Atheism or Religion?

To be religious or to be atheist? That is a question I have often asked myself and found difficult to answer. I never believed religion to be the absolute path towards god. Nor do I see god in the form as religion depicts. What annoys me is the vast loads of strict rituals and baseless restrictions imposed onto people, which appear completely meaningless. It is this strictness associated with religion, which later blends into culture, that worries me. It is this imposed adherence to a single path of life which makes absolutely no sense. Its annoying to hear a person say she does not eat meat, because her religion forbids her to do so! Can't they just dislike the taste or refrain from killing someone to fill their own stomach. At the same time, religion can have a nice side. In fact many religious occasions have given me some good memories. Memories of meeting lots of friends, distant relatives and having a good time.

At the other end of spectrum lies the school of atheism. But here again, there are ideas which you *must* adhere to. For eg, you must not believe in God. Ever seen an atheist who believes in God? I think God exists. Not in the way religion says he does, but he does. But atheism will forbid me from thinking so! If religion makes your ideas confined to a particular set, so does atheism. That means that atheism is a religion in itself!

Atheists are large proponents of logic and science. Their biggest arguments against God is "You cannot prove or show me God, so he must not". Well, you cannot prove something does not exist just because its not observable or it cannot be proved that it does exist. The leap of blind faith which is completely unscientific is something which raises eyebrows. But isn't blind faith a part of everyone's daily lives? We have some blind faith in a lot of things we do.

So we come to a standpoint. There are various schools of thought. Each having its own thought process. When a person becomes a part of a school, there is some "light" because of which, they are taking this step. Its important to respect this. If something makes someone content or even better, happy, that must be respected. Its this ignorance of respect which has created a lot of problems which we face today. I think I will respect religion, religious people, atheism, atheists and every other entity who comes in between, but I will choose to be none of them. The best "school", I can join is the school of open mindedness. A school where you respect everything (even the vegetarian lady), nothing is imposed on you. You get to enjoy any aspect of life which you think is enjoyable, and its not "against the rules" to do so.

This is what I stand by today. But if needed to extend this idea to accomodate some more good things in life, I will do it.

Not sure if my new school has a webpage, but if you know about it, let me know :)