To believe or not to believe...

Through a recourse of self-pity, is it not that you hope that a higher power, perhaps an almighty god, takes notice and out of pity or else for the sake of fairness changes your fortunes for good?

So, that should, by implication, mean that an atheist never wallows in self-pity, never blames anyone but his own deeds for any misfortune that’s come his way, never seeks out Lady Luck’s sleight of hand, but instead believes in himself, his own hard work and resilience. There now! We have a reason to be an atheist!!

That brings me to think that to an atheist, he is himself the almighty God. That sounds more arrogant than heroic but atheists are brave non-conformists, too!

I have long reached a conclusion that the realization of God or the awakening of the spirit is simply recognising your own self! The numerous ancient Hindu sages and hermits, the Buddha, Mohammad, all reached the awakening through meditation (so the historical texts say, and no particular reason to repudiate them) Your higher consciousness is the path to recognizing the true self within you.

I shall try and explain my understanding of the Hindu concept of the soul. Any machine draws one kind of energy and produces another kind of energy and heat (friction), thereby, retaining nothing for itself. Say a personal computer that draws electric energy and does the various processes that it is supposed to do. Through gradual wear and tear, faults occur and the computer is no longer able to function. It’s dead!

A human body similarly absorbs the cosmic energy and performs its various biological processes. Through gradual wear and tear, organs start to fail and eventually cannot perform this change of energy. The body dies. So what is it that gave it life? Energy? Well, more like the ability to perform the transfer of energy. That energy I believe is the soul. Gita said 3,500 years ago that souls are neither created nor destroyed. They only change their presence from one body to another! Law of conservation of souls? If only the ancient Hindu sages, back in their day, knew of other manifestable forms of energy (other than mechanical energy, i.e.), their explanation would have (possibly) been clearer.

What would cause this transfer of energy and what is the point? No answer to the latter but for the former one could start by understanding how life started? A law of nature states that every matter seeks to attain the lowest possible energy state (the most stable state). Two potentially Exothermic-Reaction-causing-elements came into contact with one another and combined to form a compound (lower energy state). Energy reserves found aplenty caused Endothermic Reactions too. Complex compounds were formed. The first amino acid (or is it protein?) was formed which could use oxygen, energy and thereby, through the quest of a more stable state, multiply (Maybe this explains the law of nature which wants every single species to survive). Through a set of reversible reactions, the process of continuously retaining its original chemical composition was achieved. And hence we got our first single celled microorganism which could perform both metabolism and replication.

And then evolution...

We have the life as we understand it today. However, the theory is based on two assumptions: the pre-existence of a large quantity of energy and at least one law that requires every matter reach its most stable form.

Who made/makes these laws? Who decided the sum total of the energy present in the universe? Who placed it there? (Replace the “Who” with a “What” if you will) The theist would conveniently answer "God" and go about singing praises of His Divine Act. I hope the theists do not adhere to blind faith and give up thinking.

And I hope I have induced you (atheist or not) into thinking. Happy thinking!!

Meanwhile I shall go out and gaze at the stars...