to some power behind this World, someone controlling everything” – Quite apart from scientific answers and Darwin, just because you don’t have an answer to this question doesn’t mean you should credit and worship an imaginary creation
3. “When I ask myself a question, I hear an answer from within in the form of God’s voice” – Probably, a huge reality hasn’t dawned on you so far. Dont worry, I don’t blame you, it is a pretty complicated reality. Let me give you some breaking news. You have something called a heart and a brain in your body which are supposed to think and feel. They are what guide you through life and they are what give you all the answers you are looking for.
4. “Whenever I’ve asked something from God, I’ve got it” – By that logic, Santa Claus should be God you selfish excuse of a human being
5. “I am spiritual but not religious” – A fashion statement these days, very common amongst today’s elite Youth. Oh and remember, if you claim to be spiritual and not religious, then you don’t believe in God, you just believe in the human spirit as against material possessions.
6. “Because everyone says so” – May your God help you
7. All the rest, in my opinion, are either fundamentalist beyond repair or closet atheists – To the former – You might want to run for the post of Indian Prime Minister. To the latter - Stand up for what you believe in. If you feel something is wrong, speak up for it. Try to voice your opinions to your friends and you’ll be surprised to know how many agree with you. They too are scared of their parents and of Society just like you. Give them a voice, your voice.
In my opinion, everyone needs faith (and I think this and also propaganda by capitalist forces is why this lie has attained the kind of global reach that it has). Everyone needs something on the basis of which you can survive. Someone/thing you can talk to and hear the answers you want to hear. Something that doesn’t fight/answer back. In the end, everyone is on their own and its survival of the fittest, its always good to have a silent imaginary companion. Everyone can and should have it. Sometimes in a creation we name God, at other times in love, family or friends. At times, even inanimate objects like teddy bears etc become great friends. But that’s all. Claiming us to be subordinated to that imaginary silent human creation and crediting it for all the good and justifying the bad makes me say this: Either there is no God and if there is - I refuse to believe/follow God and have a serious problem with God.
I’ve often wondered that in a World that is as obsessed with God and does all that it does for God, how can you expect any logic, any good or any hope?
“God helps those who help themselves” could quite possibly be the creation of a brilliant but careful atheist who meant to say “God wont do anything, help yourself”. Think about it.
24 comments:
I am glad that I am (probably) the first one to read and (certainly) the first one to comment.
First of all.. this sure felt like the 'Greatest story ever told'.. seriously.. I felt it throughout this piece .. and you made me remind of Bhagat Singh (yes, the only YOUTH our nation has ever produced) and his saying that "Why I Am An Atheist" (if you have not read it.. then I highly recommend it to you)
I totally agree with you, my friend.. each line, each word.. I believe in them as the world believes in all the unbelievable excuses that it itself comes up to prove a non-existent being called god.
A single response is not enough.. I will come again to voice 'with' you.
P.S. You have got amazing flare in your writings to hold back your readers.. keep it On.
P.P.S Sorry had to delete the previous comment.. had some typos in it.
Sadho
i truely agree with you..But something does force me to not blieve you..An uncle recently visited my house from surat..he also suffered a paralysis attack just as my mom did..but he belived so much in god ,dat even doc was surprised at his recovery..he recovered in just mere 15 days..from total bed rest to complete athelete again..ders one more incident in which der was no customer coming at his shop..he prayed to god, and der u go,nearly his drawer was ovwrflowing vid money..the 2nd incident might be co-incedence ,but what about the first one..
Also i need an answer as to y most of the doctors leave it to the eternal entity wen they fell completely down and out about their operation?...so i have myself been an atheist for more than a decade but these incidents do force me again to believe in supreme power aka GOD..but i wud be haapy to accept myself as agnostic...
Sadho - Thank you so so much for all the kind words. And no, I havent read Bhagat Singh's article. Will surely do that soon. Thanks :-)
Oh and "Hello Comrade" :D
Murtuza - Thanks for your comments. I can understand what you are feeling. But I have just two things to say:
1. It is possible that your uncle's strong faith in God contributed to his swift recovery. But Murtuza, in that case, it was his faith in God and not God himself that helped him.
Let me illustrate better, you know all that has happened with me and my family, right? How things changed in Ahmedabad and so on! We had nothing at that time Murtuza, absolutely nothing. But it was just my strong trust in myself and in my mom that helped us re-build our entire lives and today, no one can even dream about where we've come from. Now did God help us? No, it was our faith that kept us going. The human brain and heart have tremendous power Murtuza.
