5 Rules for an atheist/agnostic in Meghalaya

  1. Don’t mention it to your school, college, etc. Most likely they are fanatical religious fundies of the Hindu, Christian or Islamic persuasion.

go to hell

2. Tick the ‘others’ option when filling out details for admission into a school or college. If you are registered as a Catholic and you ticked the Catholic box when taking admission into a Catholic institution but you “de-converted”, the school/college still expects you to attend religious functions and they will not hesitate to harass you for avoiding it. They will threaten you with suspension, expulsion and even manipulation of your attendance to stop you from doing your exams.

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3. Be very careful about mentioning your lack of belief to anyone and be wary that no one around you should overhear (Especially in Laban locality and in rural areas) Lack of belief = serious crime, in the minds of people here. You might get assaulted by a mob and worse you might be lynched. This is true for all religious persuasions.

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4. Standing up for what you believe in is good, but right now if you are a student it is not worth dying for. Compromise, lie through your teeth and all that it entails to avoid discrimination, harassment and death. Don’t die.

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5. To all my fellow atheists/agnostics out there, stay safe people. Remember you are not alone.

i am confused

First published in  Surviving Life in Meghalaya  blog

Raiot Collective : There are quite a few Meghalaya-based agnostic/atheist/humanist/skeptic groups on Facebook. Oldest, Shillong Humanists is still a good place to start. Even NEHU has its own skeptic students group. Or, if these don’t suit you, why not start one of your own?

Raiot

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A student in Shillong - a strong believer in democracy, liberty, equality, rationality and secularism. He hopes to fix the world, or die trying.

5 Comments

  1. Chan
    December 3, 2015
    Reply

    There are a lot of people in our society especially religious fanatics who believe that atheists/agnostics are “devil worshipper” or some crap like that..And it’s not easy to be an atheist when you have people either shoving their religion down your throat or ostracizing you.

  2. Derek Warjri
    December 4, 2015
    Reply

    Does this blog have nothing to offer except negativity?? Seriously, this page tries to accuse and find faults in others as though the one writing all these is without fault himself or herself. Of course, i am also not keen to support religious institutions because at the end of the day it is man running the institution supposedly in the name of God. I know many people are put down by religious fanatics who go about doing and saying things they ought not to if they are deprived of grace. But what is all this “I’m agnostic” and “I’m an atheist”? Its like more or less a little girl trying to scream for attention, saying, “Look at me!”. Just because the white man says I’m an agnostic/atheist doesn’t mean you also like little pygmies follow suit. Instead of taking the courage to enquire and look into deeper things of life and seek the Him yourself instead, you waste your time and life taking the easy way out by saying ‘i’m agnostic/atheist’. Now that to me is a coward. If you have any problem with others, look deeper because ‘you’ might just be the cause of it. No matter where you go, you will not be at ease because you take yourself along too. I conclude with this, “But godliness with contentment is great gain”.

    • Shillong Charvaka
      December 4, 2015
      Reply

      there is a whole historic tradition of godlessness in India – have you heard of charvaka or Lokayata philosophers or of even the sceptic Ibn Rushd? And according to you following any whiteman endeavour makes you a pigmy so you consider Christian converts here pigmies? And why seek HIM not HER or IT?

  3. Adelia
    May 10, 2016
    Reply

    Preach, preach, preach very well put! Interesting mimes as well
    We’re all raised to believe in a particular faith, that we must respect..but as a skeptic myself we should have freedom to choose our own faith. The moment we realize that we’ve been made to ascribe to a particular faith is an enlightenment in itself. Blind pursuits will ruin our perspective about mankind as a whole. Hence I’m a proud agnostics! In the meantime go figure.

  4. Gerard
    October 2, 2017
    Reply

    Good to know we’re not alone.
    I value different perspectives of people on life. It’s only when they think that they’re right and i don’t have a right to a personal opinion about religion puts me off.
    I would give you the right reason and yet people fail to see the loopholes. They see yet they don’t perceive.

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