ATHEISM

Atheism originates from the Greek word atheos which means

without god/s. The word atheist is often misunderstood to be a
condensed form of the word anti-theist when it only implies that
the person simply rejects a belief in god or the supernatural. Antitheists, however, go a step further and oppose any kind of
organized religion, recently they have also been referred to as
new atheists , some popular figures include Dr. Richard Dawkins,
Dr. Lawrence Krauss and the late Christopher Hitchens.
Its important to understand that not all atheists are anti
theists. Atheists are a group of people who are neither convinced
by the evidence presented for the existence of God, which is
none, nor dissuaded by the fear of hell or the prize of heaven. My
personal opinion is that its very childish to believe in such a
carrot and stick arrangement, it reminds me of the days my
mother used to feed me, as a kid, by scaring me with a scarecrow.
Now, to the lament of every atheist, atheism is NOT a
religion, it is, in fact, the opposite of religion, its a lack of belief.
Atheism can be referred to as a religion only when not running
becomes an Olympic sport.
Then comes the next question, Im confident that every
atheist has been asked the same by an incredulous theist, If not
in God, what do you believe in? The answer to this is subjective
and, hence, varied. This is my answer, my belief lies in the
scientific method, something that has been proven to be effective
time and again. Religion was our first attempt to answer very
deep and intriguing questions like, who are we? , or how did
we get here? , and, hence, religion is also our worst attempt to
answer these questions. With critical thinking , reasoning and
decades of tireless efforts by various scientists the scientific
method and science have answered these questions to certain
extent and also many others. With the advent of the scientific
method we now have a much more powerful tool to attack these

questions. Religion has become unnecessary. Using religion to

find answers for these questions even now is like choosing to
cross continents by swimming instead of flying, you will certainly
drown.
Now the theist is all riled up, Ive uttered the taboo words
religion is unnecessary. . He/she fires back with this intelligent
question, Religion is my moral compass, what morality and
compassion will you have if you dont believe in God? . On some
level, I think every theist knows the answer to this question,
morality is not derived from or monopolized by religion. Morality
and humanity come form within us, instilled in us through years of
evolution, we are social creatures by nature. There are a lot
people who believe in God and the spiritual world but havent
read the scriptures, that so very carefully delineate what is right
and wrong, and yet are very nice and compassionate people. We
have an innate notion of right and wrong and dont really need a
book to tell us. In fact, there are more examples of religious texts
being misconstrued resulting in catastrophic consequences.
The point of this blog post was to clear the waters, make
sure one understands what they are talking about when they refer
to atheism or an atheist. And no, we dont list atheist under
religion in our social networking page, like we discussed, atheism
is NOT a religion.
Aadhithya Rajasekaran.