The Theology Of An Atheist!

Magic!
Do you know what the world’s first magic was?! Fire! That was the world’s first magic! When early man discovered fire, he obviously couldn’t explain it! He didn’t have the faintest clue what combustion meant! And there he was presented with an exquisite phenomena that he could use to warm himself, protect himself from wild animals, and what not! It was an incredibly prodigious discovery for him, but try as he might he just couldn’t get his primitive mind to envelop the concept of friction, heat, etc., in a scientific or rational manner! It had nothing to do with inferior cranial capacity; it was merely the virtual impossibility of understanding a concept so advanced at that time; that it wasn’t perceived as something that could be explained by man with adequate time and information, but as a supernatural phenomenon! And since no supernatural phenomenon could be attributed to the handiwork of another mere mortal, it led to the only and most obvious consensus: that fire was magic, that it was a force of the metaphysical, a divine power! However, today, if you light a match and try to convince even toddlers that fire is magic, they probably won’t even bother disputing your claims! Odds are, they’ll smile at you in silence, thinking along the lines of, “Oh-kay! Let’s just give the full-grown retard a small, unthreatening smile to let him know we come in peace, and slip away as quietly and quickly as possible!” Why?! Because even kids realize that the oh-so-sacred fire of the past is a simple force that can easily be explained by rudimentary science! Early man used the divine to mask his ignorance! Hang on, isn’t that what we still do today?! That was rhetoric; don’t answer that!

Science Is Limited!

Fire was the world’s first magic, first act of God, because people were incapable of explaining it at the time! But since then we have come across infinite other phenomena that we couldn’t explain at the time, but later found perfectly normal, logical, scientific, rational explanations for! However, we never learn, do we?! Even today, we pick whatever we cannot scientifically explain and try to pin it on God! People advocating faith say that science is limited! “You scientifically know the exact composition of a human body! However, if I give you everything that you ask for, the right amount of sodium, calcium, whatever, can you create a human body out of it?! Or even if I give you the body of one recently deceased, can you put life back into that body?! No, you can’t! No matter how much science may have advanced, there are things that still cannot be explained by science; things which are out of science’s reach; phenomena that lie outside the cold, logical realm of science, so to speak! Such is the greatness of God!” Even today, there are things which science cannot explain! There’s no disputing that! Things that seem like science could never explain no matter how long it took! But that’s the point, right?! Just because it seems impossible to explain something now doesn’t mean it always will be, and it most certainly doesn’t mean that it’s God’s handiwork! Haven’t we witnessed that excessively enough already?! Isn’t history something we study so we don’t repeat the mistakes our ancestors already made?! History is written by the victors, and if we consider the number of victories that have been won by the religiously inclined, the statistical fact seems staggeringly consequential in the context! And perhaps the most vital!

Escapist Attitude!

Psychologically speaking, people would love to live their life devoid of any problems whatsoever! People predominantly have an escapist attitude! They don’t want to deal with their problems themselves! Even those who have the general disposition to deal with their problems head-on would much rather have someone else take care of it! Their mindset would reflect that they accept that they have a problem and that they have no option but to deal with it, because trying to evade the problem without finding a terminal solution could possibly (and most probably) lead to more pressing concerns arising in the not-so-distant future! But what if they didn’t have to deal with it at all?! I mean, why deal with something unpleasant unless you absolutely have to, right?! Isn’t it just much easier to mitigate the sorrows of human existence if you could walk away from/breeze through any undesired or unpleasant situation in life by just uttering a silent plea for help?! What if they knew for certain that someone else could and would deal with that problem of theirs for them, as and when they asked, and that the entity in question would ask for nothing in return?! Let’s find out the answer to that mind-bogglingly enigmatic conundrum of a question: When you’re faced with a problem in life, and you have the option of either painstakingly looking for an appropriate solution for it (this choice merely means that you choose to search for a solution; there is never a guarantee that you will find one), or saying a simple yet powerful prayer that can let you permanently get rid of the problem, with no additional effort on your part; what do you choose?! Not exactly a dilemma, is it?! On to the next quandary then: Which sounds much happier, safer, more comforting and nurturing: A world with God or.......?!

There Is Still Hope!

