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Matthew Parris: As an atheist, I truly believe Africa needs God
by Times Online
Reposted from:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/matthew_parris/article5400568.ece
Before Christmas I returned, after 45 years, to the country that as a boy I knew as Nyasaland. Today it's Malawi, and The Times Christmas Appeal includes a small British charity working there. Pump Aid helps rural communities to install a simple pump, letting people keep their village wells sealed and clean. I went to see this work.
It inspired me, renewing my flagging faith in development charities. But travelling in Malawi refreshed another belief, too: one I've been trying to banish all my life, but an observation I've been unable to avoid since my African childhood. It confounds my ideological beliefs, stubbornly refuses to fit my world view, and has embarrassed my growing belief that there is no God.
Now a confirmed atheist, I've become convinced of the enormous contribution that Christian evangelism makes in Africa: sharply distinct from the work of secular NGOs, government projects and international aid efforts. These alone will not do. Education and training alone will not do. In Africa Christianity changes people's hearts. It brings a spiritual transformation. The rebirth is real. The change is good.
I used to avoid this truth by applauding - as you can - the practical work of mission churches in Africa. It's a pity, I would say, that salvation is part of the package, but Christians black and white, working in Africa, do heal the sick, do teach people to read and write; and only the severest kind of secularist could see a mission hospital or school and say the world would be better without it. I would allow that if faith was needed to motivate missionaries to help, then, fine: but what counted was the help, not the faith.
But this doesn't fit the facts. Faith does more than support the missionary; it is also transferred to his flock. This is the effect that matters so immensely, and which I cannot help observing.
First, then, the observation. We had friends who were missionaries, and as a child I stayed often with them; I also stayed, alone with my little brother, in a traditional rural African village. In the city we had working for us Africans who had converted and were strong believers. The Christians were always different. Far from having cowed or confined its converts, their faith appeared to have liberated and relaxed them. There was a liveliness, a curiosity, an engagement with the world - a directness in their dealings with others - that seemed to be missing in traditional African life. They stood tall.
At 24, travelling by land across the continent reinforced this impression. From Algiers to Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon and the Central African Republic, then right through the Congo to Rwanda, Tanzania and Kenya, four student friends and I drove our old Land Rover to Nairobi.
We slept under the stars, so it was important as we reached the more populated and lawless parts of the sub-Sahara that every day we find somewhere safe by nightfall. Often near a mission.
Whenever we entered a territory worked by missionaries, we had to acknowledge that something changed in the faces of the people we passed and spoke to: something in their eyes, the way they approached you direct, man-to-man, without looking down or away. They had not become more deferential towards strangers - in some ways less so - but more open.
This time in Malawi it was the same. I met no missionaries. You do not encounter missionaries in the lobbies of expensive hotels discussing development strategy documents, as you do with the big NGOs. But instead I noticed that a handful of the most impressive African members of the Pump Aid team (largely from Zimbabwe) were, privately, strong Christians. “Privately” because the charity is entirely secular and I never heard any of its team so much as mention religion while working in the villages. But I picked up the Christian references in our conversations. One, I saw, was studying a devotional textbook in the car. One, on Sunday, went off to church at dawn for a two-hour service.
It would suit me to believe that their honesty, diligence and optimism in their work was unconnected with personal faith. Their work was secular, but surely affected by what they were. What they were was, in turn, influenced by a conception of man's place in the Universe that Christianity had taught.
There's long been a fashion among Western academic sociologists for placing tribal value systems within a ring fence, beyond critiques founded in our own culture: “theirs” and therefore best for “them”; authentic and of intrinsically equal worth to ours.
I don't follow this. I observe that tribal belief is no more peaceable than ours; and that it suppresses individuality. People think collectively; first in terms of the community, extended family and tribe. This rural-traditional mindset feeds into the “big man” and gangster politics of the African city: the exaggerated respect for a swaggering leader, and the (literal) inability to understand the whole idea of loyal opposition.
Anxiety - fear of evil spirits, of ancestors, of nature and the wild, of a tribal hierarchy, of quite everyday things - strikes deep into the whole structure of rural African thought. Every man has his place and, call it fear or respect, a great weight grinds down the individual spirit, stunting curiosity. People won't take the initiative, won't take things into their own hands or on their own shoulders.
