God Is Watching

Hard to believe but statistics don't lie, do they? Out of the entire world population there is a mere half-billion that qualify for inclusion as atheists? Of course there are always those who aren't quite certain, but don't want to leave themselves vulnerable to Divine anger should they completely disown His presence, so they claim they aren't certain; they respect faith, but do not actively follow it.

For the world's agnostics there is always wriggle room there for manoeuvring should God manifest Himself without one iota of doubt. And one might suppose agnostics not to have been included in the total tally for atheists. Presumably, then, if one combines both atheists and agnostics the total number representing these two groups would outstrip that half-billion mark.

Researchers, it seems, at the University of British Columbia and the University of Oregon, collaborated on a series of studies to determine how atheists fare in popular regard throughout various societies. Unpopularly, it would seem. Their ranks are slowly but steadily increasing, and they have become assertive in their denial of the existence of a Holy Spirit of Creation.

They appear stubbornly convinced that Nature represents the creator of all that exists, and science is the mechanism by which intrigued and intelligent humans strive to discover the arcane but logical secrets of Nature. Both believers and non-believers appear to be sturdily stuck in their polarities of view; one holding that God is eternal and all-powerful, all-knowing, all-seeing. While the other believes that time is an eternal construct of Nature, which devised all that exists.

Those of faith have no faith whatever in the integrity, honesty and trustworthiness of their opposites, those who set aside a universal belief in an unseen hand that manipulates the universe and all that it contains; the huge, unknowable intelligence that created everything, including humankind, asking only that his creations hold Him in awe and honour. Which atheists cannot do, will not do, for they ascribe everything to Nature, not God.

Because atheists find a belief in a Godly Spirit beyond rationality in a rational world, they are thought of as unreliable and prone to doing evil things, according to the believers of the world. Atheists are viewed with distrust and disgust, as exemplifying all that is wrong with the world's inhabitants. Given a choice, most people would prefer to sit among believers, trusting that because of their faith they are guided always and ever to the correct path in life.

Whereas the atheists are without values if they are without faith, and they cannot be trusted to be exemplars of the humanely sterling and brightly-divine virtues that fall so readily to the faithful through their belief. When, during one of the experiments, people of faith were asked to rate the trustworthiness of a rapist as opposed to an atheist the prevailing opinion appeared that they were both morally repugnant.

"It's pretty shocking we get the same magnitude of distrust toward atheists simply because they don't believe [in God]", said Will Gervais of the University of British Columbia, and lead study author. "With rapists, they're distrusted because they rape people. Atheists are viewed as sort of a moral wild card."