By Humphrey Musaazi
Humphrey Musaazi, an atheist and humanist lives in Uganda. He wrote this article in reply to Rodney Muhumuza’s article titled “ATHEIST CAN ONLY BE LOSERS” in Uganda Monitor Newspaper of May 15th , 2005.
As an atheist and humanist, I cannot let Rodney Muhumuza’s article ‘Atheists Can Only Be Losers’ (Sunday Monitor, May 15) go unchallenged. There is no single person who thinks deeply about things or whose life is governed by reason 100 percent who believes that there is God. God is the failure by people to discover how life and the universe were created. There is God because there is some kind of in-built desire among so many millions of people to hang onto the supernatural forces. And there is God because so many people have blind, unquestioning faith.
I have to point out at the outset that for people who believe in God, like Muhumuza, they do not need any proof that he exists (which I find terrifically amazing) and those that do not believe in God, no amount of proof can convince them that God exists…because there is no incontrovertible proof. This, therefore, makes it rather difficult to get the winner in this debate. However, reason can show us who is right and wrong.
I’ll state my reasons why God does not exist and pose questions about God, which sadly cannot be answered.
The first reason why God does not exist is that no one can show us, not even Benedict XVI, his demonstrable relevance to the people he created. The God that people say is loving, for example, decided — in his infinite wisdom — to create a world where only a few people enjoy riches and live in comfort, and the vast majority are suffering. And it is not because all those that are rich are more religious, intelligent and work harder than the rest. No. It is because the vast majority of the rich in the world can use fraud, robbery, theft, deception, deceit, manipulation, treachery, trickery, manoeuvrings, exploitation, and etcetera to get rich.
Do theists want us to believe that God gives these people blessings to get rich because they are doing what he and religion want? America and several parts of western Europe are rich in part because of slave trade. Where was God when this was happening?
Nike is arguably the richest sportswear manufacturer in the world and they employ thousands of children (see ILO reports on child labour) who are not fit to work and who ought to be at school. The children of the executives of this company, whether they believe in God or not, will never experience any suffering. God, if he exists, is witnessing this exploitation of the highest order but has said and done nothing. In whose interests is he doing this?
The second reason why God does not exist is that people do not need more than one religion to worship one God. Religion, it seems to me, created God- pure and simple. That is why it cannot answer the sort of questions I have raised here. Many religions have created more problems than they have solved. Can any theologian or the Muhumuzas of this world tell us why religions keep mushrooming yet there is one God? I have been on planet earth for 33 years and I have never seen any country constructing 10 motorways (read roads) all going to the same place. Why? Because it just doesn’t add up.
I have a good deal to write on this subject but there is no sufficient space. There are dozens and dozens of questions I can ask and if Muhumuza read them, he would simply look at me or try to pontificate, as many believers do, about God’s actions. But I am writing a book, The Evil God, in which I’ll try to show the entire world how God is the vilest being that ever existed.
Atheists may be promoting homosexuality, as Muhumuza alleges, but very many are good people. There are 13 millions of them in the US but they are not the ones wreaking havoc in the world. African leaders, for example, have killed the very people they lead (once too often) yet none of them is an atheist. God is utterly useless because he doesn’t exist. Humanity’s only hope are the people themselves, humanism, science and realism. I do not need God and religion to be a good guy, which I am. I just have to have saintliness (which I do not need to get through religion) and humane humanness. Over to you believers.
Culled from http://www.theecologist.org/archive_article.html?a…