How can I, as someone with a foot in both camps, explain? When the philosophical tourist moves from one world view to another he finds - at the very moment of passing into the new - that he loses the language to describe the landscape to the old. But let me try an example: the answer given by Sir Edmund Hillary to the question: Why climb the mountain? “Because it's there,” he said.
To the rural African mind, this is an explanation of why one would not climb the mountain. It's... well, there. Just there. Why interfere? Nothing to be done about it, or with it. Hillary's further explanation - that nobody else had climbed it - would stand as a second reason for passivity.
Christianity, post-Reformation and post-Luther, with its teaching of a direct, personal, two-way link between the individual and God, unmediated by the collective, and unsubordinate to any other human being, smashes straight through the philosphical/spiritual framework I've just described. It offers something to hold on to to those anxious to cast off a crushing tribal groupthink. That is why and how it liberates.
Those who want Africa to walk tall amid 21st-century global competition must not kid themselves that providing the material means or even the knowhow that accompanies what we call development will make the change. A whole belief system must first be supplanted.
And I'm afraid it has to be supplanted by another. Removing Christian evangelism from the African equation may leave the continent at the mercy of a malign fusion of Nike, the witch doctor, the mobile phone and the machete.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/matthew_parris/article5400568.ece
Before Christmas I returned, after 45 years, to the country that as a boy I knew as Nyasaland. Today it's Malawi, and The Times Christmas Appeal includes a small British charity working there. Pump Aid helps rural communities to install a simple pump, letting people keep their village wells sealed and clean. I went to see this work.
It inspired me, renewing my flagging faith in development charities. But travelling in Malawi refreshed another belief, too: one I've been trying to banish all my life, but an observation I've been unable to avoid since my African childhood. It confounds my ideological beliefs, stubbornly refuses to fit my world view, and has embarrassed my growing belief that there is no God.
Now a confirmed atheist, I've become convinced of the enormous contribution that Christian evangelism makes in Africa: sharply distinct from the work of secular NGOs, government projects and international aid efforts. These alone will not do. Education and training alone will not do. In Africa Christianity changes people's hearts. It brings a spiritual transformation. The rebirth is real. The change is good.
I used to avoid this truth by applauding - as you can - the practical work of mission churches in Africa. It's a pity, I would say, that salvation is part of the package, but Christians black and white, working in Africa, do heal the sick, do teach people to read and write; and only the severest kind of secularist could see a mission hospital or school and say the world would be better without it. I would allow that if faith was needed to motivate missionaries to help, then, fine: but what counted was the help, not the faith.
But this doesn't fit the facts. Faith does more than support the missionary; it is also transferred to his flock. This is the effect that matters so immensely, and which I cannot help observing.
First, then, the observation. We had friends who were missionaries, and as a child I stayed often with them; I also stayed, alone with my little brother, in a traditional rural African village. In the city we had working for us Africans who had converted and were strong believers. The Christians were always different. Far from having cowed or confined its converts, their faith appeared to have liberated and relaxed them. There was a liveliness, a curiosity, an engagement with the world - a directness in their dealings with others - that seemed to be missing in traditional African life. They stood tall.
At 24, travelling by land across the continent reinforced this impression. From Algiers to Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon and the Central African Republic, then right through the Congo to Rwanda, Tanzania and Kenya, four student friends and I drove our old Land Rover to Nairobi.
We slept under the stars, so it was important as we reached the more populated and lawless parts of the sub-Sahara that every day we find somewhere safe by nightfall. Often near a mission.
Whenever we entered a territory worked by missionaries, we had to acknowledge that something changed in the faces of the people we passed and spoke to: something in their eyes, the way they approached you direct, man-to-man, without looking down or away. They had not become more deferential towards strangers - in some ways less so - but more open.
This time in Malawi it was the same. I met no missionaries. You do not encounter missionaries in the lobbies of expensive hotels discussing development strategy documents, as you do with the big NGOs. But instead I noticed that a handful of the most impressive African members of the Pump Aid team (largely from Zimbabwe) were, privately, strong Christians. “Privately” because the charity is entirely secular and I never heard any of its team so much as mention religion while working in the villages. But I picked up the Christian references in our conversations. One, I saw, was studying a devotional textbook in the car. One, on Sunday, went off to church at dawn for a two-hour service.
