On the eve of when Man created God . . .

PARIS - Sara Kalil

February 2005

PARIS -- Those who preach and call others to believe in God and live according to His will and commandments are faced with enormous social pressure. The most common is being labeled as those who “slow the process of human progression” and “return us to the stone age”. These labels come from two main beliefs: agnosticism and atheism.

Secularism is apparent in the education, media, politics and commerce in Western society. This is due to the agnostic and atheistic position held widely by the majority of the Westerners who are in powerful positions and those who embrace Western values.

Agnostics acknowledge that a “God” does exist, but reject the concept that God may communicate with humans in rational ways. They believe that astrology, dream interpre-tation, Tarot card and other methods of interpreting physical or psychological phenomena such as omens, premonitions etc. can reveal God’s will more dependably then exposed texts. They therefore dismiss revealed texts, such as the Muslim Koran, the Christian Gospel and the Jewish torah. They claim that these holy texts are but the products of human minds that were simply “obsessed” with thoughts of God. But instead, they believe in the accuracy of other texts that are evidently written by humans whose main intention is to prove religion wrong e.g. Darwin’s “Origin of Species” of which is only based on random theories.

Many agnostics reject the idea of life after death. Those who do not reject it play around with it. They believe that in the Day of Judgment, everyone goes to Heaven, with the possible exceptions of the most evil people, such as Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin. Other agnostics are attracted to the Buddhist’s belief of reincarnation, were it is assumed that the soul is said to have the opportunity eventually to attain perfect “bliss”. Agnostics often like to “pick and mix” between the teachings of various religions and atheistic philosophies. However, they tend to carefully avoid any principles that may challenge their freedom to decide their own limits on their behavior, or that may involve them in any commitments, duties or responsibilities to God.

Every agnostic feels convinced that, “if there does turn out to be a life after death” he/she will have the best of it, regardless of their manners during life.

Generally, agnostics adopt a tolerant attitude towards people who profess and try to live according to a religious belief. They regard such people as “foolish” and (the most common) “as prime suspect for the cause of most human suffering.”

Atheists on the other hand, do not believe in the existence of God at all. This belief is held by a significant powerful minority of the Western people and those who value Western principles. They totally dismiss religious beliefs claiming it is “superstitious and irrational”. They insist that religion is the main cause for the slow of “progression” of humankind and a “big cause on human suffering”. They backup this belief by suggesting that religion is the main cause of conflict between humankind in Palestine, Northern Ireland, Kashmir and Yugoslavia. This makes me question, is religion also the cause of the Visigoth, Hun and Mongol conquests, the 100-year war, the seven-year war, the First French Revolution, the Napoleonic wars, the first and second world wars, Vietnam and 1,000 other wars caused by pure human selfishness?

Both agonists and atheists tend to reject any regulations that may confront their freedom to decide their own limits on their behavior. Usually, if they place any rules, it will be either “do whatever you wish, but don’t get caught” or (a more common one that reasons all their horrendous actions) “life is all about the survival of the fittest, so do it to them before they do it to you.”

Religion therefore limits their actions as one must act in respect to God’s will, and God’s will condemns unpleasant deeds of which atheists act upon in order to gain their power. So they show intolerant attitudes towards those who profess and try to live according to God’s commandments by labeling religion as “the root of all evil”.

This phrase implies acts such as corruption, crime, destitution, environmental destruction, exploitation, genocide, injustice, murder, oppression, persecution, sexual abuse, slavery, torture and war. Just thinking of it, the claim that religion is the “root of all evil” makes no sense what so ever, and does not deserve the waste of time to prove so as religion condemns all those actions.

The truth is that the source of all man-made evils is human vices such as self-importance, heartlessness, dishonesty, envy, greed, lust, malice, selfishness, disloyalty, tribalism and arrogance.

Such vices are widespread and even encouraged in our contemporary society by those who only search for their pleasures in life without guidelines i.e. agnostics and atheists. Failing to stop these vices makes evil consequences inevitable, and results in the increase of crime, anti-social behavior, drug and alcohol abuse, and finally to the breakdown of families and communities.

The increase of both atheisms and agnosticism is due to the widespread of the myth that has “proved” that there is “no God”. All these new scientific discoveries e.g. the DNA, the outer space etc. is claimed by the atheist to prove there is “no God”, that everything was a “mistake” sparked off by the Big Bang (which is only a scientific theory itself). Funny how such a “mistake” made everything so accurately formed. Technically, it should prove that there must have been a powerful creator who made everything so perfect for us, that not even all the man-made scientific experiments can create the simplest things He created.

With all this, atheists and agonistics still cling on their belief, which is only theory-based. This is because of their selfish urge to only seek pleasure through horrendous vices. These beliefs have built an economic system in which over 80% of the world’s wealth is in the pockets of less than 5% of world’s population i.e. the total annual income of the 200 richest people exceeds the total annual income of 2,500 million of the poorest. The richest 20% of the world’s population consumes over 80% of what the world produces. These beliefs have also created a culture in which people who encourage greed, selfishness and hedonism are applauded, celebrated and rewarded (Nobel prize awards), while those who demand virtue, restraint and selfless generosity are made hated, ridiculed or ignored in the name of “freedom and democracy.”

Sara Khalil is a 20-year-old Lebanese political science and sociology student living in Paris. She wrote this piece for Alternative