Advantages of being atheist

[bjgupta]

Advantages of being atheist



Since childhood till I graduated, I had full faith in God. But thereafter things started changing and now I am 'more or less' atheist. Significance of the qualifier ‘more or less’ can be gauged from following anecdote taken from the book 'One minute nonsense' by Late Mr. S. J. Anthony de Mello.
"Tell me", asked a disciple to his master. "Is there a God - Really?"
Said the Master, "If you want me to be perfectly honest with you, I will not answer."
Later the disciple demanded to know why he had not answered.
"Because your question is unanswerable," said the Master.
"So you are an atheist", the disciple remarked.
"Certainly not. The atheist makes the mistake of denying that of which nothing may be said."
After pausing to let that sink in , the Master added, " And the theist makes the mistake of affirming it."
With an experience of being on both side of God(i.e. for and against), I find it interesting to compare advantages and disadvantages of either sides.
First and foremost is that in adverse circumstances, I no longer ask "Why me?". This question arises only in minds of theists who believe that good happens to good and vice versa.
When I see suffering mankind , I no longer ask what God is doing about it.
I am realist enough to believe that hard work doesn't guarantee success, but it improves the chances of success.
I am no longer led or misled by prayers.
To me all religions are same. All religions originated with the aim of making the world a better place to live in. Originators and propagators of most of the religions realized that if every body works for self interest only there would be conflict of interests and weaker would suffer more. Hence in most of the religions, any activity which adversely affects others is considered immoral. The biggest challenge confronting religious heads was how to keep man away from doing immoral things. In most of the religions this challenge was met by taking recourse to concept of God. God exists , in our minds. Till religions keep high level of morality in followers, they are serving their purpose.
To me essence of goodness lies in being sensitive to interests of others. One who he is careful about interests of others, is following all religions simultaneously otherwise none.
But do we have the choice of being theist or atheist? I don't think we have any active choice in this regard. The whole process is passive. Our cultural background, upbringing, education, social environment etc. form our beliefs and our day today experiences keep on affecting them.
In past people never questioned existence of God because they knew he exists. In future too they will not question his existence, because they will know , he doesn't.
On atheism Tagore has once said, “Even a vague atheism may do good to India, even though my country will never accept atheism as her permanent faith”.

[conciencia]

Contradict yourself? Why do you accept the books of others?

[RAYTO]

I read with interest your comments and explanations.I have made a copy to take my time and try to understand everything you said. Then I will probably comment.
Best Wishes.

[conciencia]

Your questions within the e-mail system are welcome, but we can also continue our interaction here in this forum.