Understanding the Argument of Atheists in Pakistan (An Analytical Survey of University Students)
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This research paper is an attempt to examine Atheist’s arguments in the context of Pakistan. Atheism is a growing phenomenon across the world; however, the factors which led the atheists to adopt atheism as their identity vary from context to context. Consequently, the goal of this research paper is to explore major factors which led the Muslim youth towards atheism in Pakistani context. This research is important, firstly to understand the arguments normally given to alienate the youth form their religion, and secondly to initiate a way forward to counter the arguments so the people of Pakistan remained intact to their inherited religion—Islam. This study focuses on answering two basic questions. How does one become atheist? What are the factors which lead towards atheism? Semi-structured qualitative interviews are used as a method of this study and 19 self-identified atheists from different universities have been interviewed on the bases of comprehensive open-ended questionnaire ranging from their diverse educational, institutional and their peer groups. A non-probability snow-ball sampling technique is used to find participants for interviews. Each interview is recorded and later coded and analysed the data in search of understanding the argument in the participants’ responses. This research concludes that there are both similarities and differences across countries in the way atheists conceptualize atheistic ideology and their evaluation of the arguments on atheism. The results also suggest that the debate of atheism is highly contextual and adaptation of research methodologies from country to country should be done.
Keywords: Atheism, Pakistan, Fundamental beliefs, Marginalized minority, Atheist, Factors
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