An Atheist University Opens in India September 27, 2011

An Atheist University Opens in India

By Hemant Mehta
September 27, 2011

Alright, I’ll admit I don’t know what they plan to teach or research… but at least their goals are promising?

The Atheist Centre [in India] will open the country’s first atheism university and research centre, coinciding with the centenary celebrations of social activist Saraswathi Gora on Wednesday.

The centre had been promoting a casteless society with a scientific outlook to help remove superstitions on a path shown by popular atheist Goparaju Ramachandra Rao (Gora).

No castes? Less superstition? More science? Sounds good so far… but I’d love to hear more information about it if anyone can provide some.

Previous Post
A Humanist Perspective on the Death Penalty
Next Post
Church-or-Jail Program in Alabama Now Being Reconsidered...
"Congratulations!"
NSAlito
An Evangelical Writer Has Some Horrible ..."
"Galatians 6:7 - Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, ..."
WCB
Republicans Are Twisting a Congressman’s Defense ..."
"I guess that the one good thing about covid. I do not remember any one ..."
Mr.E
An Evangelical Writer Has Some Horrible ..."
"You just wanna rebel!!"
Women are people
Christian Mom: “Blue’s Clues” is “Indoctrinating” ..."
Browse Our Archives
What Are Your Thoughts?leave a comment
  • Inferno

    It’s most likely not a university in the sense we understand it, probably something more akin to the way CFI gives classes.

  • Anonymous

    I believe it’s more of a “Mythbusters” sort of center where they educate the people on
    the evils of casteism and foster scientific temper.
    Hemant, you could simply contact them by email (email addresses given clearly on the site) and ask them what their goals are regarding the “University”.
    You could be give these guys some much needed publicity and audience through your blog and that could only help them more!
    So proud to be an Indian atheist!

  • Prof.K.D.Sudhakaran

    Very happy to know that an atheist university is going to be opened in the same land of Thiruppathi temple and SaiBaba institutions.It should be proved and established beyond all doubts by researches that Indian philosophy is not spiritual as claimed by orthodox sects.The nation should be free from the influence of caste,religion,superstitions etc.The unty may fullfil the dreams of humanists.
                                                        Prof.K.D.Sudhakaran,Gen.Sec.,Manavavedi,Pala,Kerala-686575
                                                                  email:kalarisudha@yahoo.com, Mob:9446602730

  • Annie

    I’m so disappointed,  I’ll be returning home from a trip to India on Jan. 5th, and just read about the atheist conference that begins on the 7th!  It would have been so fun to attend.   From the website, it sounds as though the science center has been an active part of the community for many years.

  • Reginald Selkirk

    India has a long tradition of atheism, including the Carvaka school of thought.

  • AVINASH ATHEIST

    yes this is good news for me because i am a student of 11science in Pune because am also an Atheist  and in my class no one answers the question of mine
    I am proud to be an INDIAN ATHEIST

  • Ramamchemistrycouncil

    The difference between rationalists (includes atheists who are higher than rationalists in scientific thinking and practice) and theists lie in degree of honesty and truthfulness. Sometimes rationalists too have wrong beliefs but they do oppose their own beliefs instead of supporting these where as hindu theists support superstitions in spite of having his belief disproved/ unproved.  For example, I saw an hindu theist claiming  that his traditional belief in having  green mango leaves tied at the upper part of the house entrance is due to the  release of oxygen in the entire house and he claimed his belief as scientific. When this hindu believer was informed that the leaves after being separated from mango tree would not release oxygen for there will not be any continuous supply of water to leaves (which should happen through trees) and so the leaves will not release oxygen and if these release in small amounts until these gets dried is not at all needed  as these small amounts will have negligible affects 
    on health of persons  compared to the amount of oxygen that is available by air breathing and for this reason his belief is superstition.  But I found still he did  not changed his opinion and instead started either seeking ways the ways to  justify his wrong belief or avoiding discussions due to his false ego. This false ego make theists bigots. On the other hand, rationalist like me admit the falseness of wrong belief at least in words as cited from the following  example. I has stopped eating snake gourd after it appeared in my dream as like that of crawling snake. In spite of being this dream opposed to the fact that snake gourd in not really snake, I could not wipe this belief and when ever I see snake gourd I feel opposed to it. In fact there is not justifiable reason to do so and this is sheer superstition of mine. The dishonesty in theists show them as bigots, stupids and even as rascals  where as honesty in rationalists show them as good persons.  Until  I could wipe out all superstitions in practice, I have no right to make claim my self to be an atheist. I did not grew to atheist level and remained at the level of rationalist .