Hope is one of the best things in the world! When all else is lost, there is still hope! In times of great need, people may or may not help us! You can’t always count on getting assistance from acquaintances, friends, family, and the like! They may even turn you down with an outright no, at times! (But God?! He never responds in the first place to turn anyone down, right?! He just listens! That’s how he rolls!) So what do you do when no one you approach is willing to help you out?! If you can’t solve the problem yourself, and can’t get anyone’s help either, it means that there is no hope! All is lost! But that’s just too depressing to take in! So rather than be reactive and deal with the trauma that such a realization could cause, let’s be proactive! We give you: God! When all else fails, put your faith in the Lord, for he shall never let go of your hand! And hope is alive! Even in the most desperate and impossible of circumstances, the concept of God keeps that hope alive! So pray with all your heart and God will answer your prayers! (In deed, obviously! Certainly not through any form of direct communication! Because that would be, like, too mainstream, right?!) Rather than deal with the crushing and depressing facets of reality, we would much rather prefer to create an illusion of possible salvation! For as long as there is hope, we will not give up! And that’s a great thing: an indomitable spirit! However, it’s a pity that that spirit is accompanied with “As long as your faith is true and your heart is pure, you need never fear!”, instead of with “Hope for the best, Prepare for the worst!”! When (If) the mind-blowing, ground-breaking, earth-shattering realization that faith and hope don’t have an intertwined fate dawns on people, perhaps they may comprehend why mumbling into the air for help doesn’t exactly appeal to me as a constructive and decisive way of dealing with a problem!

Impossible Is Nothing!

When we realize that we have a problem we can’t deal with ourselves, we instantly start looking for someone who can help us with it! It’s like the corporate concept of escalation! Once we acknowledge that we aren’t adequately equipped to tackle a problem, we escalate the matter to someone who is; to someone who is more capable, or who is better qualified to deal with it! And the search for that person can never end; not until the most capable, the most qualified “person”, is found! We may land on one answer after the other in our gallant quest, but unabashed, in that spirit of trial-and-error, eternally shall we seek that person! It all comes back to what a person is capable of doing! Generally, people look to their friends when in a tight spot; and if their friends can’t help them, they may call upon their family: a sibling, a parent, or other close relative! But what happens when even our family cannot help us?! What then?! Do we forsake the endeavour or strive on with fortitude in an undying attempt to locate the saviour; the one who can make everything all right, no matter how impossible the situation may seem?! Because certain problems require tailored solutions that go far beyond the realm of ordinary gumption! Certain solutions require physical impossibilities, statistical improbabilities (with not very favourable odds, at that), and the like! Let’s take an example, shall we?! Assume you are a student who’s taken an examination the day before yesterday, and your performance in that particular examination was pretty damn awful! But this isn’t just any exam! Your scores in this exam are practically the lynchpin of your life and career; so it isn’t just about disappointing your teacher or your parents, it’s about passing the test itself, which you want to do at any cost! However, the exam is over, and no one can change the past, no matter how much they want to help you or how much you want them to! So you would think it was too late, right?! And you would be wrong! It’s never too late! Just because it’s physically impossible to do anything, we can’t give up! Why do we have God then?! So what if the exam is over?! God is omnipotent! God can do anything! Go back in time: Check! Alter answer sheet so candidate can pass: Check! Alter answer sheet in candidate’s own handwriting so candidate can pass without any suspicion of foul play: Check! You name it, God can do it! So dream big; bigger than any atheist dares; because you have with you the one infallible force that stops that dream turning into a nightmare in your mind, even as it does turn into one in reality!

Size Does Matter!

The Earth is only the fifth largest planet in the solar system! But let’s forget the solar system and take a look at the bigger picture, shall we?! The diameter of the Earth is 12,742 km! The size of the Universe is unknown; it may be infinite; but the region visible from Earth (the observable universe), is a sphere with a radius of about 46 billion light years! 1 light year is 9,460,528,400,000 km (9.460528 trillion km)! Simply to put matters into perspective, the size of the Universe is 435,184,288,000 trillion km (upwards of 435 billion trillion km)! Anyway, 78,480,615(.28802386, let’s ignore the decimals, shall we?!) Earths can fit in 1 trillion km! Taking a light year to be only 9 trillion km, upwards of 706 million Earths can fit in a light year! Basically, with multiple levels of approximation, 32,476,000 trillion Earths, placed end to end can fit into a straight line in the Universe (linearly along the diameter of the Universe; this doesn’t even take into account the spherical mass of the Earth and how many more millions of trillions of Earth-sized masses can be fit into the rest of the Universe, outside that one line)! It would take a line of well over 32 million trillion Earths just to get from one end of the observable Universe to the other! The significance of the Earth and at the next level, the human race it hosts, is so damn infinitesimal in the grand scheme of things that merely quantifying it with rather absurd approximations itself, would take an uncomfortably long time! Trust me, I just did it! The approximations I’ve made are so obnoxious, in fact, that it would be the equivalent of telling somebody asking for directions to New York (USA) while standing in Chennai (India), to head “around” 7cm to the north-west of where they are, to get to their desired destination (New York)! I get that just because something is small doesn’t mean it isn’t important; but applying that here would be the equivalent of claiming that one created all the vast oceans of the Earth, in their entirety, while their clear and obvious purpose of doing so was just to “display” one particular molecule of water, which has been incidentally and strategically placed in some random, insignificant part of those oceans; lying in plain sight for everyone to see, obviously! Well, I guess the real question is: Which lying?!

