To: Greg or e who wrote (10691 ) 2/13/2002 1:37:34 PM From: James Calladine Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 28931 Atheists: "Who had thought it through" Greg, since you are putting forward a view that the "thinking-man's atheist" would come to the conclusion that suicide would be indicated, here are a couple of paragraphs from Adi Da about ATHEISM, which would suggest that your view is rather extreme:The atheism from which people are suffering is not merely non-theism, but a state of self-contraction or divorce from the Spiritual Reality. Thus, when you see conditions arising in the present, you do not see the Spiritual Reality, you see merely the conditions. You presume them to be separate from That. You do not presume yourself to be That. You even may presume that there is no That. Not only is It not evident in the conditions that seem to be arising presently, but you do not presume that It necessarily exists at all. You could say that all egos are atheistic in some sense, because they do not see the Obvious. They are not suffering from the absence of God. They are suffering from a limitation on the Vision of God. Nothing you do to yourself, either to stimulate or distract your attention, really works to break the spell of this false vision. You must understand yourself truly, and in understanding and transcending yourself you see the Obvious. When the world becomes recognizable, then the world also falls away. But it is not by excluding the world that we find God. It is by seeing the world as God, seeing this moment of conditions as God. Atheism is just one of the forms of self-possession. It is not really a description of Reality based on intelligent consideration. It is just one of the ways of communicating to others the sense of separation and doubt inherent in the ego. November 7, 1982 Namaste! Jim