The premise of atheism is very simple. It simply rejects the belief in any god for want of evidences. This is quite innocuous, valid and exceedingly harmless proposition. This blog is about Neo-atheists’ behaviour and is based on the experiences from Twitter, Facebook and other online forums. Having said that, let me admit, the blog is not necessarily about entire atheist population. Further, this blog is not about atheism per se. In case you think I am some kind of religious zealot, let me assure I am not. The kind of atrocities done in the name of religions, I don’t even want to think about them as they are so disgusting. So one might ask why I am writing only against atheists. The reason is they are supposed to be rational, sensible, true humanist but somehow they have kind of lost the focus on things which made them atheists in the first place. Of course, at many occasions, even a relatively decent atheist when faced with the barrage of nonsensical attacks from believers can take a rather aggressive and bitter stand which is quite justified and natural. After reading this, if you point out shortcomings of religion in response, I’d definitely agree with you.
  
Altruism and Atheism - This is one of the biggest lie told by atheists. It is incessantly claimed by them that atheists are best at altruism. As an unbiased listener to all things, I must say such tall claims are made out of desperation. Being atheist isn’t just enough. You have to prove you are superior. In one instance, while enquiring into the validity of this claim, I was provided with the link of an online article written by Richard Dawkins. Though I posted a response to that article in my earlier blog, the important thing is to understand is
that the before-mentioned article by Dawkins was dishonest and unreasonable attempt to prove that atheists are better at altruism. The conclusion drawn in that article was deliberate. I just felt Dawkins systematically twisted the meanings of facts. The thing is Bill Gates or Warren Buffet didn’t donate money because they were atheists/agnostics just like priests didn’t abuse children just because they were priests. The fact is nobody donated money because he or she is an atheist. While on the other hand, millions have donated money in the name of religions. I think almost every religion promotes charity in the most explicit way possible. Atheism, per se, doesn’t. (I am by no means implying atheists are bad at charity) Besides, I strongly believe altruism is inherent to human nature. Religion or not, people would still be altruistic. Religions only remind or direct us to be altruistic and if religions being so strong in their impact can’t motivate enough to donate, nothing can. We are left with our natural sense of morals to do good things. And how does atheism ensures that atheists are most altruistic? Is there any reasoning behind it? My religion teaches me I should donate money to poor. My religious side (but not human side) makes me donate my hard earned money. On one fine day, I realized there was no god and I turned atheist. Now there is no religion to motivate me to donate and my human side never wanted me to donate any money. Now what? That poor who was surviving on my donated money suddenly became even more miserable.

Atheists Population – It is genuinely amusing to see how and why atheists are so enthusiastic about their population more and more increasing. Watching through the whole hoopla over atheists’ population, I can see they would provide you with any kind of data. At times, their attitude was like, “if you aren’t on that side, you must be on my side.” In their desperation, they attempt to include non-religious believers on their side. Aren’t religious zealots are criticized for the same? Isn’t this kind of propagandist attitude trademark of religions? So how is atheism any different from religions? Followers of both factions are equally fanatics about spreading their ‘belief system’. A significant part of populations is of those people who just don’t associates themselves with any religious faction. In fact, they aren’t even atheist at conscious level. They didn’t choose any religion. They didn’t choose atheism also. They just don’t bother. But they are included in counting to show that atheism is spreading by leaps and bounds. This is just plain dishonest. Being atheist is a conscious decision. As such I never perform any kind of religious activity. I practically never visit any religious place (except for sightseeing) but even then I am not atheist at my own conscious level. The truth is that I started with religion, and then turned to atheism and now, in a sense, don’t subscribe to any religion but still believe in the possibility of God. Should I be called an atheist?  It is amusing while talking about atheist demography, everyone, and it doesn’t matter if you are agnostic, communist or non-religious spiritual, is included. But when it comes to convicted prisoner counting, those agnostic and other guys are kicked out.  

As per the CIA report, total atheist population is 2.01% of the world population. In fact, if you leave out the atheist population of China and atheists with former USSR legacy, this percentage would be even lower. One other study in fact suggests that atheist population is declining. Of course there are numerous studies showing the opposite. But why so much frenzy over atheists’ population?