Duration!

If I were making a 100 minute movie, I would break down the essential components of the movie as such: Introductory Sequences - 25 minutes (Maximum; I would honestly prefer quantifiably less time for the intro), Main Body Of The Film – 60 minutes, and Climactic Sequences – 15 minutes! Similarly, the prologue and epilogue of a book would be significantly lesser in volume than the primary content of the book itself! Here’s my problem with the theory that God created the Earth and the Universe in general with human existence in mind! If we are truly the sole purpose with which the Earth was created, I’m afraid the scientific community needs to take a serious look at the undoubtedly ridiculous claims they have made as to the provenance of the Earth! They’ve clearly gotten their timeline wrong! Because the facts, as they currently stand, are thus:-

ü  The Earth came into existence 4.54 billion years ago!

ü  The first known existence of any species that even remotely resembles a human organism is placed at around 15 million years ago!

ü  After a whole bunch of intermediary classifications, we have Anatomically Modern Humans(us), whose first appearance on Earth is placed at 0.2 million years ago, which is but 200,000 years from the present!

ü  In a maximum of 1.1 billion years from now, the oceans of the Earth will disappear! However, well before this, the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will be too low to support plant life, destroying the foundation of the food chains; consequently and simultaneously ending animal life! A deep-rooted primal sense tells me that human beings haven’t evolved enough to survive that! (Not that I believe human beings will even be around any time close to when plant life on Earth gets extinguished! Oh no! We’ll be gone long before that!)

ü  It is estimated that the Earth itself may exist for several billion years from now before it is swallowed by the expanding Sun; barring any instance of nuclear war, rouge asteroids, or any other cataclysms on the cosmological scale, of course(; the possibility of occurrence of which, if I were you, I wouldn’t be too quick to dismiss)!

ü  Putting all this into an even grander perspective is the fact that the age of the Earth is one-third the age of the Universe!

To summarize: God created the Universe 13.82 billion years ago, and “our” Solar System 4.6 billion years ago. A Solar System, that’ll last approximately for the next 5 billion years(, making its total life 9.6 billion years); in which human existence would last(assuming the human race lives until plant life is extinct, around 1 billion years from now), for a period of 1.015 billion years(or 1.0002 billion years, if you account only for Anatomically Modern Humans)!

Yes, that’s right! Now that you mention it, it does seem painfully obvious that the entire Universe and its existence is intensively centered around human life; the ratio of Introductory Sequences to Main Body & Climactic Sequences Collectively being greater than 13:1! Well, if there’s one thing I must agree with, it’s this: God Works In Mysterious Ways!

Section 377!

Section 377! Section 377 is a crazy eye-opener! It has forced me to take a look at India as it is today! We claim to be living in a secular and free country! A country whose proud heritage and history consistently boast its tolerance and acceptance of EVERYONE! A country which is said to have one of the most democratic laws in the world! We are often quoted as a prime example of democracy and of being an embodiment of the very spirit of tolerance, freedom, and diversity!

“The section was declared unconstitutional with respect to sex between consenting adults by the High Court of Delhi on 2 July 2009. That judgement was overturned by the Supreme Court of India on 11 December 2013, with the Court holding that amending or repealing Section 377 should be a matter left to Parliament, not the judiciary.”

- An Excerpt From Wikipedia!

