Before I turned atheist, I tried to bury religion and pass it off as a non-issue. As long as it was not affecting my life too much, I could very much try to live my life as if religion didn’t exist or matter. I call this phase of my belief-to-nonbelief journey as my post-religion phase. I had to search the net for the definition of post-religion but could not find any that is short and simple so I’ll make one. On a personal level, post-religion is a state of not caring about religion. A post-religionist thinks that religion should not be given too much time, attention, and thought. On a cultural level, post-religion is what characterizes a society where religion is no longer a considerable influence in the day-to-day events of the society taken as a whole; when religion is a spent force in matters of public policy, and where religion sales force, the priests and bishops and imams and mullahs are no longer considered authorities on truth, morality, and origins. GMA‘s recent SONA clearly reminded us that the Philippines is not yet showing signs of transitioning from a religion-based society into a post-religion society. A post-religion society is brought about with considerable push from secularist ideas such as humanism, agnosticism, and atheism.
Going back to my personal experience, and in my post-religion phase, I held the idea that religion is plain absurdity, and as such, I would not have cared much except on certain occasions when it reared its ugly head and coerced me to act in accordance to what is normally expected of every Pinoy given the irrational idea of the majority that to be Pinoy is necessarily to be Catholic (at least in most parts of the country). I always resented it but I chose not to speak up so as not to disturb the peace. This caused an unnecessary amount of internal conflict. Each time, I wished for the day when to the majority Filipinos religion shall have been relegated to where it rightfully belongs: in the fringes of society, a spent force in public policy, and just an after-thought in the personal lives of the average Pinoys. Personally, I don’t believe that atheism is the (sole) answer to bring post-religion about. Atheism, by itself, doesn’t have anything to offer in terms of morality or happiness or apparent meaningfulness of life – three of the most abused arguments supporting the practicality of having a religion. Atheism is simply about the truthfulness of the existence of a being that many religionists worship one way or another. Atheism will not matter much in a post-religion society but rather, atheism (or new atheism) is a reaction to the fantastic, to the outrageous, to the fabulous claims of religion. In a post-religion society where there are less people with religion, there will be more atheists who are also post-atheists.