David Blaine stretches these very powers to extremes and that is how, he is able to do things like stay buried for a week, stand on the edge of a tower for 48 hours, be frozen in ice for 48 hours, stay under water for 9 hours and so on. When we believe in something or someone very strongly, may be an ambition, may be love, we do things that would've otherwise been unimaginable for us. Havent you seen boyfriends/girlfriends/husbands/wives/friends/children do remarkable things for their loved ones?
Is that God? No it is their faith or love or trust, basically an extreme form of any of these
2. If your uncle recovering soon and your shop getting customers are reason enough for you to believe in God, then what about the crores of other examples where people die and suffer for no fault of theirs? If you credit someone for 2 supposedly good deeds, what about the countless other not-so-good ones?
I totally agree with what you Arastu said above...
The things that we often do and then think "man, did i just do that" is basically a extreme form of emotion, expression, sub-conscious faith which are the result of our mind and heart in collaboration.
And Arastu.. Why I Am An Atheist is not an article.. its a book.
"Bhagat Singh: Why I Am An Atheist: An Autobiographical Discourse"
ok..
Pardon me but i found this post very funny . Actually if you have ever read the story from the XIth grade NCERT english text book , you would have started expecting a kind of story like "The Face On The Wall " . I actually started thinking that that guy was pulling your legs (thanks to your curiosity , haha) . So , i find the revelation very much hilarious .. hahahahahaha . That completely shocked me :P .Anyway inferring the details ( or rather say the lack of it ) of your story how the heck you assumed that anyone would even imagine all that mukhiya etc .. big lol for that . The only thing believable in the first half ( the story part ) is that the guy's surname was munda . I know that because i am from Jharkhand :D . Well like 'rajhoot' u could have changed the name of the state too . For the second half i didn't even read it ( reason being the 1st half ) . All I have to say is work framing the story and if you have not read the "Face on the wall " don't waste your time on this page . Go read that :)
First of all, thanks a lot for your comment Soumya.
Secondly, had you even read the entire article, then you would've understood why I deliberately made that story that ridiculous. The metaphor I've drawn from the imagined story to the main topic is deliberately drawn to compare how equally shocking and ridiculous both stories are.
I appreciate your comment Soumya but at least, please read the post entirely before passing a judgment.
I'm afraid Islam can shoot holes through your argument all night, seeing as its so long..
And no i dont mean Al fucking Qaeda. If you really want to prove any sort of point about religion you must first make an effort to seperate the religion from the followers. What your article did was, caste a light on how uneducated athiests (or hey, maybe just you. i wouldnt want to consider you a representative) are about any religion of credibility. It was a lazy attempt, to be honest. If you really care enough, study religion. It doesnt take long, i mean, if you choose to study Islam (oh my, all those terrorist, this should be easy to rip apart no?) you just have the one book for study (and maybe you can read about Prophet Muhammad too so you can really make educated taunts at him,so your fellow atheists know youre actually read more than just the newspapers). If you can say what you say about God, irrespective of religion, after you've done so, hats off to you.If not, be prepared to be labelled ignorant by the majority of people that read the article.
P.S. you can call God a She for all it matters, it is only for human convenience. God does not have a gender, nor does He(She, if you prefer) experience human emotions. Thats just man, trying to understand Him.
Hi,
I'll first tell you what I thought when you asked those two questions after you were done with your rather ridiculous story.
a)As strictly a third person, I would have grabbed at least one of the two brothers by the neck , dragged him across the village,kicking the hell out of him in process, before finally dumping him in front of the mukhiya's house.I would have grabbed him by his hair, pulled his head back and pressed a roughly hewn kitchen knife in his throat and demanded justice by Munda ji.
b)Had I been in his shoes, I would have done pretty much the same thing.
And then afterwards when you finally admitted that that story was made up and drew clever parallels with real life, my opinion still remained the same. I would still drag the brothers out and demand justice. And guess what I think I’ll get it. Because Allah(swt) is not as you describe him to be, He is just and kind.
Let me point out two things about the previous statement. First , I prefer to call the Universal energy that created us all , Allah(swt). The word god is used degradingly in our daily life (omg/omfg etc)and is inappropriate to describe the Universal Energy that created us all. Second, I use ‘he’ conventionally. For the sake of reference. Allah (swt) does not have gender. He is neither male nor female. He was not born , He cannot die. He just is. He is light, Noor. That said I shall continue.