    KR

       

  • Ramamchemistrycouncil

    Opening of atheist university in India is not only a welcome  move, but also an urgent need as our country requires it for inculcating science and technology and  helping people remove their superstitions. It is very pity that even a space scientist Madhavan Nair kept a tiny replica  of  rocket and prayed lord Thripathi venkateswara asking to prevent any hinderances due to lightening and thunders in sky and make success the flight of rocket at sriharikota, but on next day the rocket failed to reach sky in site of fact that there are no thunders and lightenings. Why his god caused no success to his mission? If god’s mercy on god’s devotees is real why god devotees are meeting road accidents on the way to their piligrimage as evident in every day news reported by media?.  When supernatural or idol god is not proved to be the cause of any event and when all events have  physically observable events, is the belief of this so called great scientist in god, not a superstition (experimentally proofless or unsuppported belief)?   
                           The supernatural god is never proved as a cause of any event either natural or social by any experiment. For example, Chilkoor Lord Venkateswara swamy was famous among his devotees that he gives visas and jobs to students. One can put their faith to  the following test. Find how many received visas after 15 days from when they applied for it, out of 100 devotees who had applied for visas. If  at least 98% of persons  get visas in 15 days ( which represents good repeat ability, a minimum need that must be met in any scientific experiments. In fact the motive behind taking so many observations or readings in an experiment is to show that the results of experiment are not due to chance but due to a regularity or scientific law which is to be drawn from these readings) then one can consider atleast that there is a relationship between god prayer and physical benefits / effects. But the question is that are these devotees have started believing god after  having this kind of experimental / empirical proof in support of their claim? Believing without Verifiable Empirical Proof  is superstition. 
                                 What is the cause for any person not getting job after attending lot of interviews? The causes are 1) Number of candidates to the number of available vacancies 2) the number of correct questions answered by candidate. When the causes are appearing clearly like this, is it justifiable to claim the following factors as causes: 1) no mercy of god or supernatural on particular candidate 2) his previous birth karma 3) his astrological signs are unfavorable. 4) his house construction has bad/ unfavourable vastu.  
                                   The Astrological predictions were tested by comparing predictions with actual facts and found that only 10% predictions turned true, the results are due to chance and not due to the claim ” the  astrology is true”. This showed astrology is superstition. A Vastu Pandit claimed that if a stick or any thing kept at the north east corner of a house, all wealth of the residents gets wiped away within 15 days.His claim was tested by placing a stick in north east corner of each of 100 houses and found that the amount of wealth did not decreased or wiped out within a month. In some cases the wealth increased than before and in no case there was any decrease in wealth. So vastu is a big superstition. 
                                            Can any body demonstrate by experiment that he can bring at least an inch movement in a small pin by praying god or in any supernatural way with out applying physical energy ( by pushing or pulling or by blowing air) on it?  When the supernatural energy do not work on a small pin, then how to believe the religious or devotees or theists claim that ” supernatural god caused first motion in matter and created universe and life forms” ?  Why all the claimers failed to meet the challenge of Dr.Abraham Kovur on supernatural claims? 
                                               Christians claims that they were cured by divine prayers. Do the claim turns true when it is tested by bringing genuine patients who are suffering with a well known disease? When diseases are having physical causes as known by diagnostic tests ( urine/ blood/stool tests, radiography tests etc), is it possible to cure the diseases without removing their physical cause and only by divine prayers? are  these claims not ridiculous and cheating? Only Materialism was proved and not spiritualism.     
                                        This clearly shows that all theists, devotees, religious leaders  are bulshit mob ( waste) and cheaters. Long live Science and Atheism. 

    KR

              

