an Athiest at the God's Gate

"I pity the fool" - Mr T's famous quote from Rocky III, came to my mind several times in the past few weeks. I had made a trip to the northern half of the country in the previous weeks & my journey included places of worship of different faiths. Few of them, were considered the most important pilgrimage points for different faiths. The journey was quite different for me, not only because of the new places I was seeing, but also because I had kept away from all religious places for the past 3 & half years. So it was a good experience, talking to different kinds of people, watching people from different places & different belief system. I got to meet the believers who had an extremist attachment to their belief system & also the ones who kept their beliefs as a private thing. So when I met these people, read and watched millions of others on TV & other medium, there has been only one feeling which comes into me. Its not anger, its not rage, its not happiness nor joy, but its pity. Pity for your ignorance. Pity that you are unable to see the bigger picture. Pity that you are being manipulated so easily with something which does not even exist.

Why pity? Well, I shall explain with the help of a story I recently heard through a friend. My friend belongs to a far off village where they have very limited access to electricity, newspapers, media & most things which we take for granted. The place where they live a simple life. But every time when election approaches, the regional political parties come up banners, posters to spread the word of the party. In most of these posters it was a common practice to put the pictures of the important leaders, which included few of them who had died in the late 80's. But for the people of the village, these posters were the only way to see all their leaders & to this day they believe that all of them are still alive. As much as 50% of the village's population, majority of whom are uneducated believe that their Prime Minister (who was killed in early 80's) is still alive & competing for elections. Feel like laughing at their ignorance? Village idiots, right? Hold on, what would you do if I tell you that there is a huge number of people who believe & trust a person whom they haven't even seen. In fact they haven't even seen his pictures, only sketches of the person. Yet they believe this person has the solution to all their problems & would go to any lengths to please him. None of these people have never spoken or heard this person, but have only "felt" his person. Yeah, you know where I am going with this. Blind faith & it only deserves pity.

But to be honest, I wish there was a God. No, I haven't turned into a believer, but for the sake of the millions of people who live around me. I wish there was a God so that all the prayers will not go for waste. I wish there was a God, so that he could acknowledge the billions people spend on making places of worship rather than trying to wipe off poverty or hunger. I wish there was a God who could forgive all those who killed & burned down property in the name of the almighty. I wish there was a God who could show heaven to all those martyrs who blow themselves up to reach Elysium. I wish there was a God who took note of the sacrifices & offerings made to him which amount to trillions. But more than everything I wish there was a God, for all the ones I pity, because fictitious though you may be, you are a source & inspiration to them. For the ones who do not believe in themselves, you are the only one they could trust. When everything around goes down in flames, you are the one they believe has a plan & its all well taken care of.

So while returning from the God's gate, this was the silent wish I had. I knew I cannot change the beliefs of the people around me, nor enlighten them with the truth. I controlled the urge to tell them that all those phenomena which you had named as God is now detailed in the science textbooks of school kids as facts. But I understood that knowing nothing & being ignorant can be more comforting at times. After all everybody has the right to follow his own faith.