God and Atheism - 1

God and Atheism

Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and Ayaan Hirsi Ali have recently popularised atheism, through their books with provoking contents and titles, interviews and media events.

Let us restate the definition of various theisms below.

1. Monotheism is the belief in theology that only one God exists.
2. Polytheism is the belief of multiple deities, called gods or goddesses, or both.
3. Pantheism is the view that the Universe (Nature) and God are identical.
4. Paganism refers to various polytheistic, non-Abrahamic religious traditions.
5. Animism is an idea that souls exist also in animals, plants, rocks, natural phenomena.
6. Atheism: lack of belief in God or active disbelief in God.

7.      Agnostism: a framework for thinking about the nature of belief and their relation to revealed truths.
(Nasadiya Sukta - 129th hymn of the 10th Mandala of the Rigveda has been interpreted as one of the earliest accounts of skeptical inquiry and agnosticism.)

Advaita vedanta of Indian Hindu Vedic Culture practises non-dualism, where there is only God. There is only one reality in this universe, which supports everything else by means of existence and consciousness.

Atheists do not believe that a god exists. A vedantin (one who subscribes to Advaita Vedanta) will ask ‘Which god are we talking about?’.

Advaita vedanta categorises God into a maifested god and an unmanifested god. A reality which exists everywhere cannot be localised, cannot have a boundary, cannot have a name and form, does not have any attributes and is immortal. Thus the absolute reality is unmanifest, in a sense that it is beyond any of our means of perception or inference.

Whereas a manifested god is localised (sitting in heaven), has a name and form, has attributes like anger, partiality, compassion etc.

If atheists negate the manifested god, vedantin will not have a problem accepting it and agreeing to it. A manifested god an invocation on a name and form as per our own liking and imagination. Then it also can get revoked! It is very important to note that one must be believer – a devotee to a personal god first, before a proponent of non-dualism negates the very same god that he deifies. An atheist may be negating a personal god due to various reasons, whereas a vedantin negates due to the understanding of the real nature of god. Advaita vedanta is not secular and in daily affairs, the vedantin is still a great devotee to a manifested personal god.

To illustrate this, during Ganesha puja, the all pervading formless entity is invoked on a idol of clay and prayers are offered in a very eloborate manner for a week. Then Ganesha gets revoked and the image is immersed into the sea. When name and form disappears, what remains is existence and consciousness.

The absolute reality is in the form of existence and consciousness. It is not a part, product or property of this universe. An example is the sun which illuminates everything else, without affecting or  getting affected by anything. There is no need to prove this absoulute reality. Each and every one of experience consists of “I experienced this”. The ‘I’ principle is Brahman. “I know this.”. The knower “I” is brahman. The atheist may say “I do not agree with this”. The ‘I’ principle in this very statement of an atheist is brahman! The existence and consciusness cannot be negated. This entity enlivens our body, mind, intellect and senses allowing us to be sentient and perform actions.