  • Ramamchemistrycouncil

    Opening of atheist university in India is not only a welcome  move, but also an urgent need as our country requires it for inculcating science and technology and  helping people remove their superstitions. It is very pity that even a space scientist Madhavan Nair kept a tiny replica  of  rocket and prayed lord Thripathi venkateswara asking to prevent any hinderances due to lightening and thunders in sky and make success the flight of rocket at sriharikota, but on next day the rocket failed to reach sky in site of fact that there are no thunders and lightenings. Why his god caused no success to his mission? If god’s mercy on god’s devotees is real why god devotees are meeting road accidents on the way to their piligrimage as evident in every day news reported by media?.  When supernatural or idol god is not proved to be the cause of any event and when all events have  physically observable events, is the belief of this so called great scientist in god, not a superstition (experimentally proofless or unsuppported belief)?   
                           The supernatural god is never proved as a cause of any event either natural or social by any experiment. For example, Chilkoor Lord Venkateswara swamy was famous among his devotees that he gives visas and jobs to students. One can put their faith to  the following test. Find how many received visas after 15 days from when they applied for it, out of 100 devotees who had applied for visas. If  at least 98% of persons  get visas in 15 days ( which represents good repeat ability, a minimum need that must be met in any scientific experiments. In fact the motive behind taking so many observations or readings in an experiment is to show that the results of experiment are not due to chance but due to a regularity or scientific law which is to be drawn from these readings) then one can consider atleast that there is a relationship between god prayer and physical benefits / effects. But the question is that are these devotees have started believing god after  having this kind of experimental / empirical proof in support of their claim? Believing without Verifiable Empirical Proof  is superstition. 
                                 What is the cause for any person not getting job after attending lot of interviews? The causes are 1) Number of candidates to the number of available vacancies 2) the number of correct questions answered by candidate. When the causes are appearing clearly like this, is it justifiable to claim the following factors as causes: 1) no mercy of god or supernatural on particular candidate 2) his previous birth karma 3) his astrological signs are unfavorable. 4) his house construction has bad/ unfavourable vastu.  
                                   The Astrological predictions were tested by comparing predictions with actual facts and found that only 10% predictions turned true, the results are due to chance and not due to the claim ” the  astrology is true”. This showed astrology is superstition. A Vastu Pandit claimed that if a stick or any thing kept at the north east corner of a house, all wealth of the residents gets wiped away within 15 days.His claim was tested by placing a stick in north east corner of each of 100 houses and found that the amount of wealth did not decreased or wiped out within a month. In some cases the wealth increased than before and in no case there was any decrease in wealth. So vastu is a big superstition. 
                                            Can any body demonstrate by experiment that he can bring at least an inch movement in a small pin by praying god or in any supernatural way with out applying physical energy ( by pushing or pulling or by blowing air) on it?  When the supernatural energy do not work on a small pin, then how to believe the religious or devotees or theists claim that ” supernatural god caused first motion in matter and created universe and life forms” ?  Why all the claimers failed to meet the challenge of Dr.Abraham Kovur on supernatural claims? 
                                               Christians claims that they were cured by divine prayers. Do the claim turns true when it is tested by bringing genuine patients who are suffering with a well known disease? When diseases are having physical causes as known by diagnostic tests ( urine/ blood/stool tests, radiography tests etc), is it possible to cure the diseases without removing their physical cause and only by divine prayers? are  these claims not ridiculous and cheating? Only Materialism was proved and not spiritualism.     
                                        This clearly shows that all theists, devotees, religious leaders  are bulshit mob ( waste) and cheaters. Long live Science and Atheism. 

    KR

              

  • KR

    In Islam, there is no freedom. Muslim women are suffering silently due to the meaningless islamic traditions imposed on them and due to unbearable discrimination  against them.  
    PURDAH:  The woman have to wear black purdah covering from face to feet. Scientific experiments have proved that black color absorbs maximum heat during exposure to heat / sunlight and reflects maximum heat in shade. The experiment is conducted in the following way. Take two glass beakers one is painted with black color on its outer surface and other not colored. When equal quantity of water is poured in both of these along with thermometers placed in these are kept for equal time ( say 30 minutes or one hour) and when checked for temperature, the water in beaker colored with black shows temperature more than other one. When these are brought into shade and kept there for one hour or or so and checked temperatures the water in beaker with black shows temperature lower than other one. Thus experiment shows purdah wearing is a superstition that was imposed brutally by islam on innocent woman, who are suffering unbearably during their journey in sunshine / daytime. Only women should suffer like this and why islam is not wearing purdah on men? The black purdah system which is heating and suffering women should be removed from muslim community. The black purdah system stands as proof for sadism of islamic religious leaders who had been suppressing innocent people since its inception. 
    NO EQUAL RIGHTS BETWEEN MEN AND WOMAN: In the case of persons called for witnesses during some cases in court of law, islamic shariat considers that the witness of one man is equal to witness of five woman. This clearly shows that islam believes that males are more believable than woman even in cases if a man tells lies and woman tells truth.  This type of gender discrimination is highly deplorable. It is ripe time for religious leader to remove this type of injustice from their faith and practice other wise Islam ceases to exist gradually over a period  of time. 
    MUSLIMS SHOULD ABANDON GOD, NAMAZ ETC SUPERSTITIONS: It is an experiental / experimental fact that even a small pin cannot be moved by praying gods or miracles and can be moved only by physical energy and physical energy does not requires any prayers or worships and works according to physics and chemistry laws. When the supernatural god energy cannot move a small pin, Is it not a foolish thing on part of believer if he believes that supernatural energy can do works for humans or worked to bring universe and life forms from matter? When Science and common sense is proving that only physical energy do works and when there is no experiential or experimental proof to conclude that supernatural energy do work, the beliefs that god is great, god gives health, god shows mercy on humans etc etc are definitely foolish and who cheats people people in the name of god astrology  vastu etc  are definitely rascals and cheaters who do not have right to live on this earth where only good people and truth should prevail. 

    KR