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 Roots to Rap
Rahiel Tesfamariam
Friday, October 1, 2004; Page 19
Atheism: A Harsh Reality
Someone recently shared with me their belief that atheists often proclaim themselves as such in order to avoid accountability, allowing them to continue doing wrong without it weighing on their conscience. The thought was a frightening one, as it makes the claim that there are humans who love evil and sin to the extent that they would deny what their very nature should tell them is undeniable.
The picture that has always been painted in our minds of those who refuse the existence of a Creator is that of demonic worshipers who commit crimes against humanity. When we hear the term, it conjures up visions of Hitler and Jeffrey Dahmer and disregards people like Beethoven and Mozart, who were both believed to be atheists.
In the Black community, particularly, there is very little discussion of atheism because we commonly view ourselves as highly spiritual beings who are connected to God in ways that other races couldn’t begin to be.
While Western education has tried to teach us that the “Great White Burden” compelled White slave owners to “introduce” spirituality to African slaves brought over to America, evidence shows that a large percent of them were practicing Muslims (rather than atheists or polytheists) before the arrival of Europeans.
But whether or not those slaves believed in Islam, Christianity or polytheism- at the end of the day, it was only faith that could have gotten them through the darkest hour in human history. Those that survived the Middle Passage, endured slavery and lived to experience freedom had to have seen a light at the end of the tunnel that never dimmed. What else could have kept Harriet Tubman going and inspired the Negro spirituals that carried so many to “the other side”? So, if they could recognize God in the midst of enslavement, why do so many of us fail to see Him when blessed with the freedom to make our own decisions about Him?
“Some people say, ‘When I straighten out my life, then I will come to the Lord.’ But if you could straighten out your life, you wouldn’t need to come to God. He came to you because you are incapable of cleaning yourself up enough to come to Him,” says Tony Evans, author of “Our God is Awesome.”
There are so many people who can’t imagine how a loving, merciful God could have allowed them to endure all the struggles that they had to face in their lifetime. They look back on every painful experience and question why they had to endure such hardships. A lot of the times, their biggest mistake is in failing to realize that they were brought through it and lived to tell others about it, meaning that they have a “testimony” before they even recognize as such.
My sister once said to me, “There are homeless people who have nothing to live for but every day they fight to survive.” Perhaps it’s that intrinsic desire that we all have to live to see another day. But at some point, we hopefully begin to realize our need to transcend survival and truly live. And that’s where I believe that God comes in.
Rick Warren in the first chapter of The Purpose Driven Life, a book that has sold over 15 million copies since it was released in October 2002, said, “If you want to know why you were placed on this planet, you must begin with God. You were born by his purpose and for his purpose…It is only in God that we discover our origin, our identity, our meaning, our purpose, our significance, and our destiny. Every other path leads to a dead end.”
In Isaiah 54, we are told that “the LORD will call you back as if you were a wife deserted and distressed in spirit- a wife who married young, only to be rejected,’ says your God. ‘For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with deep compassion I will bring you back. In a surge of anger I hid my face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you,’ says the LORD your Redeemer.”
And while it is obvious that one cannot define atheism without defining their idea of faith, the desire to see loved ones experience the peace and joy that only a belief in the Divine can offer makes objectivity impossible. I believe one of the harshest realities that a human being can be faced with is to see God in someone who can’t see Him in themselves.
For Rahiel Tesfamariam send email to rahielt@washingtoninformer.com.
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