Its either Atheism or people just don’t care anymore

Posted by Ritesh - 24/03/10 at 08:03:03 am

My neighbors were talking about how a temple recently had a meeting to discuss the fall in the number of visitors and donations. This was surprising considering religion is one of the biggest industries in India is now seeing a decline. Tirupati, a religious destination, second only to the vatican in terms of donations received, has seen a sharp decline in the number of visitors and donations. (blame the telengana debacle also for this). In the metros there is a sharp increase of people who are turning atheists and there is also a significant number of people who don’t have any incentive to be religious anymore. In the older times, a typical Indian office would be characterized by a gigantic Idol of the Lord that had a Lamp and incense sticks burning all day. There was the infamous cash box or the safe, that was worshiped everyday as well. Most managers had big pictures of the various Gods and deities and it was always a good idea to spend a fair amount of the company’s budget on a religious celebration (something like a Gana Homa or a trip to not so close Temple).  Being religious had serious incentives when it came to being on the favorable side of your Boss or promotions.

Flying Spaghetti Monster

Lets move to 2010. Most offices are characterized by large glass and wood facades, plush and contemporary furniture and central air conditioning. Idols and Photos of deities are replaced by an abstract art painting or some motivational poster. Company budgets are spent on a either short adventurous trips or on expensive wine and dining. I would dare someone to suggest going to Tirupati for their team outing. Nobody discusses religion primarily because of a multilingual , multicultural and multi religious nature of most teams. There is absolutely no incentive in being religious ( at least in companies like mine; I don’t know about the strong Brahmin dominated 100,000 plus employee companies). All in all, religion is not as inter twined in our society as its used to be.

Here’s another thought, exposure to literature from around the world, videos of people right from eminent scholars like Carl Sagan, Richard Dawkins to standups like George Carlin have changed the way people think about religion. Consequentially, we have a growing population of people who are questioning indoctrination and age old beliefs. Then there are the others, who between their farmville activities, twitter, youtube , facebook and pub/mall hopping, dont find time to be religious. Why would they? It pays more to have seen Susan Boyle in Britain’s Got Talent than being religious in today’s social circle.

Most people who used to cash in on the religious phenomenon are being hit bad. Lets take the million dollar Agarbatti (incense) industry. Agarbatti served a dual purpose, apart from being a symbol of worship, it would also serve as a room freshner for many people. You cannot even dare light a match, let alone an agarbatti, in a modern office. Add to this that most premium agarbatti makers (like the one shown below) cashed in primarily due to exports and metros. So what do they do? Market agarbatti as a natural room freshner? Nah, Room Freshner sprays would beat them by a long shot. So they go make an advertisement. The one which has very satisfactory scientific explanations about the divine phenomenon. Surely, even the divine is based on some scientific principle, even if its weakly rooted in fact.

12 Comments »

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  1. In the metros there is a sharp increase of people who are turning atheists and there is also a significant number of people who don’t have any incentive to be religious anymore – A claim like that needs a strong basis, I don think there has been a census on this, if it comes from personal experience it is questionable

    Comment by ashwin — March 24, 2010 #

  2. I say this after observing a huge increase in the number of groups both online and offline that condemn religion. A lot of people, in my own friends circle, at work etc share a lot of articles which riducule religious beliefs. And yes, if you have no incentive in being religious and you begin to live as an agnostic you become open-minded about debates regarding the supreme lord.

    Comment by Ritesh — March 24, 2010 #

  3. You should also consider a few other receivers of money in this religion game apart from temples; self-proclaimed godmen who for some reason are immensely popular in apna desh & religious warmongers. If you consider them in the sum-total then I feel the religion industry will only look much bigger than before …

    Plus with the world growing smaller (ahem) the money that was going to just Tirupati goes to 10 different temples today :-)

    Regarding atheist / agnostic practices; I wonder how many people who disregard the concept of god are actually doing it out of their self-belief. I have met some who indulge in religion/god bashing simply because it’s fun. Moreover I feel the percentage of atheists looks larger today (even if it is not) for 2 reasons: 1> people speak freely about their beliefs these days 2> there is always an audience, thanks to the internet.

