When I Was Feasting Upon Uncertainties

The thing that I really, really love to do is to sit down at 7-11 while sipping some beers and coffee and feasting some potato chips with my friends like By Charles and Nanang Nurbuat while playing Cap Sa. But often we talk a lot about politics, religion, and philosophy in raw level – we don't know much about political affairs nor philosophical concepts, but we could discuss all night long on them.

One thing that ever discussed on was about atheism. Had been reading Jon Meacham's article on Newsweek "The End of Christian America", I found some interesting facts. The number of American people who claim no religious affiliation has nearly doubled since 1990 from 8 to 15 percents. Meanwhile, according to American Religious Identification Survey, the number of people are willing to describe themselves as atheist or agnostic since 1990-2009 has been rising nearly fourfold from 1 million to roughly 3.6 millions. This is needless to say, quite shocking me although I'm a liberal person, and I believe, this is much to dismay religious conservatives who long to see their faith to be expressed and conserved in public life. What phenomenon is happening right now? And what causes it?

Some people says we're now entering what is so-called post-religion era. That doesn't necessarily mean our God is dead (as Friedrich Nietzsche said), but surely our God has lost His grips on our socio-political circumstances than any other time in recent memories. Some say, religions lose on the issues of same sex marriage, gender re-assignment, euthanasia, cloning, and abortion (by the way, Indonesia allows abortion, too, although it's only for urgent medical reason and rape victim, see Indonesian Health bill). I saw that this phenomenon doesn't only occur in secular countries, but also in conservative religion-based countries, albeit the effect on the latter isn't as paramount as the former.

I've been in and out of atheist internet forums and I found a lot of mockeries, blasphemies, and intense debates about so many things: morality, history of religion, dispute about the facts in Qur'an, Bible, and Talmud, concept of Supreme Being, and one thing that is never left, creationism vs evolution. Both religious and atheism brought so many facts, and, for me, neither side is getting a clear winning nor losing.

So what is the grand line? I found that atheists seek one thing: indisputable empirical prove that God is exist, underline on indisputable and empirical. As what the prominent figure of atheism, Thomas H. Huxley said, "The deepest sin against human mind is to believe things without evidence." I asked someone on the forum about his decision to become an atheist, he replied, "God didn't give me enough reason to believe." Atheist believe human doesn't need God to live. They say religions are delusional and miracles can be explained in simple science. They argue that we don't need God to become a person with morality, because every person is born with the desire to order. They also associate God with "Invisible Pink Unicorn", imaginary, but has attributes (i. e. pink = God's attribute: great, glorious, etc.), and yet the attributes and existence of such thing cannot be proven or dis-proven since it's invisible. They also refuse to believe that God is exist due to the circular logic (i. e.: How do we know that God is exist? Because holy book told us so. Then how do we know that holy book is right? Because it is from God). And many more historical facts and philosophical arguments that are too long to be written here.
But why does their number keep on increasing? I, frankly, don't understand. As a child who has been raised in conservative family, I found that religion education or indoctrination is still strong enough, and even on the liberal one. If it's failed, there are still religion subject on schools, preaching on churches, mosques, synagogues, and even on the TV.

Another Concern

Another problem that corners religion is when religion separates people instead of connecting it (the term "religion" is derived from Latin phrase re + ligare which means "to bind, to fasten"). When religion becomes a justification to kill other people, when religion is in behind of many conflicts and wars, and when religion separates two people who love each other make God, through the eyes of religion, nowadays becoming an "alien". I may be representing one of the many young people who are brave enough to question God and religion. Nowadays, religion differences are almost like a curse. Each religious group tried to look at and approach God with its own definition of truth, with its point of view, since religions are multi-interpretative. Religious fundamentalism on one spectrum is the perspective of a certain believe/religion that considers that their own definitive perspective is the sole "truth" and absolute. But then again, problems arise when these fundamentalies claim that the "other" approaches and views of God, are considered deviant or wrong. What happens next is the conflict: Ambon, between Christian-Islam; Jerusalem, between Jew-Islam; Iraq, between Sunni-Shia; Ireland, between Protestant-Catholic; India, between Islam-Hinduism; and so forth. Too many blood spilled, God's name claims so much death tolls and not to mention raises a stereotype towards certain religion that is regarded as terrorists.

A lot of people be anxious of religions, precisely the anxiety felt by Friedrich Nietzsche years ago, as what he said, "god is dead! god is dead! And we all killed him...." (Gott ist tot! Gott bleibt tot! Und wir haben ihn getötet!). Nietzsche had "killed" a metaphysical god. He was a true atheist. But this, too, what is feared by a lot of people when they think, "This world has too many religions. This world has too many gods already!" Was it God's fault? Or human's? Or both? Or whose fault?

Seeking for Truth

So, what is truth? Whose "God" is right? Truth, taken in historical perspective, social, and cultural context, describe something that we caught or learned. Truth is indeed very fragmentary, depends on how we are shaped by the various fragments, ranging from cultural to social environment.

Immanuel Kant called this as "Das Ding an Sich", that truth is in itself, we'll never know. Humans have limitations in seeing the whole reality. When monotheism was born, many hope that monotheism can overcome the quibble on the question of classical metaphysics, paganism, or "primitive" religions. Emmanuel Levinas with his "concept of one God"-Judaism, has placed the Abrahamic monotheism religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) as benchmarks for the paradigm of faith. Levinas criticized Martin Heidegger's point of view that reminds us of the "Existence" in traditional metaphysics. "Existence" is not always a substantial God(s), but "Existence" is there, before we even thought. "Existence" is a reflective, which implies the power of the heart, grace, and the personal faith.

When religion becomes large, it grows like a rigid structure, far beyond the meaning of "Existence". Glorious mosques, churches, temples, and synagogues, and all the religion's gleaming, have taken quiet spaces in the recesses of meditation. Meaning of "Existence" has shifted to the prevaricating over differences between these and those. At that time, religion was no more than just about who is right and who is wrong. So, I think, we are "surplus" in "declaring the acquisition" of God, yet also "deficit" in terms of understanding meaning of God. Relationship between God and religion is now shifted only to be transactional matters, to fulfill the "spiritual needs" of people, to tranquil them in a bliss of joy, that's it. No wonder Karl Marx called religion as "the opiate". He regarded religion as the opiate which can make people "drunk" and forget the reality of life. Although, there are people who in their praise and worship, and in their contemplation, able to understand the meaning of God.

And in the end the question left is just: "Are we really able to fully understand and believe our God and the fact that we are created differently? And if we are, will we be able to stop equivocating and hyper-criticizing about the differences, and worship Him together with our respective methods?"

Meanwhile, let me defined my faith for myself. I don't need for myself indisputable empirical evidence to believe in God, even though there are a lot of facts about the truth of religion and the existence of God provided by the religious people on the forum, and through my own historical and scientific apologetic research. For me, God is there on the face of those who were crucified, and on the martyrs, and on those who died and sacrificed their everything for justice, truth, and morality. God is there on the person who is not only alive but also conscientious, who is on his standing, sitting, or lying down, seeing and contemplating the meaning and face of God, everywhere, every time. I see God on them.

Do you see God?