Why Are There So Few Atheists Among Women?
By
Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
24 October
2022
" Atheism comes to men spontaneously;
women have to make a conscious effort to accept and internalize the idea which
doesn't often gel with their psychological make up."
Irshad Manji and Jennifer Michael Hecht
(Ugandan-born
Canadian educator Irshad Manji is still a Muslim who calls herself an agnostic
but not an outright atheist)
" Even a highly educated and 'rational'
woman often has an unexplained and irrational fear of god and a sense of
servility towards religion and its primitive rituals."
-Ophelia Benson, based in Seattle, she figures
among world's 50 Top Atheists
Ugandan-born Canadian educator Irshad
Manji
-----
Have you
ever thought as to why so few women in the world, and also in the history of
human civilization, have been truly atheistic in their attitude and approach to
god and religion? Only . 89 percent women out of the 7.5 billion population of
the world are atheists in the broadest sense of the word, which's not even 1
percent of the total population on earth. At the most, they're agnostic but
finding an absolute atheist like Somalian radical Ayaan Hirsi Ali, an
ex-Muslim, who now lives in Netherlands, is truly an uphill task because 'Women
are genetically programmed to believe in god/s and rituals and they can't use
their logic while rejecting the very idea of god/s' (Climbing Mount Impossible,
by Dr Richard Dawkins, New York, W W Norton, 1996).
This is not
a sexist observation of the world's foremost evolutionary biologist and a
celebrated atheist. Women actually perceive god differently from men. The way
women emote and react differently from men, they also evince a fixed pattern of
unquestioning and grovelling belief in their overall approach to religiosity.
As it's, belief in god or a supernatural power is a sign of irrational
behaviour.
The whole
phenomenon of faith and belief is devoid of even an ounce of rationality
because insecurity begets belief/s. And this irrationality is even more
ingrained among women than among men. In the burgeoning human civilizations,
women were at the mercy of men. That the scenario is still somewhat unchanged
is inconsequential, esp. in the pitiable state of women in patriarchal Muslim
societies.
Neuro-biologists
are of the view that a female brain's Cognitive Thinking Process (CTP) in
religious matters is straight and linear, whereas it's lateral in men. That's
why, a male brain questions the validity and rationale of esoteric beliefs more
holistically than that of a woman (Read Michael Shermer's 'Why Darwin Matters:
The Case Against Intelligent Design', New York, Times Books, 2006 and
'Evolution of Hormone-Receptor Complexity by Molecular Exploitation', Science,
312: 5770).
The very
concept of god is in human brains. The imaginary god is not outside. It's in
our brains and has been there since human evolution. There has been a
neuro-religious mutation in collective human brains over the period of nearly
fifteen to twenty thousand years and all these gods evolved as an outcome of
it.
Early homo
sapiens concocted all sorts of gods and subsequent religions concretized them.
Before that, our Neanderthal ancestors were scared of all natural calamities
and were trying to associate them with something beyond their limited
sense-perceptions. Marie Curie, who twice won the Nobel Prize and was an
agnostic throughout her life, believed that woman's brain was neurologically
more receptive to the idea of god and religion than that of a man (see,
Selected papers of Marie Curie, Source: Sorbonne University Press, Paris,
1977). An average woman's intellectual capacity to rationalize esoteric
phenomena is rather subdued and dormant.
A female
brain tends to take 'established truths' as 'eternally unalterable'. This
axiomatic thinking is different from man's ' ever evolving scepticism'. This is
the reason, women just can't reconcile to the fact that there's no god, however
educated and learned she may be. Moreover, there're emotional factors as well.
It has been found that there are very very few female atheists with a family
(husband and kids).
Most of the
female atheists have been either single women or having no kids. Readers may be
aware that all women tend to become vulnerable post-pregnancy and the
well-being of offspring become their prime concern. This inherent vulnerability
and the safety of progeny turn them toward god and religion and they become
believers. I saw highly 'rational' and 'atheistic' women pray to god when their
husband or child (esp. child) fell sick! Otherwise also, to pray or seek divine
intervention is a reflex action or a Pavlovian act embedded in 'evolving'
humans, if you don't like the word ' ill-evolved.' This phenomenon is known as
Umbilical Germination of Faith (UGF). Natural motherly instincts and belief in
god go hand in hand. Start noticing from this very moment, you'll hardly come
across a female atheist having kids.
-----
A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul
is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He
has contributed articles to world's premier publications in several languages
including Persian.
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/atheists-women-manji/d/128249