It would suit me to believe that their honesty, diligence and optimism in their work was unconnected with personal faith. Their work was secular, but surely affected by what they were. What they were was, in turn, influenced by a conception of man's place in the Universe that Christianity had taught.
There's long been a fashion among Western academic sociologists for placing tribal value systems within a ring fence, beyond critiques founded in our own culture: “theirs” and therefore best for “them”; authentic and of intrinsically equal worth to ours.
I don't follow this. I observe that tribal belief is no more peaceable than ours; and that it suppresses individuality. People think collectively; first in terms of the community, extended family and tribe. This rural-traditional mindset feeds into the “big man” and gangster politics of the African city: the exaggerated respect for a swaggering leader, and the (literal) inability to understand the whole idea of loyal opposition.
Anxiety - fear of evil spirits, of ancestors, of nature and the wild, of a tribal hierarchy, of quite everyday things - strikes deep into the whole structure of rural African thought. Every man has his place and, call it fear or respect, a great weight grinds down the individual spirit, stunting curiosity. People won't take the initiative, won't take things into their own hands or on their own shoulders.
How can I, as someone with a foot in both camps, explain? When the philosophical tourist moves from one world view to another he finds - at the very moment of passing into the new - that he loses the language to describe the landscape to the old. But let me try an example: the answer given by Sir Edmund Hillary to the question: Why climb the mountain? “Because it's there,” he said.
To the rural African mind, this is an explanation of why one would not climb the mountain. It's... well, there. Just there. Why interfere? Nothing to be done about it, or with it. Hillary's further explanation - that nobody else had climbed it - would stand as a second reason for passivity.
Christianity, post-Reformation and post-Luther, with its teaching of a direct, personal, two-way link between the individual and God, unmediated by the collective, and unsubordinate to any other human being, smashes straight through the philosphical/spiritual framework I've just described. It offers something to hold on to to those anxious to cast off a crushing tribal groupthink. That is why and how it liberates.
Those who want Africa to walk tall amid 21st-century global competition must not kid themselves that providing the material means or even the knowhow that accompanies what we call development will make the change. A whole belief system must first be supplanted.
And I'm afraid it has to be supplanted by another. Removing Christian evangelism from the African equation may leave the continent at the mercy of a malign fusion of Nike, the witch doctor, the mobile phone and the machete.
Comments 1 - 50 of 169 | | View Alternate Comment Thread
Reload Comments | Back to Top | Page Numbers2. Comment #315603 by cvaster on January 8, 2009 at 4:19 pm
*tumbleweed*Other Comments by cvaster
3. Comment #315610 by archon88 on January 8, 2009 at 4:29 pm
Another potential hazard is the worsening of sectarian tensions with Africa's Muslims. Collecting a lot of tiny local superstitions into two giant transnational ones will have its costs as well as benefits.There's also the matter of Laurent Nkunda, the "Evangelical Christian warlord", and the infamous Lord's Resistance Army of Joseph Kony, not to forget the clergymen who took part in the Rwandan genocide. Christianity hasn't been an unmixed good for sub-Saharan Africa.
Other Comments by archon88
4. Comment #315615 by Acitta on January 8, 2009 at 4:39 pm
This makes me think about the theories of Jean Gebser (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Gebser) on the evolutionary structures of consciousness and culture (and related theories like Spiral Dynamics). The tribal culture has a "magical" world view while the Christian has a "mythic" world view. This website promotes the "mental-rational" world view and the discussions about religion here mainly concern the conflict between the mythic and the mental-rational. In order for a culture to advance from magical to mental-rational it must first pass through the mythic. There are, in these theories, evolutionary levels beyond the mental-rational: the "pluralistic" and the "integral".Other Comments by Acitta
5. Comment #315616 by godsbelow on January 8, 2009 at 4:39 pm
This guy's idea of christianity doesn't seem to have much to do with the reality of religion in Africa - at least not where I grew up, in Zimbabwe and South Africa. There, evangelism and catholicism are just as vicious and collectivist as they are in everywhere else. It's pretty condescending to suggest that only some kind of unspecified'christianity' can replace tribalism - what, won't Africans be able to get a non-religious philosophy like humanism? And is ancient Semitic superstition really the only cure for native African superstition?
