So what is new? Why am I broadcasting this fact publicly now?
Simple, no one reads my blog. I could say I see men in underwear dancing at night and no one would think I am crazy. For the record it is women I see (suitably scantily clad or mostly not clad). Not that there is anything wrong in seeing men in underwear.
The problem all started with this book. It always does, first you read a book; then you get ideas and everyone knows ideas are dangerous. Pretty soon you get arrested for setting the flag on fire as a protest!!
To confess, I read The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins and guess what - I got religion!!
That's bad, real bad. Read any book but a book by Dawkins. Everyone knows he is going to hell. In fact he is so bad I heard he has an E-ZPass to hell.
About the book. It is great. If you wish to keep his company in hell (and mine) read it.
Now this post changes tone from being casual and almost but not quite funny to being mildly serious.
During the middle part of this decade, I had lost my passion for atheism. My wife and I were in our own pain and things looked really dark. We were in search of I_do_not_know_what. I guess we wanted anguish free life. We did not want to be unhappy. We wanted to be able to smile again. In those dark moments it seemed logical that people would pray. I used to wish I could pray. So I lost that militancy that made me a pain in the certain place of great heat. I guess I still am one but I hope less so than before.
I also felt that it is an innocent belief and that if I could escape from the clutches of religion and belief in god so could others. I felt that it was more often a matter of personal choice or decision.
Finally in raising a child you never know whether it is correct to deny ones child all that religion and belief in God brings; Culture and Tradition which really is about your identity. So I used to earlier avoid this topic considering it a little dangerous to tell my daughter that I really did not believe in Rama as a god and that Ramayana was just a story, albeit in the form of a great epic.
Although after reading this book I still did not feel the same passion as earlier, I no longer have any hang-up either. I am very comfortable with my atheism to a point where it no longer feel unnatural to bring up this topic in any conversation with my daughter.
One last thing; since I was born in India, I have always known that I would never be the President of USA. Since the greatest prize is being denied to me I want to make sure that I could not run for political office of any sort, setting aside the fact that no one wants me to run for any political office. How is being an atheist relevant? See results from this survey.
Ignoring the fact that the survey refers to "Well Qualified" candidates, I wanted to be sure that 20 years in the future when my wife forces me to run for a minor post in my HOA my opponents can dig this up and dish it out.
The beauty of this is that I could always re-discover God if the urge to enter politics resurfaces. It is well known that it is hard to resist the temptation of Satan. I could always blame him for my delusion and claim that I am now Born Again. Everyone knows you will go to hell for your sins but my mistakes naturally are between me and my maker and you sir have no right to judge!!
Look at the number of right-wing politicians who somehow have maintained their reputation through various scandals although they excoriated Clinton for his peccadillo's. Gingrich one of the central figures in that drama it turns out was himself having an affair at about that time he was impeaching Clinton for having one (or more)!!
PS: I thought I was the first person to coin the phrase evangelical atheist, turns out I was wrong. So much for me ever coming up with an original thought!!
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