Atheist Etiquette

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I've recently come to a realization that it might work against you socially, if you ever admit that you're indeed a vehemently gnostic atheist. I've personally made this mistake while interacting with a former priest. You see, the problem lies in the fact that with this revelation, if you do choose to divulge, is a total antonym to a believer's sense and purpose of life.

With one comment, you're implying that his/her faith is imaginary, intangible, inconsequential, and arbitrary. Human beings are selfish and possessive when it comes to their ideas and beliefs just as with their material owning. And the only way that you can take away these beliefs held so dearly to their heart is by stating that these are all fairy-tale musings, entirely flimsy.

I'm beginning to realise that this flimsy reality is created out of choice and inability to comprehend the purpose of their existence. Clinging on to reasons which are just manufactured thought patterns that are taught to young ones and disseminated one generation at a time.

You have the freedom to think for yourself, but what I'm saying is that you should reign it in and lean towards describing yourself as an Agnostic Atheist whenever an opportunity presents itself to spell out your ideology of belief, or non-belief in this case.

Aarushi-Hemraj Murder : Shoddy Investigation

The infamous double murder that shook entire nation of India is yet again a prime example of incompetence and social projection. Investigators have been dillying and dallying from day one which has finally culminated in a scenario where the parents of the 13 year old victim, Aarushi Talwar, have been convicted of the crime way before the court has pronounced verdict.

Tehelka has put out a poignant piece on the progress of this sensational murder case. Most important section of that article is the following paragraph:

The aides, on the other hand, particularly Krishna and Rajkumar, showed deception in their lie detector tests. Even more crucially, their narco tests pointed to their involvement in the crime. They admitted to their presence in the house that night, described the sequence of the crime, the murder weapon, and how Aarushi and Hemraj’s phones were disposed of. Arun Kumar, the head of the CBI team investigating the murder, held a press conference on 11 July 2008, sharing cautious details of these tests with the media.

These 'aides' refer to friends of Hemraj, the second victim, and domestic help to the Talwars, whose dead body was found lying on the terrace. These aides were domestic help to a neighbour and another was employed by a friend of the Talwars. They were familiar with murder scene environment.

As the second CBI team took over, they let their incompetence shine forth by letting the leads of this investigation implicating these aides to go cold. Instead they resorted to convenient conjecture implicating the parents. This is the part where social projection comes into the picture. These investigating inspectors and judges presiding over this case begin to project certain evil characteristcs upon the parents. This happens because the suspects and the invigilators belong to different sections of the society in most cases, as elsewhere in India. They begin to imagine the suspects to be of heinous capability, while downplaying incompetence on their own part.