Comments on: Life in a religious country

By: Karl Karnadi

Karl Karnadi — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 04:00:03 +0000

Thank you, I currently study in a university here, in germany. After i'm finished, I also plan to get some job and have a decent life. I would still, from time to time, visit my homecountry Indonesia, maybe build some atheistic community there (shockingly there are also atheists there, altough of course mostly are closet-atheists, and still have various superstitious beliefs T_T).

By: James Tracy

James Tracy — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 04:00:03 +0000

@Karl Karnadi – How would Indonesian society react to an open and visible atheist community like some of the ones we have here in the United States?

By: karl_karnadi

karl_karnadi — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 04:00:03 +0000

@James Tracy – Excommunication from family & friends, possible harrasment especially from moslem communities. And as I've mentioned before, any public criticism of religion can be punished with until 5 years jail.

We indonesians must enter our "religion" in our citizen's ID, choose between 5 acknowledged religion (protestant, chatolic, islam, buddha, hindu). So as u can see, being an atheist officially is not even possible.
(read this (its in english): http://www.indonesiamatters.com/834/ktp-religion/ )

By: karl_karnadi

karl_karnadi — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 04:00:03 +0000

By: Ted Goas

Ted Goas — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 04:00:03 +0000

Congrats on your religious freedom. I'd be interested to hear about your experiences in Europe. I live in America, which can be tough unless you're in New York or the west coast.

By: James Tracy

James Tracy — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 04:00:03 +0000

@karl_karnadi – In my new post that I just published, I address a question that I get quite often from believers: "I’m curious…why does it bother you if people believe in God?"

What you just described provides yet another good reason why I care that people believe in God. For some, it seems like having no religion is worse than having a different religion!

By: karl_karnadi

karl_karnadi — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 04:00:03 +0000

@James Tracy – One time, I have to defend my atheism in a forum, definitely with many other people debating the existence of god, etc. But interestingly, I got warned because I've mentioned the name of the religion (Islam, Christian, etc). They told me its just like a race discrimination, I offend particular religion.

By: karl_karnadi

karl_karnadi — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 07:30:16 +0000

@James Tracy - One time, I have to defend my atheism in a forum, definitely with many other people debating the existence of god, etc. But interestingly, I got warned because I've mentioned the name of the religion (Islam, Christian, etc). They told me its just like a race discrimination, I offend particular religion.

By: James Tracy

James Tracy — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 23:42:56 +0000

@karl_karnadi – In my new post that I just published, I address a question that I get quite often from believers: “I’m curious…why does it bother you if people believe in God?”

What you just described provides yet another good reason why I care that people believe in God. For some, it seems like having no religion is worse than having a different religion!

By: karl_karnadi

karl_karnadi — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 19:00:12 +0000

@James Tracy – Excommunication from family & friends, possible harrasment especially from moslem communities. And as I’ve mentioned before, any public criticism of religion can be punished with until 5 years jail.

We indonesians must enter our “religion” in our citizen’s ID, choose between 5 acknowledged religion (protestant, chatolic, islam, buddha, hindu). So as u can see, being an atheist officially is not even possible.