Claud

An avid collector of your hopes and worries, a romantic at heart.

She thanks her fairies, for blessing her with people who know compassion down to an art.

For accepting her for who she is, who never fails to turn up,

in times of need as well as happiness, or just there for a loving hug.

Today, many of my Christian friends celebrate the resurrection of Christ and the reaffirmation of their faith. Today, many will also be reminded why they left their faith, and be drawn into internal struggles of being dragged to church, but not actually believing in any of those sermons.

I want to talk not about religion, but about the fundamental idea of whether you believe that a God exists. Prima facie, most people will have no question whether they (do not) believe a God exist. Often I ask someone whether they believe in God, their responses are often, "Of course, I'm a Christian/Muslim." or "NO LAH, I'm not one of those people." Actually, more often than not, I get asked this question.

Many atheists then continue on the conversation, often talking about the illogical traits of religion, their dogma, their rules, their 'unjust' treatment of people etc etc. Then I simply ask them again, "do you believe that God exists?" and they look at me incredulously and said, "didn't I just tell you?"

They take part in what I call religion-bashing. They are as staunched, stoic, close-minded and insufferable as the people they accuse - because they do not believe in God not because they thought about the fundamental issue of whether God exists, but because they have built their entire belief based on being against religion. I just want to say, that personally being an atheist does not make me hate any religion. On the contrary, I do take part in many religious discussions with my Christian friends, understanding their interpretation of certain scriptures, or how/what God means to them. I try to discover the Hindu rituals and try to make sense of "superstition". Can we truly know all there is about our own world religions - thousands of years of knowledge built around a faith and can we claim to hold absolute knowledge of it all?

I get varied responses from religious people about their faiths. Their beliefs are all slightly different, and they sometimes don't even agree with one another. While a religion-basher will say that this points out the inconsistencies of faith, and therefore there can be no God. I will call for a time out. What has this religious differences got to do with the existence of God? Science often holds different views about their findings, can you therefore say that there is no Science? Just because they don't hold the same rationale, doesn't mean that faith doesn't have their own internal logic.

The importance is that we listen, and not group them all under one convenient group of "Christians" (indeed, there are many 'flavours' of them) or "Muslims"(Shi'a or Sufi?) or "Hindus"(Devotees of Shiva Nataraja or one of the other forms of Shiva?) or Buddhists (Zen Buddhism, Soka, or Mahayana?). When we group them and label them this way, stereotypes start to have life on their own. Similarly, not all atheists are really Atheists. Some are just upset about how their church have treated them, or have found a newfound zealous ambition to fight against what they perceive to be "illogical" Faith.

Faith, is not a logical issue to begin with. No philosophy, science or religion in the world can proclaim with certainty that God exists (personally I think it stems from the unknown of "death", but that's another story for another day). Indeed, if God exists for everyone.

Since we do not know, it requires a leap of faith - some have chosen to take that leap, others have not. Therefore, for the atheists who do logical religion-bashing, do not already understand that their practices stems from a faith they may not have. For the religious, not believing in your rituals is because we do not have that leap of faith. If the circumstances allow, there is a need to question whether you truly believed in God. For most of us, we often end up with "I don't actually know." Evangelicals often ask me "Do you want to know more about Jesus Christ?" and I often reply, "I know about Christ, but I do not believe."

The reason why I am writing this is because, despite our differences, we are all in search of truth. The fundamental message that all religious community (that do not harm others) is one about Love. I often find people who draw lines of "us" vs "them", often are very self-righteous about their beliefs and/or do not know enough (both atheists and theists). I go back to my point, since we cannot claim absolute knowledge, who are to judge? Indeed, I have found that the more I know, the more I do not know.

Let the one without sin cast the first stone. Let those with the ability to mine rock carry the burden of judgement. I do not believe in the existence of God. Period. There is no "because of…." or "I am against…". I just do not have faith that a higher being exists. I do not hold conventional views about death. Yet, I am appreciative of the good that religion brings, and the peace it has given to my friends. May we all live together in peace and understanding - of respect and love. For there are some teachers and messages that are more important than petty details.