Category:Thoughts of an Atheist
Theme Analysis
Śrīla Prabhupāda provides a penetrating analysis of the thoughts of an atheist. Fundamentally, the atheist wants to be the controller, thinking "I am the king, everything belongs to me." To maintain this illusion, they must deny the existence of a Supreme Controller (Īśvara). Consequently, they propose that creation takes place by chance, just as a child is born from the chance meeting of a man and a woman, or through the interaction of material elements (prakṛti and puruṣa) without a divine cause. This philosophy leads to a materialistic vision where the Deity is seen as mere stone and the spiritual master as an ordinary man. However, Śrīla Prabhupāda reveals a hidden fear: atheists are like ostriches who bury their heads in the sand. They deny the next life because they shudder to think of the punishment awaiting them for their sinful activities. Ultimately, their independence is crushed by nature in the form of death.
- Creation by Chance: Atheists reject a creator, believing the cosmos and life arise from the random combination of matter or sexual impulse.
- The Desire for Control: The driving psychology of an atheist is the false ego: "I am the lord of all I survey."
- Fear of the Future: Atheists deny the afterlife to avoid facing the consequences of their sins, hoping that everything ends with the body.
- Spiritual Blindness: To the atheist, the Deity is an idol and the devotee's service is a waste of time, whereas the devotee sees Sākṣād Vrajendra-nandana Hari (Kṛṣṇa Himself).
- Explore the synthesized essence of this category in this Vanipedia article: Thoughts of an Atheist - The Illusion of Independence.
Pages in category "Thoughts of an Atheist"
The following 23 pages are in this category, out of 23 total.
A
- Although the atheist class of men may think that they are engaged in idol worship, it is not idol. Those who are atheist, they may see idol, stone. But those who are devotees, they see saksad brajendranandana hari
- Atheistic men think that the cosmic manifestation has come about by chance, by a combination of matter, without reference to God
- Atheistic rascals think that there is no God and that the creation has taken place by chance, just as a man and woman meet by chance and the woman becomes pregnant and gives birth to a child. Actually, however, this is not the fact
- Atheistic Sankhya philosophers think that the symptoms of knowledge and living force visible in the innumerable living creatures are caused by the three qualities of the cosmic manifestation
- Atheistic Sankhya philosophers think that the total material energy causes the cosmic manifestation, but they are wrong
- Atheists generally follow the Bauddha philosophical conclusion that at death everything is finished. Hiranyakasipu, being an atheist, thought this way. Because Lord Visnu was not visible to him, he thought that the Lord was dead
- Atheists may think that the devotees are engaged in idol worship, but the fact is different
- Atheists shudder when they think that there is a next life, because their lives are sinful and they fear punishment in the next
- Atheists think that they are independent, and therefore they do not care about the supremacy of the Lord, yet the Lord asserts His supremacy when He overcomes them as death
T
- The atheistic philosopher, they think that this combination of prakrti and purusa is without any aim, without any idea
- The atheistic philosophers, who do not agree to accept the Supreme Personality of Godhead as the original cause of creation, think that the material world moves by the action and reaction of different material elements
- The atheistic son thought, "It is not possible for Gopala to come and bear witness." Thinking thus, the father and son agreed
- The atheists generally think that the body is the self and that everything is therefore ended with the end of the body. Thus they want to enjoy material life as far as possible during the existence of the body
- The atheists want to forget these miseries (birth, old age, disease and death), and therefore they like to think that there is no life after death. They are like ostriches, who stick their head in the ground when an enemy approaches
- The creation does not arise whimsically, as atheistic men think. They say that this world is unreal, that there is no foundation and that there is no God in control. It is produced of sex desire and has no cause other than lust - BG 16.8
- The elderly brahmana considered how to get out of this situation (described in CC Madhya 5.16-78) and still offer his daughter to the young brahmana. His son, an atheist and a very cunning fellow, was thinking of how to stop the marriage
- These atheistic vultures want to see God dead so they can take pleasure in thinking - Now God is dead, and I can do anything I like
- They (Demons and atheistic persons) think that simply by decrying the existence of the Supreme Lord or defying His stringent laws of nature, one can be freed from the clutches of birth and death
- To think that the body of the spiritual master consists of material ingredients is offensive. Atheists think that devotees foolishly worship a stone statue as God and an ordinary man as the guru