Prabhakar Nanawaty India is not only a land of religion, superstition and blind beliefs, but also atheism, rationalism, humanism, skepticism and agnostics. It is a land of enlightenment, philosophical quest for truth and practical application of (rationalistic) principles for common good….. Dr. G. Vijayam While reading above quotation, one will wonder whether it is really…
B Kolappan Many decades before ‘Periyar’ E.V. Ramsamy launched his self-respect movement (1925) and propagated atheism, the erstwhile Madras presidency had seen a well-organised atheist-reformist movement (1878-88), which later faded into oblivion. The Hindu Free Thought Union, a movement launched in 1878, took inspiration from the London-based Anti-Church Movement of Charles Bradlaugh. In the middle of 1886, it was renamed Madras…
Ramkrishna Bhattacharya The Concise Oxford Dictionary (on CD-Rom, 11th ed. 2004) defines rationalism as “the practice or principle of basing opinions and actions on reason and knowledge rather than on religious belief or emotional response.” This is not the only meaning of the word. In philosophy the same term suggests “the theory that reason rather…