As for 'christianity' making people behave better: Mugabe was educated by Jesuits and is a practising catholic - and he turned out wonderfully! Last year he declared that only god could remove him from office - yay for christian education!
And let's not forget the good work the catholic church does in Africa: by condemning condoms as immoral, they help the spread of HIV!
Other Comments by godsbelow
6. Comment #315618 by prolibertas on January 8, 2009 at 4:49 pm
I agree with his rejection of the sort of relativism that says 'their way is best for them no matter what', but is Christianity really the only way to escape fearful tribalistic beliefs and emphasise the individual?Wouldn't secular humanism do both things better, getting rid of fearful supernatural beliefs ENTIRELY, and not having a holy book that, despite later Reformations, still has an emphasis on the collective in its pages? And wouldn't it get rid of the bad side effects of religion, like the Lord's Resistance Army?
I think people just need something to believe in. But you don't need to be religious to believe in an Ideal.
Other Comments by prolibertas
7. Comment #315620 by Alternative Carpark on January 8, 2009 at 4:51 pm
Well, unfortunately, he does kind of have a point - with Christianity being the lesser of several evils. However, as Professor Dawkins has often pointed out, it is highly condescending to the people of Africa to suggest that, even though we, the enlightened (few?) in the West, don't need to believe in god, the primative peoples of the world could benefit from some form of faith.
Indeed, if you are going to teach them something, then why not something along the lines of Sam Harris' suggestion.
For example:
"Abandon petty tribal disputes, reject all superstition, restrict number of offspring to a manageable level, make education a priority, teach your children to read and push them to study science in order to solve Africa's problems, strive to become self sufficient. Lest you be devoured by the great, seventeen-headed demon, Dexter, who has thus far been, unbeknowst to you all, the actual root cause of all Africa's ills, who dwelleth deep inside Mt Kilimanjaro."
Other Comments by Alternative Carpark
8. Comment #315623 by Goldy on January 8, 2009 at 4:57 pm
Africa needs God? Like their own gods count for nothing'
Then, of course, one has this to contemplate...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-derrick/christian-extremism-witch_b_154685.html
And we all now that even if we give them God, their old religions will insinuate itself into their new belief...God will become African, as it were, with all the trappings of te old religions.
Not completely convinced...
Other Comments by Goldy
9. Comment #315626 by Styrer- on January 8, 2009 at 5:03 pm
That Parris is the writer of such (no doubt unintentionally) racist, condescending, arrogant and dangerous rubbish is a huge surprise to me, as in the past I have been an admirer of his work.In one fell swoop he denigrates an entire nation by confining its inhabitants to an ignorant, superstitious little box, from which he asserts that they cannot emerge but by further inebriation from ignorant, superstitious Christianity, and denies them all collectively and despicably any right to be educated in the principles of some of the greatest secular and faith-free minds who have ever set pen to paper, and which principles are the only conceivable mechanisms which the peoples of Africa have deserved for so long and now need more than ever before.
With apparently the best of intentions, he would impose on an entire country a stultifyingly superstitious and progress-sapping creed which he himself has now dismissed as man-made nonsense.
When superstitious supernaturalism is the problem, the solution can never be to add more of the stuff into the mix, by whatever name he chooses to call it.
I am truly appalled by this article.
Best,
Styrer
Other Comments by Styrer-
10. Comment #315628 by Goldy on January 8, 2009 at 5:08 pm
But instead I noticed that a handful of the most impressive African members of the Pump Aid team (largely from Zimbabwe) were, privately, strong Christians.
Is not Comrade Bob, leader of this same country, also rather religious in the Christian (Catholic) bent?
Sure as hell can't recall his deeds of charity in the last decade...
Other Comments by Goldy
11. Comment #315629 by Diacanu on January 8, 2009 at 5:13 pm
*Feels gorge rise*Atheists with faith in faith sicken me MORE than the most fundamentalist of theists.
They KNOW it's a steaming pile, yet want to put the shackle on others.
For once, I'm at a loss for words.
I can't find ones sharp enough to cut as deeply as I'd like.
