Atheism for Kids

Found this video which explains Atheism to Kids.

Although I am against imposing one's beliefs ( theistic or atheistic) on children, I really liked the way its put, simple and funny.

Statistics

When Kris asked me whether I am an atheist or an agnostic or simply irreligious, I started reading wiki pages on these three terms. While reading the page on "irreligion", I found these statistics showing the percentages of atheists,agnostics,etc per country.

I was surprised to see that some of the countries have an astoundingly high percentage of non-believers.

For e.g.

Sweden: 46-85%
China - 59-71%
Albania - 60%
Czech Republic - 59%
Japan - 52%
Russia - 48%

I wonder why? what are the fundamental factors that makes you an "atheist" or a "theist" ?

As expected, almost at the end was India with a mere 7% :) and in Iran its illegal to be an atheist or an agnostic =)).

Interesting Quotes

"When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called Religion".

-- Robert M. Pirsig

"Faith; noun. Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel."

-- Ambrose Bierce

"In every religion the priest insists on five things First: There is a God. Second: He has made known his will. Third: He has selected me to explain this message. Fourth: We will now take up a collection; and Fifth: Those who fail to subscribe will certainly be damned."

-- "Has Freethought a Constructive Side?", printed in The Truth Seeker, New York 1890

"If the book the Bible and my brain are both the work of the same Infinite God, whose fault is it that the book and my brain do not agree?"

-- "Some Reasons Why", 1881

"The world holds two classes of men - intelligent men without religion, and religious men without intelligence."

-- [Abu'l-Ala-Al-Ma'arri (973-1057; Syrian poet)]

"Atheism is a religion like not collecting stamps is a hobby."

"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.

Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.

Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?

Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?"

--Epicurus

"Faith is believing something you know isn't true."

--Mark Twain

"Religion is comparable to a childhood neurosis."

-- Sigmund Freud, "Future of an Illusion". 1927

"I've no belief whatever in a deity outside of man; it seems to me to be perfectly clear that the bible's story gets it completely the wrong way round. It's not God creates man, it's Man who creates god. It's a human construct."

--David Starkey

"Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful."

"If you don't think that logic is a good method for determining what to believe, make an attempt to convince me of that without using logic."

--Brett Lemoine

"When I became convinced that the universe is natural, that all the ghosts and gods are myths, there entered into my brain, into my soul, into every drop of my blood the sense, the feeling, the joy of freedom. The walls of my prison crumbled and fell. The dungeon was flooded with light and all the bolts and bars and manacles became dust. I was no longer a servant, a serf, or a slave. There was for me no master in all the wide world, not even in infinite space. I was free--free to think, to express my thoughts--free to live my own ideal, free to live for myself and those I loved, free to use all my faculties, all my senses, free to spread imagination's wings, free to investigate, to guess and dream and hope, free to judge and determine for myself . . . I was free! I stood erect and fearlessly, joyously faced all worlds."

--Robert G. Ingersoll

"We must repsect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children are smart."

--Henry Mencken

"You are never dedicated to do something you have complete confidence in. No one is fanatically shouting that the sun is going to rise tomorrow. They know it's going to rise tomorrow. When people are fanatically dedicated to political or religious faiths or any other kind of dogmas or goals, it's always because these dogmas or goals are in doubt."

-- Robert M. Pirsig, "Zen & The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance"

"Faith is to man what sand is to an ostrich!"

"I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours."

--Stephen Roberts

"The religion of one age is the literary entertainment of the next."

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Philosophy is questions that may never be answered. Religion is answers that may never be questioned."

"It isn't the parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand."

--Mark Twain

"By all means let's be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out."

--Richard Dawkins

"Calling Atheism a religion is like calling bald a hair color."

--Don Hirschberg

"With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion."

--Steven Weinberg

"The biggest cause of trouble in the world today is that the stupid people are so sure about things and the intelligent folks are so full of doubts."

--Bertrand Russell

"The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one."

