ঈশ্বরবিশ্বাসের ভবিষ্যৎ

ভিডিও ১.

আজ থেকে পঞ্চাশ বছর পরে ঈশ্বরবিশ্বাস ব্যাপারটি কোন মাত্রায় থাকবে? এ বিষয়ে সিএনএন-এর উপস্থাপক প্রশ্ন করলেন দু'জনকে। তাঁদের মধ্যে একজন American Atheists-এর সভাপতি ডেভিড সিলভারম্যান, যাঁর কথা শোনা সব সময়ই একটি প্রীতিকর অভিজ্ঞতা। তেরো মিনিটের ভিডিও।

ভিডিও ২. 

নিয়ত ক্রমবর্ধমান নতুন প্রজন্মের প্রতিনিধিদের সংখ্যা, যারা ঈশ্বরের অস্তিত্বের প্রশ্নে সন্দিহান। এ প্রসঙ্গে সিএনএন-এর আরেকটি সাক্ষাৎকার অনুষ্ঠান। এতেও উপস্থাপক প্রশ্ন করেছেন দু'জন অতিথিকে, যাঁদের একজন Friendly Atheist নামের জনপ্রিয় ব্লগের সঞ্চালক হেমন্ত মেহতা। পাঁচ মিনিটের ভিডিও। ট্র্যান্সক্রিপ্টসহ।

LEMON: OK. So this topic really got us going, a topic for you to chew on tonight at the dinner table. Many of you probably are having dinner right now.

God, does he exist? More and more young people doubt he does. Or she, as well. A new Pew Survey asks the question, I never doubt the existence of God, agree or disagree? Sixty-eight percent of millenials, people who are 30 years and younger say they never doubt God’s existence.

But look closely at the last line, five years ago, that number was 83 percent.

So, what gives here? Why the growing divide? Why the growing doubt?

Joining us now is Jesse Galef, an atheist, with Secular Student Alliance, and Hemant Mehta, the editor of the friendlyatheist.com.

So what’s an atheist? It’s a person who denies or disbelieves the existence of a supreme being or beings. That’s what an atheist is.

So, Jessie, I’m going to start with you. Why do you — first of all, I’m going toe ask you about that poll. Why don’t you believe?

JESSE GALEF, SECULAR STUDENT ALLIANCE DIRECTOR: Personally, I don’t believe I was brought up in a secular household. I wasn’t introduced to religion, I was taught morals without belief in a God or gods. It wasn’t until I went off to college that I was exposed to these other world views and realized that people take religion very seriously. And I explored and wanted to understand why and what they believed and ended up becoming an activist on campus, getting involved with the secular club. That’s what more and more secular Americans are finding.

LEMON: Hemant, I’m going to ask you the same question: why don’t you believe?

HEMANT MEHTA, FRIENDLYATHEIST.COM: Sure. I was raised in a religious family, but when I started questioning my faith for the first time in high school, I realized that not only did my faith not have the answers, but no faith had the answers. And like Jesse said, when I went to college, I had the chance to explore that and wanted to become an activist in that area.

LEMON: You guys, both of you realize that you’re the reason for what just happened, many people don’t want to send — or they’re worried about sending their kids off to college because they’ll become nonbelievers. I’m just being honest.

So, Jesse, how do you explain that survey from Pew that shows there are less and less of the millenials, there it is right there, believe or doubt the existence of God?

GALEF: I think that this is something we can all agree on in society that we should examine our beliefs and explore what we actually believe and why. And on campus, in colleges, even high schools and increasingly online, people are exposed to different world views and come in contact with challenging beliefs, challenging ideas. And millenials are brought up in an age with the Internet. They’re finding online communities, friendly atheists or finding other people who they can talk about and talk about their doubts. So the millenials in particular are able to doubt in a safe place, online and on campus for Secular Student Alliance groups.

LEMON: So, Hemant, how is it that you can’t believe in God? What is going on here? To be in this country, you have to believe in something and most people in this country are Christians. What’s wrong with you? It’s the deterioration of this country and young people. And people are being indoctrinated into secularism.

MEHTA: No, they’re not being indoctrinated. When they go off to college or even like Jesse said in high school, we’re asking them to think and to question their faith and to doubt their faith and that Pew Survey said that’s what they’re starting to do more of. That’s what we want them to do, and I what they’re finding is that you can be good without God and you can have ethics and morals and don’t need a religious structure to make that happen.

LEMON: OK. It’s important — did you want to weigh in on this, Jesse?

GALEF: Yes. I think something Hemant said about the idea that you can be good without God. A real problem for these young Americans who are starting to experience doubts is atheism and being nonreligious have been so vilified and there are all these stigmas. And so, erasing the idea that morality requires religion will go a long way. And our students are doing that. They’re acting as role models on campus, doing community service projects, helping rebuild houses in Katrina, organize soup kitchen activities, because compassion is a human thing, not a religious thing.

LEMON: Because you’re not a believer doesn’t mean that you’re not a moral person and you don’t have heart.

GALEF: Absolutely.

LEMON: It doesn’t mean you’re necessarily doing bad things, you’re not a heathen. So it’s important —

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Yes. So it’s important to note this, I think. You were just going to mention on line, Hemant. This decline seen among young people under the age of 30, is it safe to say technology may be playing a role in this, for instance the onset of the Internet allowing people to question and explore more outside of their homes?

MEHTA: Absolutely.

I mean, you can fact check what your pastor is saying in church. It’s wonderful. If you have questions about your faith, if you have doubts about your faith, there are communities online and increasingly on campuses and high schools and college where you can explore that without the fear of backlash.

That’s what we want to promote. We want people thinking about that and questioning and doubting.

LEMON: OK. You guys, man, stirring up trouble.

Jesse, Hemant, thank you very much. We appreciate it.

MEHTA: Thanks, Don.

GALEF: Thank you.