Why is atheism spreading so much nowadays – is it because of Kali Yuga?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

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Why is atheism rising so much in today’s world Is it Also a sign Of Kali Yuga Answer We could look for Explanation of Particular Sociocultural trends at different levels And If we could say that it is because of Kali Yuga Then there can be hundreds of things That can be attributed to the age of Kali And that doesn’t really Help us Equip us with a practical understanding Of what to do to deal with it Or anything to do with it So Then we could say that It’s like If it’s summer and it’s getting hot Yes, it’s getting hot It’s because of summer But in some places there is unseasonably It’s unseasonably hot Far far more than the usual heat Then we can look for some specific causes Is there some Some climate change Or is there some Other local factor that is causing it So Sun is the ultimate Cause of The summer we could say heat If there would be no sun There would be no summer heat But referring to the sun As the cause of a hot summer Is not particularly Helpful In considering if there are any other Specific causes which has caused The sun’s heat to accumulate more Or to For the temperature to rise So we need to consider Factors at various levels And then look at factors at the level At which we can deal with them So Firstly it’s not that atheism Has not been there in the past If you see Buddhism and Jainism At an official level At a doctrinal level They were atheistic And or more specifically You could say they didn’t talk about God Some of the thinkers actively Denied the existence of God But overall they were definitely non-theistic If not atheistic And In that context it’s important To Understand that Whenever any particular School of thought Gets active proponents Gets powerful proponents Then that school of Thought will spread So Prabhupada was asked How will the Krishna Consciousness movement spread And he said that It depends on the preachers If they Propagate actively Then the Krishna Consciousness Movement will spread by that So similarly If we consider the Specifics At particular times in history It will be It will very well happen that Certain Schools of thought may get Very powerful proponents And certain And certain Socio-political, socio-cultural Settings May just be right for Those Thinkers to Spread their thoughts So I would like to Break this down in three parts That The current Historical situation The The rise of the new atheists What the new atheists Are and what they say And Their Misappropriation Their use or abuse of science For their ulterior purposes Of course New atheism today Is not as wildly Aggressive as it was Even a decade ago When books like The God Delusion And The End of Faith By Sam Harris or Letter to Christian Nation Or Christopher Hitchens These three were considered to be Atheist trinity And sometimes Daniel Dennett is added to that So this I would say was Largely speaking A strong reaction to 9-11 And the religious fanaticism That Alarmed And outraged The western world So when This happened When the World Awoke in a very Jolting way Jolted way To the specter of religious terrorism Then at that time Rather than Targeting this particular Religious group Or the religious subgroup You could say Which is responsible for that Attack And rather than Targeting the specific religion From which the terrorists had come Targeting a particular religion In today’s world Is considered politically incorrect It’s considered Islamophobia there But when Islamophobia is a Valid word There is no such word as a Theophobia That a fear of religion Or fear of God So if somebody Criticizes religion per se That is considered fashionable today If somebody criticizes A particular religion That is considered to be Politically incorrect That person is considered to be violating People’s right To practice their own religion And that person is Condemned often So the new atheists So overall because of the alarm Caused by religiously Inspired violence Or at least violence that was Supposed to be inspired by religion The result was that There was a widespread Alarm And the new atheists Tapped into that saying that religion is the cause of all evil So While religious terrorism has been there For a long time Again the word religious terrorism Is a loaded term But violence that had Various causes including religion Being one particular cause Has been there for a long time It especially increased In recent times When Its visibility increased in recent times Because of 9-11 and the aftermath So 9-11 was a Was a huge Scar On the American psyche On the western psyche at large And Upswelling of resentment And anger and fear Was stabbed by the new atheists And Thus The western world Was ready At that particular time For An upsurge of Religious violence Of an upsurge of Aggressive Countering of religion per se Condemning of religion per se So we could say In the recent historical context The setting was just right for a Wholesale condemnation of religion And that’s what the new atheists did Now the new atheists Whatever be the validity Of their arguments And some of their arguments are very poor But They are very powerful rhetorical Many of them are very good writers And We can And should acknowledge the literary skills Of even people who are Ungodly or anti-godly Just like In the Mahabharata it is acknowledged That Duryodhana was a Was a great mace fighter In fact he was In terms of skill better even than Duryodhana Even than Bhima So In the Mahabharata there is no compunctions For admitting That Duryodhana Had great mace skills Although that does not mean he was a great warrior In terms of being virtuous warrior So similarly At this particular Point of time Those who have Taken up the mantle of atheism They Are good writers And They had They tapped into the current Under current of resentment and anger And alarm towards religion And they wrote Blusterous Critiques of religion And In general Extremist Arguments Attract attention far more than Moderate or reasonable Positions So just as The religious rabble-rousers Religious teachers Who speak moderately Reasonably They may attract some following But those who make extreme religious Statements They can attract They can captivate people And they can abuse people’s Sentiments for their own purposes Just as there can be religious Extremism, there can also be Non-religious extremism And the new atheists What is new about them is their extremism So Sam Harris Famously said that if he had a choice To remove Either rape or religion from the world He would choose to remove religion Because rape hurts people only Once in a lifetime Or like that But religion hurts people throughout their lives So this was the vehemence Of The new atheists Even they said that To teach a child a particular religion Before the child comes to rationality Comes to rational thinking is child abuse And he said that Strong laws should be passed To stop this child abuse by indoctrinating Children in religion Now that which is considered to be a Cherished religious tradition Religious duty Cultural duty To pass on one’s culture Now they are condemning that So By the sheer Venom and extremism Of their tone and their Statements All of which attract Attention They also attracted a lot of attention Just because of the sheer amount Of sensationalism with which they were presenting Things or they were arguing things And the end result of all this Was that They became Phenomenal bestsellers And they acquired a Huge amount of following And thirdly They Appropriated science For their own purposes That They started claiming That science was on their side That The only way to be scientific Is to be The only real way, reasonable way to be scientific Is to be atheistic If somebody is not atheistic Then they are They cannot be scientific And They have to If they are not atheistic Then they are not saying scientific They are being gullible, they are being unscientific They are even being anti-scientific And all this Started Having an effect on people And sometimes even religious Teachers Played into their hands By Positioning religion As in a War with science And By attacking Scientific theories as being anti-religious Anti-god Without Considering the nuances of various things So In today’s world If people have to choose between religion and science Most people Feel that religion deals with facts Religion deals with faith Whereas science deals with facts And most people would choose Science instead of religion Now What these new atheists Are propagating is actually Not science But scientism The idea that Science alone is The answer The answer to all questions The idea that science alone Can provide us all valid knowledge About all subjects And the idea that There is no Validity to any knowledge that is not Vindicated through science Not ascertained through science So because of the Now there are books also written which Expose the scientific pretensions of atheism But Those books have not got anywhere As widespread circulation And popularity as have got the Atheistic books themselves And so because of The alarm over Religious Instigated violence The The polemical Extremism and Expertise of the Atheistic writers And the The Misappropriation of science by Atheists For propagating their own ideology Because these are three broad factors That have contributed to the spreading of Atheism But We can see that Like all such trends Their popularity now Is going down And it will In its own way Keep going up and down Such trends will keep happening If we can Address the fundamental concerns by Presenting Spirituality as non-sectarian means For expanding one’s consciousness Then People won’t People will see extremism as Just one small aspect of religion People will see Science as one valuable But finite But But valid tool for knowledge For only one aspect of reality And To the extent Talented and Vibrant Intelligent Dedicated people get attracted to Atheism and to spirituality And they start speaking and sharing spirituality To the extent Spiritual wisdom can also spread and Spiritual consciousness can also spread