“God is dead”- conversation with a child.

First of all, let’s address the reason for the title. As it says, I’ve had a very interesting conversation with one of my nieces, who is at the young age of 9. This was a completely random incident and no way did I steer our conversation towards the topic and that is why it is more so interesting to me and possibly to others as well.

It was another day of the world wide lockdown. The Novel Corona Virus took over the planet by a sweep, death toll rose by the thousands everyday. The world stood still, watching, blaming each other as they suffered. Everyone stayed home during the lockdown. Life was moving at a slow pace.

The story has to do with two little young boys. One in particular. The sons of my father’s brother. One is 13 years old and the other is 9. They frequently come to my house.

On this particular day, they both came to my house and then to my room probably in hope of playing some videogames on my laptop. The older brother’s name was “Kuttu” and the younger one was “Kunju”. Both Kuttu and Kunju sat near me and the conversation went as follows,

Kuttu: Chettai enna cheyyuva??(what are you doing brother??)

Me: Korach athum ethum okke cheyyuva.(I’m doing some random stuff)

Kunju: Athenna athum ethum?(what do u mean by random?)

Kuttu: Daivathinariyam!(God knows!)

Kunju: Athinu daivamonnumillada Kuttu. Alle chettai??? (there is no God Kuttu. Am I right brother??) – He said this to Kuttu and asked me if he was right. I didn’t respond to him then.

This is the point where the conversation started to catch my interest. This young boy is coming from religious family. Both his parents are religious, I don’t think anyone has ever told him about atheism or agnosticism. I’ve never talked about my views about religion to them. Let’s come to the most interesting part now,

Kuttu: ath ninakkemgana ariyavunne?(how do you know that??)

Kunju: Eda potta! Daivam undayirunnath pandaanu. Eppo daivam ella. Daivam chath poyi!!!! ( You fool!!! God existed in the past. There is no God now. He died!!!!)

Me:. (Curious af.) Athenthada daivam chath poyenn parayunne?(why are you saying that God is dead ??)

Kunju: Pinne daivam eppo undarnel etrem alkar engane chath povvarno. ( If God existed at this period of time, would this many people have died??)

I was surprised with his way of thinking. He was taught that God listened to our prayers. God is good, brings happiness and prosperity to the human kind and all that accompanying nonsense. Yet, in his young little mind, he couldn’t come to terms with that and the reality of things. He was not able to think of a bad, evil God. So he came to the assumption that God was dead!!. He saw the world suffering amid the pandemic. What else can a child do?? I could see the sincerity in his eyes.

Incidents like this makes life the more interesting. The words of a sincere little boy-“God is dead”.

The problem of evil argument is not a particularly strong one. But this coming from a little child who doesn’t know anything about philosophy is truly surprising. I’ll never forget this.

Morality: a rhetorical question ? Or a paradox ?

What is morality ?

As late Christopher Hitchens postulated,

“You can be an atheist and you can be a sadomasochist. You can be an atheist and a psychopath. You can be an atheist and be fascist. To be a communist, you practically have to be an atheist. It doesn’t commit you to anything. But it certainly does not commit you to the absurd belief that if you don’t have a supernatural belief you have no morals.”

It is often implicated by theologians that religion, is the foundation of human morality and it arose from religious roots. The common substantiation for such a claim originates, beginning from undermining of the innate moral instincts of our human self. ‘Morality has to come from a higher source ‘- a common straw man put forth by religious spokesmen might seem within the logical ‘bubble’ of an average person. It is when we look closer, the truth will begin to unfold.

This response is going to be divided into two parts,
The first one will be disproving the higher source argument. The second part is going to be about the moral background of human beings as a species.
Let’s start with the straw man. By stating that morality has to come from a higher source, religion nails down morality in an objective framework. It is this claim of morality being objective, is what makes this argument look rather appealing at the first glance.
If a God determines the good and the bad and decides what morality is; religion claims that to be objective morality and it can not change. Even if it is from God, the reason why we ought to do that which is good is a matter of subjective analysis. God is considered as a non fallible being by religion, but even after that religious people don’t always ought to do that which is commanded upon them by this God and that is exactly my point. A command can simply not be true…infact a command is neither true nor false. We ought not to do that which is bad, if we ‘ought’ to do something then it becomes a completely subjective position. It can differ from religion to religion and geography to geography.
Numerous religions frequently contradict each other on ethical and moral views. Since the choice of either ought or ought not is arbitrary, morality can never be objective in a religious view point. So the claim that morality has to come from a higher source is completely wrong because of the uncertainty within us. Religion foisted its draconian principles and rules over human intelligentsia with this false objective nature of morality.

Where does our morality comes from ?

It might not appeal to the religious readers at first if I say morality can never be objective and it doesn’t come from a single source, irrespective of being atheistic or theistic. We have an innate sense of morality. It is genetic as well as an evolutionary trait of human beings. We are social beings, evolved and survived in groups….of course stereotypes are a thing but differences comes in many ways and still the genetic make up remains the same. The gene pool that makes us human, remains the same. It is inarguably evident that the survival of our species didn’t happen out of dumb luck, but it was rather the result of our social behaviour.
All animals possess a sense of morality to a certain limit….this comes from the compassion to its own species even though limited by nature, still cannot be ignored completely.

What makes us moral then ?

Morality is subjective due to the diversity among us. Nothing makes us moral or immoral. Its just amoral. Morality and immorality is determined and quantified by subjective analysis.

What makes us different ? Well I have an answer,

It is that ability of a person to choose veganism even after being an omnivore by genetics and the ability that makes us overcome our natural instincts is what makes us different.

