So strong and widespread is the stigma attached
to being an atheist that for many who do not believe, it takes a lot
of courage to say so and its implications are potentially
devastating. Here are two examples. An unbelieving woman revealed:
"I’ve had people literally, physically back away from me upon
hearing I am atheist. My children were told to run away from our
evil home." A man’s confession of lost faith almost cost him his
marriage: "My wife told me that I’m caught in Satan’s grip and
confessed that after I de-converted, she considered leaving me. I
believe the only reason she didn’t is because she’s financially
dependent on me."
In the eyes of the believing American public,
atheism is synonymous with immorality. But many atheists respond to
this baseless assumption with the counterclaim: "compassion is my
religion". A professed atheist, Valerie Tarico, recounts her
experience at a popular Calvinist megachurch in Seattle where a
priest was underlining the imperative of faith: "If the resurrection
[of Jesus Christ] didn’t literally happen, there is no reason for us
to be here. If the resurrection didn’t literally happen, there are
parties to be had. There are women to be had. There are guns to
shoot. There are people to shoot." Tarico’s response: "I found
myself thinking, if the only thing that stands between you and
debauchery, lechery and violence is a belief in the literal
resurrection of Jesus, I’m really glad you believe that. But what
are you saying about the rest of us?" Good question.
We often take the "West" to mean Europe, North
America (USA, Canada), Australia and New Zealand with the underlying
assumption that "western values" are something they have in common.
But on the question of atheism, Europe and the USA are clearly poles
apart. Being an atheist in most of Europe is no big deal.
If, on the one hand, atheists are held
responsible by many believers for all the ills of American society,
on the other hand, recent years have seen the birth of a "New
Atheism" which has chosen to launch an aggressive "crusade against
belief". For writers like Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam
Harris and the late Christopher Hitchens, religion lies at the root
of all the problems that plague the world. But many atheists
themselves fear that this no-holds-barred battle against god can
only be counterproductive.
In the nearly two decades of this journal’s
existence, a few readers have occasionally suggested that there is
no point fighting communalism alone; you must attack religion itself
which is the source of this malaise. We beg to differ. Our
understanding of and experience in dealing with the menace of
communal prejudice, hatred and violence over the years has taught us
that equating either communalism with religion or secularism with
atheism will get us nowhere.
The deeply religious Mahatma Gandhi and Maulana
Azad, we must remember, were proponents of secular politics while
the hardly religious Jinnah and Savarkar (Hindu Mahasabha) promoted
communal politics. At the height of the Gujarat massacre in 2002
though the gates of the Sabarmati Ashram sadly remained shut, church
property was opened up to shelter fleeing Muslims. The report of the
Srikrishna Commission which severely indicted the Shiv Sena and the
police for Mumbai’s anti-Muslim pogrom in 1992-1993 was the work of
(retired) Justice BN Srikrishna, a devout Hindu. RB Sreekumar,
Gujarat’s former director general of police, a most courageous IPS
officer who has, since 2002, consistently exposed the misdeeds of
the Modi government and police, is also a very devout Hindu.
Correspondingly, the fact that West Bengal remained "riot-free"
throughout the rule of the Left Front tells us something about the
morality/ideology of atheists/communists.
As always, this journal defends the right of every individual to
believe or not to believe. And it strongly opposes the
stigmatisation of individuals for their faith or lack thereof.