Mind-blowing bullshit.
Appalling.
Other Comments by Diacanu
12. Comment #315631 by Goldy on January 8, 2009 at 5:21 pm
More "God in Africa"
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/gambia/4177391/Imprisoned-Gambia-missionaries-friend-to-seek-clemency.html
Other Comments by Goldy
13. Comment #315632 by Goldy on January 8, 2009 at 5:22 pm
And what Christianity can offer
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/4177427/Christian-sex-therapist-refused-to-counsel-gay-couples.html
Small wonder the Chinese are doing so well in Africa...
Other Comments by Goldy
14. Comment #315633 by Mark Jones on January 8, 2009 at 5:25 pm
Comment #315626 by Styrer-
I agree; when I read this in the paper copy I couldn't quite believe that he'd written it, since he so often talks a lot of sense. It's this sort of post-colonial patronising the continent needs least (a whole *continent* he writes off!). I'm happy to applaud the good work of Christian charities (except when their preachings exacerbate governments' tendencies to ignore good scientific advice) but to suggest there should be *more* religion to fend off the evil corporations seems to fly in the face of reason. Where do these big corporations all come from? The Christian world. And witch doctors and machetes? I'm not sure I see a lot of difference between a witch doctor and a priest in the substance of the claims they make. And machetes seem to be handled ably enough by Christians as any other human.
He's had a bit of a brainstorm here, although, to be charitable, I'm sure his heart is in the right place.
Other Comments by Mark Jones
15. Comment #315634 by Fuller on January 8, 2009 at 5:26 pm
After reading the headline, my first thought was 'rubbish'. After finishing the article, this thought remained untarnished.
Condescending is the nicest word I can think of for this piece.
Other Comments by Fuller
16. Comment #315638 by Diacanu on January 8, 2009 at 5:33 pm
Y''know what really gets me about these atheists with faith in faith?They're the type that wish they could believe it.
There's no way you could be ambivalent about truth because "the effects of faith are true enough for me", unless you envied that shit, because that's exactly the lame justification a full blown theist makes.
If you truly didn't believe it, and knew with conviction it was bullshit, there's no way you could envy faith.
No fucking way.
They WANT to be convinced.
And they pine that they can't be.
But at least they can play along with the faith in faith shit.
Sorry, doesn't work that way.
You love Christianity so much, be a christian.
Use that "its effects on people are real!", shit to swallow the whole Jesus package, and finish your brain off.
Faith in faith is just a last pitiful grasp at Santa.
I'm sorry, this isn't my best stuff, I really am gobsmacked by articles like this.
Shakes me to my foundations that people can be this dangerously stupid.
Other Comments by Diacanu
17. Comment #315640 by Styrer- on January 8, 2009 at 5:38 pm
Comment #315632 by Goldy on January 8, 2009 at 5:22 pmThat really is a stomach-churning read, Goldy, of surreal and Alice in Wonderland-like proportions.
And this is the very same arrogant, bigoted, impossibly inhuman belief system which Parris would impose on a country whose peoples have had to suffer the arrogance, bigotry and impossibly inhuman conduct of many of its leaders for countless years already.
Best,
Styrer
Other Comments by Styrer-
18. Comment #315643 by Titania on January 8, 2009 at 5:40 pm
14. Comment #315633 by Mark Jones
Maybe it's not his heart, it's his soul. ;)
All of you have hit the nail on the head. Substitution of another fake deity is not the solution.
I deal with Africans from Christianized countries frequently in my immigration practice and IMHO religion ain't the answer.
For some strange reason, I wish to see Africa, the birthplace of humanity, free of the chains of superstition more than I desire it for almost anywhere else.
Edit: Spelling
Other Comments by Titania
19. Comment #315644 by Goldy on January 8, 2009 at 5:43 pm
Styrer
Odd how we can see this and yet the author of this piece can't. Are we smarter'
Sort of related, a letter in the Independent. Concerning Christianity and power. Shades of African leaders resonate...
Archbisop's retirement home
As an ordinary practising English Roman Catholic, I wish to express my disgust and revulsion against the provision of a six-bedroom property in Chiswick for an aging single man – Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor – who would have you believe that he attempts to live his life in accordance with the precepts of a master who was born in a stable and crucified on a cross (Pandora, 8 January).