--George Bernard Shaw

"Atheism is not a philosophy; it is not even a view of the world; it is simply an admission of the obvious. In fact, 'atheist' is a term that should not ever exist. No one ever needs to identify himself as a 'non astrologer' or a 'non-alchemist'. We do not have words for people who doubt that Elvis is still alive or that aliens traversed the galaxy only to molest ranchers and their cattle. Atheism is nothing more than the noises reasonable people make in the presence of unjustified religious beliefs. An atheist is simply a person who believes that the 260 million Americans (87 percent of the population) claiming to 'never doubt the existence of God' should be obliged to present evidence for his existence-and, indeed, for his BENEVOLENCE, given the relentless destruction of innocent human beings we witness in the world each day."

--Sam Harris, "Letter to a Christian Nation"

"The only difference between God and Adolph Hitler is that God is more proficient at genocide."

"Why do you write to me "God should punish the English"? I have no close connection to either one or the other. I see only with deep regret that God punishes so many of His children for their numerous stupidities, for which only He Himself can be held responsible; in my opinion, only His nonexistence could excuse Him."

-- Albert Einstein, in a letter to a friend

"No man ever believes that the Bible means what it says; he is always convinced that it says what he means."

--George Bernard Shaw

"It isn't the parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand."

--Mark Twain

"A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything."

--Friedrich Nietzsche

"It would be very nice if there were a God who created the world and was a benevolent providence, and if there were a moral order in the universe and an after-life; but it is a very striking fact that all this is exactly as we are bound to wish it to be."

--Sigmund Freud

Why blog?

After visiting my blog, some people asked me. "Accepted, you don't believe in god. But why do you have to blog about it? Why don't you keep your believes/ideas to yourself? Why do you have to be so detailed about your experiences?". Although I am not exactly sure what it means, a person even used the term an "open book".

Some of the reasons why I blog about atheism:

* There are so many people out there for whom god, religion, rituals, etc simply doesn't make any sense. While some of them are not sure, some of them are, but, either think that there is something wrong with them or are afraid to tell their parents, relatives, etc and are afraid of the consequences. I have gone through this myself and I know difficult it can be. Its good that I found people whom I could talk to, about this and take their help. Technology also helped me a lot. Such people need help and the best way is to have a discussion or a talk or reading about others' experiences. If sharing my experiences can help them, I'm glad to do that.

* Whenever i read about experiences of other atheists, agnostics, etc on the internet, I could hardly find an indian who had written about his/her experiences. So I thought why not write a blog about my own.

* By using blogs, people can join in the discussion anonymously if they wanted to. Its very difficult to get people to talk on such tabooed topics. It has been an interesting experience so far.

* I want people to start thinking, if they haven't.

Kwanzoo

Hey check out this Cool Movie & TV Trivia Site.

The Confession

Yes !!! , I finally told my parents that i am an atheist. I have been waiting for this moment for years. My bro joined me halfway during the confession. For him it was more of a final clarification because he had already given strong hints to my parents.

It started with a call from one of my relatives after reading my blog. Although she is a devout Christian, she was really open to the idea of atheism. She was of the opinion that i am having these thoughts because my life has been pretty decent and that i would start believing in the existence of god once i have a particular "experience" that would, sort of, bring me back on track. I said i am eagerly waiting for that "experience". This call and such an open conversation was very unexpected and i really enjoyed it. Since she was close to my mom, i asked her if she could talk to my mom about me being an atheist. She agreed. I informed my bro. He said that a phone call wont do and an in-person talk would be better. So i asked him to request her to go and have a personal talk with my mom.

That weekend, i was planning to go home to mumbai as usual. I was excited by the fact that by the time i reach home, she would have conveyed the information to my mom and i was contemplating my mom's reactions to it. But then somehow she couldn't talk to mom and i had to do the job on my own. But, my bro was not so excited about it. He said "You'll talk to mom and go back to pune. I am the one who is gonna be at home. I have to deal with mom's reactions. Why do u want to do this so early?" I said "Its already too late. This should have been done long back".

