From an Indonesian Atheist

Karl KarnadiMy name is Karl Karnadi and I’m an Indonesian. It has been 4 years since I first questioned my childhood beliefs, 2 years since I became openly atheist, and just a year since I founded “Indonesian Atheists,” an online community of Indonesian nonbelievers. Life has been happier and more beautiful since I left religion. And fortunately, I now live and study in Germany, a highly secular country. But being an Indonesian atheist is still hard, wherever I live. I just can’t pretend that I know nothing about what happens in my country, and I can’t disconnect from my friends and families there.

Indonesia is, or should I say was, a moderate, loving, diverse country with religious tolerance and a strong culture toward respecting diversity (of course the reality is it has never been that perfect). But when we Indonesians say religious tolerance, it means tolerance toward five (now six) acknowledged religions, with atheists, agnostics, and other religions and sects never officially recognized. In every form, even citizens’ ID, Indonesians have to fill in the ‘Religion’ column, with just six options — ’empty’ is not an option. Birth and marriage certificates and all kinds of forms also use the same ‘religion’ column with the same options. You and your spouse even have to have the same religion and go through the marriage ritual from that religion to be officially married. All of these are enforced by our national laws.

You may think that this is bad, but let me tell you something: it got worse in the last decade. Islamism and the Islamic political party got bigger and more influential. If In the past the government supported the six religions, it is now getting closer and closer to favor Islam only.

Now what is the role of the Indonesian atheists, agnostics, humanists, freethinkers, and other nonbelievers? Right now it is practically none, and it is not possible to be active openly. Being a non-believer in Indonesia is not a problem only if you never talk about it. There is an anti-blasphemy criminal law with a maximum 5 years jail time for anyone offending or insulting any religion (from the six acknowledged, of course) and for encouraging anyone to be a nonbeliever. When I go home to my beloved country, anyone can prosecute me with that law, and after they easily collect the evidence, law enforcers would certainly arrest me.

Why is this important?

Now, you may ask, why all of this is important for you. Well you, my friend, have a chance to be much more vocal, much more active, in a real movement in the Philippines than we Indonesians ever have. Now, ‘Islamism’ is not just a problem for the Islam-dominated countries but for the whole world. And Indonesia, as the world’s most populous Muslim country, is slipping into the abyss of Islamic fundamentalism. To speak more generally, religious fundamentalism is a big problem that the whole world should solve. Catholicism, Christianity, Scientology, and other religions bring a lot of problem to our life. From anti-condom use, terrorism, and the homophobic sentiment it teaches. Any person who comes from a religious family or religious neighborhood knows exactly what I meant with “problem.”

Some of you may be anti-religious people that want to wipe out all religion from the whole planet. Others may love religion, and don’t want to do anything to disturb it. And the rest are moderates. Whatever your attitude toward religion, you have to care about what happens in the world. Read newspapers, internet articles, find out what happens in your country, in other countries in the world. And most importantly, be active! Go out in the street, do everything you can to help the cause that you care about, that can create a change in the world. A change for the better.

Many religious people said that without religion, one cannot have any purpose in life. It is obviously not true, because I know exactly what is mine. My purpose in life is to make the world a better place to live. And I will do whatever I can, regardless how dangerous it would be, to be able to achieve that.

What is yours?

16 comments

  1. Karl, it seems you are too young to argue your concept. If you really try to study deeper and deeper about the role of religions in many centuries. How could we develop our country without any religious tolerance ? Indonesia has Islam, Christianity, Catholics, Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism etc. The majority of them can work together. Synergize their powers to build and develop this country. You just focus on the minor results. Please if your mind and heart are still opened, come to moderate religious experts. Present your argument

    of atheism ! Please have great effort to ask, to do research or investigate deeper to find the truth !!!!!

  2. I believe we all are created for a purpose. and it transcends than just the "here" and "now". i hold on to the truth that my soul is destined for eternity. i am living in a temporary world, yes for NOW – thriving in a temporary shell/body, but I am created by God for His greater Glory.. now my question to you guys, where will you go after death? is death the end of you?? if you answer yes, then i pity you! you must have not known your purpose afterall! you must have lived in just a boring routinary circus without knowing where it leads you.. my friends, life without God has no purpose, and without purpose, life has no meaning! God loves you, and He cares so much about you!!

