தருமி (SAM): October 2024

Review / thoughts on your book 'My Road to Atheism from Christianity'

Hello Sam thatha,

here are my thoughts on your book. (I know I'm a bit late, my apologies)

Before I begin, thanks for making me one of the dedicatees for this book, I'm glad you thought of us while penning down your experiences(although I can't say the same for amma who might have been against it.. hahaha).

I was pretty overwhelmed when I read through the beginning pages of the book, I was expecting a slow roll into why you chose atheism, but instead it was a passionate attack on religion itself and its harms from the get go(which I respect since you cut through any nonsense).

I also liked that you owned the fact that you were a late converter, different from other atheists who found the rationale behind their decision in their early teens, I felt like I learnt a lot about you through these personal accounts.

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The beginning chapter speaks about a child's mind and how it's a sponge for everything around it, both good and bad (won't argue which category faith comes under...). The account of which you speak about theologians and how faith was rooted in your environment was very relatable to me. 'How can I question something that hundreds and thousands of people have sacrificed/poured their life into', I felt guilty even thinking about it, it felt like a disservice to the community, a black sheep... I'm sure a lot of children felt this way and just went along with their parents' will. The first rebellion would've been Sunday class, where the child argues with the parent debating the need to wake up on a Sunday...

But now that I look back at it, was it something that has benefitted me by forcing me to be in a social environment?, This isn't me trying to convince myself that maybe religion is bad but maybe it's practices aren't, this is solely me reflecting on my personal growth that may or may not have been influenced by a by-product of faith....

I can also relate to other instances in my childhood where my parents sought solace through this higher being, did I feel sad or happy for my parents at the time?, Did I wish that there was a god at the time or did I just wish for my parent's problems to vanish?....

Did marking my forehead with holy water whenever I left the house give my mother a sense of ease and help her with her anxiety?, I can't be sure...., but one thing I can be sure of is that these experiences aren't fake. (can't/won't say the same for religion lol).

Did all the family gatherings in the name of religion mean nothing to me, absolutely not, but could it have been achieved without religion.. probably yes.

Now that I look back, all the memories I prioritize with regards to my religion are of the family/friends around me and not of a higher being, I guess I was never an orthodox christian(unlike you in your younger days), and that's fine, I've come to accept it.

Now do I think that we'll be better off without religion as a whole, hmmm now that is a very hard question... Do I see a future where religion is no more.... most probably, I can totally imagine people hundred years after us laughing at the things we did in the name of religion, but as long the pursuit to know our past exists, i'm afraid we are unable to escape this thing called religion for the time being as ppl will always try to find their roots / ancestry.

An Ideal world would be where every decision is made based on rationale and cold hard thinking, this is not to say religion makes us inherently more empathetic, but rather gives us an excuse to be empathetic.(But there are more accounts of religion aiding the opposite).

By now you would have realised that I'm being hypocritical on most of my statements by going against them after each time I reinforce it. Maybe I've still not decided or maybe my decision is to stay undecided ....who knows.

All I know for now is you got me thinking, like how Hitchens got you thinking and helped you affirm your 'faith' in atheism lol.

This review wasn't going to be a fact-against-fact battle with the author where I try to find fallacies in your research against faith. Rather I wanted to focus on the author himself and relate it to my personal experiences as well.

Finally, I think religion is not something that can be battled against, but must be realised from within(be it to believe or not to believe). It's in human nature to not want to lose to someone else, and since Atheism is a war against all forms of faith, the guy on the other side does not want to lose, lest he lose his identity for better or worse.... The ego of man is far stronger than any religion in the world.

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Note : This is the one book I have finished apart from a short story collection written by Jeffery Archer in the past few years :).

Note : I also liked the title, as it insinuates that atheism is something that you had to reach through your efforts rather than it being a fall-back if christianity didn't work out.

Thanks for letting me experience your work, hoping to read more works of yours :)

COMMENTS (in FB):

கும்பகோணம் ஜம்புலிங்கம்

மகிழ்ச்சி. வாழ்த்துக்கள்.

Thillai Arasu

Varathan Raj

தாத்தா 4 அடி பாய்ந்தால் பேரன் 64 அடி பாய்கிறான்.வாழ்த்துக்கள்.

Noble Chelladurai

A sincere feedback.

Arasezhilan Rathinam

இதன் தமிழ் மொழிபெயர்ப்பை எப்போது வெளியிடப் போகிறீர்கள் தோழர்?

Active

G Sam George replied

3 Replies

11 hours ago

VathilaiPraba

வாழ்த்துகள் சார்

Kanali

வாழ்த்துகள் சார்

Gopalakrishnan Sundararaman

Good one.

Soruban Santhagunam

Best wishes for the young lad and the success of the publication, Sir

Prabahar Vedamanickam

மோட்ச ராஜ்யத்துக்கு ஒருத்தனும் போகக் கூடாது

G Sam George

LEONARDO PRINCE writes:

Sam, this original only firms my previous comment, that the writing is mature in its *language* and *content* .

You should be proud of this brilliant lad that your grandson is!

His use of --

the words like, rationale, relatable, empathetic and

phrases like "slow roll" as againt "passionate attack", "cold hard thinking" is a class act.

That's the language part.

The sentence "Ego is stronger than any Religion" , shows a high degree of his understanding of the world at this young age.

Please convey my Congratulations and good wishes to him.

The red- lettered paragraph (and the writings there after) show the mind of a typical youngster, who is oscillating with his choice, careful not to be biased by his Thatha's book nor by his family practices!

Contradicting ideas do swirl around him and he doesn't want to take sides now, without much more clear facts & experiences...he even admits at one point, that 'why to take sides at all' and why not go with the flow?"!

Good for him, atleast for the time being!