When I came across the ‘golden rule’, it made sense at first glance and it will, for a reasonably good person. When we start to look into the sadomasochistic nature of individuals, the statement doesn’t hold up.
Even atheists claims that we are moral beings. We have an innate sense of morality which helped our species survive by maintaining balance and I agree to that. But if we have to survive as a species then wouldn’t that mean the expulsion of antisocial behaviour???? What if eliminating some is the only way to ensure the survival of our species and thus reducing resource consumption ? From which view point is the moral basis defined ? It cannot be from a subjective source like us. Well for me the answer is, I don’t know. I ought to do that which is good for all of us and “all” includes everyone irrespective of what of who they are.
I’ve been troubled with this self conflicting idea for a long time. From my viewpoint it’s not a matter of perspectives and yet again ‘my view point’ is subjective. I hope that this doesn’t go unanswered in my lifetime. I am in disagreement with the word ‘morals’ as the word itself has a non-objective meaning to it.
Why should an atheist follow ‘morals’ ?
It is simply that I choose to accept the concept of morality due to aspects like compassion, kindness, sincerity etc

It is this subjective persona that I prefer over the latter since my experiences have led me into believing that ‘good moral philosophy’ rewards me better than having a bad immoral one.

Even then, it remains a debatable topic that will have teams on either sides.

– The realist

Lonely moth

“Well, It’s time to fly“- she said to herself. All alone in the deep dark woods, on the tip of a brush tree leaf…..clinging on and swaying in the winter breeze.

The dark night consumed the forest, silence shivered upon the night. The clouds gently conveyed by the wind like a veil and there was someone, staring at the silent woods. What was her name ? Selene? Hecate? She had many names but all we knew was that she was beautiful. ” The moon” we call her. A bit hard hearted that word is, for her beauty was above all and today she was at her full glory.

When the moth was ready to come out of the cocoon, she knew not that their was nobody waiting for her. Her mother already left , giving ‘birth‘ to the young ones. She was all alone.
The child struggled to break free, the thought of outer world, to see the the world from above. She almost gave up. The pressure was immense so was the eager of the young one to break free from the cage. To see with her own eyes the beauty that lies beyond. She kept on trying…again….and again…..and again…………
And in an instance!!!!!!!yes!!!!!!!she did it! She broke the shell!!. She could feel the cold winter breeze on the tip of her wings. The gate could hold her no longer! She was stronger !
What happened !!?? Did she expect her mother to be there ? Did she knew who her mother was? ? Where she came from ? No. She did not. Was she confused ? Yes, a little bit. But was she alone ?
She was not!!!!!!!

It was a cold, dry and dark night. Darkness…. around, she lost all hope. She didn’t knew what to do and then an unforseen light fell on her. Even though it wasn’t really, she felt a little warmth like if she was embraced by her mother. She looked up and she said to herself……,
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“Selene”
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At that moment, she realised that she was not alone. She knew who she was, She knew her purpose, Everything made sense.
She was ready!!!
She opened her wings, slowly, desperately……….All this time crumbled like a paper ball, It was hard… stretching wings for the first time.
The wind blows…..quavering along her wings, lifting her up from the twig. She felt alive.
She looked up to the bright light above all……… flapping her wings to touch the sky!!!!!
The moonlight reflecting off the trees, the leaves, the hill slopes………she could see them all. Her wings reflected the light like a water droplet on a leaflet.

Today was her day.
Tomorrow shall be yours.

“Women are the most exploited group in our society. Discrimination and worthless traditions forces them to keep their wings crumbled. It is time they broke free and fought against such superstitions and discriminations. Follow the light that leads you to your goals. We are human beings. We have no intrinsic purpose. Believing that we have a purpose is one of our biggest mistakes. We make our own lives and we choose who or what we want to be. Your future lies within you and you only. Today was her day, Tomorrow is your day”

The Silent Song

Watching the Sun go down the horizon……

……nothing could get better than that right ? Well something can be……..A sunset on a peaceful Friday.

For a moron like me who would spent most of his time on an RGB screen, staring at an illusion, the deception was almost unnoticeable.

What is this about ?

We will come to that in a moment but before that let me tell you something, don’t even think about spirituality and enlightenment, its not that and it never will be.

This is about one day, a Friday obviously but not the 13th for sure (don’t even).

Well for a moron, it was a boring lonely evening at home. After a long day staring at my laptop, both me, my phone and my laptop were exhausted. We decided to take a break. I went out and sat outside. Nothing special. Could hear vehicles honking to overtake the one ahead, humans!. So annoying. Closed my eyes to take a deep breath, yeah that’s when it happened, i felt like I was in a lagoon, in the warm water. I felt the pressure of water on my heart and alas!

The light began to exude…….the light rays scattered on my eyebrows and the color palette on thin lines that lasted till the blink of an eye.

The fog clears, fraction of a second passes and now my eyes locks on to that view, there she was…….like a Van Gogh, perfect blend of colours. Her warmth almost reached my eyes.

Like the nine symphonies, it couldn’t be complete without the pitch, the rhythm, the texture……The cold breeze came and the leaves tumbled. The wind sang her song. I felt it sweep my face and the lagoon was suddenly cold. I could hear nothing but the air and then just like that a crow started to caw and in an instance got a reply…………… ‘caw’ ……..from further away.

From far far distances, talking to each other. It was all subtle and didn’t lose the rhythm.

” It was the greatest musical of all time”

I never thought I would be able to enjoy this “silent song” that nature always sings. Why was I always deaf? why didn’t I hear this sooner ? Why did I think there was nothing but silence out there ?

In our life sometimes the things that are around us everyday which we always fails to recognize are the ones that gives us the most joy. An oxymoron can be so meaningful sometimes, that it becomes lost in its own meaning. We fail to realise.

“Realization is what brings meaning to life.”