{"id":680,"date":"2009-01-17T20:31:00","date_gmt":"2009-01-17T20:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/believingbullshit\/2009\/01\/17\/response-to-matthew-parris-from-norm-allen\/"},"modified":"2009-01-17T20:31:00","modified_gmt":"2009-01-17T20:31:00","slug":"response-to-matthew-parris-from-norm-allen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/believingbullshit\/2009\/01\/17\/response-to-matthew-parris-from-norm-allen\/","title":{"rendered":"Response to Matthew Parris from Norm Allen"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Source: <span style=\"font-weight:bold\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.centerforinquiry.net\/blog\/africa_needs_more_human-centered_thought_and_activism\">Africa Needs More Human-Centered Thought and Activism<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Norm Allen<\/span><\/p>\n<p>On December 27, 2008, the self-professed atheist Matthew Parris argued for religion in Africa in The Times Online, headquartered in the UK. In his article titled \u201cAs an atheist, I truly believe Africa needs God,\u201d he spoke glowingly of \u201cthe enormous contribution that Christian evangelism makes in Africa\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I readily admit that missionaries have done some great work in Africa\u2014building roads, clinics, schools, etc. However, missionaries in recent years have also enriched themselves while exploiting the masses, discouraged millions of Africans from using condoms, thereby increasing unwanted pregnancies and the spread of Aids, promoted sexism, contributed greatly to the persecution and deaths of alleged witches, etc. Indeed, Africa provides the perfect example of what Robert Ingersoll said about the historic role of the Catholic Church: \u201cIn one hand she carried the alms dish, in the other, the dagger.\u201d The same could be said of organized religion in general.<\/p>\n<p>In Rwanda, Christians were complicit in the genocide that occurred there in the 1990s. Many people were brutally murdered in churches. In Nigeria, Christians and Muslims have been killing each other by the thousands. Throughout Uganda, Zimbabwe, Nigeria and many other African nations, Bible-based homophobia plays a major role in the persecution, and in some cases, murders, of LGBTs.<\/p>\n<p>What Africa needs is what Ingersoll called \u201ca caring rationalism.\u201d The Bible simply contains too many ultra-reactionary and inhumane messages to be blindly embraced by believers. Christian ideas of tolerance are inconsistent with the biblical notion that acceptance of Christ is the only way to reach heaven. The Prince of Peace said he came to bring not peace, but a sword. It is no wonder that there are so many different conceptions of Christianity, not all of them benign.<\/p>\n<p>A humanistic life-stance is the best way to approach the many divisive religious and ethnic conflicts that plague Africa. Human-centered thought and action offer much more for African uplift than piety and prayers ever could. Christian charity is, indeed, commendable. However our appreciation of the missionaries\u2019 alms dish must never blind us to the dagger that so often accompanies it. <\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-style:italic\">Stephen adds: Norm Allen does a great deal of work for CFI in Africa.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source: Africa Needs More Human-Centered Thought and Activism Norm Allen On December 27, 2008, the self-professed atheist Matthew Parris argued for religion in Africa in The Times Online, headquartered in the UK. In his article titled \u201cAs an atheist, I truly believe Africa needs God,\u201d he spoke glowingly of \u201cthe enormous contribution that Christian evangelism [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/believingbullshit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/believingbullshit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/believingbullshit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/believingbullshit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/believingbullshit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/believingbullshit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/believingbullshit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/believingbullshit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/believingbullshit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}