Denying god in Guyana..
One time a minibus driver said gospel music was only for the morning.. and another time a passenger said I cannot sing Amazing Grace.. because that it have time and place for dat. I said God dont have time and place and a girl who was winin' up in front suck her teeth while others look a bit embarassed. I am an unrepentant invoker of God in minibuses when I want the minibus to change the music which I think is dutty and calling for women to take off their underwear.
Sometimes it works.; sometimes the drivers pretend they not hearing me, or in some of the minibuses which might have the murti of Laxmi or Durga on it, I would get a good cuss out from the drivers who expect me to understand that they have a god given right to make their money at any costs.
I am as guilty as the politicians who have cleverly ensured the adequate supply of the opium to the masses, in different forms and of high quality and have themselves become involved in dealing it. The President himself gave the nation over to God though others would want to know how he does some of the things he does if he believes in their version of God. Some think that he displays all the
godlike qualities.
God is important in Guyana. Nothing raises God up more than any talk of equal rights for lesbian and gay people.
A lot of people thought I was atheist when I protested the influence of the Christian and Muslim groups who did not want Guyana to accept that there should be no discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity. One man told me he had tried years ago to have discussions about the foolishness of believing in God.
Thing is, due to this activism, I learnt a lot about the different religions in Guyana. Most times, from the people who were the practitioners. It was ironic when the homophobic atheists though said that 'homosexuality was against nature' whatever nature meant.
Atheism - the belief that there is no God - has never manifested itself as a movement in Guyana. Recently, I joined a Facebook group of mostly young people in Guyana who say that it is foolish to believe in God. The passion of the co-ordinator is inspiring.. in a time when there are few real counter-movements which are inspired by any ideology. Some people feel that atheism might mean hedonism and anarchy and no morals at all.. but from what I could see some of the people in the group are pretty well read about what they believe in and can articulate their views very well.
The trouble I have with atheists though.. is that when they are cursing up God and religion, they tend to curse up the Judaic Gods and Religions and make claims about the absence of reason and the lack of application of scientific methods and belief in science as it pertains to the existence of the supernatural.
The religious oppression of people, the way in which their power is used to silence opposition are all reasons to cuss up and buse out.
Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion is a nice example of 'busin' out and cussing up.. except that it was against the Christian church mostly, his reference to the Hindus being the Hindu right wing inspired massacres in Gujarat in 2002.
I believe that skepticism is healthy, and that Hinduism has a place for science and reason without bounds. To the best of my knowledge, there has been no book burning or sanctioning of any of the Hindu writers or scholars throughout the ages.. and the commitment to wide sharing of knowledge allowed zero to spread through the Islamic world at a time when ijtihad was also allowed and when there were many further inventions and discoveries and explorations.
In Guyana, an atheist agenda would take time to get a foothold. Any atheist agenda must not only state that it is denying God, but in a place in which discourse is about shouting up and cussing down, there is a responsibility to raise the discourse above that.. to offer some other perspectives on Truth and to also put forward ideas not only about science and logic, but also about how we define our humanity. I am not interested in the ugly history of the religions, or the problems of their scriptures.. I am interested in what can be put forward as the non-God solutions to the problems facing our existence. I joined the Secular Humanist mailing list and I like their approach thought it seems stuck in academia and far from the lives of ordinary people.
Not all of us religious people place responsibility on some separate Supreme.. some of us do believe we have to be active in our own destinies .
So why bother to lime with the atheists on Facebook and elsewhere.. it means that there is feedback and criticism.. a way to get perspectives from people on how they perceive God and how they get to that position.. if only for me to learn more about Sanatan Dharma as I seek to answer the questions they pose and not to condemn them for asking those questions. I do not believe the atheists are going to go to hell, or that they are sinners for denying or questioning the existence of god.
Sometimes it works.; sometimes the drivers pretend they not hearing me, or in some of the minibuses which might have the murti of Laxmi or Durga on it, I would get a good cuss out from the drivers who expect me to understand that they have a god given right to make their money at any costs.
I am as guilty as the politicians who have cleverly ensured the adequate supply of the opium to the masses, in different forms and of high quality and have themselves become involved in dealing it. The President himself gave the nation over to God though others would want to know how he does some of the things he does if he believes in their version of God. Some think that he displays all the
godlike qualities.
God is important in Guyana. Nothing raises God up more than any talk of equal rights for lesbian and gay people.
A lot of people thought I was atheist when I protested the influence of the Christian and Muslim groups who did not want Guyana to accept that there should be no discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity. One man told me he had tried years ago to have discussions about the foolishness of believing in God.
Thing is, due to this activism, I learnt a lot about the different religions in Guyana. Most times, from the people who were the practitioners. It was ironic when the homophobic atheists though said that 'homosexuality was against nature' whatever nature meant.
Atheism - the belief that there is no God - has never manifested itself as a movement in Guyana. Recently, I joined a Facebook group of mostly young people in Guyana who say that it is foolish to believe in God. The passion of the co-ordinator is inspiring.. in a time when there are few real counter-movements which are inspired by any ideology. Some people feel that atheism might mean hedonism and anarchy and no morals at all.. but from what I could see some of the people in the group are pretty well read about what they believe in and can articulate their views very well.
The trouble I have with atheists though.. is that when they are cursing up God and religion, they tend to curse up the Judaic Gods and Religions and make claims about the absence of reason and the lack of application of scientific methods and belief in science as it pertains to the existence of the supernatural.
The religious oppression of people, the way in which their power is used to silence opposition are all reasons to cuss up and buse out.
Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion is a nice example of 'busin' out and cussing up.. except that it was against the Christian church mostly, his reference to the Hindus being the Hindu right wing inspired massacres in Gujarat in 2002.
I believe that skepticism is healthy, and that Hinduism has a place for science and reason without bounds. To the best of my knowledge, there has been no book burning or sanctioning of any of the Hindu writers or scholars throughout the ages.. and the commitment to wide sharing of knowledge allowed zero to spread through the Islamic world at a time when ijtihad was also allowed and when there were many further inventions and discoveries and explorations.
In Guyana, an atheist agenda would take time to get a foothold. Any atheist agenda must not only state that it is denying God, but in a place in which discourse is about shouting up and cussing down, there is a responsibility to raise the discourse above that.. to offer some other perspectives on Truth and to also put forward ideas not only about science and logic, but also about how we define our humanity. I am not interested in the ugly history of the religions, or the problems of their scriptures.. I am interested in what can be put forward as the non-God solutions to the problems facing our existence. I joined the Secular Humanist mailing list and I like their approach thought it seems stuck in academia and far from the lives of ordinary people.
Not all of us religious people place responsibility on some separate Supreme.. some of us do believe we have to be active in our own destinies .
So why bother to lime with the atheists on Facebook and elsewhere.. it means that there is feedback and criticism.. a way to get perspectives from people on how they perceive God and how they get to that position.. if only for me to learn more about Sanatan Dharma as I seek to answer the questions they pose and not to condemn them for asking those questions. I do not believe the atheists are going to go to hell, or that they are sinners for denying or questioning the existence of god.
Good stuff. Its well written and Makes me think
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