    • I do not need your imaginary Deity to have purpose. My purpose is to live. When I die, my purpose will have been served. I see no reason to make a dubious investment in an afterlife that may or may not exist. If there is indeed an afterlife, then how I will have lived my life prior to death will affect the quality of that afterlife. If there is no afterlife and there is no longer any "I", then there will no longer be any "I" left who will complain that there is no afterlife. Either way, I will have lived a happy life.

      Oh, and I am okay with impermanence. Yes, this "I" will sooner or later end – and what is so wrong about that? We live, we die. It is when we insist on clinging to one state that we suffer. Then we invent all sorts of fantasies to comfort us from the knowledge of our impending death. Fantasies just like yours.

      Comfort yourself all you want, but know that your pity for me and other like-minded people who have chosen to free our minds is unnecessary and a waste of your emotional energy. Your notion that life for a person like me must be a "boring routinary circus" is mistaken, for I am quite happy with the way I'm living.

    • You obviously did not read the post or have failed to understand it. Your comment just shows where you are coming from and how you think- insisting that your perspective applies to others. Don't pity us. Instead, take a long, hard, good look in the mirror.

      • He's not an idiot. He's actually right. Sure, anyone can have a purpose in life. I can think my purpose in life is to be the best writer in the world. You can aspire to be a basketball player or what have you. We all create our own purposes.

        But such purposes are subjective. Without a God, there really will be no objective purpose. Without God, life can only have a self-assigned, subjective meaning. A non-objective, self-assigned meaning is purely imaginary!

        Sadly, the naturalist –which I assume you are– is just latching on to one diversion after another in a desperate attempt to avoid the reality of a meaningless life.

  3. Philippines is still more tolerant of nonbelievers and atheists. There are at least 3 religions I know here in Philippines: Christianity, Islam, and Confucianism(which are practiced blindly but unknowingly by my Chinese peers). Confucianism has a hierarchy system where a Chinese girl first obeys her father, then her husband, then her son. It sucks! But an atheist in a Muslim country is suckier.

  4. Yay, "The Greatest Show on Earth". I have the book too. I started reading it two weeks ago but haven't finished it yet because I only read it while commuting. I've read several books on evolution and many online articles but there are always new things to learn from these books.

  5. "Purpose" is religion's newest favorite word Prudence.
    Are you familiar with Rick Warren's book "purpose driven life"?
    Arguably one of the best-selling non-fiction books of all time, topping the Wall Street Journal best seller charts as well as Publishers Weekly charts with over 30 million copies in print by 2006.It has become the newest tool for deceiving people, that I like to call that book "deceived on purpose book".

  6. Thanks for sharing that Karl. It gave me a new insight on how is it to be an atheist in a different asian country, thus making me realize it's easier to be an atheist here in the Philippines. But, of course, there are still similarities. While in your country, the more prominent religion is Islam (and unfortunately, it's gearing towards recognizing only that particular religion), here, most Catholics presume everybody is a Catholic too. And it's quite frustrating since they let their Catholic views pervade what's supposedly secular in nature.

    By the way, I like what you said in the last paragraph. I laugh everytime someone comments that he can't believe I live life without a purpose since I'm an atheist.

  7. Striving harder for Secularism here has a tendency to affect all those around us, even our Neighbors. I'm surprised to know about an Indonesian atheist given their free speech restrictions.

    If the Philippine prospers and begins to compete more effectively in the SEA region status quo will have to change freedoms must be provided to make a country enterprising and adaptive.

    That is why the humanist duty to fix the system here is not anymore just for Filipinos but for everyone in the region.

  8. Wow, that's a pretty important article. With all the crap we bitch about here, it's easy to lose sight of how much better we actually have it. And it's also a grim reminder of how much worse things can get without timely action. Damn that's scary.

    Good luck to Karl and our Indonesian freethinking friends.

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