You question the very existence of Allah. I’am not going to offer you any more lame reasons. I’m sure you’ve heard(and effectively discarded) enough already. The truth is I do not have any logical explanation for the existence of Allah.
I’ am a biology student. Do you know they take 3 units to explain the structure of a tiny little cell. Cell, the basic unit of life. The microscopic building block that we’re all made of.. They take three long units to describe the basic unit of life. And there’s still much we don’t know about it. My specific field of study right now is microbiology. Do you know that out of the millions of microbes in and around us, only 5%have been discovered, studied and classified. 95%of the Microbe Kingdom still remains to be unknown. I know you’re wondering about the point behind this scientific gibberish. I’ll take some time in getting to the point, have patience. So, yes. This Universe came into existence approximately 14.3 billion years ago. Life on Earth is estimated to have originated about 3.8 billion years ago. Man finally evolved about a million years ago. Only a few thousands of years ago did we evolve enough neuron power to conscious of not only our own existence but also of the things and beings around us. Only a few centuries ago did we start questioning why does this happen? Why does that happen? Why does the apple fall down and not float up? What am I made of?, How do I blink ?etc. And only in the last few centuries did we start documenting these thoughts, ideas and knowledge gained through observations and experiments. It took us a very long time to get where we are today, and we still have a very long way to go. Our knowledge is very limited, There is so much we do not know. There’s so much we still don’t have a logical explanation for. So, yes, I’ am sorry, I don’t have a reasonable explanation for the very existence of Allah. I’m just not evolved enough. I’m just not intelligent enough. Yet. But I am not going to wait another billion years, till I finally have proof about that Powers that be. I am sorry but I have some faith. I know it’s a miracle that I am sitting here, breathing, typing, while a million little chemical reactions happen in my body simultaneously , perfectly choreographed, perfectly coordinated, with out a slight glitch, or screw up. The human body is beautiful, it could not have come to be just like that.
Also, I see that you repeatedly ask that if Allah(swt) is responsible for the all the good things that happen what about the bad things? Who is responsible for all the Wars, for the Genocides, the Massacres? I’ll tell you who are…we are. No its not some twisted method by which Allah is punishing us. He loves us. He loves us more than a mother can love her child. I saw this really cheesy movie, god tussi great ho, forgive my even mentioning it here, but it had one nice dialogue. The hero’s lover dies and he asks god to kill him too for the very reason for his existence is dead. And god replies that you want to kill yourself if one of the people that you loved died? How do you think I feel when thousands of my won children brutally murder each other ? So yes, Allah does not like to see us suffer.
Ever heard of Free Will? You are a Muslim by birth if not by choice. You must have heard some of the tales. Some of the excerpts from the Holy Quran, some involving Prophet (saw). Allah created man and gave him the one thing that Angels did not possess. Free Will. We are responsible for actions. Not Allah. Allah is not responsible for what happened in Gujarat. We are. Allah was not punishing the woman who’s womb was cut out and who’s unborn fetus was speared with a sword. That happened due to the indescribably cruel actions of the men who did it. And they will suffer for this gross form of barbarity., if they aren’t already . For my Allah(swt) is just. What goes round, comes round. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Newton said that and Newton was a smart man. Know what another smart man says? That whatever deeds you do, good or bad always have consequences. A cruel person who inflicts undeserved cruelty on the people around him or even animals or birds will suffer the same amount of cruelty himself, the same amount of pain, humiliation, in this world itself. No need to wait for hell-fire. Again what goes round, comes round. It may not come through the official judicial system always, it may not be visible always, but it does happen. My father has seen many examples.
See I respect your views. Your life , you have every right to decide how you want to spend it. Free Will you see (that’s the beauty of it). It’s not like I can write and make a believer out of you, just as you can’t make a non-believer out of you. But you put forward certain thoughts and I put forward mine. And I’d like you to consider for a moment that everything cannot be reasonably explained. Some things just have to be believed. You are so impressed by the views of Karl Marx, a mere human being. What about the light that made Karl Marx, would you not pause for a moment and wonder at His immense power.
Fathima, first of all, thanks a lot for your comment. Oh and thanks for the tone and offensive feel too, coz frankly I had expected it and was in fact surprised at not having got many so far.
Secondly, talking about your "Al fucking Qaeda" and "terrorist" points, you would be quite shocked to know that I myself am a Muslim by birth and have studied the Quran, Gita and Bible many many years ago. Not only that, I've interacted with religious leaders from all communities during the past 8 years that I've spent in the Social development sector.
