I am not a religious person at all. Not even spiritual or superstitious. I wasn’t raised to subscribe to any higher forces, and as I grew up and did my own research, I became even more indifferent to any kind of spiritual belief. Still — I have to come to terms with the fact that Vietnam has a huge culture of spirituality and superstition.
An Atheist Adolescence
Vietnam is largely an atheist country. We do not have a majority religious population; most people either follow a version of Buddhism, or simply worship a deity of sort.
I was raised in a non-religious environment. It was just not a part of my life. I have never been inside a church or a temple/pagoda for worshiping purposes.
When I was in New Zealand, my homestay mother was a devout Catholic. She was from Greece originally, and as she emigrated to New Zealand, she maintained her habit of going to church and socialising with her group of Catholic friends.
I became curious and did my research into religion. I came across a YouTuber named “The Amazing Atheist” — a loud-mouthed and very well-spoken guy who posts videos criticising religion. I became a big fan of his channel. The guy always promotes evidence-based reason above all else, and his videos are quite humourous to boot.
The Amazing Atheist played a part in shaping my worldview during those impressionable adolescent years. He is an arsehole who does… questionable things at times, but overall he did make a positive impact on me. His extensive vocabulary and his extremely expressive style of speaking also helped improve my English a lot. I even joined his message board and donated money to him at one point. Aye, good times.
I also consumed quite a bit of literature from Richard Dawkins, Pat Condell, Carl Sagan, Neil Degrasse Tyson, and Christopher Hitchens — all influential atheists/agnostics during those times. My mind was set — I would be a firm agnostic who rejects all religions that are faith-based in nature.
What I Do Pray For
Vietnamese people often worship a kind of deity: their ancestors, their deceased family, the God of Wealth (thần tài), or the God of the Soil (thổ địa), to name a few.
For me, the only ‘spirit’ I have ever prayed to is that of my mother’s. During her death anniversaries, I would light up a couple of incense sticks and pray to her. The only other times that I pray would be when I visit her grave in Thái Bình.
That’s it. I don’t even believe in my praying chants; it is more out of family tradition than anything.
I don’t pray to any other deities, and I have no idea how other people do it. I’ve never had a ‘thần tài’ (God of Wealth) altar in the workplace even though I see almost every business in Vietnam has one of those altars. I don’t even believe in ‘milder’ superstitions like Fengshui.
My Beliefs
George Carlin says it best. To paraphrase: there are thousands of gods and deities out there, which one should I worship?
So if I had to pick one, I’d worship the sun ?! Seriously: the sun provides us with life and vitality; it gives us daylight, happiness, vitamin D, and photosynthesis. That’s the realest god there is, if I’ve seen any at all.
Of course I’m kidding… I don’t bow down and pray to the sun (hah). To quote Tyler Durden from Fight Club:
You are the same decaying organic matter as everything else!
That’s it. I think our bodies consist of groups of cells that are constantly decaying towards their demise within a 70 – 90 year time frame. Our consciousness, memory, and sense of self are nothing more than electrical signals being fired across the nerves in our brain.
I have nothing against religious or spiritual people. It’s their life, not mine. At the end of the day, we are all just tiny confused beings trying to make sense of this chaotic world. We all have our own sources of mental comfort.
Personally, I don’t pray to anything for good luck. I think life by itself is chaotic, random, and indifferent. The definitions of ‘fortune’ or ‘misfortune’, ‘fairness’ or ‘unfairness’ are entirely human constructs. The universe does not give a shit if something ‘good’ or ‘bad’ happens to you; it’s just how it is.
I’m not afraid of death. I don’t pray for an afterlife. I know that life is fleeting. I’m doing my best to make sense of it and make the best of the little time I’ve got.
I don’t do good because I want ‘karma’, or because I want a place in ‘heaven’. I try to live a life of virtue because I have my own moral codes (which are mostly just common sense anyway).
That about sums up the way I view the world. There are no god or spirits; the universe is indifferent and we are all meat sacks that have evolved to think, so live life in our own terms and try to be excellent to each other.