Three kinds of Atheists
The first category of Atheists, are those I call, ‘Enlightened Atheists’. These are individuals who have widely read and consumed Atheist media, whose conclusions are based on experience and observation. As a consequence, they have a deep and nuanced understanding of why “religion” is bad. They “know” [as opposed to “don’t believe”] that God, Karma, Samsara …etc. are fictitious concepts. These individuals are the true Atheists.
The second category is the ‘Lethargic Atheists’. These are those who don the Atheist title due to their inability to follow the disciplined lifestyle necessitated by religion. Most humans are not able to live without having sex (including masturbation), neither without eating meat, nor without consuming alcohol, all of which are necessitated by most religions. However, some people’s inability to follow this restrained, religious way of life manifests as a disdain for all religion. They will loudly proclaim their irreligiousness when sinning (as a display of strength even), yet beg for mercy from the supernatural when in trouble.
The third, and most sinister Atheist, is the ‘Opportunistic Atheist’. This is someone who uses the enlightened cover of Atheism to serve an agenda. This person can be either extremely intelligent or plain ignorant. They will use Atheism or the “religion is stupid” tone, to selectively criticise certain religious practises only. For example, when Kirby De Lanerolle charged a mobile phone by divine power, everyone rushed to [rightly] call out the ridiculousness of the entire act; some of those very people, who ridiculed Kirby, viewed the cobra bringing a gem to Kelaniya as miracle. In another case, some people saw (or chose to see) “how frivolous” spraying pirith pan from the sky as protection against the coronavirus was, but remained oblivious to the claim “dead bodies have feelings and can experience pain” that came up a few days later.
Now, I am not saying that all Atheists are evil, and that you should reject them. Au contraire, we should always value the broader principle of questioning and critiquing [idiotic] cultural/religious practises. Notwithstanding, the point is that proclaiming “Atheist”, is not necessarily a sign of enlightenment. It could also mean weakness and/or ulterior motive. Recognise this.
Originally published in @/pickledachcharu on Instagram.
