Atheism or Religious Fanatism

I was on the plane a few months ago and two people on either side of , including myself were reading ( The God Delusion). It was an obvious conversation starter.Interestingly, the lady o my left was a " devout atheist" and Richard dawkins was her God. The gentleman on my right was borderline agnostic and I came from a fairly religious Hindu Family. So here we were discussing and debating the existence or non existence of God. The flight was from Sydney to HKG so we had a few hours to put our points across. Well, is there really a god? I don't know? I have never seen him or her, however my mother claimed to have seen Krishna- the Hindu God of Love. I don't consider myself religious, but I am not an atheist either. So is agnostic a euphemism for atheist because we are too afraid to deny the existence of the almighty GOD

The latest buzz word , now a days is spirituality. When someone asks what religion are you I hear people promptly responding, " I don't have a religion but am a spiritual person". Are people now afraid to claim to be religious? I think so much negative propaganda has been attached with religion that someone with a reasonable IQ does not want to be associated with it. Richard's mention about the article by Paul G Bell identifying an inverse co-relation between Intelligence and Religious bent seems to make sense . India is supposed to be a very spiritual land. Many people head to India to find themselves, then how is it that so many of us are still searching for answers and are easily swayed by Charlatans pretending to be door keepers to the God's. True religion is the faith to follow the path of righteous living away from any dogma and rituals.Religion is a wonderful tool if used correctly, Fire can cook a meal and the same fire can cook a person, so it is not the fire that is bad it is the use of fire can be misappropriated. Similarly to completely deny the existence of GOD that seems to give hope to so many people may be out of line. However using the name of GOD to instill fear and following is a bigger blasphemy than denying the existence of GOD.Shouldn’t the whole debate on atheism vs GOD be on religious moderation vs religious fanatism.

luv/luck/happiness