I'm not the world's most religious person. I may, in fact, be the world's least religious person. I don't like being termed an 'atheist' because that really isn't how I define myself, any more than I define myself as someone who doesn't believe in unicorns.
So I was a little surprised to see my name on Yahoo! Voices in an article about the national Day of Prayer in (I think) the US. I was even more surprised to see the article suggest that I'd written an article supporting the existence of God.
Here's the original article...
(click to enlarge)
And, if you want, you can read it on inthenews.co.uk - I'd recommend you have a decent pop-up blocker before clicking that link.
Now, you might think the take-home messages from that article are as follows:
- natural disasters on two continents
- massive and widespread devastation
- significant loss of life
But, if you're Yahoo! Voices contributor Faithe Reid-Liburd, you take it as evidence that there's a God.
Her article is here, and in it she writes:
"It is outstanding, that despite what is going on in Japan, they would offer to be a blessing to the U.S. Once again, we prayed for all the areas in the U.S. that were ravished by the tornadoes on April 27, 2011. God is a sustaining God."
I'm not sure, but with a death toll in excess of 25,000 people, I'd say God is a vengeful God.
Anyway, the point is this: I don't believe there's a God. I never wrote that article with the intention of hinting there might be some divine power behind Japan's donation to the US. If anything, I wrote it to demonstrate the strength of human spirit that existed in post-tsunami Japan at the time.
But the power of words is such that my article found its way into a piece about the value of prayer - and the sustainability of God.
