Freedom To Be An Atheist

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Today is Independence Day. The day India, as a country, got freedom 70 years ago. Sure, we got freedom from the British colonialists. But are we free?
I got the idea for this post from a social media tag that translates to what freedom means for me. It was suggested that I post pictures with the hashtag #Azaaadi4me. But instead of posting pictures, I decided to go with this post. Maybe I’ll post a screenshot of this post with the same tag.

Freedom for me is the freedom to be an atheist. I am an atheist, there’s no doubt about that. But am I free to be one? Incidentally, today is also janmashtami or krishna jayanti. As I replace the capitalized words, krishna and jayanti, I think of how ingrained the concept of god is. 

Today I was asked to be part of an entourage to visit the local temples. And I refused. I urged my friends to go along with their plans and call me once they are done with the temples and I will hang out with them then. They refused. They wanted me to go along with them. They were persistent. One of them even asked me to stop with the drama and come along. Again, I stood my ground. It is not as if I visit temples on all other occasions and deliberately putting this one off.

I cannot pay respects to a being/thing that I do not believe exists. The workaround presented to me was I go along and nobody expected me to pray. It seems reasonable, doesn’t it? But sadly, no it is not. It is more complicated than that.

If I do go along, I have to pay the ticket, remove my shoes as a sign of respect, and adhere to the “rules” of that place. Which is true of any place. When I go to the movies, I pay the ticket and put my mobile phone on silent. The difference being, I understand the necessity of the latter and I disagree with the premise of the former. I feel I am being hypocritical when I “pay respects” to something that I know doesn’t exist. I feel bad that I’m giving my time and money to it.

Now the next argument, which falls under violation of freedoms, is that I should do it for my friends. Which is nonsensical, because I am not stopping them from doing it. That would be what I am doing for my friends. I am not chiding them for their beliefs nor am I stopping them from doing something that I consider a waste of time, energy and money. I am taking into consideration the delicacy of their belief systems. My question is why can’t they do the same for me? Is it too much to ask? When will I be free to “exercise my atheism?”

The same argument goes for the social gatherings and the excessively loud speakers they flaunt so freely. Your religious freedom ends where my comfort begins. The “jagratas” or “all-night hymn singing” in my society is something that I am truly fed up of. I was raised a Hindu and I still don’t get it. If you truly think that your god will be pleased because you stayed up all night, good for you! Please do stay up all night, by all means! But let me be. I don’t care for your singing and would like to be left alone. Am I free to enjoy the peace that our soldiers at Siachen are ensuring?

Granted these are small things that I personally care about, and there are a million other things that our country is dealing with. But if my freedom from these small things are curtailed, how do you expect me to think about the freedoms of the vast majority of people? And I am fairly certain there are many more out there who feel the same about the very things that I talked about.