An approach to atheism - I

Why do I even need God in my life? I'm an atheist, it's you who believe that everyone's born a sinner. It's your myth. I don't need your God. 

You have asked very good question my friend! First of all, what the word ‘atheist’ means? You admitted that you are an atheist right? The etymology of this word is from two Greek words a and theos. It goes like this: a-theos which literally means ‘without God’. a refers to without and theos refers to God in Greek. It is thus a belief in rejecting the existence of God or any deities. The etymological root began before 5^th century BCE. The actual term atheism emerged in 16^th century. There was wide spread in the skeptical thought, criticism of religions and free thoughts.

Therefore, by the definition, you have admitted that you live a life without God, in absence of God and in believe that there is no God! The atheist argument goes for the existence of evil in this world and the ongoing suffering and sorrows of human beings. The great scientist Stephen Hawking also admitted that the universe originated from nothing and so there is no need of God even to create anything from nothing.

When you ask why you do need God in your life, you have to reflect your life first. You insisted that it is our myth to say that everyone’s born a sinner and you concluded that you do need no God in life. I remember in the school life, we used to have moral teachings and lessons. In that teaching we are taught to quit pride, greed, anger, envy, etc. We are taught different stories through which the consequences of such attributes are exposed and we are urged to quit those attributes that gives no benefit. When a new child is born, no one teaches him/her to cry, but he/she steps to this world by crying lot. When starts his schooling age, no one teaches him to argue, fight, steal small things, play pranks, disobey parents, etc. but he does these all. How on earth, he learnt that? And it is even amazing that too much morality is focused since schooling age. Why is that so? Can you confidently tell me any part of your life during which you had no bad thoughts, you had no envy, you had no greed, and moves on the life? Why will you teach your children moral lessons? So that your children may quit their bad habits and attributes right? Then now my question is, how or from where those attributes came from? If you say the environment is responsible for this and what he sees from his family and society he learns it. Again my question goes: From where then the human society learnt those bad attributes from? When this questions passes on seeing backward in the time, you might then reach evolution of human beings from monkeys. The question can again be the same for those creatures. Here, the focus goes for the environment and regarding human beings their generation keep passing on learning from one another. The revenge, the quarrels, the disputes, the jealousy, etc. keep on passing along the generation to generation. My question is only one: How did this all happen? From where does this come from?

However, when you ask why we need God then it is still a sensible question! Yes, why do we really need God? Now think a while. Human society is existing along with the bad attributes in them. No matter how far a person studies in his life, achieves good grades and then has good job with earnings, gets marriage and has a happy marital life yet can you be sure he is having a peaceful life? No matter if an individual is poor or rich, everyone has sorrows in their life, tension in their life, fear of death in their life, sufferings, and clashes with people, and so on. The bad attributes in human themselves and their consequences sums up in suffering and sorrows in society. The social evil are all the consequences of these matter. There is loot, theft, murder, war, rape, betrayal, etc. in human society even today’s scientific age. People have no peace in heart. No satisfaction. Outside they show happy faces, but inside they have burning flame of sorrows. The desire in us never end up. The attachment with materialism in us never ends nor can these things satisfy us.