I still thank you for your comment. Please keep reading and commenting. But just one suggestion. Shouting, screaming and going on the offensive are the first signs of insecurity and cowardice. I mean, think about it - Crores of people go on and on and on about belief and God and no one is expected to raise a single voice against them. I raised one and the way you abused it shows how 'tolerant' and 'democratic' you are.
Thanks again Fathima.
Atiya,
Thank you so so much for your comment. I will take all your points into consideration, I assure you.
The first step towards atheism is questioning and curiosity. So I will apply the same thought to all your points.
I appreciate and admire the tone you used and the respectful disagreements you expressed. If only, all religious texts and all followers had been this courteous, tolerant and democratic, probably the World wouldnt have been what it is :-)
Thanks so much again
All i did, was point that theres a counter argument, and its very valid. I do know you were Muslim when you were a kid, but no offence bro, you cant be non-practising and call yourself a Muslim. What you may have read of the Quran while you were non-practising mal-adjusted Muslim kid doesnt really count as studying the religion in my book. And about the offence in my first comment, I'm sorry, didnt you read your own post? I'd think you'd be the last person to have such a kitten heart for criticism. Sigh, do as i say not as i do, i suppose eh?
it was a really good article and congrats to arastu for that.
but what i think he should keep in mind is that it is impossible to reason with the religious because the sole basis of religion is irrationality.there is no point in holding a discussion with some one like Fathima.
what i hope (and not pray!) is that at least the agnostics let their logic prevail and become atheists by reading your article.or at least start asking questions which in itself is a big step.
many of us,in fact most of us with a half functional brain will know that we in the depths of our minds know that god is our creation-one that arises from fear,insecurity and helplessness.even the ardent theists do not fully "submit" to god even though they say they do so because basic logic guides them away from it.
Dr. Prashob,
Thank you so so much for your comment sir :-).
I agree with absolutely each and every word you wrote.
And your advice taken :-).
I won't praise your article as always they are questionable and hilarious. But I do like to comment on comments.
As of all, Fathima, your writings have proved that you are religious fundamentalist.This article is on faith, not blind faith which I believe you have. I am talking about Faith on reason. Reason is the base for the athiests to believe. In your point of view, there is a fact that social practices and religious views are different. But religion may not guide the social practices although they become the means to handle the masses. No questions about religion is tolerated. Why? You believe your God has given you everything, so you should pray and preach him. Why? Does he say to you to pray him or any religion says you must follow and not question their God? Absolutely not. But the religion followers follow the Babas, Prophets, and so called messengers, not the religion ideals which calls for freedom, equality and tolerance. Atheism is based on these morals and change on reason is its first principle. Has religion ever been ready to accept these principles which forms the basis for progressive society? God exists? If so why then this earth has become the hell of relgions?Everything here is for a purpose and everything is destined. Then why The God doesn't clear all the mess his followers had created on this earth? When you pray the God, you believe yourself to be weak and unable to handle your own life yourself, you always need a support to stand on, and when you needed power, lifelong free service, food and money and shelter, you became a priest and created a God. Faith is an element you should have but on reason that you can handle your life yourself, not in the thing which has nonetheless made the world unlivable.
@ Atiya,
I really like that you acknowledged men in the misdeeds, but you couldn't in good deeds, in good times you thank the God,but not the efforts and the work the men did. You tell your family about having faith in God because he favored you the good time, but you don't tell your family to have faith in the hardwork , and the patience for retaining that good time. Here the way you start walking toward closer to your God and the same time you start walking away from your fellow human beings, treating the efforts of the flesh and blood of your alike indifferent and making the unknown supreme. Now tell me when you yourself walk away from your own kind, how you can expect you will learn about living in harmony among different views and needs, and how can you expect the wars will not take place? Godhra, and all the genocide happened because we walked away from our own people towards our Gods who created nothing but differences among us.
Excellent submit. Thank you for discussing
Excellent info. We've undoubtedly discovered something totally new this afternoon! Cheers.
deep thought process and keen observation of even small taboos of society.i had a question which i was confused from years but thanks from now i believe myself more than ever.The confusion was acc. to Geeta what ever we do we get fruits for that may the results be good or bad it is our doing but on another hand at one place i found that if a leaf is moving on earth it is the will of God ,nothing is in our hand. Such a contradictry!
Sure James, of course you can. The purpose is to share and include, not exclude :-).
Impeccable logic, I completely agree with you. But I have to suggest you read the Pulitzer-winning book "Denial of Death".
You'll know why I suggested it after you read it :)
Cheers
Deep
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