This is a great post. Inspired me to do a little copy-and-pasting:

“Any intellectually honest person will admit that he does not know why the universe exists. Scientists, of course, readily admit their ignorance on this point. Religious believers do not. One of the monumental ironies of religious discourse can be appreciated in the frequency with which people of faith praise themselves for their humility, while condemning scientists and other non-believers for their intellectual arrogance. There is, in fact, no worldview more reprehensible in its arrogance than that of a religious believer: the creator of the universe takes an interest in me, approves of me, loves me, and will reward me after death; my current beliefs, drawn from scripture, will remain the best statement of the truth until the end of the world; everyone who disagress with me will spend eternity in hell… An average Christian, in an average church, listening to an average Sunday sermon has achieved a level of arrogance simply unimaginable in scientific discourse — and there have been some extraordinarily arrogant scientists.”

–Sam Harris

Holds true even if you take out the hell bit, seeing that it’s out of style these days…

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It makes me mad when people who expect you to respect their religion have no respect for your beliefs as an atheist. It happens to me so many times. When I am back in India, I met a lot of people who were unhappy that I was not embarrassed about my atheist beliefs.

You have a lot more patience than I do, for carrying that conversation!

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Freedom of speech is quite restricted in Malaysia. The reason given is to “avoid playing the emotional cards among Malaysians and to safeguard the sensibilities of each ethnic group/religion in Malaysia”. And if Muslims and non-Muslims were to fight against each other, the non-Muslims will definitely lose due to their smaller population as well as the Malays’ (Muslims) political supremacy in Malaysia.

kyh’s last blog post..I wish to go back to…

Kyh: wow, I’m amazed at the way you explain your country so well! Thanks so much for all these infos.

I’ve heard of Malaysia as a fairly peaceful country, and yes, multicultural. I’m surprised there are basically two laws, the Sharia and the non-Muslims law. I guess if you’re born Muslim you have to be a Muslim then according to the law… is there any tension between the communities? How about freedom of speech, for both Muslims and non-Muslims?

Sorry for all my questions, but you write and explain well

Keshi: I didn’t know you were from Sri Lanka — well, obviously I figured out you were Indian, but I didn’t know from which place specifically. And I totally agree with you

Shantanu: I try to avoid religion as well, but the topic is so fascinating to me… same as with politics. But I try to be as unbiased or respectful that I can, and worse case scenario, blame it on the cultural difference!

NorthBayPhotos: WHO??? Please, do not write the team-which-name-shouldn’t-be-mention-again on this blog…

Max: I must be a weird breed of atheist I’m lucky to know smart people who believe in God, so I guess it helped not to have too many prejudices. I think we all need to believe in something… I believe in a lot of things, mankind, laws, culture, education etc. So if you believe in an old wise man, it doesn’t bother me.

What would I need to believe? Not sure. Even seeing God himself probably wouldn’t make me believe to be honest… because one of the reason I don’t believe (or don’t want to) is that I like the idea I’m in charge of my destiny. That said, I can be a bit superstitious as well…

My my, this is complicated!

Aiglee: oh, you’d probably have fun like I did… it will, happen to you, you’ll see! And.. welcome to Canada (very soon!)

I’m something like half-half, I believe in God, but no in Adam and Eve, I believe in science and evolution and that all is possible thanks to God

I’m also glad that next week I’ll be in Canada, a country like you described

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I loved this post!!!! Very interesting, indeed !

You are an interesting atheist: you must be the first one who says that the idea of God is not stupid to you, that you know that a lot cannot be explained rationally, and that although you believe in science, you would go far as to Big Bang…wow *standing ovation*!
Although you don’t find the idea of God existing silly, something tells me that it wouldn’t be easy to convince you to believe in Him.

If someone would ask you: what do you need to believe? What would you say?

I respect you for the marvellous human being you are, Zhu! C’est vrai *bowing*.

Salut

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Given how much trouble is created in the name of religion, I (like many others) avoid conversations that center around religion, especially when travelling. While India is secular, there is no denying the fact that many tragic events have occured here in the name of religion in the past.

And now let me try and figure out the connection between God, cigarettes and black lingerie!

very well-said Zhu! Im glad I live in such a country too. Whereas in my own motherland (Sri Lanka) ppl r killing each other for 20+ years just cos they dun agree with one another’s beliefs! I find that SHAMEFUL n APPALLLING!

Keshi.

Three languages (right? Malay, Chinese and English… might be wrong!), a complicated government… must be quite a mosaic of people and beliefs!
A lot of countries assume you’re whatever religion by default, I remind this was the case in Latin America (where if you’re white, you “must” be catholic. As long as you can be an atheist or agnostic in private, I guess it’s just an historic heritage… Is the country fine with many different religions? Just curious. Like, can you worship freely?

Although Malaysia is a multi-ethnic (as we used to promote it) country, there’s only 1 sole official and national language, which is the Malay language (aka Bahasa Melayu ~ the language of Malays / Bahasa Malaysia, transliterated as ‘the language of Malaysia’). Yet, English is a common language spoken in big cities and beyond, in a local slang known as Manglish (similar to those spoken in Singapore ‘Singlish’). The Chinese speaks Mandarin and various dialects (Cantonese, Hokkien, Teochew, Hakka being the majority) as well as English (among the English-educated ones) while Indians here speak primarily Tamil and English.

Our Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, but this is only true to non-Muslims (confined to the civil court), as Muslims are governed as a different lot under the Islamic Syariah courts, and is prohibited to convert out of Islam. Prosyletisation (mainly Christian missionaries) can only work among non-Muslims, but Islamic missionaries (dakwah) are allowed to outreach the non-Muslims. Bibles are not allowed to be printed in the Malay language, and the same applies to Christian teaching materials. Non-Muslim religious pamphlets and booklets must have the fine print “Only for Non-Muslims”, and the publishers might not be given the permit to publish non-Muslim materials all the time. In heavily Muslim areas, permission to construct non-Muslim religious buildings is hard to obtain. Almost impossible. Since the 80’s, there have been a creeping Islamicisation thruout the country, with Muslim women donning in headscarves (the ‘tudung’) increasing by leaps and bounds.

Despite all those restrictions, we are still a tolerant country compared to those autocratic Muslim states in the Middle East. Because of the non-Muslim’s relatively large composition (more or so 40%) in the country, the Government dares not provoke the chunk of the community lest another major riot occurs (the last major one is in 1969 between the Chinese and Malays). Oh btw, a Malay (the majority ethnic group) is constitutionally defined as a person who speaks Malay, bears Malay customs and traditions, and a Muslim by religion. It’s the same ethnic sense as a Jew. Converting out of Islam is seen as “removing oneself from the Malay identity” in Malaysia. Malays elsewhere (in Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand) are free to choose which religion they believe in as they are not bound by this rule.

Just so you don’t know, Malaysia has the tallest Buddha statue in the world, the 3rd longest Sleeping Buddha in Asia, the largest Buddhist temple in Southeast Asia, one of the tallest Hindu deity statues in the world, an important Hindu holy site outside India, the 1st Anglican church in Southeast Asia (which has recently been listed as a National Heritage) as well as some of the earliest Catholic churches in the Far East. But most of them are constructed decades ago, as permits to contruct them are getting tougher in recent years.

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