British journalist Matthew Parris recently visited his native Malawi to witness some charitable work happening there. His trip produced some interesting results:
But travelling in Malawi refreshed another belief, too: one I’ve been
trying to banish all my life, but an observation I’ve been unable to
avoid since my African childhood. It confounds my ideological beliefs,
stubbornly refuses to fit my world view, and has embarrassed my growing
belief that there is no God.
That belief is that Africa desperately needs God. As he expounds in his essay, Parris is convinced that Christianity produces real spiritual change in people and that this change is essential to African progress. We talked about this story at more length on a recent radio show, but for now I just wanted to point out Parris’ self-professed approach to his world view. He is an atheist in spite of the evidence against it. His world view cannot account for the data, but he holds to it anyway. If this is not the blind, irrational “faith” that religious folks are often accused of harboring, I’m not sure what is.