Questioning The Obvious

No there is nothing personal here.. It's just that after being asked on multiple instances by multiple people I felt the need to give vent to everything inside me here.. I usually like to keep a mum on being questioned this, a part of reason being, it never looks constructive to discuss on something which is non-conclusive and the bigger reason being the fact that it has never thrilled me to even the minutest extent to offend someone’s beliefs and sentiments, be it religious or something else.. I just wonder why this same response doesn’t come back to me from others as well? I wish there had been a ‘Not Applicable’ option in people’s questionnaires when we are speaking in terms of ‘Religious Beliefs’.. Why is it that when someone of us says, “I don’t believe in God”, the general response is that of an utter disbelief as if the person has claimed to possess a third eye! This response is followed  with a good long counseling session wherein the ‘subject’ is made to believe what a big sinner he/ she is for having such unholy thoughts and then follows more preaching on why he/ she should never utter such words and be an obedient devotee and start believing in ‘God’..

My only question is, as an atheist if I never question why others do believe in God’s existence, then why it can not be the other way round.. A belief is a belief which can never be forced to others since it is purely based on personal experiences.. My experiences don’t give me reasons to be a die-hard fan of God; for those who have got the reasons and those who believe; I respect their choice.. Why can’t ‘Non Believers’ and ‘Believers’ coexist without questioning each other?

I don’t believe in existence of any God.. This fact is not a fact; this is a hypothesis, my hypothesis (which many other also must be having).. And I am not putting in any efforts to prove me right.. No efforts mean, I am not doing anything from my end to make myself sound right to others.. My hypothesis is just based on my experiences; which for the sake of my mental peace, I am keying in here..

In the usual volleys of questions that I get; the most common and usually the first one is, “Why don’t you believe in God?” I would like to answer this either of these two one liners..

1>  Why do you believe in God?

2>   Why should I believe in God?

No offence intended here.. In the following lines, I will be giving some more explanations which are purely based on my understanding and I am not intending to hurt anyone’s religious sentiments.. My own existence in this immeasurable and endless Universe is very infinitesimal.. Certainly I should not even think of claiming that, “Look, what ever I am saying is correct and you should accept my words without any questions and imbibe them in your day to day life! I can not do that and I should not do that.. On contrary, this is what happens to the sect called ‘Non Believers’.. Because they are forced to imbibe the hypothetical theory about the existence of ‘God’.. Let’s not forget that even the theory of the existence of ‘God’ was given by human beings only.. I doubt the fact that centuries or millenniums ago, ‘God’ decided to descend on earth, handpicked few people to write great religious literatures and then went back satisfied that now all will be well on the earth..

This whole theory of the existence of ‘God’ was certainly conceived in the brain of human mind only.. Otherwise how do we justify the existence of multiple religions? And how about Existence of multiple Gods? Or do we really have different Gods in different religions? Some of them stronger, some of them slightly weak? What about the beliefs of the tribes who have their own version of Gods? Finally, then how do we justify the theory that there is only one God? If the basis behind all the religions is existence of a single God then why do we choose to pray to our own specific version of God? A little introspection and if required a little more of retrospection might help us coming out of the orthodox clutches.. For me, If I still believe, I will think I am a person of confused conscience.. Picture of a fair God, who is caring and loving and treats everyone equally never comes in my mind.. How much other species matter to God? How come even with a caring God being present, so many species got extinct from the earth and many more are getting wiped out? All sorts of logics fail to answer this.. But isn’t it that when we talk about religion, we are expected to NOT use our brain? Reason being put forth is that ‘God’ must be having a ‘bigger’ reason.. Okay.. fair enough, let God give me this logic, I will accept it; But I will not accept this logic from a human being who doesn’t even know the purpose behind the existence and conflicts of so many religions!

