Friday, April 11, 2008

Atheism

I call myself an atheist? The definition for atheism in the pedia is "Atheism, as an explicit position, either affirms the nonexistence of gods or rejects theism" in which theism means "Theism is the belief in the existence of one or more divinities or deities".the definition concludes only one thing - NO GOD. Now i dont want to get into all my reasoning abilities with fat words to derive conclusion and make the readers either think that i am a jerk or i am an intelligent jerk. This is just my stand and i arrived here.

I beleived in GOD or i was forcefully made to beleive god. It's due to family and also we were strugling a lot to settle, so i was expecting some miracle to happen in my life, atleast-least of my dreams may come true(a bicycle to ride, a little big
house, one set of uniform\shoes per year....etc.,) These struggles kept me always low when it comes to a common place. I am little less in everything, to annul that i used to speak loud, speak crap, volunteer for everything(to cover-up my mind). At these times, i strongly beleived that GOD is there. Few inicidents where i felt like, it's GODs GRACE: Here's top 5 fully-felt god moments

1) When i got admission in TVS lakshmi school.

2) when i found my lost cap in cricket ground.

3) when i got a bi-cycle in 8th std.

4) when my father went singapore.

5) whenever my Headmaster asks to goto class when i was punished at the gate for not paying fees in time....


Down the line, as life evolves, characters around me changed, good\bad times....all lead to a confusion on the existense of GOD. Several days, i revised the concept, re-lived few moments and finally i found a balance in my life for which i came to know GOD is not the reason. The reason is me, yes, for the above top 5 incidents, here's my conclusion:

1) i got into to TVS, i performed a fair enough in entrance(i was among top 3 in my old school). The main reason is that ,

TVS school introduced "shift concept" and they almost doubled their strength and made lots of business. no wonder i got into

TVS, it's mean from both ends!!!

2) i got my cap back, only because i cried for around 20 mins to the coach explaining its sentimental values(bought by my dad

from singapore) and atlast he asked a particular person to return my cap. I cried in front of 20 peoples , when i was studying 7th std, that's how i got my cap back!!!!

3) i got a used bi-cycle from my uncle, because he bought one more bike and he dont need the bi-cycle(ladybird). It was in post-mortem stage but also i loved that cycle...so it's just co-incidence.

4) My father went singapore, it's again coincidence, as he was trying for 7-8 yrs and finally one day he went !!!!!

5) My headmaster have softcorner for me as she beleived that i can add value to the school and also i was most disciplined(yes, beleive).she knows well that i will study well wherever i go , so to hold me she tried her best!!!!

Also i started observing my life that the output i get is directly proportional to input i give. so why to beleive some hidden entity, instead just do whatever u want. whatever ur mind says....I am master of my own deeds. let me live my life, u call me genius, idiot, moron, ignorant, cheat...anything, i am living my life.


I am responsible for my actions!!!!!!!!!! i am ready to face the challenge and lows in my life...I dont need GOD to do some

miracle in my life. So I am Atheist.(for me this is atheism)

10 comments:

Agni said...

We've had this discussion before Srini. Anyways, I'm not here to oppose every statement that you wrote.

Let me just explain things from your own line - "I am master of my own deeds". So can you explain who you are really and what qualifies you as a living thing? In other words, can you explain the soul, the Srini inside you who is doing everything you listed? That is what Hinduism calls Jeevathma - the spot of God left in you. So God and you are not two different entities. But what you call 'Yourself' is actually the 'Soul', 'the life' or the 'Jeevathma' in you that acts as the driving force. Without that brain is there, heart is there, your appearance is left intact but you are rendered useless.

Humans abstract their notions into a lot of terms that they are not able to explain. Mind, Life, God, Love, Energy are some of those. I'm surprised that you are ready to believe every abstraction other than God! So call it by whatever name you want to but there is a force that guides you and differentiates you from the rest. We call it God. You call it whatever you want to but that doesn't negate the omnipresence and omnipotence of God. Hope you don't contradict with me.

Velan said...

Kadavul illa kadavul illa appadinu sollitu kadavula pathi athikam nenaikiravan nee than... :-)

ஸ்ரீனிவாசன் said...

@AGNI : maapla, I dont beleive in jaavathma\paramathma....

I am master of my own deeds:It's me who knows that what i want, i work for that and get the results. where does the soul n stuff comes here? Also i have my own set of rules, which i beleive that it helps me in leading a happy life. I defined these rules from my experience. I lead a life without harming anyone because i know how it hurts, i dont cheat coz i know the impact it creates, i dont betray coz i know how it kills ur emotions. I too breach some rules(very basic, nothing big) and earn some guilt out of it, so that tomorrow i shouldn't point anyone that "u r too greedy, what have u done, u dont have any humanity.....!!!!". I would like to commit sins, sins that will have definite punishments and helps me to keep myself low in my deeds n greeds. that's it....

