Okay, the debate really was about understanding if ethics are a function of God. As is the common understanding, ethics are a function of religion and religion is a function of God. So, what I wanted to prove was, that ethics really stand by themselves without god and I think I have been successful in that. But, yes the discussion moves towards atheism and I think its time to put down my 'Postulates of Atheism' :-
- You cannot get any help from prayers. You are by yourself and cannot wait for a superpower to help you. A hospital or university could be built instead of spending money for building temples, churches and mosques. We ALONE have to strive to eradicate poverty, conquer diseases, conserve nature, eliminate war and protect people.
- There is nothing beyond the physical nature of matter, nothing super-natural. Death is the termination of that organic unit. This hypothesis seems shocking and troubling, but when you die, you die. There is no afterlife. We humans like to believe in immorality and that our soul still lives etc... but that is bullshit. There is no Heaven, no Hell. My identity is not beyond my body. My identity is by the neuronal networking in my brain, that's it, there is nothing more to it.
- An Atheist does not refrain from social responsibilities. In fact he strives for involvement in life instead of seeking escape in death/moksha/sanyas/nirvana. He believes in loving his fellow men than loving an imaginary god. We are the keepers of ourselves and others. We are responsible people, the job is here and the time is now.
- Understanding oneself, other people and the nature of universe is the real enlightenment and fulfillment of life and requires the highest levels of intelligence. Science and Philosophy rule!
- Its not a bad thing to enjoy luxury, find convenience in new technologies, strive for betterment of life or be materialist.
- There are many questions you can ask, like where did the earth come from? where did the Sun come from? who did the big bang? what was there before the big bang etc etc etc... My response to this is, "I don't know"; and I am not ashamed to say that because I am sure we will get there some day. There was a time when we attributed the lightening in the sky to the Gods. Then the gods said the earth was flat, and we believed it. Mr. Galileo had to loose his life to say that its round. Then we went in space to see the earth and prove the Gods wrong!
- And most importantly an Atheist does't not bother what others believe in. Individual rights of thought and expression are the base of a progressive society and people should be allowed to act as they believe as long as this is according to 'law' and not a nuisance to the society at large.
By the way, if you see God in everything you see around, so be it! Human brains are highly imprintable and people can be trained to think something without reasoning. Socrates was sentenced to death and poisoned for 'reasoning' with the Gods. And, Chet, Mother Teresa did not believe in God. There is documentation about her letters to some bishop asking why she cannot see, hear or feel 'God' in spite of a lifetime of prayers and service. I read this in a article in TOI, immediately following her demise. Anyways, if you see the journey all along , from believing in elemental Gods like Sun, Moon, Fire, Water etc to believing in personified Gods like Apollo, Zeus, Shiva, Christ etc. moving on to non-personification of God believing in principles and ideas like in Islam, Buddhism or Jainism (Vedas are an expection to all this, I'll talk about them later; after I have been able to comprehend a drop of that ocean...). And then there has always been a growing class of non-believers, the 'Atheist'. I am not pro-atheism or anti-religion, in fact I believe in integrated hindutva, and I don't care what others believe... all I want is to be reasonable!
