From the land of elephants and "Slumdog Millionaire" (Most people know India for just those two things. I'm just highlighting the stereotype), which also just happens to be the world's largest democracy, where you could get a jail term for publicly ridiculing a religion, I am Mahendra. For those that really want to know more, India is ancient, and boasts of over 1600 languages, several hundred thousand gods and goddesses, and a population of over 1.27 Billion people. Yep. I am but one brown dot in the cosmological sense that the earth is just a pale blue dot.
I Didn't Fit.
I didn't fit...
I wanted to, but I couldn't. I will not make claims that I was an atheist from the time I could first think, but when I was told that "an idle mind is the devil's workshop", I did wonder where great stories and ideas came from. My journey of realization spanned many years and I went through the motions of "believing" in the existence of a god, alternate theories, ancient aliens and more, apart from also being an active participant in an organised religion.
Religion meant being a proud catholic, being willing to die for my "faith", attending mass on Sundays and other holy days, abstaining from things like watching TV or reading comics and fasting during lent, looking out for non-Catholics who strayed into church and wanted to consume the communion wafer, being an altar boy and so on. I honestly don't know why they wanted to taste that bland piece of rice flour, though I could actually attribute it to the concept of "Prasad" from Hindu culture.
On the home front in fact, there was a constant religious power struggle in the household because the father is a Hindu and the mother is a catholic. Mother always maintained that moving away from Christianity was equivalent to moving to the dark side. In fact, if one wasn't a catholic, one was pagan. Yes, I tried explaining to her years later what pagan actually meant, but decades of conditioning had driven it so deep into her vocabulary that it was going to be that uninvited guest that refuses to leave.
A lot of the bible seemed contradictory to me in my teens, but I kept going back to it, and found solace in that invisible sky-daddy time and time again because of situations that got out of hand very often. I knew, that science and religion don't mix, but that didn't stop me from putting some of my eggs in that basket just out of the need for something to hold on to.
But, I just didn't fit.
The biggest breaking point, or I should say life altering moment, came when I found a mentor.
"FFS get your head out of your ass! Don't keep your mind so open that your brains fall out."
Those were the words that made me rethink where I stood in the cosmic scheme of things, if I can use that analogy. Then came the learning. The more I read, the more I learnt. The more I learnt, the more I realized that the world is full of bullshit stories and people that believe in them without so much as a thought. I should know, I was one of them.
"Question everything. Never stop questioning. Do not be satisfied with "believing" when you can "know".
Once I came to terms with what was the fact of how we got here, a more plausible explanation, if I may, of how everything came to be from the scientific point of view, it was not very difficult shedding the baggage of religion. I still have my moments of "stupid" but hey, I'm human.
I still don't fit, but I'm comfortable with the questions now.
I wanted to, but I couldn't. I will not make claims that I was an atheist from the time I could first think, but when I was told that "an idle mind is the devil's workshop", I did wonder where great stories and ideas came from. My journey of realization spanned many years and I went through the motions of "believing" in the existence of a god, alternate theories, ancient aliens and more, apart from also being an active participant in an organised religion.
Religion meant being a proud catholic, being willing to die for my "faith", attending mass on Sundays and other holy days, abstaining from things like watching TV or reading comics and fasting during lent, looking out for non-Catholics who strayed into church and wanted to consume the communion wafer, being an altar boy and so on. I honestly don't know why they wanted to taste that bland piece of rice flour, though I could actually attribute it to the concept of "Prasad" from Hindu culture.
On the home front in fact, there was a constant religious power struggle in the household because the father is a Hindu and the mother is a catholic. Mother always maintained that moving away from Christianity was equivalent to moving to the dark side. In fact, if one wasn't a catholic, one was pagan. Yes, I tried explaining to her years later what pagan actually meant, but decades of conditioning had driven it so deep into her vocabulary that it was going to be that uninvited guest that refuses to leave.
A lot of the bible seemed contradictory to me in my teens, but I kept going back to it, and found solace in that invisible sky-daddy time and time again because of situations that got out of hand very often. I knew, that science and religion don't mix, but that didn't stop me from putting some of my eggs in that basket just out of the need for something to hold on to.
But, I just didn't fit.
The biggest breaking point, or I should say life altering moment, came when I found a mentor.
"FFS get your head out of your ass! Don't keep your mind so open that your brains fall out."
Those were the words that made me rethink where I stood in the cosmic scheme of things, if I can use that analogy. Then came the learning. The more I read, the more I learnt. The more I learnt, the more I realized that the world is full of bullshit stories and people that believe in them without so much as a thought. I should know, I was one of them.
"Question everything. Never stop questioning. Do not be satisfied with "believing" when you can "know".
Once I came to terms with what was the fact of how we got here, a more plausible explanation, if I may, of how everything came to be from the scientific point of view, it was not very difficult shedding the baggage of religion. I still have my moments of "stupid" but hey, I'm human.
I still don't fit, but I'm comfortable with the questions now.
A few words from Mahendra on atheism in India.
Hinduism, (the largest religion) being polytheistic and pantheistic, does not have the concept of blasphemy. Blasphemy laws therefore, are absent in tradition. In practice, however, blasphemy is classified as hate speech and prosecuted. British rule codified the Penal Code which punishes as hate speech insults or attempts to insult the religion or the religious beliefs of any citizen with deliberate and malicious intention to outrage their religious feelings. These laws are applied to all religions including Hinduism, Sikhism, Christianity and Islam.
So long as I don't insult someone's religion or frail religious sentiments, I can still be an atheist, pursue the questions and further my own education. Being an atheist was scary at first, from the cosmological and religio-psychological point of view but also extremely fulfilling. I've taken the knowledge and ran with it.
Hinduism, (the largest religion) being polytheistic and pantheistic, does not have the concept of blasphemy. Blasphemy laws therefore, are absent in tradition. In practice, however, blasphemy is classified as hate speech and prosecuted. British rule codified the Penal Code which punishes as hate speech insults or attempts to insult the religion or the religious beliefs of any citizen with deliberate and malicious intention to outrage their religious feelings. These laws are applied to all religions including Hinduism, Sikhism, Christianity and Islam.
So long as I don't insult someone's religion or frail religious sentiments, I can still be an atheist, pursue the questions and further my own education. Being an atheist was scary at first, from the cosmological and religio-psychological point of view but also extremely fulfilling. I've taken the knowledge and ran with it.
Due to his country of origin, Mahendra wishes not to share his contact information. If you would like to leave him a message, drop a comment below.