My blog

Tag: Abrahamism

  • Are you a Hindu Atheist? God have mercy on you

    Are you a Hindu Atheist? God have mercy on you

    With the rise of atheists in secular societies, an important question is: should atheists read theology?

    If you are a knowledge seeker, but have intentionally shunted out reading of theology due to being an atheist, I would definitely recommend reviewing such a decision. I’ve seen voracious readers say, “I’ve read so many books, what’s next? There are no more good books in my wish list, but don’t recommend theology because I am an atheist.” Read it; you will thank me later. It is analogous to travelling the world to get more perspectives. Just like travelling to Vietnam doesn’t make you Vietnamese, reading theology does not make you religious. In fact, if you are into the study of patterns, you will like these concepts. It will definitely feel like taking the brain to the gym, and it will positively impact your performance in other walks of life.

    I don’t believe in one “personal god”, so that makes me an atheist, but I still believe that the “idea of religion” is a worthy human pursuit. When humans encountered things that were deterministic, they put them in science books, and when they encountered something abstract and philosophical, they put it in theological books. Every civilization has tried to approach this question of existence in its own way and in that process they “figured out” something and penned down their thoughts in such a way that the benefits of that high philosophy could trickle down to the masses without having to do deep study, hence the regimented prayer timings and other ceremonies. Religion is a culture’s answer to the philosophical questions that man faces. It’s literally an encyclopedia written by our ancestors while trying to juggle with the nature of existence. In that sense, I would give some credit to every religion for attempting to explain it in its own way. In addition to the metaphysical aspects, the Abrahamic religions have a political aspect of materialistic self-preservation and propagation that makes these religions lethal towards other groups, unlike Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism, which are pure theologies and have pure philosophy (Shruti) and separated political aspects, like in Chanakya Neeti and Manu Smriti. What makes Hinduism even better is that it is a crowdsourced repository of information which keeps getting edited with new data every time our civilization progresses.

    I remember Subramanian Swamy saying Hindus congregate at festivals like Kumbh, but they don’t realize that the real benefit of congregation is to create a sense of unity and show the strength of our civilization, and whatever spiritual benefit you get is just a trickle-down effect. It’s not because the rivers, gods and temples emanate magic that you go there; you go there to represent yourself as a part of a large civilization. One for all and all for one.

    Doval has said, “Old religion used to say, if you don’t believe in God, you are an atheist; new religion says, if you don’t believe in yourself, you are an atheist.” Understand the deeper meaning of this on a practical level. You are an individual, you have individual interests. You are also a part of a group and you have collective interests. The bigger the group, the stronger position it has in any negotiation, the stronger it is, the more dividends it yields for the group, and by proxy, the more dividends trickle down to you as an individual. Even if you are an atheist, your individual interests are intertwined with how well the group does. No matter how loudly you scream that you are an atheist, when you are walking in a Muslim locality, for them, you are just another kafir and you will be given the same treatment that is meted out to other Hindus. In that case, you don’t have a choice of stepping out. Now that you are sure that you will anyway be made to pay the price of being part of a group, then why not make sure you also gain the dividends of being a part of that group? The group becomes stronger when you are a part of it, and you become stronger when you are a part of the group; this might in fact reduce the chances of you facing attrition in the first place. Being an atheist is the worst bargain you can make for yourself. You get all the cons of being a kafir and no pros. No matter whether you are atheist or not, you have to foot the bill. If you are a practical atheist who believes in hard logic, then I hope you see how bad this logic of atheism is. When you say that you are an atheist, you aren’t really signing yourself out of the group, you are only signing out of the benefits of the group.

    Even if you don’t want to go to temples and chant prayers, go to Kumbh, Akshardham, Jagannath Puri and witness your civilization alive and ticking. Don’t chant mantras but do read high philosophy. It will definitely make you a better person. Don’t confuse deterministic science with indeterminate philosophy. When existential crisis hits, even the best of scientists commit suicide. Both science and philosophy have a place in Hinduism. You need both to live a wholesome life. Atheism is for those Abrahamic religions which have a history of persecution of scientists by the Church and clergy. Hinduism never antagonized science; it has always assimilated it.

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  • Abrahamic exclusivism and witch hunt

    Abrahamic exclusivism and witch hunt

    The disease of Abrahamic exclusivism is an undercurrent among all the memetic viruses that have developed in the Abrahamic world. The idea of exclusivism and chosen people not only leads to explicit wars but also leads to witch hunting of non-believers. This was as true for Christianity in the medieval period as it is still true for Islam and other Abrahamic derivatives like Marxism, feminism or environmentalism today. In the European dark middle ages, not only zealous Christians burned women deemed as witches, but also ostracised scientists who dared to propose theories that did not align with the Church’s world view.

