Nietzsche exclaimed in the twentieth century that “God is dead”. While he was perhaps not referring to the figure of god as much as the construct that religion propagates, it is interesting to evaluate, how a century later, atheism that clearly defines itself as an antithesis of religion might also be striving on to the same principles it seeks to revoke. It is warranted then, this contemplation- is ‘god’ dead or just transformed?
While secularism and liberalism consistently grow day by day, atheism is spreading rapidly as well. The ranks of atheists are expanding and diversifying. Traditionally, they are the religiously unaffiliated “nones”. It is largely predicted that one day soon religion would lose its relevance as the world modernizes and the rate at which atheism is growing. Countries like France, Netherlands, The United Kingdom and Australia, owing to their existing secular ethos are forecasted to be the pioneers of this shift. All over the world, atheism (or not believing in a particular faith) is like a “choice” that most people are actively and increasingly making. Religion is rapidly becoming less important over the time, even to those people who are part of such countries where faith has affected everything from rulers to borders to architecture as Bullard Gabe observes in “The World’s newest major religion: no religion”.
However, it is important to note the spectrum of the existence of religion: While in the Sub-Saharan Africa, religion is growing so fast that allegedly the global population of atheists in the world would shrink in 25 years, there is also on the opposite end, China, where the cultural revolution has always tamped down religion. In the midst of these lies the United States, which shows no sign of abetting to atheism anytime soon. In India, the idea of atheism is growing as it adopts a more liberal worldview even though it has both majority (Hinduism) and numerous minority religions (Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Buddhism, Jainism etc). Atheism is a practice popularised by people who don’t believe in the existence of any God or any supernatural power but believe in rationality and occurrences based on scientific logic. Simply put, it is a lack of belief in idols and absolutist symbols. However, one should know that for every person the definition of an atheist is different. It is an umbrella classification that contains within it further demarcations- which are also constantly evolving- like that of Antitheists, Accommodationists, Agnostics, Humanists, Religious atheists or Unaffiliated “nones” the descriptions of which also vary a lot and are a subject to be scrutinised elsewhere.
People who call themselves liberals and secularists, have started to question a lot of myths, religious practices and traditions. Many say that atheists do not find meaning of life anywhere because if one doesn’t believe in God, and there is nothing superior to that, what else could one turn to?. Atheists mentioned “family” as a source of meaning in a survey conducted by the Pew Research in 2017. Atheists were far more likely to describe hobbies as quite meaningful or satisfying as well as finances and money, creative pursuits, travel, and leisure activities as meaningful as a substitute for religious spirituality as noted by Michael Lipka in the fore-mentioned research. Not all atheists disrespect religion or have any hatred towards any religion, it is just a personal agenda they follow.
In Hinduism, the Samkhya School of Hindu philosophy is one such school which believes that humans can achieve liberation themselves and can free their own spirits and the Mimamsa School rejects the idea of a creator God. One may not believe this theory but a philosopher of this school, Kumarila, states that if God had created the world by himself initially, who saw him do that? He also says that if God had created the world and he was a merciful person, how could we get so many sufferings in life? The Arya Samaj in the nineties also argued in the same vein that there were pre-existing laws in nature and they did not have faith in idol worship rather choosing to believe that God is omniscient not just in the idols.
Why do people choose atheism? Atheists always point to those moments when they came to realise that religion simply didn’t make any sense. Many people are atheists because of the way they were brought up or educated or maybe the culture in which they were brought up affects a lot of their thinking. For instance, a person who is born in Communist China is likely to have no belief in religion because the education system and socio-political culture can make him so, whereas a person brought up in India, owing to the rituals intrinsically bound with religion tends to subscribe to the faith of his/her family or clan.
Atheists see the harm that such dogmatic faith does to people. One example could be of the prejudice towards people belonging to LGBTQ+ community, which is still largely unaccepted because of religion. It also becomes in many contexts, a cause for sexism and caste discrimination. Atheists care about critical thinking and because of that they want to promote the idea that scientific methods should be seen and acknowledged instead of horoscopes, tarot card future telling. It implores one to stop believing in other pseudo sciences and look for evidence. Even charitable works like donation, which are considered to be undertaken in accordance to religious principles are dissed by Atheists who maintain that the reason should be care and inherent kindness, not just a God or religion that compels one to do it.
For the last twenty years in India, there has been a healthy rise of atheism or scepticism. If we were to have a look at the absolute numbers from both the censuses, that is of 2001 and 2011, we will get to know that people who fall into the category of “religion not stated” has risen from 7 lakhs to 29 lakhs as observed by a panel of critics. There are three types of Atheists in India which are also stated in 2011 census: the Marxist Atheists, who claim to be rationalists and they belong to the largest chunk of 29 lakhs aforementioned. Then, there are also tokenistic Atheists, who belong to the second largest portion of the 2011 census. These people took up the label of atheism because they think that it is very “cool” to be a part of. Thirdly, Dharmic sceptics who criticise Eastern Philosophies using modern sciences. However, their division aside, it is pertinent to observe how atheism has taken root as an alternative as well as an escape from the stifling religious impositions and by looking at the number of atheists, one can say that, yes, the ideology is growing although in a slower proportion but at a much faster pace.
Sanidhya Sharma is a second year student of international relations honors from O.P. Jindal Global University. He is a law aspirant. He loves dancing, listening to music, interacting with people, he is always up for travelling and is a major foodie .