Do atheists see religion and spirituality as two separate concepts, or one and the same?

Dear Friend,

Who is an atheist? 

• The one who thinks that he has to manage his own affairs. The so-called ‘individual’ is the biggest atheist- I, me and myself. Atheist in the real sense is the man who thinks he is on his own.
• ‘I have to take care of my own business. If I do not do it, it would not happen.’ He is the one who is really an atheist.
• The one who refuses to see that there is help all along the way.
• The one who refuses to see and acknowledge and bow his head in gratitude that ‘Without all the help that I have received, I couldn’t have been here at all’.

Such a kind of man is an atheist.

See, there are two kinds of atheists. Understand this:

• The first kind are those who say, ‘There is no God’. The second kind are those who say, ‘There is a God, and I have captured him in my holy book’.
• The first kind of an atheist is an honest atheist, he says, ‘There is no God’. The second kind of atheist is extremely dangerous. The second kind says, ‘There is a God, and I know him. He is sitting in my holy book. He has sent his book and he is sitting there.’

When you are able to say that this temple is not God’s temple, it’s a man’s temple, when you are able to say that how can I make God’s temple, that this mosque is not God’s mosque, its a man’s mosque, then it’s a great rebellion. It is the height of Neti-Neti, Neither this nor that, you are refusing everything. 

And that is the reason why the first kind of atheists are very spiritual people, really spiritual people, because they do not believe in the kind of fabricated God like we do.

Being such an atheist, sometimes is a very pure thing. At least you are spared from believing in fantasies, dreams and all those fairy tales. You are spared from all this when you are an atheist. At least you don’t have to go and sing those things that you do, and convince yourself that all this is happening for the sake of the Lord. All that is not happening for the sake of the Lord.

But the second kind of atheist is a terrible atheist, because he will never know God. Never, never. For the first kind, there is some possibility left. For the second kind, all doors are closed now. Never will he know God. 

He will only have beliefs about God.

SB