There’s a new flavor of Ice cream in the market and only those super rich class of people can afford it because they are free from the thoughts and for those the rest poor and bounded slaves and they don’t care what the rest of the world thinks of them. Not many have tasted this new flavored, taste-bud tickling delight coz its not for everyone in the first place. And that's exactly Atheism!
It's a tad bit difficult to sink in the above ideology and comparison, so let's make things simpler. To fully understand Atheism, one needs to first understand what is Religion and its purpose.
Religion - a birth tag that kills millions
According to Wikipedia, religion is the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods. There are 7-10 major religions and over 20 more, not very well-known practices around the world, each with their own ideology, their particular belief system, dos and don’ts. Today, it's a common practice that people from one religion try to over-power those from other religions and as a result, religion has become one of the major causes of mass killing in the world. Doesn’t that sound a bit harsh? Truth is always like that and let's journey into how and why it all came into existence.
The origin
The origin of religion seems to be validated differently by different experts of religions. Upon talking to a few elderly people, the most common belief was that the existence of religion must have started with a notion to bring everyone under a common umbrella and a common belief. There may have been a time when mankind must have gotten uncontrollable and they must have done things to upset many in the society and that's when the learned (or the smartest ones) must have come up with the concept of being organized and keeping all the humans under control. Amongst all the other factors to keep everyone humble and together, fear seemed to work the best. That's exactly what is the base of most major religions around the world.
Boon or Bane?
While religion was supposed to bring everyone under one ideology and one belief system, there were multiple ideologies rising and each one wanted to have their own way of organizing humanity and control the way of life. And that's how, many religions came into existence. While major parts of each religion is more or less the same, a few ideas were in disagreement with each other and contradicting the belief system of other religions.
Who’s the boss?
Unless there is competition, there’s no scope of growth. That same thing happened with the religions.
Just like every electronic gadget is man-made and comes with a manual to operate it, even the God is man-made and the religious relics serve as the manual.
- Sam, an atheist
Each religion had their controllers who wanted to grow their control and become more powerful. It demanded people from one religion to convince those from other religions to discard their current belief and replace it with the new belief. Even here the battle was to bring everyone under the same ideology and umbrella, but now there were too many umbrellas to seek from. It all has come to an extent that killing in the name of a particular religion is a matter of pride and the real purpose and motivation, is a matter long forgotten.
The birth of atheism
While each person participated in one or the other religion and became part of the game being administered by the priests and pastors, there were few who only remained spectators of the situation and understood that they did not need to be part of this game of fooling or being fooled. They chose to remain out of any of these belief systems or being forced (by means of fear) to be god-fearing and to become a good person because they believed in a particular god. These spectators are the ones who clearly understood why the religions existed and how their purpose was being mend, bent and amended by the religious masters to their own benefits. They disregard any sort of belief system or being remotely connected to them and these are the people we call atheists.
I am not religious, just a good man with no god
- Sam, atheist
The main reason why Atheists exist is because the religion exists. And people turn into atheists because, either they have learnt and practiced too much of religion or they’ve no idea how and why one should exist in a religious boundage. Another reason for those turning to Atheism is too much logic. Logic and religion cannot go hand-in-hand, because one is expected to have a blind faith and not question the god!
Upon talking to a few atheists, I came across this person, who didn’t want his real identity to be revealed and who seems to have a few harsh words to say, but it is undeniably true as well. When asked for the reason behind not disclosing his identity, I learned that anyone speaking against the belief system is targeted and brutally killed. There have been uncountable incidents across Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Israel, Iraq, China and across most European countries. Here are a few of his quotes.
I have been stupid enough to fall into persuasive but false thoughts of religion and god; now am enlightened enough to be an atheist! - Sam, atheist
Religion is a subject of blind-faith; Science is a subject of doubts & experiments. So when a religion is scientifically proven or supported, it is not only blind-faith but also doubtful - Sam, atheist
Just the way raping is bad coz its against one's will, religion is also a rape to one's thoughts and beliefs that is forced upon them even before one could make a choice according to his/her will ! So, if rape is bad then religion is equally bad! Religion is raping and I don't want anyone to rape my thoughts. One should never let that happen to themselves. - Sam, atheist
Unlike the old times, the modern definition and idea of God and religion makes me spellbound. It seems like a competition to make one's God appear greater than others'. The modern picture of a religion and God is nothing of being human but advertisement. Existence of the God is now a question from the way His name is being advertised in the name of different religions!! - Sam, atheist
— UnhappyGhost