Who are atheists? : The kinds of atheists I see are actually pseudo-atheists or more accurately antitheists. For them, being atheist is not a decision made after much deliberation or any kind of philosophical/scientific investigations. Many of them are atheists because they find it cool. They find this James Dean kind of sense of rebellion in atheism. They didn’t reject the concept of god. They just never bothered about god. In fact, atheists aren’t against the god. They are against the religions. They never explored or inquired into the existence of god. Again, this kind of following put them on the same side of religious believers. They think you become superior by default by just calling yourself atheist. This is the mindset which prevails among atheists. In truth, they can be as ignorant as anybody else. It is the impression that being atheist means being intelligent, rational or anything like that which drive them toward atheism. A lot of guns might be trained toward me, but this is the truth as I see. Atheism’s got its own mindless cult following. If it takes mere twenty minutes to turn into atheist, something is wrong. In fact, I’ve read somewhere that a guy is proud that his 10 year child is an atheist. What kind of nonsense is this? Of course what I’ve said above is not true for every atheist. When someone tweets, “Fuck you Jesus”, it somehow tells a lot about what kind of atheist he is. Scum, ghost, angry, pig, absurd, dangerous, arrogant, hateful, suicidal. Well, these are some of the words which many atheists use as a part of twitter account name.

Arrogance and Insensitivity: This is the most prominent feature of neo-atheists. This is perhaps the most important reason why atheists are so much hated. If you interact with atheists, chances are that their disdain toward theists would immediately be visible. The zeal, the energy with which they mock theists is quite astonishing. And more astonishing part is that how crazy they can go for the cause of their ‘religion’. Bullying comes naturally to them. They argue but with a pinch of bullying. On Twitter, there are hundreds of atheists whose tweets are nothing but venom spewing posts. They are quick to label anybody stupid, ignorant and moron. If you are afraid of being mocked, make sure you stay away from such atheists. That religious people are always idiots is their much repeated assessment. For them, this couldn’t get any simpler and always holds true. For an example, check this link how religious people are compared with donkeys. Snapshot of comparison is given below for quick view. 
Religous People and Donkeys
 There is a difference between dominating the debates and showing the truths. Most atheists actually enjoy the debate for crushing, humiliating the other side. They try to dominate and bully the other side. In fact, they are labelled with this tag of ‘being arrogant’ so often that there are numerous posts by atheists on Internet refuting this. In some of these posts, they are actually accepts this and are proud of being arrogant. (And yes, they are selling tee shirts, caps and other stuff on The Arrogant Atheist.)

Faith in god is not that simple thing to dismiss. It has profound impact on people’s life, heart and mind. For millions of people, who are otherwise miserable for numerous reasons, god is a source of solace and strength. Fear of death, fear of diseases and accidents, fear of loss of beloved ones, fear of failures, insecurities, uncertainties, struggles for survival, loneliness, mysteries and beauties of nature, mystery of death, complexity of life, unfathomable depth of universe, natural calamities, hope for better future, desire to be protected and being taken care of and hundreds of other things drive people to believe in god. In that sense, they have reason to believe in god. For them, their whole lives depend on this. They find solace in him. They feel they owe everything to that god. They are loyal to that god. Thousands of people quit bad habits in the name of gods. Imagine an atheist coming out of nowhere and shouting at your face, “You are idiot, moron and stupid because you believe in god.” How insensitive would that be! Sadly, a typical atheist behaves much in the same way. He just doesn’t care millions of people out there are praying to god so that his or her father/mother/son/daughter may be cured of cancer/AIDS/unknown diseases.

Really? That simple?
Let me recount a real story. A female friend of mine once went into abject depression for various reasons. For her, nothing was going right and she waited long enough for her life to stabilize. She got so depressed she seriously started thinking about the possibility of committing suicide. She lost her faith in god. And one day she actually left her home to commit suicide. And let me tell you, she was a no nonsense girl. It so happened when she was about to commit suicide, a Christian nun, who was happened to be nearby, stopped her. For many days, that nun took care of her. After some days, she started her life afresh and now she is both successful in her career and happy. But one more thing happened. She converted to Christianity. She owes her new life to Jesus. For her, Jesus is a reality. For her, Jesus was a saviour. Again, imagine an atheist declaring her insane, stupid, moron, liar, ignorant and comparing her with a donkey? How would she feel?

I wonder how many suicides didn’t happen just because of people’s faith in god. (According to a study, atheists are more prone to committing suicides.)

