330,000,000 Gods and You Can’t Find One? April 25, 2011

330,000,000 Gods and You Can’t Find One?

By Guest Contributor
April 25, 2011

Last month, at the Northwest Freethought Conference at Portland State University, one of the speakers was Anu Garg, the founder of Wordsmith.org and A Word a Day.

Anu was raised in Hinduism and his (really enjoyable) talk was titled “330,000,000 Gods, and You Can’t Find One to Suit You?”

I wasn’t raised in Hinduism, but I could relate to a *lot* of he was talking about. I’ve been involved in this movement for years and, even though we always talk about needing to be more inclusive of minorities, I really haven’t seen many Indians talk about their lack of faith. This was a refreshing change of pace:

If there are any sections you really like, please leave the timestamp in the comments!

(I invisibly show up at the 36:35 mark!)

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  • Fani Raj Mani Chandan

    I loved the full video…
    I belong from India and am an atheist too and my father is also an atheist.

    Anu’s presentation is very nice.

  • Anonymous

    Very refreshing indeed. I’ve about reached my limit hearing about Christians :/

    I would so enjoy it if Anu had a smackdown for Sathya Sai Baba.
    http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/swift-blog/1290-another-baba-leaves-the-scene.html
    http://www.hindustantimes.com/Bollywood-designers-mourn-Sathya-Sai-Baba-s-death/Article1-689471.aspx

  • I’ve been checking out the Word A Day for a decade or so. It hasn’t made me sound any smarter yet. I’ve noticed that the quote at the bottom is usually something that appeals to freethinkers. Now I guess we know why.

  • Inferno

    I would’ve talked about my lack of faith, but I don’t have the credentials to make it to any speakers list. Thanks for sharing this though, I look forward to watching.

  • bigjohn756

    So, Hemant, which question did you ask?

  • I would love for there to be a transcript or something, so that hearing-impaired viewers won’t miss out on what is obviously a very interesting talk.

  • CanadianChick

    I really enjoyed his talk – informative and funny.

    I recommended him for inclusion on Greta Christina’s list of Atheists of Colour speakers list – let her know if you agree.

    He told me later that this was one of the first times he had spoken as an atheist, not as WordSmith…

  • Peter Mahoney

    Great talk. I loved his comparison of prayer (e.g. by christians) to paying Hindu gods with sweets. Pretty similar idea, all of which is crazy.

    If faced with Pascal’s wager, we could use his quoting of Marcus Aurelius:
    “Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.”

  • Sean Santos

    Anu is hilarious. I love him.

  • mcarp

    About 17:05
    Believers are the best reason for being atheist.

    Followed shortly by thanking G.W. Bush for converting him to atheism.

  • dev

    i always thought by 2011 we would not have to discuss the stupidity of it all, this all seems just too repetitive now.
    May be 2050.

  • In Hinduism, questioning god will not invite excommunication. lol

  • ajay yadav

    According to veda  There 330 million hindu gods because hindu believes that every thing which is benificial for humanity is considered as a god. Like air, water, sun, sky fire,bird, rain, and other natural things are considered as god. So, we should worship the all natural thing and respect them.

  • AJAY YADAV AND PRINCE RAI

    Hindu is the oldest religion, purest, holiest and greatest too because it says- people should polite and do not harm the other. Acc. to hinduism is just like a duty. for example,  A doctor ‘s religion is to treat patient and a king religion is to save their kingdom. He should use a peaceful way to save his kingdom. War or battle is the last option to save his kingdom. People should not change their religion because a person who change their religion and adopt other religion can refuse the adopted religion  because this type of persons have not fixed faith on particular religion so don’t force anyone to adopt other religion and don’t follow zihad(religious voilence)

  • PRINCE RAI

    A religion is a faith or belief It depends on person to be a religious or atheist. Acc. to me a person should be religious and follow the religion on which he believe. A PERSON WITHOUT RELIGION MEAN A PERSON WITHOUT THOUGHTS AND FAITH. INCREASE RELIGIOUS FAITH TO REDUCE ATHEISM OTHERWISE RELIGIOUS THOUGHTS WILL BE VANISHED FROM THE EARTH AND PEOPLE BECAME HEARTLESS. SAVE THE ANCIENT HINDUISM RELIGION AND FEEL PROUD TO BE A HINDU.