Some people think that atheism means believing that there is no God. This is a flawed perception. The primary meaning of atheism that most dictionaries will give you, though there are secondary meanings that have evolved from bad usage, is of “disbelief” in God or a deity. That means that atheists are not people who believe that there is no God, but people who do not believe that there is God. The difference is huge.I had gone to Bangalore and Chennai last week and every time me and mom decided to go out, as always the first thing that came to her mind was a temple. "Kabaleashwar Kovillkku polaa, vaa (Lets go to Kabaleashwar temple), Its in Mylapore, very beautiful", and "Theres a big Maruti temple in Jayanagar near Naveen's house, Varriyaa? (Coming?)" were the first two sentences I heard after I landed in Chennai and Bangalore respectively. And as always I couldn't muster enough courage to tell her that the idols mean nothing to me. Explaining to a pious person about your Atheist status without bringing god to a derogatory position has always been tough. I seriously don't want to hurt her and get her wondering where she went wrong in bringing us up.
The conviction that there is no God is irrational because one cannot prove a negative. (How do you prove that something does not exist?) However, it is entirely rational to not believe in something whose existence has not been demonstrated. I don’t believe in dragons or fairies because no one has yet proved to me that they exist. Ditto God. I am not asserting that God does not exist, but simply saying that I don’t believe in the existence of God because I see no evidence of Him (or Her, or It). This is not a dogmatic position: if you can prove to me tomorrow that God or dragons exist, I will start to believe in them. Until then, I remain in disbelief. That’s atheism.....
....I may not believe in God, but I have no doubt that belief in God serves a purpose for many people. In primitive times, before we understood what the sun was or why there were eclipses and storms, the world must have appeared a terrifying, bewildering place. Religion offered an explanation for everything, and made us believe that we weren’t as small and insignificant as, well, as we are. Besides rendering the world explicable, it made mortality bearable. When someone close to us died, we could tell ourselves that they were in a better place.
As science has gradually filled up the gaps in our knowledge, the God of the Gaps has shrunk, almost becoming redundant. And while the consolations of belief are useful, I would rather reject those false certainties and look for consolation in smaller, surer things....
There is certainly nothing wrong in believing in things that do not exist "scientifically" yet but what is wrong, is forcing the same beliefs on others. Its your choice if you want to use god as a medium to feel secure or get some peace of mind or use it to prove things which cannot be proven scientifically but that doesn't mean everyone should do the same. Also what I find very disturbing is people get so deep into the religious thing that they lose all sense of practicality. Theres a small temple in front of our house in Bangalore. I noticed that they pour milk, honey and some other stuff on the idols as part of the rituals everyday. There is a global food crisis out there, for heavens sake. India has more people suffering hunger - a figure above 200 million, than any other country in the world. Isn't there an obvious better use, all the milk can be put for?
George Bernard Shaw puts it perfectly: "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". The problem with religious people is that they never come out of the drunken state.