In another real story, an Academy Award winner music composer converted to Islam because the conditions of his family afflicted with many troubles (after his father passed away) were drastically improved by visiting a Muslim spiritual teacher. This was when he was young and didn’t even start composing music on professional level. Now he is immensely successful composer. Well, he is never going to listen to any bullshit from atheists. He has dedicated his life to Allah. And in his country, nobody is frowning upon his conversion to Islam. The truth is that there are millions of such stories in which people have been helped by god (or they like to think that way). Even I quit smoking by visiting a sufi shrine. And before that, I did try many times to quit smoking but I failed. Even today, I feel surprised that I never miss smoking. I never, even for once, had to suffer withdrawal symptoms. I personally know some people who have quit drinking in the name of god but didn’t quit this habit earlier even after a lot of reasoning/persuasion. But atheists are too busy with reasoning. For them, these are made up stories and these people are, as usual, ignorant. In India, millions of homeless beggars are provided with food on daily basis at thousands of temples. But atheists would tell you religions are all about vices. (Though, as per one study, merely 15% of atheists/non-believers population is ‘belligerent’.)



When Tim Stanley at The Telegraph posted an article titled, “If we’re cracking down on Twitter abuse, can we include Richard Dawkins and the atheist trolls?” In response to this, an atheist responded with the picture (see left). Also see how Jerry Coyne responded to Tim Stanley’s article. Sadly, he missed the main point and accused the believers of ‘intellectual laziness’. Similarily, Dawkins responded, "If God didn't exist, Tim Stanley would cry. Therefore God exists.... That's the logic of a Telegraph leader writer." Apparently,  Stanley didn't talk about of existence of God. He talked about trolling by atheists which Dawkins denied.




Atheism: A religion? In principle, it isn’t. In reality, it is. Well, sort of. Forget the basic premise of atheism. In reality, atheism is just another religion in making. As against to the common notion, freethinking isn’t the trait of atheism but hatred for religions is. And this shared sense of hatred is the most echoing feature of a religion called atheism. As mentioned earlier, their passion toward spreading atheism is equally matched with that of religious people and one can easily see this. Some notable atheists such as Bill Maher are quite famous for being ‘religious’ about atheism. Remember when Peter Higgs called Dawkins a fundamentalist?  (Also read this.) For them, possibility of god is a closed and settled issue. In the guise of freethinking, they’ve become bigot and dogmatic. Religion requires people a lot of rituals, practices and worshipping to perform. In atheism, there is no such compulsion. But somehow this lack of compulsion put atheist zealots in an awkward situation. They face the issue of identity crisis. Now they’ve become atheist, next what? They’ve to do things in the name of atheism, for the cause of atheism. So they go out and start ‘religious reform’. But atheism is also the result of overcoming ignorance caused by religions. So they vigorously try to prove every religious believer stupid, moron and what not as Stephen Colbert once noted, “Atheism, a religion dedicated to its own sense of smug superiority.” In reality, given their behaviour, they aren’t atheists. They are antitheists. If you think about them being antitheists, picture becomes suddenly clearer. Atheism has nothing to with religions. Antitheism has everything to do with religions. When an atheist blogger urges us not to honour our parents because religions ask us to do so, you can guess, it is hatred rather than reasoning, which controls his senses. Premise of atheism is used as a blanket. But their actions remind of religions. Atheism is the antithesis of religions. Atheism is not a natural development. It came into existence in response to religions. Atheism is turning into a religion with no god but it has its own set of ‘prophets/messiahs’ (Dawkins, Hitchens, Dennett, Harris). Christians are fighting with Muslims. Atheists are fighting with theists. 
You can also read this post in which an atheist is telling a story of converting his spouse to atheism. The point is: everyone is obsessed with God, be it atheist or theist. In fact, according to a study, both atheists and theists get equally stressed when they challenge God to do something nasty, though its results and methodology may well be disputed. Repeating religiously that “there is no god as there is no evidence” hundred times a day in itself ensures you remain obsessed with god.

A call for Jihad against atheists?

When Pope tweeted, "Let's learn to lose our lves for Christ, like a gift or a sacrifice. With Christ we lose nothing!" (See left.), an atheist was quick to warn Richard Dawkins by tweeting, "Have you seen this? Looks like Pope is calling for Jihad."
 (I couldn't take the snapshot as, at the time of writing blog, his/her account was under suspension.) Luckily, Dawkins didn't pay any attention. You can see many atheists are quite eager and in fact prepared for Jihad.


