Atheists do not worry me as much as ‘believers’

Cyprian Osinya rests on his father Benson Osinya's shoulder after they arrived at Kenyatta National Hospital from Mombasa on March 25 2014. Photo/PHOEBE OKALL

What you need to know:

  • I have often thought about this and come to the conclusion that for one to affirm that God does not exist is in itself a confirmation of an inner belief.

Apologies, dear readers. A technological error on my part led to not having last Sunday’s piece.

I continue to be amazed by the amount of social transformation our society is going through. A story on Thursday in the Daily Nation (p3) caught my attention.

It was about a group of Kenyans who have come together and what unites them is the notion that God does not exist. Those who live by this conviction are known as atheists.

I have often thought about this and come to the conclusion that for one to affirm that God does not exist is in itself a confirmation of an inner belief.

Those who are so inclined negate because in the first place they do believe. I would call such people theoretical atheists.

These are folks who are, to a large extent, in search of something higher than themselves through the exclusive use of their intellect, not faith.

In the process they arrive at a point where they recognise their abilities as the only standard of existence.

This reminds me of a man long ago who thought that the proof of his existence was the fact that he could think. He said, “I think, therefore I am.”

The theoretical atheists would not worry me too much for theirs is merely at the level of thinking and asserting that God does not exist.

Some of them are even people who are upright and who hold the right values. The lot that worries me most is the other category of what I would call “practical atheists” and the majority of us fall under this banner.

These are the people who affirm the existence of God by what they say but then live their lives as if God does not exist.

The fellow who beat up his young daughter so bad that he broke her skull is probably a Christian or a believer of some kind.

The fellows who set off that bomb that killed two police officers in the line of duty, and many of the others who bomb people in eating places and churches, are most likely confessed believers in the existence of God – whichever way they understand him.

Many of the politicians, business people and state officers who engage in cases of serious corruption that messes up our economy are believers. Some of them even take some of these monies to churches.

Contemporary globalised cultural transformation may be responsible for trends such as the open disclosure of atheism and other hitherto taboo behaviour like homosexuality.

The challenge, however, is to tame the appetites of those who are not in these fringe social formations.

Father Wamugunda is Dean of Students at the University of Nairobi. [email protected]