'Difficult to be unbeliever in religious India': From an atheist

[beam me up scottie]

'Difficult to be unbeliever in religious India': From an atheist
Sachi Mohanty, Hindustan Times | Updated: May 03, 2015 18:39 IST


It is difficult to be an unbeliever in a religious society. Atheist Sachi Mohanty ruminates on the need to question conservatism and debunk religion. (Illustration: Ravi Jadhav)


The Nepal earthquake tells us that we live on an ever-changing, geologically-active planet. Fossil evidence tells us about our long history of evolution and of the kinship we share with all life on the planet.

After learning about evolution, plate tectonics and astronomy - this week, the Hubble Space Telescope, which has travelled 6,115,507,200 km, completed 25 years of orbiting the earth - and learning about our place in the universe, how can any educated person still believe in the gods of man-made religions? The religion and its gods and myths that I grew up with started appearing to me to be silly before I finished high school. Once you acquire some basic science education, religious explanations look positively primitive.

...

For now, it seems like the majority of Indians are destined to spend their lives singing songs in praise of various gods. I'm happy to be in the tiny minority of those who call themselves atheists. It doesn't bother me that I am in disagreement with about 200 family relations. Einstein, Feynman, Hawking and Weinberg are some of the physicists who share my lack of belief while most prisoners in America believe in god.

Needless to add, the figure is probably even higher in Indian prisons.

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[Helen Borg]

1. And they have lotsa nukes...

[Warren Stupidity]

2. we are at least as religious as they are and we have many more nukes.

[Helen Borg]

5. Untrue ...

India=81%, USA=60%

http://redcresearch.ie/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/RED-C-press-release-Religion-and-Atheism-25-7-12.pdf

[beam me up scottie]

6. I don't want to get into a duel over polls

but I really doubt only 60% of Americans are religious.

The last study I remember seeing showed the number was over 80%.

[truebrit71]

10. Or was that the number of idiots that believe in angels....

.... could be both I guess.... but I definitely remember being dismayed that such a large number of people were that fucking stupid....

[RussBLib]

3. "Once you acquire some basic science education, religious explanations look positively primitive"

And so the GOP's resistance to any and all things science makes sense. They desperately desire to keep people in the dark ages and fearful of the unknown.

And so we see our nation having a bit of a religious resurgence, while we see our education system deteriorating and failing many kids. The two things are connected.

I can only imagine the internal struggles that freethinkers in countries like India face. If not for the internet, we would probably never know of them, nor would they know that millions of others out there are of like mind.

[beam me up scottie]

7. I'm so glad Al Gore invented the interwebs.

Seriously, I can't imagine how awesome it must be to finally be able to interact with other atheists after being suffocated so long.

Like coming up for air.

[mountain grammy]

4. and this: even Wikipedia, for pete's sake!!!

Imagine how much learning could be acquired if one bothered to read real books (or even Wikipedia) that talked about astronomy or evolution or why religions are evil. But for most people, acquiring new information - especially knowledge that challenges their long-held beliefs - is anathema. They would rather watch television soaps featuring feuding saas-bahus or the IPL.

[beam me up scottie]

8. I used to spend hours reading our ancient set of encyclopedias when I was a kid.

If Wikipedia had been available, and Google...jeez, just imagine it, mountain grammy.

[mountain grammy]

9. yeah. I think we would have been

A generation of superheroes. Well maybe. Hell we were using slide rulers in trig when I was a teen.

[Lordquinton]

11. A generation of Superheroes...

Just think, all the kids today who would have been reading encyclopedias in your day are now on the internet soaking up all the information they can find. A generation of superheroes indeed