I had written a long post about what being gnostic means and being theistic means. For the purpose of this post, I will simply use two terms — believers and non-believers. Believers who acknowledge existence of god and miracles, non-believers who don’t.

To be a non-believer is a hard task. Why? Because of two things (a) we are irrational people (b) there is uncertainty in the future moment. To be a believer is easy — because it permits both these conditions freely and to resign yourself to the assumption of finiteness to the unknown. I am not against organized religion because — at least by my interpretation of their intention — they allow you to externalize and insulate you from “success going to your head, and failure to your heart”.

Non-believers have to rationalize everything. There are several non-believers that are closet-believers (like there are closet-Republicans) — I am not referring to them. The true non-believers have to rationalize, seek to find reason, not admit the possibility of miracles, and claim to know the answer for the many questions none of us really have answers to. How on earth can we explain creation? How can we explain creativity? How can we explain the fire, the water, the air, the trees, their produce, the human creation, and of other animals? Aren’t they the epitome of miracle? Yes, but the non-believers consider it uncharacteristic to admit so. They have to fit scientific-ish concepts to these phenomenon and find solace that they have applied reason.

Non-believers cannot externalize. They have to admit everything has a cause, an effect and is repeatable. Therefore there is no one to thank, no one to worship but to the very concept of reason. When they don’t have a reason, they sneak out of the discussion room, for fear of being spotted and caught.

Non-believers find themselves vulnerable. Statistically, there are more believers than non-believers — the symbols, the rituals, the figures, the idols created by believers vastly outnumber anything else. To remain a rationalist, the non-believers have to maintain a mental distance from the believers — which is why many non-believers have to practice blasphemy — they cannot be silent, innately satisfied, content people when it comes to their position on belief. They constantly find themselves defending their positions — because not doing so — they are afraid — takes them one step closer to being a believer. It is like a bear approaching you slowly but surely — so if you don’t pick up a weapon, it will harm you.

The truth is we don’t know what we don’t know. To believe is ok, to pretend to know believing is the only way is not ok. To be a non-believer is ok, but to categorically deny any existence of any miracle is not ok. To strike a golden median, is to find your own god — whether it is symbolic, supernatural, rational, scientific or psychological — and remain true to it. For if you are not true to what you think, it doesn’t matter what you think.