The real world is a pain in the tooth; no one would like to live there. Unfortunately, reality slaps us in the face from the moment we wake up and throughout our daily endeavors; until we sleep again…lost in darkness and hopelessness. This is true for most Zimbabweans, given the economic hardships and the hustles we have to go through each and every day just to make it through the day. I travelled around the cities of Harare and Mutare this weekend, and the trend of activities was remarkably similar. A significant portion of the population was in bars looking to have a good time and forget about the week that preceded them.
The majority of the people however flooded churches seeking hope and answers to the age old question; why are we here? This question is a difficult one given the hardships of Zimbabwean life. A lot of people are not content without the answer to that question and for almost a century, Christian dogma has informed that gap in knowledge. Most Zimbabweans uphold the magical worldview derived from religion and most significantly Christianity in their perception of reality. Is this true? No one cares, as long as the bible declares it true, then it is. No amount of reason can challenge the convictions that the Judeo-Christian tradition inspires…
Everyone is entitled to an opinion and I have no problem with anyone who disregards reality; whatever makes you sleep at night. People have various imaginary friends and most of the time these bring out the good in them… the problem comes when they have imaginary enemies. A lot of churches today emphasize on the doctrine of demonology and when love is no longer the basis for one’s religious belief but fear, there is mass hysteria and the chaos it brings. When I was a Christian, I used to ask myself that if the golden is to love your neighbor as you love yourself, then why we have hostility among denominations, sects and even individuals. It is because of the idea of divine retribution and the terrors it threatens in people’s imagination. Irrational fear is way more dangerous than any other type of irrationality, and I got to understand this when I got to read King James’ bible of demonology as a more conscious and geeky Atheist where most of these ideas about demons and the underworld come from. Again, a lot of people have a lot to say about demons and witchcraft but they have no idea about this book. Probably, they saw a schizophrenic person in a TB Joshua “deliverance” session and because of their lack of scientific literacy assumed it was the demons they heard about.
Irrational fear has led a lot of people, even children to be demonized or worse, accused of witchcraft. Zimbabwe in this age of magical thinking is almost the modern day Salem. I came across a banner once written “Children of Salem! We are the sons and daughters of the witches you did not burn!” I thought about the little boys and girls who are dragged to these radical churches nowadays and made to believe they have demons or are descendants of witches and are evil by default. Think about the emotional trauma these children have to go through. Think about the character defamation grown-ups accused of these imaginary atrocities suffer for the rest of their lives. I did my secondary education at Marist Nyanga Boys High School and I remember a lot of cases where fellow students were accused of Satanism or that they are rich because their parents got voodoo goblins. A friend of mine transferred because of that last particular allegation, and at the time I believed it because like every other religious person, I had a magical worldview. Now that I am a rationalist who won’t accept unsubstantiated claims and easily dismissed speculations I have heard before, I wondered how much therapy that boy needed at the time, with newspapers like the Manica Post writing stories about his mother acquiring goblins without any evidence except for hearsay.
Well, hearsay is not proof, feelings are not evidence, anecdotes are not data and a hypothesis is not a scientific theory; something everyone with a magical worldview should understand before ruining someone else’s life! A realistic worldview is not as bad, it is an opportunity to be honest with yourself about what you know, and what you do not know yet. You get to walk by sight and not by faith and your understanding of the world will be justified.
I have a friend by the name Pardon Ndoro; he is more of a brother come to think of it. Growing up as an only child myself, Pardon became the closest person I had to a sibling. When we grew up, Pardon became an elder at his church, which was the Seventh Day Adventist church. He finished his tertiary education in 2014, and well, I was still in the middle of it. Like most Zimbabweans today, Pardon could not get formal employment. He had heard a lot of testimonies at church by different people who had asked for prayers from him about how God had blessed them with various life changing miracles. He wondered why these did not happen to him.
He had a conflict in his perception with his experience, if you ask me; Pardon was the most devout Christian friend I ever had. I even hesitated consulting him with my doubts about religion when I started my journey to being a free thinker. I finally did one day, I went to him with a video by Dan Baker entitled “You don’t have to go down my basement” which for me presented the difference between Morality and Religiosity.
This YouTube video made me reconsider everything that was keeping me Christian despite all the counter evidence I had come across. As dignified as always, Pardon took the video and said he will go through it, without any judgment or an argument; he was a good listener and very reserved, no wonder why everyone at his church respected him. I went to see him the following day coming from work (I was doing work related learning during my third year of university) to get feedback about what he thought about the points brought out in the video.
He gave me more YouTube videos by Matt Dilahunty and Underlings talking about the same issue! About that time, his personal experience with reality was making him ask the same questions I was and yes, he lost his religion too! He still went to church as an elder because of the pressure from his family and society…he would have had too much to lose if he came out as an Atheist.
He felt guilty however every time he came from his sermons at church, lying was never something that went down well for him. He did not change anything about his dignified character as an apostate; he is now the same person he was when he was religious. The difference is, he has a personal relationship with reality. He told me the other day that he never got job opportunities when he was a devout Christian praying every day.
He got a good job several months after becoming an Atheist ironically. “Prayer makes you feel good about doing nothing,” he said with chuckle, “You my brother are your own redeemer.” Life happens, and we should embrace it in its realness; then we are truly content with reality. It makes us realize what is important, to be happy and enjoy our nature as a social species. Nothing goes beyond love and our fears should not define how we relate to other people or even our children; especially if these fears do not have a rational justification.
Religious escapism should have its limits and innocent people should not suffer for the gruesome fantasies of others. Stop demonizing people and accusing people of things you do not have facts on! The Zimbabwe Secular Alliance seeks to address the issue of witchcraft and demonology and save a lot of people accused of imaginary crimes.
Share your thoughts and email me at [email protected] and your input will be highly appreciated. Thank you for reading!