I have converted. I have become an atheist. I no longer believe in something called as God and I am feeling good. I am feeling relaxed. I’ve had this doubt about the all the religious and spiritual things for some years, it led to a journey to find the truth. The journey is now over. After much thought and readings about arguments for and against existence of god – I’ve found the truth – that there is no God. God is just a delusion, human beings and earth were not create by a “creator” but they just came in to being “by chance”. Man “evolved” from other forms of life, and his brain evolved so much that he started believing in a super natural being called “God”. I no longer believe in that stuff.

I am not going to write here what made me an atheist. No matter what I write, those who believe will continue to do so and I am not interested in converting other people or making them believe what I believe. If you believe in God – good for you. I don’t so just leave it at that.

What I am going to write here is what does it mean to be an atheist. Life is different. More different then you can imagine. This whole God and religion thing is so interwoven in our lives that we don’t even realize when we make reference to something supernatural in our daily life.

Since I no longer believe in god, I no longer believe in luck as well. What is luck? Destiny? Something that is “written” for us by some invisible hand? Well I just don’t believe in any invisible hand anymore so I don’t believe in destiny anymore. Now I can’t blame luck/destiny for my failures or hail it for my victories. Its purely my efforts or lack of – my skills or my shortcomings which are responsible for how my life proceeds. Now I can’t afford to be dependant on luck factor for anything that I want. I now know that I will have to move my butt if I want something. I can’t afford to be lazy. I can’t blame heavens for my failures. It’s all me. Now if something happens just out of the blue, its a mere co-incidence, like how we evolved as species. Just a co-incidence.

No more lucky/unlucky numbers or lucky stones for me. No favourable days/months depending on star signs. No tarrot cards, no palm reading. Feng Shui or Vastu Shastra are meaningless for me hence forth. I won’t care in what direction is my door facing or towards which direction I put my feet while sleeping.

I used to pray in the morning, not any more. I used to visit temples and bow my heads in front of gods – not any more. I used to put coins in the donation box in a temple – not anymore. I used to thank god before having my lunch and dinner – not any more. No after life or re-incarnations for me. No heaven, no hell. No angels, no demons. No ghosts, no witches, no werewolves. No chants, no mantra, no hymns. The biggest change is that now I feel independent. I feel free. I no longer have to worry about virtues or sins. No good deeds or bad deeds.

Now does this mean I no longer have any morals? No. I still think cheating others is bad. I should not steal from others. I should not beat those who are weaker than me. Why do I think so? Not because it is written in some “holy” book. (By the way nothing is “holy” for me anymore – what holy? Its just a material!) Nor do I have please some “God” so that I can get place in a posh hotel known as “heaven” after I “depart” from this world. I do not steal because I won’t like others to steal form me. I won’t beat a weak person because I don’t want to be beaten by a stronger person. It’s like I wont break your house and you won’t break mine. Live and let live philosophy.

Its the law of the nature. Why do dogs “mark” their territory? To warn others. Kind of – “This area is mine, stay away!” Why worn? Why not just beat the heck out of the intruders? Because a fight always proves costly for the winner as well as the loser. Its better not to fight. You stay in your territory, I won’t come there, you stay out of mine. Dogs don’t do so – avoid fights – because some supreme being told them to do so. They just do it out of thousands of years of knowledge gained by their ancestors. By their genes!

The same things is there in my genes. I don’t want fights. I want peace. So I will stay within certain limits and I will expect others to do so. That’s morality. It does not come from a god, but from genes. The fittest of the genes that survived. I am one of the fittest ones, so is everyone else. No one is special and that is one more realization.

Life is good as an atheist. What about you? Are you enjoying this life as the only chance to be in this beautiful place or are you worried about the “seven star hotel stay” after you die?