
By
Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
7 October
2023
Recently,
the iconoclast Marathi writer Rajan Khan's 28-yr-old son committed suicide in
Poona. Since Rajan Khan is an avowed atheist and he never misses an opportunity
to condemn god, religion and religious superstitions in his writings and
speeches, many believers and god-fearing people in Poona are of the view that
god taught him a 'lesson' by taking away his son! What primitive logic!

Pune: Son Of Marathi Writer Rajan Khan Takes His Own Life Due To
Financial Stress |Photo: Free Press Journal
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If you go
by this logic that who don't believe in god, face such bereavements and losses
in life then how'll you explain believers' children and at times, believers
themselves committing suicide? Why doesn't god come to the rescue of those
believers who choose to commit suicide?
Humans are
guided by what's known as ' Believers' logic,' a term coined by the American
psychologist Carl Rogers. Since most of the people are believers and there're
still very few atheists, the latest Caste Survey in Bihar has proven this, our
collective behavioural thinking is shaped and moulded by the beliefs and
perceptions of theists and believers and not by a handful of atheists and
non-believers. If anything good happens to us, we quickly attribute that to an
imaginary god's grace and if anything untoward happens, we're scared that we've
antagonized that fussy, finicky and fastidious god who flies off the handle at
regular intervals. This is ingrained in us and has become our natural and
normal behavioural response.
In other words,
humans are regulated by a general theistic logic which cannot accept and
accommodate a non-theistic logic system. So, the ever-existing esoteric fear in
human psyche tries to find a (divine) pattern or a logic in such mishaps to
assert god's presence. This is fallacious. Whatever happens in life and nature
cannot be explained in a theistic or non-theistic manner.
Why do only
good and honest people suffer in life is an eternal conundrum that has never
been understood by any man-made religion and explained by any so-called evolved
human, though our 'great' Jaggi and Ravi Shankar 'spiritually' bamboozle their
followers with their sophistry and theological mumbo-jumbo.
Hindus and
Easterners bring in that invisible and perpetually baffling Karma Theory to
explain this existential and civilizational riddle but they fail and fall
eventually. Believers of Abrahamic faiths will call it god's will (Marzi-e-Khuda).
That's also inadequate as it smacks of a sense of abject resignation.
Moreover,
if one thinks that god avenges if you deny it, then is your god so vengeful?
Isn't revenge a basic human attribute we all are saddled with? If your god has
all those quotidian traits that you've, then how come that god is different and
greater than you?
Benedict
Spinoza said, " Nihilistic Indifference is God's fundamental
attribute." In other words, this concocted god is supposed to be beyond
the very idea or a linguistic construct called indifference. If so, whether you
praise or pan that Nihilistic god, why should it punish or reward you?
Let's come
back to the unfortunate suicide of atheist writer Rajan Khan's son. In any
case, he (son) would have committed suicide regardless of his father's beliefs
or no beliefs.
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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 the world's premier publications in several
languages including Persian.
URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/suicide-rajan-believers-logic/d/130842
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