I do not know about western countries, but I can say, living as a true ‘atheist’ is quite uneasy here in this part of the world. In a civilization so old, everything emanates from ‘god’ and ends there. Rationality takes back seat when faith is implanted on a framework of belief. The belief system is strongly working in a variety of forms. God is central to everything: from astrology to religion. Being religious is easy. You submit your faith to some system where you don’t have to explain your doings. Just do what other people do.

Being atheist is often too much taxing. You explain people why. The common and domesticated people often doubt you about your convictions and depth of knowledge if you do not subscribe to any faith. Following rituals and taking part in religious festivals become social norms. If you are not active in that, your integrity may be at stake. You have to wade through hordes of excuses and feasible explanations in a very intricate way so as not to offend the believers. The believers, the most of them, keep on coaxing to include you in their herd. It is often not easy to come out triumphant. This is more so as the believers all around you are your good friends, your relatives or may be your spouse!

Being ethically correct and tactically right will be a constant effort on your part while practicing atheism. This is more so for the first generation atheists. I mean, if you are born to a religious family (in general), you will invariably be entangled with the rituals and disobeying those will not bring you in good light. You will be emotionally exploited, sometimes, to just go through some.

I remember the incidence when my father died long ago. I was a student then. Being born in a Hindu family I was supposed to go through a series of bizarre rituals after his death. It was quite an emotional situation. I declined and I proclaimed to have no faith in those ’meaningless’ rituals. It was quite a melodrama on the part of rest of the family members to make me do the things. Still I didn’t buzz. In such a time of criticality, arguments often do not succeed. Faith is everything. Even if the faith is not installed in you so strongly, you are driven to do things as those are being done through ages unquestionably.

God and Spirituality should be something inner realizations, very deeply rooted in people. So that must be respected and that should be kept inside. Expressions and discourses, scriptures and strictures through a ‘religion’ are unnecessary. Atheism is not just an awkward decision, it takes someone through a long winding logical deductions to arrive at a certain situation where the all pervading concept of ‘god’ no longer plays a role in his/her life.