    Comment by Sagar — March 24, 2010 #

  4. I think you nailed it with the two points at the end!! Thanks to the internet, the audience is always there and anonymity or a surreal virtual existence (with not accountability , at least now) encourages many to express their views freely.

    Comment by Ritesh — March 24, 2010 #

  5. I don’t think religion necessarily has to be personified (i.e. associated with a God- Hindu or otherwise). In the very least, it can even mean being truthful to oneself in life,work and whatever you are doing. In other words, having a conscience.Every religion drives home exactly that message. All extrapolations(beliefs) and (mis)interpretations are done by humans.I’m a person with a scientific temperament (the agnostic part) but at the same time, there are things which science cannot explain yet, which i conveniently attribute to something superior (aka God).

    There are certain things in life that are practiced not because it has incentives but because it is expected of us as humans to do so. And following a moral code(a.k.a. religion) is one of them. I suppose much of this has been deliberated enough on your “What drives me to agnosticism” post.

    On a lighter note, if you thought that the agarbatti business was dying, you should lookup Nag champa :)

    Comment by itisravi — March 24, 2010 #

  6. Well, being atheist is not being not-religious, really. You have Hindu atheist sects. Regarding the fact that we see a decline of “religious” people in the metros, I guess its because somewhere we’re taught that religion and science are really different. Something that has been the contribution of the western education, since our so called religious works, like the Vedas, have a lot of science in them.
    Maybe they just don’t realise that rationalism and religion can go together.

    Comment by Venkat — March 24, 2010 #

  7. I don’t know if being moral or immoral has anything to do with religion. Every human knows the difference between good and evil, at least thats what Immanuel Kant thought. Without any inhibitions, I wish you could list down those inexplicable phenomenons that you mention. And yes, I know Nag Champa and my guesses are that their sales are hit too. I only stressed on Cycle because they are apparently the biggest perfumer/incense vendor in India, the MS of the agarbatti world.

    Comment by Ritesh — March 25, 2010 #

  8. Really? there are hindu atheist sects? Isn’t that a little corny? Western education has definitely contributed to the growing irreligiousness (its not a word), but the western world is itself an overtly religious set of people. Think of the US of A, one country under the Lord was the campaign by some presidential hopefuls during the last election. As for the vedas, it was a body of knowledge written aeons ago, and scientific phenomenon that the people could not explain was attributed the supreme lord. Given the state of art in science now, I wonder , if a new veda was written, my guesses are that we would conveniently leave out the supreme lord. Wont we? I mean , what are the things that we need to attribute to the Lord now?

    Comment by Ritesh — March 25, 2010 #

  9. It’s ironical but true; Hinduism (and also Jainism and Buddhism) do not mandate theism as a requirement. In short you can be an atheist and still be a practicing Hindu by ascribing to the system of rules in the Vedas and the Gita. Here’s some more dough on this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism_in_Hinduism

    However, and this is a big HOWEVER, all this is conveniently ignored by the executors (mostly self-proclaimed) of these religions. Why? Simple. Unless you strike the fear of the LORD into the hearts of the minions you can’t rule them or rob them of their hard earned money …

    Comment by Sagar — March 25, 2010 #

  10. GR international is a reputed manufacturers and exporters of Agarbatti, Agarbathi, Incienso, Incenso and Sahumerio in India,http://www.grincense.com/

    Comment by grincense — April 13, 2010 #

  11. ROFL! Agarbatti Troll alert :D

    There! You pissed off an agarbatti dude by saying that their industry isn’t making enough money these days.

    Comment by Sagar — April 13, 2010 #

  12. GR international is a reputed manufacturers and exporters of Agarbatti, Agarbathi, Incienso, Incenso and Sahumerio in India, for more details visit http//:www.grincense.com

    Comment by grincense — April 14, 2010 #

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