The Supreme Court of India repealed the judicial ruling of the High Court of Delhi on the grounds that amending or repealing a law should be a matter of legislation, and not a judicial ruling! Apparently, the discretion of the esteemed members of the judiciary of our just nation are below reproach! Judges can make irreversible decisions as to what happens to human lives, property, etc., but cannot make such judgements! Anyway, ever since we started civics lessons in school, I’ve always remembered India as having been quoted as one of the most open-minded and just countries in the world! Terms such as secular, socialist and the like pop into my mind rather pointedly in this context! It has always been portrayed as the country that makes the toughest of decisions no matter what, because the most prominent and dominant feature of India’s Constitution is “inclusiveness”! And I’ve always believed that! Believed that India would always be the nation that (at least on the surface or in the letter of the law) reflected one of humanity’s most difficult traits; the ability to not only be tolerant of, but to welcome people who are intrinsically different from us! But Section 377 has been a serious and rather late reality check for me!

The Supreme Court has, however, asked the Parliament to look into the matter and decide if Section 377 should be scrapped or not! Call me pessimistic if you will, but I don’t see that happening anytime soon! India is a largely homophobic country! Its politicians and representatives are just as homophobic as any average person of the nation, if not more! Human nature is to oppose anything that it considers wrong; to resist anything that it deems unnecessarily difficult; and to ostracize/eliminate anything that it fears! The fear gripping this nation is crippling its judgement, its ability to transcend bias and be broad-minded enough to truly expand its diversity in a wholesome and non-prejudicial manner! It is shameful that a matter such as homosexual rights is still an issue in the 21^st century! After everything the human race has collectively been through, we still haven’t established certain common universal laws! There can be no true social peace and prosperity until that has been established and the only way something like that is ever going to happen is if we manage to eradicate such unjust laws and differences! In today’s world you’d expect to distinguish between the laws of different countries by highlighting the different rates of taxes imposed in different nations! But no; we are still at a stage where we have not settled upon what would universally constitute the fundamental rights of a human being!

Among other quotes in Wikipedia, one says, “The Supreme Court’s view is an endorsement of our scriptures.” (EXTRACTED FROM THE ORIGINAL QUOTE IN WIKIPEDIA), while another says, “In Judaism, our scriptures do not permit homosexuality”.

I completely agree with what the two quotes say! The Supreme Court’s view IS an endorsement of their respective scriptures! (So much so, that it seems a pity that the objective of our country and its laws is not to specifically satiate the whims of every scripture there is!) However, pitiable as it may be, and sympathetic as you may feel for this not being the ultimate objective of our country, OURS is a secular country! We may have more theists than anywhere else in the world! The population of our nation may single-handedly worship more deities and gods/goddesses than everywhere else in the world collectively does! But in the spirit of that secularism that is our birthright, as promised to us by OUR very own Constitution (and promised to us not as a gift from the makers of the Constitution itself, but given to us as a truly free gift of nature and augmented by the Constitution of India; for it is a free and universally undeniable right, to enjoy and do as we will; as long as we do not forsake the ability of those in our vicinity to do the same); is it not unfair for us to deny other human beings from doing as is their wont, when their actions are, in no way compromising the overall peace and prosperity of the nation?! The role of the law is to protect the interests of the people of the nation! That includes all its cultures, sub-cultures, groups of various castes, creeds, origin (on various bases), etc., etc.! Equality before the law is the spirit behind blindfolding the Sacred (YES, the SACRED) Lady of Justice! A pity that I’m having to quote a character from Spiderman, Uncle Ben, in such a context, but I do so with pride when I say, “With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility!” There is unequivocally a heavy burden of responsibility that we inherited from our forefathers when we were born into a country such as India; the onerous task of preserving and persevering with our cultural diversity and our penchant for “inclusiveness”! But just because we find the thought of honourably fulfilling our role as this generation of Indians rather cumbersome doesn’t mean that we bear the weight of that tremendous responsibility with the same ill-grace as the great Titan, Atlas himself! That said, OUR heritage most certainly is NOT to write off the minorities and their interests in order to satisfy the Heads of religious orders and/or to ensure that the laws of the nation are in accordance with scriptures, but to defend the interests of those people (shocking as it may seem to some of y’all)! And as for our performance with regard to fulfilling our inherited duty, I’m afraid I’m gonna have to use a phrase often used by my sister here, “EPIC FAIL!”

We allow adults to choose whether they wish to drink or not and whether they wish to smoke or not (though they are fully aware of society’s open denigration for such “anti-social” elements and the “harmful effects” of such habits, they are still GIVEN a choice); on the grounds that every adult must have the freedom of choice; but we would deny that very same “privilege” to an adult when it comes to the matter of his/her sexual orientation! After all, it is indeed a mere matter of choice! It isn’t a debate about an act of forced intercourse; cause the last time I checked, rape was illegal and I couldn’t hear anyone protesting and lobbying for “Rape Rights”! So when we can, in clear conscience, condone any act of a sexual nature between two consenting adults, what difference should it make to us if those two adults are of the same gender or not?! The answer is, none whatsoever! However, history has made it amply clear that what should be and what is, are rarely one and the same!

