Oh God, Another Atheist.
Recently, I came across this Quora answer that talked about “If god created everything, why did He create atheists?” The answer, rather simple, was that he wanted some people to help other people instead of saying “may God help you”. Now this might be a popular WhatsApp forward which you might’ve got from one of your family WhatsApp groups but it did make me wonder, is this millennial famous atheism, which has become a religion in itself, something to defend? While attending a Qawwali, I thought of these lines which largely overlap this thought.
आईने में खड़े उस नास्तिक से मैंने कहा , ऐ इन्सान, तू दुआ में नहीं मानता, तोह दूसरों को खुश करनें में वक़्त ज़ाया नहीं करता।
I wondered about the existence of god because of a filmy way, death of a friend. I used to be very religious and mind you, not spiritual, religious. I used to celebrate each and every festival from Uttarayan to Christmas with all its riti-rivaaj, customs and traditions. Heck, I used to rent a Krishna costume to smash the matki that I made and decorated myself filled with chocolates. I used to bring home Ganpati Bappa and the sthaapna would happen in my very room. I didn’t trust my family enough thinking they wouldn’t take care of ‘Him’ as properly as I would. But this Janmashtami where instead of prepping for shyaam, I felt the Monday blues while writing this, sitting in my cubicle sipping tasteless chai from a plastic cup.
I believe in ‘When in doubt, refer history.’ Some believe that god created man and some believe that man created god. Usually, believers believe because they’ve been believing for generations and shouldn’t break the continuation of traditions when non-believers (mostly millennials) are busy continuing streaks. Don’t assume I’m some white haired guy bashing the younger generation because quite contrary to that, I’m one of those misunderstood, stereotyped millennials. Some non-believers believe that man created god in order to give hope to people and some non- believers believe that the concept of god was created to instigate fear in people and maintain decorum in society with a power that would be higher than the highest of human hierarchy.
This small dwelling into the history period made me realize, doesn’t matter if ‘He’ exists or not, doesn’t matter if it’s hope or propaganda, the right thing to do is to love one another, not spread hate in His name or otherwise. Maybe, He does exist in our hearts, in the form of love.
-Manas Daxini.