Sometime I feel that entire atheist community is on Twitter and is indulging in religion bashing. Obviously they deny this allegation by stating that they have taken the mission to ‘show the believers the shortcomings of poisonous religions.’ Many of them have turned into self-proclaimed messiahs. They have (forcefully) taken the role of torchbearers. They will forcibly teach you lessons you don’t even ask to teach. Atheism is not a religion but atheists are perfectly religious about atheism. Atheists have themselves forgotten atheism. Whenever a report cites that Christianity is declining all over the world, this makes atheists and Muslims equally happy because their enemies are declining. But atheists would tell you they are happy because reasoning is prospering. This is a kind of lying politicians are perfectly adept at. Couple of years down the line; a hard-nosed atheist turns into a fundamentalist. Read this fascinating piece published on Salon titled, ‘Has militant atheism become a religion?’ Apparently, writer of this article is an atheist. Read also: Atheist Church

Atheists & Freethinking: As much as I understand, freethinking is about thinking without any bias or constraint. It is about weighing every possibility. It is also about not taking anything for granted. In spirit, atheism is all about freethinking. I have to admit freethinking is the most important and virtuous thing promoted by atheism. But atheists are human. Every human is bound to have some kind of preconception, bias, belief or whatever you call it. The virtue of freethinking has been badly abused by atheists. Whether or not God exists is an open question. Science, per se, doesn’t deal with this question. As per science, I think, existence of God is an open possibility. In that sense, science is merely agnostic, though any concept of God has to be in accordance with science. Besides, absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence. While countering theists’ claim that time has no beginning, atheist religiously quote big bang theory and other works of Hawking. Let me emphasize again, they ‘quote’. When you ask questions about big bang itself or anything about pre big bang era, they wouldn’t say that they don’t know. Rather, they would declare you’re stupid to even ask these insane questions. They themselves have no understanding. I’ve briefly dealt with this in one of my blog. So much for freethinking! When I ask about the question of purpose of life, they retort this is a meaningless question. Meaningless, really? My life isn’t driven by what is going on in some distant galaxy. My life is driven by fear of death, reason and purpose of life. But these are nonsensical questions for atheists. The kinds of atheists I came across are dominantly ex-Christians. They espoused atheism because they found Bible absurd, self-contradictory, fairy tale or things like that. Atheists frequently analyse Bible for its absurdity. But this is not the problem. Problem is that if they have ever gone beyond Bible? Or Koran? No, they haven’t. For them, absurdity of Bible or Koran ensures the absurdity of the existence of God. The widespread notion of atheists being dogmatic simply goes against this spirit of freethinking. Also read: Atheist don’t own reason


Atheists and Crimes: In many atheistic forums, it is stated that crimes committed by atheists are almost nil. If this is true, what might be the possible explanation? Is it because religions dictate people to commit crimes and atheism doesn’t? As per data from Adherents, out of 93,112 prisoners, there are 18,537 (that is 19.91%) prisoners categorized under none/atheists/unknown group. There is no further breakdown given. In Hemant Mehta’s site, a source has been cited showing 10.6% prisoners with ‘no religious preference’. Are rest of the prisoners convicted because they are theists? Being theist has nothing to do with that. The point is that atheists have to compare the number of criminals who committed religions related crime versus atheist criminals. But to my knowledge, no such comparison has been done. The truth is that, had those criminals been truly religious, most of them wouldn’t be in jail. The truth is that, religions, in most cases, check the crime rate. But atheists would paint an entirely different picture. They would try hard to convince you that being atheist means you wouldn’t commit a crime. And the best part is that they won’t provide you any reasoning behind this conclusion. After all, according to them, only religions are the source of all evils. While discussing about atheism population, some atheists reason that many don’t categorize themselves as atheists because of social stigma attached to it and I agree with that. But why not apply the same logic to convicted prisoners? If being an atheist is difficult out of jail, it would be even more so inside the jail. What about the case of Johann Hari being accused of plagiarism and supporting the Iraq War (though he later regretted his support for Iraq War)? Obviously, him being atheist has nothing to do with the plagiarism charges he was accused of. The same argument goes for most believers.

Priests are Pedophile: -Then there goes a case of pedophile priests. I don’t deny the veracity or statistics of these abhorrent stories. What also bothers me is the way these stories are represented and told by atheists. The problem is that in such kind of smear campaigning, real issues, pedophilia in this case, are forgotten. It seems their war is against priests, rather than pedophiles. They would like you to believe that priests are pedophiles or vice versa. They wouldn’t want you to think that these instances of priests being pedophiles cannot be generalized. Besides, religion in itself has nothing to do with this. They want to paint entire priest community with one colour, that is, black. They implicitly indicate that atheists, by default, cannot be pedophiles. In a study conducted by Barna Group, it has been found that 50 % of atheists indulge in pornography as compared to 12 % of evangelicals. In the same study, 60 % of atheists have been shown to be associated with profanity as compared to 16 % of evangelicals. If this survey indicates a true pattern, atheists owe Christians some valid explanation.