Category Archive

Religion is not something a person choses after thoughtful evaluation, rather it is something absorbed by birth and shaped by the family, society, and cultural environment one is born into. From early childhood, religious language, rituals, and beliefs are introduced as unquestioned truths, and are adopted long before one is capable of reflecting on them or considering alternatives.

This highlights the role of chance over choice in matters of faith. A child born in a Christian family is likely to be raised as a Christian, just as one born into a Islamic, Hindu, or Jewish family inherits the associated beliefs – not necessarily because of personal agreement, but because that is what was handed down, expected, and normalised.

Of course, some do eventually convert, leave the religion, or adopt new worldviews, but such shifts are rare and often difficult. They involve social or internal friction, because going against the inherited norm is rarely easy or welcomed. For most people, the religion they practice remains the one they happened to be born into.

I wonder about a world where religion wasn’t inherited by birth. Where everyone was given the chance to explore every religion in depth with its texts, values, history, and contradictions, before making a personal choice, free of any expectation.

Such a world would probably look very different. The distribution of religious followers in various regions might shift dramatically, and who knows how many might step outside organised religion altogether – simply because, reflection was allowed before commitment.

Maybe that’s a nice idea for a movie?

We all have wondered at some point whether our life is driven completely by our free-will and coincidences, or whether there is some greater order which pre-determines where we will end up, with whom, and how. Whether “destiny” is inflexible & rigid, or whether there is an element of free-will in minor decisions while the major aspects of our life (career, marriage, academics etc) are already set in stone for us to play the role we were “meant” to.

For several years, my life seemed completely out of my control. Things happened as per other people’s will which affected my life permanently, even though I tried to change the outcomes, I could not entirely break free of the apparent influence of other people over my life, health, career, etc. At some point I too wondered, what is really in our control and what isn’t?

Anyone who knows me is aware that I am an atheist – a non-believer in things like destiny. I believe in personal choices & consequences – that we determine where we end up, with whom, and how, on the basis of the choices we make every day of our lives. We steer our lives in the direction we choose, and if we overcome all obstacles in our way, we will reach where we want to see ourselves.

We can bring change even in seemingly rigid situations if we make the effort sincerely without giving up. We can bring order even in a seemingly uncontrollable chaotic life. Our “destiny” is nothing but the outcome which has the highest probability based on the choices we have made on the way. We have more control over our lives than we believe – and all it takes to re-build our lives is the belief that we are stronger than our fears, obstacles, doubts, influence of other people, etc.

As long as we believe that we “belong” in a life we don’t like and that we are powerless to change anything, we voluntarily remain tied down in a prison of our own making – until we realise what it means to be caged, we can never realise what true freedom means.

The freedom to think, feel and act in accordance with our authentic desires and a well laid-out plan to fly out of the cage we find ourselves in. Unless one believes in the power of their own free-will, one’s “destiny” remains a product of uncontrollable factors, until one starts to take complete ownership of their life and create everything that one has dreamed of.

All it takes to be free is to believe that we have the power to create our own destiny.

It seems like it’s all too common for atheists finding themselves having to explain the reason why they don’t believe in God, which can occasionally turn into endless debates leading nowhere – where atheists may point out lack of scientific proof or other logical flaws in such conversations, while the believers may counter with how we don’t see/hear many things which exist or that all phenomena cannot be explained by science.

I often found these conversations pointless and exhausting, whether I was a part of them or just witnessing it with others. I’ve never heard of anyone being logically convinced by arguments to believe or disbelieve in anything, yet people seem to keep trying anyway. I’ve always noticed how the default-mode of most people seems to be to believe in some form of religion or God, making atheists seem like the odd ones out –  who are then expected to justify why they do not align themselves with any belief system, sometimes leading to conversations intended to convince them to believe just like everyone else. But I feel like if believers expect people to respect all different faiths, they can at least try to respect atheism as well – even if atheism aligns with non-belief.

I was raised a Hindu, but right from early childhood, I never felt like religious beliefs really resonated with me. Rather than feeling any ‘comfort or belonging’, I usually felt uncomfortable when Hinduism or even spirituality seemed to be imposed on me by the people around me. Still, I was always open to knowing more about various belief systems, even if it was more out of detached curiosity than emotional resonance.

Over the years after school, I went on to learning Hinduism in more depth and also to explore other faiths including Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, “New Age Spirituality”, etc. I found an affinity for Buddhism for its structured nature and meditation techniques for calming the mind, Hindu Vedanta philosophy of Brahman – and even a brief phase with things like Law of Attraction. While there were certainly times when I did feel some kind of purpose, meaning, or comfort through them, such occasions were usually temporary, leaving me more misaligned with practical life than providing any real ‘positives’. Eventually, even after a lot of exploration, reading, joining groups, and giving these beliefs a fair chance, I could not align myself with any of these belief systems – as in the end, all these ideas of “God”, “Religions” or “Spirituality” have all just been created by human beings, in an attempt to create meaning in the seemingly unpredictable, chaotic and meaningless nature of life.

Human beings have created images of God, Religion and Spirituality based on people’s own images, as part of people’s own attempts to give meaning & direction to human lives, decide on and enforce an acceptable code of conduct, create rituals to enable a sense of belonging with people of the same faith, or to make people feel the comfort of having a divine being looking out for them in cosmic ways. And while there may be some aspects of truth in each of these belief systems, or they each may be different roads leading to the same destination – in the end they all seem like incomplete fragments or human fantasies of filling the gaps of what we know with stories based on collective resonance, and not really truth.

I feel like as human beings, we may never be able to fully understand the complete nature of reality or our existence, or why things happen the way they do in our lives – as it is rightly said that these things seem to be beyond human understanding. And as long as we remain unable to truly comprehend or accept the truth of our existence – whether there are indeed cosmic laws governing us, or whether all events in human history are merely random, meaningless coincidences – whether or not any of these faiths are credible is in the end, unknowable.

And maybe I find it better to leave some things unknown, rather than filling the blanks by believing in man-made religions solely for emotional comfort – until either human knowledge evolves enough to find any real answers, or until people get comfortable enough with simply not knowing.

Of course, it’s worth saying that everyone is a believer in something. Like religious or spiritual groups believe in their respective faiths, maybe atheists believe in life being largely determined by our own choices, or destiny being in our own hands. And while there may or may not be divine external forces influencing our lives, maybe we just choose to focus on things within our own control despite these unknowable forces, creating our own purpose or meaning along the way.