Buddha if you know was raised in a Hindu environment. With a fear of possibility that he might leave the palace, his father arranges every luxury to him in his palace. He was granted with every facilities. But once when he travels outside the palace, the scenario of human condition he sees tears his heart apart. How would have he felt when he had seen people with sorrows and suffering while he was living in a luxury? He then feels that the reality of life is different. Now a great typhoon, tornado, hurricane, tsunami and earthquake scratches his heart making him think even deeper about human life and suffering. One more thing to tell you my friend is that Buddha was never a god. His path Buddhism was atheistic. He had rejected the authority of Vedas and challenged many Hindu rituals and practices. You can see no God in his teaching and philosophy. Yet, a bitter truth is that he had no peace and he then went on searching for the solution sacrificing his wife and son. Yes, he rejected God and taught karma and reincarnation. He taught 8 fold paths and 4 noble truths in order to achieve nirvana. No suffering, no sorrows, and no existence. Even Buddha gave a time to reflect human society. Now, your logic may go towards saying that this is modern age. Who’s got such time to ponder upon life? Everyone’s busy in their own survival. That’s the problem my dear friend! That’s the problem. Today, saying it is age of science, no one even has small fraction of time to think upon these bitterness of life. Buddha did not say let me leave this. Who cares? See, I am having such a luxurious life. No he did not say but moved on to find solution, the liberation, the moksha, the nirvana! He meditated and became enlightened. Even when you say about scientific age, do you know the Vedic age in ancient India around 1500 BC afterwards? The sages, rishis, learnt gurus were expert in mathematics, astrology, astronomy, psychology, philosophy, and so many sects of education. The Vedas had such remarkable teachings. Such education and busy life was there since ancient times and yet they had also time to focus their life. When you study the Hindu text you can find cry of human heart that they need liberation from sorrows and suffering: asatoma satgamaya, tamasoma jyotirgamaya, mrityurma amritamgamaya i.e. their plead for living a life in truth, living a life in light, and living a life of eternity. What was the reason? The falsehood they were surrounded with, the darkness they were captured with and the death they could not bear with. Even Aadi Shankracharya stated with great pain and requested to God to destroy the death as it is unbearable for taking uncountable reincarnations in cosmic cycle of life.

I just mentioned few example from other religion just to show their reactions. They searched for the solution when they realized the consequences. But I am bring here a challenge to know the source of it! Now, let me go to the Bible. The Bible reveals how this all came to be. God never created human beings to have such a life of suffering. The world God created was good. He did not create human beings and angels like robots but he provided them free will under exercise of his sovereignty. The reality is: God doesn’t need us but we need God! God doesn’t need even this material universe. He is self-sufficient. Yet he created us because he wanted to show his love for us. He wanted us to know difference between rule of divine and rule of evil, he wanted us to make right choice and choose him, he wanted us to realize his essence. He thus created angels and us with free will but it was an angel who first had desire to uplift himself higher than God. Yes, God gave him desire and free will but he did wrong choice. He chose his own desires of achieving great position rather God his creator. The same virus now transferred to first human beings. Even if they had been already warned by God, they chose to listen Satan. The temptation was there, and they both failed. They did not trust God, they did not rely on his word, they did not obey him. They chose to live in their own way. They cut off their fellowship from God. Due to this fear of God, they became farther and farther from God. They were created pure but after their wrong choice, they had to suffer the consequences. You may ask why God did not stop them? Why created them knowing that they would fall? My friend, even knowing that children should struggle parents do not quit giving birth to their child. This is courage to face the struggle! God had courage to face this ultimate challenge! Else he shall be a coward! And, in class Maths teacher teaches students many times to use right formula for a certain question. Now, in exam time, when a student does error, teacher comes to visit the exam hall and sees his mistake, he feels sad but doesn’t stop! The warning has already been given! God had already warned them but rather they listened to falsehood!

The separation from God, using other ways to escape from His wrath, greed for something, attachment towards something, blaming one another, murder, envy, etc. everything began and started corrupting the world and human generation. Every newly born child stepped the world with same virus and had to face same consequence. They lost God so their attachment went to other things to satisfy their desire. They lost the truth and so lived under falsehood. They lost the Life so they were ruled by death. They lost the light, so they were all in darkness. The generation passed away, true God who is light and life was forgotten. It was all wrong turn, wrong choice my friend! Some reject God and become an atheist when he sees such mess in the world. Some submits himself to nature due to its good use, the power it exhibits to humans and becomes animist. Some submits himself to their self-made gods and become polytheism so that they can have some hope for their survival. They seek some higher being who cares them, who assists them. This all was the origin. We need God. We all are born sinner which is not accusation to humans but a bitter reality. We all have lost our potential of doing good. Why would God simply intervene? God made us to be with him but now the messed up environment made us to train ourselves in this world how we shall choose God’s will upon the evil choices. What are you going to say to your offspring when they ask how it all became?

We need God because He is our life, our essence, our light and our fellowship. The true hope only lies when we come to right choice. I am sure this may not make any sense to you but I still request you to think on and reflect your life. Do you really need no God? 

[Note to the reader: This was just an attempt of how would I respond their query and objection and this has not been written with an aim of convincing.]