What message does this send to the homeless, the starving and the disadvantaged' Nothing other than "I'm all right, Jack."
English Catholics should be very wary of how they contribute to the support of their Church and even more demanding in seeking proper accountability for how their donations are spent.
Perhaps the retiring Cardinal should reconsider his decision. Spending his retirement in more humble surroundings will prepare him better for his eventual meeting with the master he is supposed to serve.
Peter J Hurrell
Earls Barton, Northamptonshire
Does Africa need God? No half as much as it needs good governance, less debt and a fair marketplace. Hoiking out a few million of it's youth to work in fields far from home for little to no money generation after generation surely didn't help the problem Africa has today...(EDIT) the taking being done by Christians sure they were doing God's work...
Other Comments by Goldy
20. Comment #315647 by Alternative Carpark on January 8, 2009 at 5:47 pm
Turn every church into a school, every bible into a textbook. Other Comments by Alternative Carpark
21. Comment #315648 by cyris8400 on January 8, 2009 at 5:48 pm
Norm R. Allen Jr. has posted a short response to this article on the Center for Inquiry blog. Allen is Executive Director of African Americans for Humanism.http://www.centerforinquiry.net/blog/africa_needs_more_human-centered_thought_and_activism/
Other Comments by cyris8400
22. Comment #315649 by Goldy on January 8, 2009 at 5:49 pm
Styrer, you want real stomach churning?
GAZA CITY — The emergency room in Shifa Hospital is often a place of gore and despair. On Thursday, it was also a lesson in how ordinary people are squeezed between suicidal fighters and a military behemoth.
Dr. Awni al-Jaru, 37, a surgeon at the hospital, rushed in from his home here, dressed in his scrubs. But he came not to work. His head was bleeding, and his daughter’s jaw was broken.
He said Hamas militants next to his apartment building had fired mortar and rocket rounds. Israel fired back with force, and his apartment was hit. His wife, Albina, originally from Ukraine, and his 1-year-old son were killed.
“My son has been turned into pieces,” he cried. “My wife was cut in half. I had to leave her body at home.” Because Albina was a foreigner, she could have left Gaza with her children. But, Dr. Jaru lamented, she would not leave him behind.
A car arrived with more patients. One was a 21-year-old man with shrapnel in his left leg who demanded quick treatment. He turned out to be a militant with Islamic Jihad. He was smiling a big smile.
“Hurry, I must get back so I can keep fighting,” he told the doctors.
He was told that there were more serious cases than his, that he needed to wait. But he insisted. “We are fighting the Israelis,” he said. “When we fire we run, but they hit back so fast. We run into the houses to get away.” He continued smiling.
“Why are you so happy'” he was asked. “Look around you.”
A girl who looked about 18 screamed as a surgeon removed shrapnel from her leg. An elderly man was soaked in blood. A baby a few weeks old and slightly wounded looked around helplessly. A man lay with parts of his brain coming out. His family wailed at his side.
“Don’t you see that these people are hurting'” the militant was asked.
“But I am from the people, too,” he said, his smile incandescent. “They lost their loved ones as martyrs. They should be happy. I want to be a martyr, too.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/09/world/09fighter.html?_r=1&hp
What does this have to do with the topic in hand? Nothing, I guess. But it made me worry for humanity...
Other Comments by Goldy
23. Comment #315651 by Styrer- on January 8, 2009 at 5:54 pm
Comment #315633 by Mark Jones on January 8, 2009 at 5:25 pm
He's had a bit of a brainstorm here, although, to be charitable, I'm sure his heart is in the right place.
Well, quite. He's recently been a participant on the rant-worthy 'Grumpy Old Men' TV series, so perhaps we can put some of this utterly off-the-wall commentary down to the after-effects of that. I really do hope he re-considers his stance on this one, as he has persuaded me over years through his writings that he is a scrupulously clear-thinking person. This article really does do not only an entire nation (!) but also himself an enormous disservice.
Best,
Styrer
Other Comments by Styrer-
24. Comment #315652 by Titania on January 8, 2009 at 5:56 pm
19. Comment #315644 by Goldy
Odd how we can see this and yet the author of this piece can't. Are we smarter
Yes.
