Editorial:
A revelation about Atheism!
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Recently in U.K., a research led by Richard Lynn of Ulster University has found a link between intelligence and atheism - in fact, according to them, University academics are less likely to believe in God than anyone else. “Several Gallup poll studies of the general population have shown that those with higher IQs tend not to believe in God”, the Daily Telegraph (of London) quoted Lynn as saying.
Not only the survey and the Gallup poll studies convey this finding but also the convictions of the recipients of the Nobel prize also confirm this. Take for instance Bertrand Russel, Dr. Chandra sekar (the Physicist), Amertya Sen to name a few Nobel laureates.
Most of the scientists are non-believers; but some of them are hesitant to come out openly and declare they are atheists like Richard Dawkins.
Most of the readers do not know that Sigmund Freud was an ardent atheist!
Buddha was our ancient atheist. Atheism is nothing but a way of questioning and inquisitive mental attitude chiselling our thoughts.
Humans alone can question anything and everything. Animals are incapable of it and that is why they are inferior even though they possess certain other extra -ordinary sense-perceptions and instincts. Through their sense of smelling, dogs help the police to detect the worst crimes. Inspite of it, they are not considered as superior to human beings who have the rational faculty.
The intelligent people analyse anything and every thing in the light of reason.
Why Buddha never believed in god? Because he was analytical and his rational mind refused to believe anything blindly. His thought provoking questions about God clearly elucidate this theory of Atheism.
“The justification for belief in God is a conclusion which follows from our answer to the question how the world was created.
The important question is : Did God create something out of nothing or did he create something out of something?
It is impossible to believe that something could have been created out of nothing!
If the so called God has created something out of something, then that something out of which something new was created has been in existence before he created anything. God cannot therefore be called the creator of that something which has existed before him.
If something has been created by somebody out of something before God created anything then God cannot be said to be the creator of the first cause.”
-Dr. B.R.Ambedkar in ‘Buddha and his Dhamma’
Robert Green Ingersoll of United States of America was a man of higher intelligence quotient and an undoubted agnostic. He analysed the differences between the believers and the non-believers - atheists.
“Fear believes-
Courage doubts
Fear falls upon the earth and prays
Courage stands erect and thinks
Fear retreats
Courage advances
Fear is barbarism
Courage is civilization
Fear believes in witchcraft, in devils and in ghosts
Fear is religion
Courage is science.
In his international best-seller book ‘God is not great’ Christopher Hitchens rightly observes, “Philosophy begins where religion ends, just as by analogy, chemistry begins where alchemy runs out, and astronomy takes the place of astrology”.
Atheism is nothing but humanism par excellence. Thanthai Periyar, the great social revolutionary of our times, observed that Atheism is not a negative philosophy, it is a positive one, and that is why he said : ‘Forget god and think of humans’. The truth is, man created god in his own image and not vice versa.
“Being an atheist is nothing to be apologetic about. On the contrary, it is something to be proud of, standing tall to face the far horizon, for atheism nearly always indicates a healthy independence of mind and, indeed a healthy mind. There are many people who know, in their heart of hearts that they are atheists, but dare not admit it to their families or even, in some cases, to themselves. Partly, this is because the very word ‘atheist’ has been assiduously built up as a terrible and frightening label” - Richard Dawkins