Quite often people interpret me not believing in ‘God’ as the result of some real devastating experiences in my life.. I am advised to not brood over the past and meditate instead.. I will make a little confession here.. My alteration from a ‘believer’ to a ‘Non-believer’ certainly has its roots in the bitter experiences.. 10 years ago, when I was in the worst phase of my life, I was quite young.. When it happened, different people said different things but with same intentions, trying to get me out of the depressive state I was in.. Theories of decisions of ‘God’ being beyond the understanding of simple human being were given.. I was very confused, my mind being in a complete tangle.. Somehow still unconvinced, I chose to accept the fact.. But when I got the second blow 3 years ago; it left me very very infuriated.. There was a lot of anger inside me at that time.. I felt like a cheated person who had put all his faith in ‘God’ but was still struck by catastrophe.. Some wise person has said, “Our pain is only as large as our inability to see other’s pain”.. With time I discovered that there are people who have seen worse in their lives.. Then I realized the real picture.. I realized something which we all are aware of right since we get our senses but somehow keep ignoring it unknowingly, never allowing this reality to set in inside us.. ‘Maktub’.. It means, ‘it’s written’.. It is an Arabic word which has been used multiple times in “Alchemist”.. This single word encompasses the whole meaning of life, which is very simple.. We certainly have more than a single school of thoughts, who will certainly disagree with each other over this.. I am not the suitable person to present those views.. Coming back to what I feel; I had just one doubt; “who is pulling the strings of our lives?” People say, ‘God’ is the creator.. In early days of human civilization, people at times scared and at times overwhelmed by the power of nature started worshiping the forces of nature which in due course of time turned into the image we know as ‘God’.. Our great religious literatures teach us “God is the creator and everyone is equal in eyes of God”.. With all respect, I would like to disagree with this.. If this had been true, this world certainly would have been a much better place.. I am certainly not complaining; I am just echoing my realization of truth.. 

Once a well wisher had told me, "God arranges the results of our deeds in our life cycle".. It can certainly be proved wrong 'N' number of times.. Just look around and we will know how highly incorrect this point is.. Don't innocents suffer in this world? And don't the sinners get away and lead a lavish life? Then where is the natural order of justice? How about the infants, minutes or hours old dieing? What sin they would have done to deserve that?

When people suffer, logic is given; "must be in-lieu-of some past sin.."

When no record of so called 'past sin' is found, another logic is put forth; "must be because of previous life 'karmas'. This punishment is for the purification of soul.."

Cite an example of people with no moral values living happily, logic changes to; "will be going to hell.. Justice will be done!"

Bring into discussion a person of proven integrity meeting some tragedy, another logic pops up; "will go to heaven for the good karmas he/ she has done in the life time.."

I disagree with a lot of points here.. I will start with “Punishment for the purification of soul” first.. Fear can never make anyone good.. It can just make someone scared.. The whole logic is very simple here.. If I choose to do something good, that’s because I really want to do that.. If I want to do some bad act; say some kind of sin, I might not do that out of fear of getting punished.. I might postpone that act, or I might never get a chance of doing that at all.. But that doesn't mean that my thoughts would have been purified! At the end of the day, it's just the fear factor which kept me from doing that.. Fear of punishment can not transform someone.. And the logic wherein a person is punished for the ‘sins’ of previous life, how fair and good that is when the person is question doesn’t even knows the reason why he is being punished for! I reckon, our Indian Judiciary System works better than that.. This whole set of logic is unfathomable! If there were anything called unbiased god; or rather say, had there been any god in first place; yardsticks to measure everyone's deeds would have been same.. Most ironical is the logic of heaven and hell.. These two are again just hypothetical things with no real proof to hold their places.. None of us has seen heaven, neither hell.. What is evident to us is this world and this life we are living in and with.. When logic of ‘bigger rewards/ punishments’ in terms of heaven and hell is presented, then what does this life means? Is this whole life cycle just a charade? Then how can people be judged for their deeds done in ‘this’ life which doesn’t hold any significance? Certainly a lot of imaginary stuffs do the rounds when we talk about religious matters with different people giving their own interpretations.. For me, this is not 'moh', this is not 'maya'.. This is the reality.. And truth is, there is no natural order of things in this world.. Fact is, there are good people in this world and there are bad ones as well in varying proportions.. Both kind of people will continue to co-exist.. Irrespective of the kind of their deeds, both kinds will have a section 'very happy', a section 'happy', a section 'not so happy', a section 'never happy'.. Randomness is the natural order of things in true sense in life..

My good deeds, if I do any, essentially don’t guarantee me any rewards.. So it is just about the willingness and the person’s own conscience.. What I have learnt is, “don’t do anything good with expectation that something good will come back to you as reward in short or long run.. If something really good indeed comes back, it’s good.. Else just cherish the happiness felt at the time of doing that good deed and the life will be a bliss..” I prefer to believe in goodness.. I have learnt to trust in my conscience to get the answers whenever I stumble across some uncertainty.. And it answers.. Goodness is my religion which guides me in every step of my life and tells me how this life is to be lead.. Isn’t that the purpose and soul of every religion? Peace....

P.S.: I have expressed my views quite openly.. But at no point my intentions was to hurt or offend anyone’s beliefs or sentiments.. If unknowingly I have done that then I sincerely apologize..