The subtle imaginary dividing line —

The issue of ratio of numbers of people being either Theist or Atheist, has always been a subject matter of debate. This connotes about the uncertainty of numbers of people as an atheist and theist in the world. Superficially we find theistic people outnumbering greatly atheists. Every society, that happens to observe a religious pattern, there we find atheists  nominal in numbers. Further, it’s a tough job to count to count the numbers of atheist in any society through any survey.

Now the issue is, if we are theist or atheist, how deeply we observe our this “personal Philosophy” in our day to day behaviour? A Theist is a fellow who believes in the existence of god. His deep opinion is, this Universe is created by the Almighty god and he is the ultimate power who is operating and running and controlling the every activity of this Universe. As per his belief, every activity, deeds, ups and down of life, calamity, disaster or every day innovative formula in the form of pleasure providing means, we experience, all these occur and take shape by the whim of the god.

On the contrary, an atheist has got a determined concept. To him, there exist no any entity in the name of the god. This Universe has come into existence following some theories and principles of science. Further, this Universe is running in accordance and in harmony with some theories of science. Theists have got piles of mythological fables and scripture in store to support their concept. Meanwhile, atheists too are loaded with with their own “explanations,” about the existence of the Universe. To support the formation of Universe, they are in hand the “Big bang theory.”

It’s not that atheist register presence only at the present scientific era. They too have been present in every “phase” of human civilization.. In ancient time. the “class of people,” who denied the existence of god, theist had had simply one option and it was to declare them as “disciple of Satan.” although, in due course of time, the “theory of Satan” too had had its presence in another format. They were taken as a different sect and that is a different subject matter. Since, Satan being considered as the counter part of god in negative form, who too was harnessed with Supernatural power. Truly say, Satanic sect can not be accepted as an atheist sect.

A theistic person candidly as well as clandestinely recognizes god as an omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent. Every miraculous event is like  a mysterious act of god and identifies supernatural power as a part and parcel of godly domain. In this way, any calamity, disaster, flood, earth quake etc, a theist counts as wrath of the god. Just in contrast, an atheist blames human being as a root cause for occurrence of flood, calamity and epidemic etc. In his opinion men exploit the nature unscientifically and unmethodically and as such causing dis-balance of the ecosystem. The out come of this dis-balance men face in shape of natural calamity etc.

In support of his argument, he puts forward so many paradigms of  of recent times, that been directly been an outcome of disorderly exploration and exploitation of natural resources by men. To him, all these disasters are man made. Further more, these exploitation helped create a climate suitable to develop venomous diseases. But despite his being atheist, he hardly can pacify one query! In the ancient time, when population of men upon this planet were meager and he was not capable to explore and exploit the natural resources drastically and unmethodically, why natural calamities and epidemic assaulted the human race, In short, both theist and atheist are loaded with with their own kind of evidences and arguments, and seem ready to contend the case cogently and infinitely.

The main trial in this blog is, why a person converts into atheist from a theist? Since, no one is a born atheist! There is a term “dubiety.’  This word  “dubiety” gives rise to a bigger term “skepticism.” This term in itself is mysterious in its meaning. When a person raises a  logical question about a religious precept, tradition or practice, he begins to behave like a “skeptical.” Often as an skeptical, he raises his doubt impartially and out of curiosity. This he doesn’t do to let down the grace of his own religious belief before other religious ideology.

He simply had a suspicion; what is the logic behind it?  And when he doesn’t find a propitiatory logical explanation to his doubt, he begins to raise a question about the domain of so called god. This is the “skepticism” in wider sense. Sometimes we observe this element of “skepticism” being followed by mass at a larger scale, in shape of a “social revolution.” In the history of mankind the ” Communistic revolution” is a glaring paradigm of this skepticism , but with certain reserves which needed to be discussed. In Communism, there is no place for “practice of religion.” This Communistic movement too has taken some big and small Nations into its grip.

But, there too was a hitch in this kind of Communistic regime. Might the ruling cadre been successful in achieving and taking the control of the regime of a country and promulgated the Communistic political with the dint of force. But, the deep rooted religious faith was hard to erase from the mind and heart of common people of these Communistic countries. The concept of god and religion always remained alive in the memory of the common people. Still in every Communist country, people widely acknowledge the concept of “god and religion” and follow their faith in this or that way.

The simple fact is, human beings, from the inception of the civilization been taught the teachings of ethics through the medium of religious faith. This process took  a long span of many thousands years. During this journey of thousands years, religion been carved ( not inscribed only) so deeply into the DNA of men. The DNA of the mankind is religiously saturated one.

Once again we come back to the point, “what degrees of intensity is needed to become a theist?” The answer to this query lies into his “practicing of religion,” he is following! In some orthodox religions, it is mandatory to
observe and follow ” the teachings and precepts” of the Godly book verbatim. To them, it’s the dictum or command of God, unarguable and never in any form, no any such command or precepts can be challenged or violated.

Might be, as a follower of the faith, he dares not to raise a question but once in a blue moon, he be forced to face the skeptical phase. In contrast to that, there are so many religions ( though in the past, they too had been so orthodox in observance) they are now so liberal in practice. People following them, publically raise questions about the existence of God and upon this issue they register their presence in a good deal of number. But this doesn’t indicate, all they been convert to Atheism. Though some staunch skeptical out of them been registered as Atheist.

At the same, there is a category of people, who tried hard to gain some achievement, but despite of giving several efforts failed to gain the desired results. Upon facing repeated failures, they begun to blame the god for not giving desired results. This kind of people became skeptical “out of wrath,” and in protest began to register their abhorrence as an Atheist.  An another category is of people, who when by chance occasioned to witness some miraculous incidence and began to accept that all, as “divine act.” But again, when the same incidence recurred in a routine way with other people also, felt  a sense of skepticism in that.

As said previously, in communist country, people are made deprived to practice the religion and forced to behave like an atheist, but that political ideology too in all proportion was not successful in implementation. Though people concealed their feelings and covertly kept on behaving like an theist. In liberal society, a theist converts to atheist and sometimes atheist  to a theist.  In this transformation, the element of skepticism plays a vital role. It is also true, every one is born as a theist but when he grows up, he begins to apply logic and sometimes in rare cases he turns into an atheist. Penned by — Vinay Pharasi —–