Can we be Good without God?
The second I wrote this title down, I realized how lost a cause I was embarking on. Microsoft Word, my document originator of custom, was the first manifestation of the loss of course I was rabbit-holing into:
Freddy: Can we be Good without God?
Microsoft: What you mean to say is “Can we be good without God?
All is well and good. Parallel to what is often the Social Media case, whenever I talk about God, Microsoft chose to ignore the capitalization of God, but focus on the capitalization of Good. You see, on Social Media, the reverse has always been true for most.
Talk about any and everything under the sun, and more likely, you will be ignored. Talk about God and voila. Wildfire does not begin to burn the roots of how volatile that discussion can become. Especially, as is my norm, when you under-capitalize god.
The right good thing to do at this juncture may be to come out of the devil’s closet and pronounce – Atheists Nonymous – that I do not believe in god or his right-ordained Jubilee. But that would be too easy, too mundane, and too untrue.
I believe that there is good sense and proper thought in most every one of us beings on the universe, god and Jubilee included. There is also bad sense and improper thought in most every one of us doings and sayings on the universe, god and Jubilee included.
Take furious atheists, for example, many of whom I may identify with, but not necessarily fully agree with. How in the god’s good sense can you possibly believe that you know it all, are perfect and should not be questioned? Newsflash: since you are so smart, look at your self in a backdrop that features the fundamentalist, group-thinking, jihading, caste-systemic, authoritarian religionists. Compare, contrast; correlate, causate.
Your atheism is not right, is not good. It is a system of beliefs in reason, not a lack of belief. Otherwise, you would disbelieve and let believe. What you are doing with the loudness, is simply believing; believing that you are god. That your way is the only way, because the highway is full of ‘fundies’ and ‘religious trolls’, so because you are the one, the one that knows, you are right, are supreme. Can’t touch this! Hammer time…!
Your Christianity is not good: it is a system of beliefs that becomes a subtle way of living, way of being. There is good in Christianity, but to say that Christianity is good would be to generally condone the implementations of some bad ideas it consciously profers. Ideas like absolute indoctrination into an antediluvian system of living; or else Hades. Ideas like locking up children in their mothers’ wombs despite what the padlock does to them both; or else Hades. Ideas like What Would Jesus Do guiding your everyday existence, here, now, in Africa, where the sewerage does not part and allow you to walk through then vanquish your enemies behind you; or else Hades.
Your Islam is not halal: it is a system of beliefs that becomes a visible way of living, of doing. There is halal choice in Islam, but to say that all of Islam is absolutely based on Iman – the metaphysical aspect of the religion – would be to generally condone the implementations of some ideas that are not halal. Ideas like wearing a hijab because you have to, not because you want to; or else fatwa. Ideas like wearing a hijab to a pub, or that robe to the cab, only to emerge in the miniest of micro minis. Who are you kidding?
What is good is not simple, not a matter of running around with a label. It is what you evaluate, your beliefs notwithstanding, and find in to be in favour. It is what allows you, and others, to freely think, say and do what is beneficial to you and them, fair to you and them. It is what allows, not what grates.
It is a collaboration, hardly a compromise, and most certainly not about competition. Collaboration and compromise may sound alike to some, but to a little old semantic romantic such as I, they are not. One is a negative connotation of the other.
So am I an atheist? Am I a Kenyan? Am I religious? Do I believe? Today I’ll give that last one a shot.
I believe: in right and wrong, and the ability of humans to know the difference, because – like Jesus said, or didn’t he? – Humans would know it was right or wrong if it was happening to them and/or theirs. Knowing said difference is a realm of knowledge. I may or may not like to call this realm the fairness and justice of good and bad; or, its unfairness and injustice.
This is my literacy. Only mine. You can have yours; every single one of us can have theirs, and at the end of it all, it would be based on something. Something written, something read. Something experienced, something imagined. Something real, something perceived. Something quiet, something loud. Something good, and the other thing?
The other thing bad.
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Fred Wambugu, preferably known as Freddy, is a writer/ entrepreneur with a liking for agro ways. Both the loud-mouthed, angry “for no reason” and the arable kinds.
When not farming or talking, Freddy owns of a hard-hitting anything-goes blog, the Diary of a Serial Schizo, is an Industry and Market Researcher with Eronia Inc Ltd. and is the founder of inThync Kenya.
For more details on the writer, he has suggested that we tell you to scream at him on @french_freddy or Yule Mbois Mndialala.
Disclaimer: He will holler right back. Loudly. Or lovably.
In other News, does a bio need to have an ‘I’?