I just deleted a long post to Styrer saying basically the same thing. I deleted it because I thought the wine was doing the talking.
I think also the author is extremely condescending and perhaps a wee bit racist in his contention that Africans cannot handle reality without being spoonfed.
Go Diacanu. Wield thy saber.
Other Comments by Titania
25. Comment #315654 by Goldy on January 8, 2009 at 6:04 pm
Titania, I think it's an aberration, the sort of thing one writes and then, with a clearer mind, thinks "What on Earth was I talking about?!"
After all, the Chinese are in Africa doing pretty much all Parris is saying the Christians are doing. His religious young men (escaping that other religious Zimbabwean?) say and do the same as the irreligious young Chinese in Africa.
Yet reading the western media, one is always told there are nefarious and underhand reasons for China investing in Africa. And Christianity is different?
Hmmmm........
Other Comments by Goldy
26. Comment #315655 by Styrer- on January 8, 2009 at 6:07 pm
Comment #315652 by Titania on January 8, 2009 at 5:56 pmI would have loved a Hitchensian moment of Titania - what a fearsome combination! I hope at least it's a decent year you're imbibing.
Best,
Styrer
Other Comments by Styrer-
27. Comment #315658 by Titania on January 8, 2009 at 6:19 pm
Styrer,
I should stick to Guinness; I would be much less mawkish.
Cheers.
Other Comments by Titania
28. Comment #315666 by NakedCelt on January 8, 2009 at 6:52 pm
Comment #315626 by Styrer-:In one fell swoop he denigrates an entire nation by confining its inhabitants to an ignorant, superstitious little box, from which he asserts that they cannot emerge but by further inebriation from ignorant, superstitious Christianity, and denies them all collectively and despicably any right to be educated in the principles of some of the greatest secular and faith-free minds who have ever set pen to paper, and which principles are the only conceivable mechanisms which the peoples of Africa have deserved for so long and now need more than ever before.Couldn't agree more. Well, except for the part about Africa being a "nation" or a "country" (it's a continent). But in that case, where are the secular missionaries?
With apparently the best of intentions, he would impose on an entire country a stultifyingly superstitious and progress-sapping creed which he himself has now dismissed as man-made nonsense.
Other Comments by NakedCelt
29. Comment #315667 by Goldy on January 8, 2009 at 6:55 pm
Comment #315666 by NakedCelt
But in that case, where are the secular missionaries'
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/18/world/africa/18malawi.html?scp=1&sq=Chinese, Africa&st=cse
Sort of...kinda...
Other Comments by Goldy
30. Comment #315670 by Ygern on January 8, 2009 at 6:59 pm
Yeah, a few days as a tourist definitely makes you an expert with insightful understanding of the socio-economic problems faced by an entire continent as well the required expertise to recommend imposing superstitious nonsense as the one-size-fits-all "obvious" solution.
Possibly the stupidest thing he has ever written.
Other Comments by Ygern
31. Comment #315672 by Goldy on January 8, 2009 at 7:06 pm
Comments make one weep....
Exactly Mr Parris - this is what atheists don't get. If you're poor & have nothing in this life you need a moral compass & hope for something after. I've seen the same thing in Thailand & the Philippines - if the world were full of atheists it would be anarchy, survival of the fittest & sod the rest
MGG, Auckland, NZ
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32. Comment #315674 by Styrer- on January 8, 2009 at 7:10 pm
Comment #315615 by Acitta on January 8, 2009 at 4:39 pm
This makes me think about the theories of Jean Gebser (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Gebser) on the evolutionary structures of consciousness and culture (and related theories like Spiral Dynamics). The tribal culture has a "magical" world view while the Christian has a "mythic" world view. This website promotes the "mental-rational" world view and the discussions about religion here mainly concern the conflict between the mythic and the mental-rational. In order for a culture to advance from magical to mental-rational it must first pass through the mythic. There are, in these theories, evolutionary levels beyond the mental-rational: the "pluralistic" and the "integral".
Gebser himself was the first to insist that an 'evolutionary' development, which you mention a few times, was 'illusory', while at the same time insisting that consciousness needed to go through the stages he outlines evolutionarily. There is therefore enormous contradiction here between his speculative 'transitional consciousness' idea and the buttoned-down, hugely evidenced science of evolution.
