Dear readers of the YouthSpeak,
At first I wish you happy New Year 2011. We assume everything went well in 2010 and exciting 2011 is the next.
I got an opportunity to participate in the World Atheist Conference in Tamil Nadu, India. That became an amazing visit for me because the participation of the people was beyond my expectation. Thousands of people were happily celebrating the Atheist Conference there.
I had stereotypes of thinking that declaring ‘Atheist’ must be challenging to an individual in India. I was wrong. Local people feel proud of being Atheist in Tamil Nadu, India. What a wonderful world! School students were saying: “Human being can do all the things; there is no role of god in this world at all.” I was totally surprised by the innovative thinking of children. I asked them “Are your parents atheists too?”, but they replied “No, but s/he can exercise belief personally. I am not a believer.”
About six thousand people were on the street during the procession of the World Atheist Conference. Whole Street was full of chariot by various cultural groups. People were devoted for promotion of non-religious life. On the other hand India is the land of so many religious fundamentalists. But how can a humanist movement be that strong in the same land? Probably that is the reason for ‘incredible India’.
I got an opportunity to meet so many youngsters who are actively working in grass root for the progress of the poor people with humanistic standpoint. Only the systematic collection of all young humanist activists seems lacking.
IHEYO should keep extra energy to organize all the young humanist organizations/individuals to bring them under one umbrella. As IHEYO has already started the initiation not only in India but in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan through its Asian chapter.
Finally, I would like to say that we atheist are the majority in the world until the end of 2010. More than 30% of world’s population is non-theistic. Still, many people might have thought that we are in minority. Even, Tamil Nadu of India can give you a good answer. So, let’s be proud of being Atheist with different culture than all religious people.
Uttam Niraula