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The atheist is also in fear. When I say this you will be a little surprised. Usually people think that if the atheist were afraid he would believe in god. People have failed in their attempts to make him afraid, failed to create the fear of hell in him. They draw very elaborate scenes of hell, a bird's eye view. They give a complete picture of hell: flaming fires, boiling cauldrons, monstrous devils who will torture you badly, beat you and throw you into burning fires. They terrorize so much, yet the atheist does not believe in god, so people think perhaps the atheist is fearless. They are wrong.
Anyone who looks deeply into man's mind will see that the atheist denies god because he too is afraid. His denial is also out of fear. He is afraid that god may exist. Then there will be hell and heaven. There will be sin and virtue. If god exists, then someday he will have to answer to him. If there is god, then some eye is watching us. Somebody is checking on us, somewhere an account of our lives is being kept and we are answerable to somebody, we can't get out of it just like that. If there is a god, then we will have to transform ourselves. Then we will have to live such that we can hold our heads up in front of him.
And if god should exist another fear grips the atheist. If there is a god I will have to seek him, my life will have to be put at stake. It is not cheap. It is easier if there is no god, then we are free. Free of god you also become free of heaven and hell. There is neither fear of hell nor fear of missing heaven. Nor the fear that those who are worshipping in the temples will be going to heaven. It doesn't exist. Who has ever gone to heaven? Who will go? Where? Man does not survive death. What virtue? What sin?
The Charvakas, the original source of atheism in the East, said, "Don't worry, enjoy eating butter even if you have to borrow money." Don't be worried about paying it back. Who borrows? Who pays back? One dies and everything is left behind -- yours as well as his. And nothing remains afterwards. When nothing remains what is the fear. If you want to sin, sin. If you want to do evil, do it. Live freely the way you want to.
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