Hello all, I'm an Atheist

[maxpsycho]

I thought that might be sufficient to capture some people's attention. I'm Mayank Sharma, 26 from London UK, and although I was born in a relatively moderate Arya Samaj Hindu Brahmin home, I relieved myself of the burden of faith, three years ago. It wasn't so much the burden itself, rather the truth claims of the afore-mentioned burden that bothered me most. Well I am here to see if there is something I might be able to contribute to the party, after all, we nastiks are also from a particular school of Hinduism.

Thank you everyone for a warm welcome.

[satay]

namaskar,

Welcome to the forum. As you know hinduism accomodates nastika. There is a specific section for that purpose on HDF. http://www.hindudharmaforums.com/forumdisplay.php?f=32

Looking forward to your posts.


I thought that might be sufficient to capture some people's attention.
Thank you everyone for a warm welcome.

[Eastern Mind]

Vannakkam Max:

Welcome to these forums. I hope you're a polite atheist. For starters, I accept your right to claim atheism as your belief. Its a large planet with a multitude of faiths, and unless someone's out to destroy the planet, mankind NEEDS to accept philosophical differences. Here's hoping you accept me believing in God, Gods, scripture, key concepts like karma, and Guru.

Aum Namasivaya

[Sahasranama]

Namaste maxpsycho,

Welcome to the forums. The only logical steps you can take from Arya Samaj are Sanatana Dharma and Atheism. Arya Samaja is somewhere in between with one foot on the boat and one in the water. I am glad you were able to be decisive in one way or another.

[Adhvagat]

I'm really trying hard to imagine how knowledge systems like Samkhya can burden someone.

It's mind freeing!

If you never tried studying schools of hinduism more related to an analytical view of the world, I'd recommend!

Welcome!

Om Tat Sat

[Adhvagat]

Are you honestly trying to intellectually refute Islam? You do realise that they believe their prophet went to heaven on a flying horse? (Not that Hindus are that much better; we have flying monkeys who swallow stars and lift mountains)

Max, I see you started off with the wrong foot, lol.

If you came here with the sheer prejudice of debunking myths I'd ask you to take your off your bad atheist clothes (persona) off and look beyond of what you find ridiculous.

If you're not willing to abandon prejudice and see that there's indeed a constructive philosophical truths in Hinduism and only stick to metaphors and use them as a way to debunk these 'myths' with rational knowledge, you aren't adding much to the discussion.

If your problem is with todays religious systems and its flaws, I'd recommend some essays by Carl Gustav Jung that define clearly what is religion and what he classifies as "confessions", that are only a shallow portion of what religion is about to bring up in one's psyche.


We should not pretend to understand the world only by the intellect. The judgement of the intellect is only part of the truth.

- Carl Gustav Jung

Spirituality is a process that you need to live, and as you live you have your own realizations that make you sure of your own spirituality.

So if your goal is to debunk a whole lifetime or spiritual living just because you think there's no such thing, well, I don't think you have much authority in that.

But if you want to debunk shallow ritualistic play sold as salvation (works better when you have concepts as original sin, not present in Hinduism) well, you don't need much more than common sense for that.

I've questioned myself quite a lot of times and used to inquire in a fashion (less developed of course) than Yajvan presented here: http://www.hindudharmaforums.com/showpost.php?p=52408&postcount=4

I inquired: What if Sanatana Dharma and its systems are sheer fantasy and/or just fabrications?

The answer I gave to myself: Well, if SD is, so is everything else, and still the high level personalities and the philosophy it was presented to me took me to a new level of consciousness.

And as Carl Gustav Jung said, a man who never questions himself is always haunted by doubt. We are here because we are sure.

Om Tat Sat

[Maya3]

Welcome to the forum.

I see no problem with your lack of belief.
I cannot prove that God exist so you may be as right as I am.

Maya

[sanjaya]

Nice to meet you. Looks like we're both the same age, and born in the West. It's good to see that you identify as Hindu despite being an atheist. Looking forward to many interesting conversations.

[yajvan]

hariḥ oṁ
~~~~~~

namasté


Welcome maxpsycho to HDF,

You mention you are an atheist. To insure I have my terms straight, this a + theist traces back to the Greek a+theos = godless, from a= not and theos = god ( some say gods). Compare this to the following:
In sanātana dharma, one may say nāstika or na+ astika नास्तिक or it is not so ; this does not always suggest the notion that the Lord is invalid, but the notion that the veda's are not the final say when it comes to truth. Perhaps you can comment on this and your orientation.

Your post offers the following:


I'm an Atheist
I thought
I'm Mayank Sharma, 26 from London UK, and although
I was born in a relatively moderate Arya Samaj Hindu Brahmin home,
I relieved myself of the burden of faith, three years ago.
I am here to see if there is something
I might be able to contribute to the party, after all, we nastiks are also from a particular school of Hinduism. May I ask, who do you believe this "I" is?

praṇām

[HumbleStudent]

I inquired: What if Sanatana Dharma and its systems are sheer fantasy and/or just fabrications?

The answer I gave to myself: Well, if SD is, so is everything else, and still the high level personalities and the philosophy it was presented to me took me to a new level of consciousness.

And as Carl Gustav Jung said, a man who never questions himself is always haunted by doubt. We are here because we are sure.

Om Tat Sat

I asked myself this also and the answer I came up with is a little different. If at the end of my life I lived to serve others, was patient, had a higher authority that I answer to, opened my mind to new ideas, followed truth and honor and non-injury; I would say that I lived a life worth living. What probably drew someone to the forum is that they want to find something to rekindle the belief again. It is obviously on your mind or you wouldn't have bothered. I feel that inside of all us is the innate knowledge that their is something much bigger than we are and we need to know a lot more about them. There is not one civilization that does not have a religous system of some kind. I also feel it's not coincidence that there are many common truths throughout all religions.

That's my two cents worth.

[Rasa1976]

Meditation has been used by atheists since I think - Buddha. More recently it's morphed into a way of relieving stress. I don't have a very stressful existence lately, but if I did I'd probably meditate on the pastimes of Krishna's babajis, even if my meditation was my fantasy.

After all, since the damsels of Vraj forget that Krishna is God, why worry about the existence of God?

[Kumar_Das]

Meditation has been used by atheists since I think - Buddha. More recently it's morphed into a way of relieving stress. I don't have a very stressful existence lately, but if I did I'd probably meditate on the pastimes of Krishna's babajis, even if my meditation was my fantasy.

After all, since the damsels of Vraj forget that Krishna is God, why worry about the existence of God?

Beware.