    Some qualities that define this exclusivism:

    • Absolutism: Deep belief that there is only one absolute good way which gives moral high ground to believers.
    • Missionary zeal to convert non-believers through all forms of propaganda and physical threat.
    • Witch-hunting non-believers by explicit threats as well as coining fancy names.

    Everyone knows about the religious exclusivism practised by Judaism, Christianity and Islam, so today we will focus on the new groups which practise this exclusivism and get a free pass under the umbrella term called modernity.

    Political Marxism

    Soviet-era political figure

    Kalam wali bai noting the list of weapons to procure
    • Absolute belief in Communist order that will achieve just society — an ideal utopia everyone should strive for, just like the permanent heaven promised by Abrahamic religions. This ideology simply replaced a post-death heaven with the mirage of heaven here on earth.
    • It uses force and propaganda wherever needed and does not shy away from killing people, whether in Stalin’s Russia or through the Naxal movement.
    • Killing non-believers when in majority and witch-hunting them when in minority. Non-believers are showered with the choicest of terms: evil Capitalists, bourgeoisie, and more. For knowing more fancy terms — just hear any Kanhaiya speech!

    Feminism

    Feminist protest march

    Some peaceful feminists in one of their peaceful protests
    • Absolute belief that all institutions have historically suppressed women. Only individual freedom for women matters in all cases; kids and family can go down the drain.
    • The propaganda runs from universities and media. In the US, the fountainhead of feminism, 60% of college goers are women, but they still cry discrimination.
    • It is not that difficult to lose your job and reputation if you annoy the feminist groups. Your work does not count if your ideology does not match with theirs. Fancy terms used to soil your reputation: misogynist, patriarchal, male privilege, etc. Try debating about unfair divorce or dowry law to get a taste of this medicine.

    Environmentalism

    Environmental protest

    Environmentalists praying to Varuna God to stop torrential rain
    • Absolute belief that man is causing big climate change. While harm of local pollution is easy to prove, global warming is a difficult beast to slay.
    • Massive funding has gone into research as well as propaganda. The moral high ground gives the right to save whales while letting poor Indians and Africans die for want of modern medicine and amenities. Probably, a billion people in India and Africa starving without proper food and electricity is regarded as nothing compared to the death of a few whales in the Arctic.
    • Question global warming and you are a climate change denier. Support coal power plants and you are anti-tribal, while supporting nuclear plants makes you a supporter of big capitalistic firms.

    Multiculturalism

    Multicultural crowd

    Immigrants with legal papers waiting for bus to cross Euro tunnel
    • Absolute belief that all cultures are the same and can live together in a societal soup. Immigrants can be brainwashed and assimilated.
    • All religions are same, all cultures are same and all people are good — taught in schools to shut down critical thinking. It gets reflected further in political examples: Angela Merkel asked Facebook to censor anti-immigration posts in the self-proclaimed free-speech society called Germany!
    • People who don’t buy the peaceful nature of Islam are called Islamophobes if they can’t shut their eyes to the barbarity of Islam. Those who don’t want unchecked immigration are called racists. In India you will frequently hear “Hindutvawadi” used as an abuse — but it is the same variant.

    This is just a partial list of ideologies but you can see that all the Abrahamic derived ideologies sell the dream of saving the world from a real or imaginary problem to their over-zealous followers. Most of those affected by this memetic virus are hypocrites and rank opportunists and lose no opportunity to witch hunt those who do not believe in their ideology — and this happens while they talk about free speech in the background. The free-speech enthusiasts showed no sympathy for the free speech of Indian students in NIT Kashmir, but it was made a big issue in JNU.

    One other common trait among all their followers is their extra-territorial loyalty. The communists from India supported China in the 1962 war. The same goes for environmentalists who block nuclear plants or coal mines under the direction of foreign-based NGOs. While economic development of India is supremely important, these people will collaborate with foreign powers to scuttle all development agenda. The less talked about Indian feminists the better. With the help of local and international media, they have effectively helped broad-brush India as the rape capital of the world, when on the contrary it has some of the lowest rape reporting rates in the world. They are more than happy to attend foreign conferences and call India the rape capital to get brownie points among western feminists rather than call out their bluff on statistics. About multiculturalism — we have the great example of Muslims living in India. For all talk of secularism, a lot of them still have extra-territorial affiliations which come out regularly in the form of bursting crackers after an Indian loss in sport, or overt aggression in support of terrorists or counter-terrorists in Iraq-Syria.

    So next time when you are barraged by the kindest of hipster words, you can safely assume that you are under assault by one form of Abrahamic ideology. Then you will be given the only choice — to stand with the believers or the non-believers. Depending on your choice, either you will be accepted with open hearts and sold atrocity stories, or — heaven forbid if you still choose to not accept the monotheistic God — you will be witch-hunted. Your loss in the end would depend on where you stand in the social pyramid. Does this now explain why people in the higher echelons of society hardly try to lock horns with the fascist followers of these exclusivist ideologies?