So, it was clear now. i had to do it on my own. i decided to take help of my colleague, an atheist.Not just because he is an atheist(who had already told his parents about it) but mainly because he is damn good at putting things in the right words. So, after our company update meeting on friday, the three of us, me, him and another colleague(a theist), had a discussion about this. i told him the things that i wanted to convey to my mom and asked him how to put it properly considering the fact that my mom is a little close minded and orthodox, at least when it comes to religion. So he said "doing it gradually is the key thing. be slow, it wont happen in a day. you need to give hints and then talk about it." I listened and listened till he was done. He was so good at it that the other colleague said "you should have been a politician dude!".

I finally reached mumbai and my mom didn't even have a hint that i was gonna.... . Ate an awesome lunch with fish and other dishes prepared in coconut oil, yum yum. I was somehow gathering the courage to do IT. my parents went for an afternoon nap. mom somehow woke up early and started reading a newspaper. she asked me what was the 'vishesham' (Malayalam for 'special news/happenings') in pune. i said everything was fine. then it started. I don't remember the entire conversation but it went something like this.

"Mom, i have something to say to you. but, you have to promise me that you will listen to it carefully and think over it before coming to any conclusions or making any decisions.
I am not comfortable with going to the church, being part of the rituals and the prayers.
I have lots of doubts regarding these rituals, prayers and abt god. participating in them is only meaningful only if u agree with them and understand them. "

"Since when did you have these doubts?"

"Since years ma, may be when i started with my engineering. thats almost 4 yrs. I have been going to church, standing for evening prayers, only for you because i love you ma and i didn't want to hurt you. I was scared of telling you this because i didn't know how you would react. Do u know why i hesitated coming to mumbai on every weekend? because i knew i would have to participate in these rituals against my wishes. i wanted to come home at least on alternate weekends, but this is what made me not to. "

"So you don't believe in god?"

"As per my current knowledge and understanding, no. But the moment i am convinced that there is a "god", i'll be back. I am an adult and i am completely responsible for my own decisions. You don't have to worry about me ma, you know i am not gonna become a 'bad' guy . you know that, the way you have raised me, thats not gonna happen. Why do u care about what the world has to say? What we should care about is how much we understand each other as a family. I am not disrespecting your beliefs or asking you to follow my path. I just want you to accept mine. And its not that i am the only one who is having these doubts. Do u know that some of my friends back in college days were atheists and agnostics? in the world atleast 10% of the people are atheists. statistics doesnt matter anyways, i would have been an atheist even if i was the only one on the planet."

she cried a little here n there in between the conversation.

I also asked for her most convincing argument for the existence of god. i don't remember exactly what she said and what i said. In fact, we even discussed some of the questions that i had put forth in my "email to god" post. my bro also gave in some inputs midway. finally it was over.

but there was a problem. my dad still didn't know about this. he was still in his siesta. We(me n my bro) didn't attend the evening/night family prayer. My dad thought we were sleeping and hence we didn't attend. but i was doing something with my comp, he comes and asks me.

"Why didnt u attend the prayer?"

" i have told mom abt it. ask her"

"no, you tell me."

"i am not comfortable...."

"So you don't believe in God?".

"no, not currently".(damn, whatever happened to doing things gradually)

"So, you have made up your mind with this decision"

"Dad, its based on my current knowledge and might change later on"

"So, you have finally decided to choose a path to your doom"

""

He was visibly very upset. I didn't talk to him. Just before he went to bed I said,

"Dad, i want to talk to you about this. can we talk tomorrow."

"ok, go and sleep now."

My mom then had a talk with him before sleep i guess.There was no talk on the next day(sunday). I didn't goto church with my parents and my relatives asked me why. I said "i dont want to." and then there was the usual "advice" session. i managed to cut it short by saying a "hmm" to all that they said. after that, it was back to normal. phew, what an "experience".

An email to GOD

From: manojpmathai@gmail.com

To: god@heaven.com

CC: theists@earth.com

Subject: Answer me!!!

