OF GOD AND RELIGIOUS BIGOTRY

Recently, I was involved in an argument where someone referred to me as “an atheist.” Do they know the meaning of the term atheist? Well, it originates from two Latin words ‘a’ and ‘theos.’ The former means ‘without’ while the latter means ‘god.’ Thus, to call someone an atheist is to say that they are without god, which actually means that they do not believe in the existence of God.

          I would like to consider myself as a deist and not an atheist. According to the Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary, a deist (is someone who does) believe in the existence of God, unfortunately he does not believe that he takes part in our universe. That is why I like to tell my friends the story of the blind god.

          The analogy states that there was a blind god. One hot afternoon, he went to the river. While at the river, he took mud and started moulding some creatures. These creatures were like human beings-able to think and ask questions. As they started exploring the environment, they realized that they had a creator: they began to worship him though he was oblivious of their existence. Later, these creatures realized that their god was blind, oblivious of their existence. They stopped worshipping him and begun to do as they pleased. Soon it was getting late and the god returned what he had made back to the water before he went home. This makes me to ask the question, is our god blind, oblivious of existence? What is the use of a religion?

          Karl Marx says that religion is an opium of the people. It is used as a means to rationalize inequalities. Nay, it prevents the proletariats from taking arms against the bourgeoisies. In Africa, the colonizers used it to steal the fertile land. They told the Africans to close their eyes so that they pray. When they opened their eyes the fertile lands was gone.

          About two thousand years ago, a power arose and colonized Europe. With it came a new religion called Christianity. Later the entire Europe adopted this religion. In the 1300s, there was a religious bigotry: Christians killed others whom they considered as heathens. Geoffrey Chaucer writes in The Canterbury Tales that,

Once with the Bey of Balat, doing work

For him against another heathen Turk

Geoffrey Chaucer is describing a soldier who helped a ruler of Turkey (Bey of Balalt) to fight another who was not Christian. At this time, Christianity was under threat from Islamic religion. According to them, anyone who did not profess their religion was a heathen.