Girls wont cry, either.

An Open Letter


Dear Mr. Dawkins,

I recently read your book The God Delusion and you must congratulate yourself on hearing that it had the desired effect on me, which you were expecting for all your readers. I have had complete loss of faith. I must say, this was the most influential book I have read so far, and being a bookworm, I have read many. It was one of those experiences of my life which forced me to challenge long held familiar and comfortable beliefs and in this case, forced them to die a bloody death.

And I am proud to possess the objectivity, the openness of mind which is required to let in new ideas while driving out obsolete ones. Well, when I tell most believers around me about my loss of faith, I get all kinds of reactions, from incredulity to curiosity to pure hatred. But all these reactions have one thing in common; they are all intense, strong reactions. The typical conversation is quite amusing for me, and gives me an insight into the blinding effect religion has on its believers in a way which when I was a believer myself, I never realised. It goes something like this:

Can I ask why?
I read a book which opened my eyes.

What kind of faith is it that gets shaken by a mere book?
Not a blind one.

But why don’t you believe?
Why should I believe? There is no evidence.

There are a lot of things which have no evidence yet you believe in them.
Like what?

Like Gravitational force, for example.
Existence of gravitational force has been scientifically proven by Newton.

When you believe what Newton said, why don’t you believe what all great spiritual leaders have said?
They have no proof of it.

You mean all the scriptures are lies?
What makes you think they are the truth?

For those who have faith, no proof is necessary.
For those who don’t, no proof is sufficient.
[this is usually said in a personally grudging, self-righteous tone]

What kind of faith is it which is arrogantly proud of the fact that it does not need a foundation of logic? How am I expected to suspend my logic for one concept but diligently follow it for all other aspects of my life? It is exactly this kind of blindness which has turned religion into a weapon of mass destruction, killing more people throughout history than any other known cause ever.

Perhaps you will understand one day.
Perhaps you will.

Now the after effects of my loss of faith have been very interesting for me personally. Contrary to my initial expectation that it will be a debilitating experience, it has been a far more strengthening one. Of course there was the initial spiritual void and the terror that I am all alone now, my support system gone, whom do I turn to when life is tough? When I am weak? And the answer I found was, myself. And it has been me alone, ever since then. A stronger me, who doesn’t need a support, coz she knows there is no support to be expected. I have been forced to become strong, because this world allows only the fittest to survive. The realization that good or bad, right or wrong, my life is a product of my decisions alone. A more honest me, who knows there are no brownie points to be expected for being nice, or negative ones for not being nice. If I am nice, its because it makes me feel good about myself, that’s all. For my own image in my eyes, not in anyone else’s. My consciousness now naked to any onslaught which my actions might result into. Naked and strong to face anything. And you know what has been the outcome? This girl who used to cry at the drop of a hat, hasn’t cried ever since then :-)

Thank you Mr. Dawkins.