Some questions to you:

• you supposedly made us and want us to believe in you right?. why dont you come down and show urself to us ? you are all powerful. so u can very well come down to our level of vision or understanding. why all the mystery? why use miracles to give us hints ? just clearly come forward and tell us who you are and what you expect from us. this will clear all the confusion. then there will be only one religion in the world and atleast religious wars will be avoided. some ppl say that your level of existence is so high that we are not capable of meeting you. what the hell, if you are so powerful, please come down to our level and we'll have a nice session. You can pick the date and time, we'll all stop what we are doing. if u cant come down to our level, you aren't so powerful , are you?
  

• If you exist, who created you? some say you are absolute. you were not created, you were there before time began. does this really make any sense?

• Majority of religious practices include worshiping you through rituals. why do you want us to worship you? are we your slaves?

• you created all of us? why? for fun? or were you performing some experiment? and why did u leave us in all this mystery after ur act and disappear. are u ashamed?

• Some say u are testing us and that our deeds in this life will decide our fate in the other world. why are you testing us by the way?are we guinea pigs. why not just create perfect humans, humans who don't or are not capable of "sin". you are all powerful aren't you ?

• Why do you make your followers suffer so much? Why do they die at the hands of other religions? Can't you put a stop to this? You're omnipotent, right? Can you 'show us your stuff'? Why do you let all those Church buses crash? Why do you let all your religious followers die in plane crashes, terrorist attacks, car accidents, famines, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, etc.? Is this part of 'Your Plan'? If you needed more Angels or something, why didn't you just create more Angels? Why do you cause so much pain down here? Are you sadistic?

• Why are their so many conflicting religions? Did you make man so screwed up that he cannot hear the 'true' word of God... yours? Every religion that exists today and every one that has existed throughout history has professed that THEIRS is the only true religion. Did you come to Earth as Zeus once? Did you make all these religions because you thought certain societies could only understand certain concepts? What about the Jews? The Muslims? The Baptists? The New Adventists? The Mormons, Hindus, Incas, Mayans, Protestants, Apaches, Buddhists, Methodists, Gideons, Greeks, Quakers? The Catholics (American, European, South American, etc.)? Were you just looking for some diversity or is it just a childish game to see who will follow the 'right' religion? Which is the 'right' religion? I'm sure many denominations would REALLY like to know that they're worshiping the 'wrong' God, don't you?

• If you created the earth and mankind, why are you letting us wipe out your creations? Is it that 'free-will' thing? We're killing this planet. Why don't you save it? Why don't you save us from ourselves? I mean, we're just doing what you made us capable of doing, right?

• Should we stop modern medicine? Are we violating your will as so many seem to think? Is it bad to fix health problems ourselves for things that you didn't seem to consider?

• Why did you give men a life-long desire for beautiful women? Is it just a test of our will and monogamy? Why do 20 year olds desire the same voluptuous women of child-bearing age as 30, 40, 50 and 100 year old men? Was it to ensure the propagation of the human race? But, doesn't this cause men to stray and covet thy neighbor's wife?

• Why do you give us the capabilities for logic and reason, yet do not want us to apply these skills when it comes to you? why didn't you make us equal to you ?

• why don't you solve your problem of making sure everyone believes in you by vaporizing a few of the non-believers in plain sight ... that would settle the matter! You see god, we're confused about why Atheists are allowed to live fulfilling, decent and happy lives, and all the while you go around tormenting, torturing, killing and persecuting those who believe in you. Isn't that kind of sick and perverted god? If the whole point of living is to die and get to heaven, why are you letting the Atheists have such a good time on earth? Why do most of your believers get their butts kicked and spend all their time killing those whose flavor of belief in god is different from the other guy? Huh god? Can you answer that one god?

• Why are people almost always the same religion as their parents are? Why is it that if you had been born to a Jewish family, you'd be Jewish; if you were born to a Muslin family, you'd be Muslin, etc. You'd still be the same person - but different religion. Could it be that religion is just brain washing? Children are easy to brain wash. In fact, we are all brain washed - that's why we have the religion we have, the politics we have, all of our belief systems - because someone brainwashed us. Not that it's always bad to be brainwashed, but we simply believe what we were taught to believe by people who believe what they were taught to believe. Why are you the religion you are? Would you be a different religion if you'd been taught a different one as a child?