Several quotes going around the country with regard to homosexuality include the phrases “breach of peace” and “against nature”/”against the natural order of things”! Breach of peace?! Excuse me, but just because you’re having a hard time accepting the fact that everyone around you isn’t exactly a carbon copy of you; and that your denial of the truly natural order of things is so traumatic to you, that you don’t have any peace of mind; doesn’t mean that the natural peace, harmony and stability of society is being jeopardized in any way! If someone being different from you disturbs you very deeply, though it does not truly or significantly affect you in any way whatsoever, please know that you exhibit a deep-seated psychological imbalance; that you are not a fully emotionally developed person; and that such imbalance within you statistically says that you could end up a sociopathic serial killer! So before you go screaming for jail time for somebody else, I suggest you take a quick moment to reassess who would be classified as a greater potential threat to human society and fully comprehend what it is you’re actually asking for, my dear homophobe! As for those people who believe that homosexuality is against the natural order of things, please wake up! It wasn’t Dr. Frankenstein, it wasn’t a radioactive spider, it wasn’t experimental drug enhancement, or even gamma radiation that caused this to come about! Some people are just homosexual! The majority of the population is straight, true, but that doesn’t mean THEY ALL ARE! It’s like being left-handed! So hear me now, and hear me clear: the day you’re willing to pass a law to throw all southpaws in jail is the day Section 377 would be a fair and just law! Well actually, it still wouldn’t be fair; but at least it would show a damned bit of CONSISTENCY!

In retrospect, it is probably prudent that legislative amendments BE made by law-makers and autonomous power to overthrow existing laws NOT be given to the judiciary! This is advisable in the spirit of dispersion (decentralization) of power and to mitigate the risk of a (disguised/open) dictatorship ever emerging in a democratic country such as India! It’s probably done to ensure that no one man or woman has the staggering power to drastically alter the course of human history forever; because any error made by said person would be catastrophic, and the repercussions of such a blunder would be, more threateningly, irreversible! However, in our haste to justify the rulings of the Supreme Court, we overlook an important fact – the fact that when you create and impose rules and laws that make no sense and have no moral standing, you are but pleading that the people break the law! When you show no compassion for the interests of the minority and try to compel them to act as you see fit; when you make them do something so completely against their wishes; you are but forcing them to indulge in “unlawful” activity! Whether you believe in “Justice Delayed Is Justice Denied” or not, you must realize the havoc such a decision could create; no matter how briefly the ruling may stand (and that is if you have blindly optimistic faith in the system and assume that it won’t be long before the Parliament amends/scraps Section 377 and all is well in the world again)! But even if it is only a matter of time before Section 377 is suitably and righteously repealed or amended, the fact of the matter is that homosexual people today are facing unfair and absolutely superfluous restrictions! There are some who will conform to the laws in place and others who won’t! Those who conform to the law will forever be branded as the victims of oppression, and those who don’t, will be branded criminals! Neither terms seem even mildly acceptable to me in the given context! The former needs no explanation, but do we really want even the tiniest community of our nation to be known as the oppressed?! As for the latter, it is sure to stir up quite a ruckus! Law-breakers are known as convicts, as criminals! They have committed not just a mistake as per that term, but a crime; a crime punishable by law! It’s like we’re trying to increase the crime rate of the nation, so that we can keep as many of the growing population as possible off the streets! But let me tell you one thing, if you’re trying to solve the traffic problems of the nation or something, there are far better ways to do it!



Unfortunately, I majorly stand by the Supreme Court's decision! If we allow the judges in OUR judicial system to overturn laws as and when they see fit, there'll be anarchy! The Supreme Court stated that the function of the courts in India is to uphold the law, not overturn it as and when they see fit. If a law is perceived to be outdated or void in the current period, then it would be the obligation of the Legislative bodies to bring up the same, discuss it, and pass or repeal appropriate laws. However, given the absolute efficiency of the Legislative system in place, and the very subjective nature of justice itself, I can't help but wish that judges could rule against existing laws at times, on a case by case basis. After all, "When the law does not uphold justice, the law is but a burden to society! What was once a protective barrier, is now a restrictive shackle!"