Apart from this, all said above are my interpretations, it wont hold good for anyone else than me. Also i never pick fight against GOD\THEISM etc., i dont want to argue on something which i dont know the existence. If you have a belief that GOD is there, well n fine, carry on.The question of the hour is not the existence of GOD but the need of GOD in present world situations. Until or Unless u r not harming anyone, it really doesn't matter whether u beleive or dont beleive GOD. ANBAE SIVAM.

@ VELAN: dei mama, oru vishayatha pathi athiga neram pesuna\yosicha thaan nalla puriyum...athaan :-)

Anup said...

Well said Srini.. I too believe the same..there is nothing called God... its the just a name.. name given to the truth, values, faith and proper deeds towards humanism..you have faith in yourself that is you believe in yourself..that belief tells you what is right and what is wrong.. and not GOD... There happens to be RAM and people worship.. but people worship RAM's good qualities and not the idol.. you worship your parents.. if you don't then atleast you have faith in your parents more than anyone in this world.. that faith is something.. your parents are something... what do I name it??? guess then people thought of coming with a name called GOD.... but what is divine??? some kind of magic happening invisible to your eye??? no man.. its just you.. your faith in happening of that particular thing which you want..it happens...because you have faith.. faith in your deeds, faith in your efforts, faith in your character..you dont study and expect to get 100/100 .. it will seldom happen unless you cheat...it will happen only when you study and have faith in your efforts.. and that is why we find a place to salute that belief.. a place called temple or church whatever you may call..thats a place where people try to put away all negative thoughts and worship good ones...

i study artificial intelligence..we try to put intelligence in systems... as close as possible to human mind...Google is trying to put 'Natural Langauge Understanding' in its search engine...thats a huge AI problem...and then scientists try to replicate the behaviour of small child... the question is how a small child learns the language??? when the brain is like a blank slate??? We grown up ones learn a language because we know what actions mean.. or we know how to tag words to a particular action...but now scientists at Google reasearch lab try to get an answer as to how a child can understand and start speaking...and here is what one of them has to say...Dr. Schalkoff," guess that has to do something with divine power..its just amazing.." divine power --> faith ---> God.. all mean the same dude.. you believe in God.. you believe in divine power.. just the names are different.. we all believe in God....dont bother much if you dont want to call it God.. just give a different name to it :) it wont stop working... :)

ஸ்ரீனிவாசன் said...

@RAMA: well said rama, maybe i dont want to call that DIVINITY !!!!

Rama, on the same line,about how child thinks, i saw in one movie, an argument about previous-life existence. In that movie when a person questions the prev-life, the answer goes this way "when the child is born, it cries, when mom feeds the child it stops crying, now how a born child will know that it's food is milk? how it knows that to suck to get the milk? so it already knews it..this proves the previous-life existence!!! "

but, even if u accept this concept and extend a bit further, you'll have one question: "Then how come the first ever born child know it's food is milk?"

I still donno whether the divine power exists, but there are certain un-explainable theory existing...i can just wonder about it. I dont want to give the credit either to DIVINE or SCIENCE. afterall, life is too short to know everything.......

Anonymous said...

Theism or Atheism - Both fundamentally are nothing but belief systems. One believes the existence of something while the other believes the non-existence of something. Neither of which is going to bring a qualitative difference to the person's life unless whatever is being discussed becomes a living experience.

- Heard from a wise man

Anonymous said...

Spirituality is not about belief systems. Not about theism or atheism as both of them believe in something (people call it God, divine, nature, ehatever they want to call it).

Spirituality is about seeking truly to know the source of life. It starts from where one is, right now, understanding clearly, that "I don't know any of these things. I am open to see life the way it is". Not about concluding anything, not about coming up with a certain rules, not about sticking to morals, not about any damn thing one might have read in the scriptures, but to walk, just walk the path of life, fully open and aware...

ஸ்ரீனிவாசன் said...

@ANONYMOUS1 : agreed, he must be real wise man :-)

@ANONYMOUS2 : I dont know where you are from, but here, in INDIA, spirituality is considered along with GOD. I heard abt ur concept of spirituality.The path of life, here, people seek the help of GOD.

Anonymous said...

Both anonymous were me. I am from India too. While it is a common notion to relate spirituality to religion, god, beliefs etc, that isn't the actual notion of being spiritual. Seeking to experience life in its totality is spiritual...

ஸ்ரீனிவாசன் said...

@ANONYMOUS: I heard about the same thing from my good friend Ramasamy. On this concept, you both think alike, pls visit http://ramsrules.blogspot.com/ to know more !!!!!

beleive me it's worth reading !!!!