I would like to respond to the article regarding Atheism titled, Atheists are wrong about God, which ran on Sunday, 11, January 2009. Having read the article, I was surprised to find that the unnamed author’s representation of the Atheist position was grossly inaccurate. Either he is ignorant of, or he intentionally misrepresented the atheist position, perhaps to sensationalize his story for the benefit of the intended Christian reader. He even suggested that atheism is related to paganism!

What??
This response is not intended to promote atheism. Indeed, those that desire to be religious have every right to be religious – and may they enjoy their religiosity. Rather, this response is simply intended to explain the rationale at work when people choose to become atheists, which the author of the aforementioned article misrepresented completely.

To begin with, it is true – as the author stated – that atheism is an absence of a belief in the concept of God (and usually all things supernatural, including spirits, demons, etc). The reason is simple. We are not persuaded by the arguments put forward for the existence of God by the various theistic religions. It is not by faith that we are atheists. We are just not convinced.

Atheism makes no positive claims; it simply questions the positive claims made by theists of various stripes for the existence for their various gods. The burden of proof always lies with those that make the positive claim. The author of last week’s article tried to shift the burden of proof on the atheist. This is a logical fallacy. For example, is the burden of proof upon those of us who don’t believe that Alien abductions occur? Or, must the proponents of the claims of alien abductions present their evidence?

Interestingly, thousands of self-professed abductees have presented evidence over the past several decades; but most of us, including most Christians, don’t find their evidence credible or convincing. For this reason, today, the majority of people don’t accept claims of alien abductions as true.

Similarly, when the Christian claims, “The Bible is the word of God” (positive claim); the atheist simply asks “Okay, can you prove it?” or “How do you know this?” The Christian then offers his explanations (or evidence); but the atheist is not convinced – and neither is approximately 66 per cent of the total global population, who happen not to be Christians.

Atheists have read the Bible and consider much of it to be folklore, considering the outlandish stories in it that defy logic and the laws of nature. Atheists don’t particularly want to reject these stories; it’s just that we find them completely unbelievable.

This is also exactly how Buddhists and Hindus view the Bible. Muslims too are not convinced that Jesus is God the Son – because the evidence doesn’t lead them to that belief. Meanwhile, the Christian has looked at the Qur’an, the Hindu Bhagavagita, Buddhist texts – and not found them convincing either.

Atheists basically aren’t convinced by ANY of these claims. It is that simple. We just don’t find any claims of the existence of gods, as put forward by whichever variety of theist, believable thus far.

Current research shows a continuous steady decline in religiosity in Europe and other developed nations around the world. Atheism and secularism are increasing. But is this surprising?

With better education, increased literacy and better access to information, religious people around the world are taking a deeper look at their rationale for adhering to their beliefs, and many are starting to question it. People are now aware of the multitude of mutually incompatible religions that exist, and that have existed in the past, which all make fantastical, non-verifiable supernatural claims – and have began to recognize all of them as falling within the realm of mythology.

Atheists are no different from anyone else. We wake up in the morning, enjoy the sunshine, go to work, talk to friends, fall in love, start families, spend time with relatives and loved ones, watch movies, go to clubs, listen to music, have ambitions in life, etc. We find all of these things greatly fulfilling, just like anyone else. We have no “vacuum”.

Each of us, whether atheist, Jew, Christian or Muslim, as human beings, attach value to the things we care about. The only difference is, atheists acknowledge that this life is the only life we shall ever live, and not a minute of it should be spent on unwarranted anxieties based on ancient myths and superstitions.

The belief in witchcraft is pervasive across the continent and is not restricted only to peasants and the uneducated. In fact, nearly all of the educated African elite believe in its efficacy. It is quite hard to believe that given all the advances in medicine and science in the last 500 years, most Africans today still attribute their misfortune and sickness to evil spirits and demons, courtesy of witchcraft.

In Uganda, where currently there is public outrage towards child sacrifice, there is a lot of discussion on what should be done to the perpetrators; but strangely, nowhere will you see any discussion of the root cause of the problem, which is the belief itself.

The reason people go to witchdoctors is because they believe it works. They believe that if certain spells are cast, then their troubles will disappear. Some of these beliefs are harmless – or so they seem. For example, a young man might think wearing a simple voodoo charm will increase his chances of getting employed. No harm in that, you might think. But picture this young man, 20 years later, now an established businessman. His businesses are failing.

In seeking solutions to the problems he consults a witchdoctor, who, this time, tells him that by sacrificing a child, his debts will disappear. Given his already ingrained belief that witchcraft works, is there any reason to think this man won’t go ahead with it, or at least consider it as an option? The answer is obvious. His formerly harmless superstition has now evolved into a dangerous belief system, which now is threatening to put the life of an innocent child in danger.

Therefore, the best way of ending this scourge is by eradicating the irrational belief itself – through education and sensitization. This way, whether someone is rich, or poor, he or she will more likely seek rational ways of solving their problems. This is already being done in some parts of India, from as early as primary school. People need to be taught to employ critical thinking when facing their challenges, and discouraged from pursuing options which have absolutely no evidential merit.

That’s correct. Witchcraft has no evidential merit. There is absolutely no scientific evidence that supports any of the claims of purported witchcraft or black magic. In fact, all evidence points to the contrary. This suggests that if anyone should be at the forefront of such an educational campaign, it should be the scientific community of Uganda, right? But where are our scientists? Why are they so silent on the matter? The answer is not that surprising.

My conversations with many Ugandan scientists and doctors have revealed that a large number of them actually believe that witchcraft works (though they insist they would never partake in it). When I asked them, being scientists, about what empirical evidence they had encountered that justified this belief, they all said there was none.

Many of them instead offered stories of someone they had heard of who had visited a shrine and experienced some sort of miracle; in short, only rumors. Not very scientific of them, I must say. It also turned out that most of them were devoutly religious, and therefore accepted the efficacy of witchcraft on that basis alone. The common response was, “if God is there, that means the Devil is there too. So witchcraft has to be real!”

Indeed, many well-meaning Ugandans fear that asking them to concede that witchcraft doesn’t work is like asking them to declare that God doesn’t exist (which is not necessarily so). It is for this reason that even the most educated among us, depending on their particular religious affiliation, keep holding to the belief that there are such things as demons (or jinns) interacting with human beings, and imagine that these witchdoctors are in fact their earthly conduits.

So, what are we to do? Evidently, the actual cause of the scourge of witchcraft happens to be a ‘no go area’ for any kind of dialogue or discussion, because it is the belief itself.

As a rule, we are told to respect people’s beliefs, and that these beliefs are not to be subjected to critical scrutiny. But it is this protection from scrutiny we accord our various beliefs that allows many of these dangerous superstitions, like child sacrifice, to flourish. Let’s face it, if people knew for a fact that witchcraft was bunk, and that juju did nothing to change one’s fortune, would anyone bother indulging in it? Probably not.