puneet saxena (student) 08 August 2010

can atheism be treated as religion?

india is a religious society and too much superstitions are here and most of the people are run by their religious belief and if any one speaks about the practices of any religion, he may face discrimination as well as threat to his life. specially in some religion it is considered very objectionable to speak against any established belief or god.

indian constitution allows everyone to propagate its religious belief . but in many cases one religion's belief is opposite from other.for example in islam it is forbidden to worship of any idol so islamic propagator will say that it is wrong to worship a idol.

so my first question is : anyone who is propagating his religious belief , can propagate his religion by citing others practices wrong? and without it how is it possible? is it legally right?

number of atheist are increasing in india like west but they are very few in numbers and are associated with parents religion only for name sake. so my second question is :can they be treated as religious minority according to indian constitution? and can get the benefits of religious minority as given in constitution of india ?

third question is :can they(atheist) openly speak against the existence of god and the religious and cultural beliefs of other religions to create a post religious society if their thinking is logically correct?

fourth question is:is it necessary while taking oath to pronounce "in the name of god or me iswar ki sapat leta hoon etc. or keep your hand on geeta or koran or any other religious book or show respect to god while taking oath in court ?

fifth question: can any one register himself as an atheist in census instead of any particular religion?

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Bhartiya No. 1 (Nationalist) 08 August 2010

I am not in a position to say much about the question raised by, But it is indeed very good question.

Here I am posting some of the excerpts of Great Freedom fighters' biography

[edit] Ideals and opinions

Bhagat Singh in jail at the age of 20

Bhagat Singh was attracted to anarchism and communism.^[4] Both communism and western anarchism had influence on him. He read the teachings of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Trotsky and Bakunin.^[49][50] Bhagat Singh did not believe in Gandhian philosophy and viewed that Gandhian politics will replace one set of exploiters by another.^[51] Singh was an atheist and promoted the concept of atheism by writing a pamphlet titled Why I am an Atheist.^[52] Bhagat Singh was also an admirer of the writings of Irish revolutionary Terence MacSwiney.^[53] When Bhagat Singh's father petitioned the British government to pardon his son, Bhagat Singh quoted Terence MacSwiney and said ""I am confident that my death will do more to smash the British Empire than my release" and told his father to withdraw the petition.^[54]

Some of his writings like "Blood Sprinkled on the Day of Holi Babbar Akalis on the Crucifix" were influenced by the struggle of Dharam Singh Hayatpur.^[55]

[edit] Atheism

Singh began to question religious ideologies after witnessing the Hindu-Muslim riots that broke out after Gandhi disbanded the Non-Cooperation Movement.^[57] He did not understand how members of these two groups, initially united in fighting against the British, and could be at each others' throats because of their religious differences. At this point, Singh dropped his religious beliefs, since he believed religion hindered the revolutionaries' struggle for independence, and began studying the works of Bakunin, Lenin, Trotsky — all atheist revolutionaries. He also took an interest in Niralamba Swami's^[58] book Common Sense, which advocated a form of "mystic atheism".^[59]

While in a condemned cell in 1931, he wrote a pamphlet entitled Why I am an Atheist in which he discusses and advocates the philosophy of atheism. This pamphlet was a result of some criticism by fellow revolutionaries on his failure to acknowledge religion and God while in a condemned cell, the accusation of vanity was also dealt with in this pamphlet. He supported his own beliefs and claimed that he used to be a firm believer in The Almighty, but could not bring himself to believe the myths and beliefs that others held close to their hearts. In this pamphlet, he acknowledged the fact that religion made death easier, but also said that unproved philosophy is a sign of human weakness.^[1]

^{Souce: -}

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