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The BIG Problem

The Cedars of Lebanon

God is the ultimate excuse. The excuse not to think or act.

Whose job is it to manage the world's population?

Whose job is it to stop cripples and idiots being a burden on us?

Whose job is it to ensure that the evil people beyond the reach of the law are punished?

Whoever is currently responsible deserves to lose their job.

Most Christians would argue that all those jobs belong to God. Talking about taking such responsibility ourselves is blasphemy.

God is the ultimate excuse, the excuse not to take responsibility. If things are beyond our power to change then this dereliction of our duty is not something to be concerned about. But now we live in a world on the brink of a huge series of interlinked man-made catastrophes. The air, soil and water is poisoned by our activities. We are taxing an obscene proportion of the organic output of the planet to sustain just our own species. We are leaving a denuded and spoilt world for our children to inherit.

In the past leaving things to God was an option. Naturally leaving things to God and deciding simply not to worry about them amounts to the same thing. Nothing happens, at least nothing significant changes. The pattern of events rolls on as before. Generals pray to God for victory but God is on the side of the big battalions, or those with the best tanks. God does nothing and still gets the credit for everything good and the blame for nothing.

God will provide. Oh really? So all those Jews who starved to death in Belsen have only themselves to blame, lack of faith killed them apparently, I had always thought that it was lack of food.

Nobody is listening to your prayers except yourself. If you imagine that God is listening then you may as well say that nobody at all is listening, because you are now ignoring yourself. Praying for help with your problems is shirking responsibility. You repeat your problems into the empty air and your guilt and duty vanishes.

There is no higher authority. A Judge praying for guidance before passing a verdict is a terrible scene to imagine. The man holds responsibility for making a significant decision, perhaps literally a matter of life or death, and by praying he is seeking to lift the burden from his shoulders, to wash his hands of responsibility. Can it ever be right to allow theists or deists to become judges or Presidents? Can you ever trust people who claim to have their decisions made by invisible sky spirits?

I am an atheist, I am sorry.

I am sorry I have not solved the population crisis. I am sorry I have not stopped handicapped children from being conceived. I am sorry I have not prevented the loss of hundreds of thousands of species. I am sorry I allowed innocent people to suffer in wars. I am sorry I have not prevented the greedy from standing by and ignoring the needy.

I am sorry.

I am responsible.

I promise I will do what I can to stop it happening again.

© 1999 - 2008 by Martin Willett.

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