He also makes no meaningful distinction between group and individual consciousness, which is simply crying out for a 'Life of Brian' moment of 'You're all different' and a 'I'm not' reply.
It's finally pretty old and tired stuff; it takes into account none of the effects of rapidly expanding experiential evidence (technology, global travel and media) which have catapulted the consciousness of both individuals and large groups into new situations where his old delineations are flat-out tossed aside.
There may still be a debate to be had, but all in all, it's not looking good for the fellow and his ideas. And as you seek to bring his ideas to the service of Parris here, the ground is now looking even more precarious.
Best,
Styrer
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33. Comment #315676 by Styrer- on January 8, 2009 at 7:27 pm
Comment #315666 by NakedCelt on January 8, 2009 at 6:52 pm
Couldn't agree more. Well, except for the part about Africa being a "nation" or a "country" (it's a continent). But in that case, where are the secular missionaries?
Absolutely right - thanks for the correction.
Most embarrassing, actually. In the same way that Parris has sought to sentence an entire continent to a belief system even he cannot accept as having the slightest veracity, I have reduced to a single entity a continent's set of multifaceted countries without batting an eye.
I think Parris and I need a quiet and reflective liquid lunch to sort ourselves out. Not necessarily together, of course.
Best,
Styrer
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34. Comment #315684 by mrgoodjob on January 8, 2009 at 8:12 pm
Giving poison meat to hungry lions might satisfy them as well. So, rejoice in that moment of goodness, that moment of justification, for it only lasts a moment.Other Comments by mrgoodjob
35. Comment #315689 by Karen Hill Anton on January 8, 2009 at 8:41 pm
Religion, in ALL its forms, is a scourge throughout the African continent.The fatalism (god/allah has willed whatever to happen) that religion creates renders the populace ineffectual.
People think they can pray for food and cure of disease, and expect deliverance from poverty and calamity. And well, if it doesn't happen in this world, then surely their reward is in the 'next'.
Of the many sad sights in Africa, among the saddest is to see people wasting their time in churches/mosques in places where clean water has never existed.
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36. Comment #315695 by VrijzinnigMan on January 8, 2009 at 8:55 pm
Christian missionaries may indeed have done some good things for the people in sub-Saharan Africa. But at what cost'How many lives and how much misery have the Vatican's ban on condoms and the Bush Administration's refusal to give aid to organizations that provide abortion services caused'
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37. Comment #315703 by squinky on January 8, 2009 at 9:15 pm
I see where this guy is coming from. Philosophy and atheism to my mind are really the luxury of well-to-do people like us who don't worry about where the next meal comes from or warfare or brutal waves of disease and malnutrition. Parts of Africa are socially equivalent to European or American cities but then there are destitute poor, devastated communities (think Somalia or Darfur) without government or assistance or hope and everything in between. Is philosophy (in which I would generally include science and atheism here) taught in their schools? In Mogadishu? Isn't lack of education and poverty what makes desperate people believe in witches or the supernatural or fill in the blank. I can see that even manufactured hope is still hope and suffering people are acutely afraid of more bad mojo.I take exception with Dawkins about being condescending to Africans that they need faith when we "enlightened" Westerners don't. That's true when education is accessible and decent and you're not preoccupied with how to feed your starving children or where to hide at night from soldiers. It is condescending to many in Africa but I daresay not all. Stripped of your intellectual learning and thrust into chaotic parts of Africa would put any of us in survival mode. Where's your atheism then and what the hell difference would it make to your life?
As much as I admire Hirsi Ali, who escaped Somalia by reading books, I'm not sure her example will lead to a secular awakening in destitute parts of Africa (though the West should encourage them as best we can).
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38. Comment #315730 by Roy_H on January 8, 2009 at 10:49 pm
'But let me try an example: the answer given by Sir Edmund Hillary to the question: Why climb the mountain? “Because it's there,” he said.'WRONG , actually it was Mallory who famously said that, in 1923.
http://www.askoxford.com/worldofwords/quotations/quotefrom/mallory/
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39. Comment #315732 by Taliesan on January 8, 2009 at 10:52 pm
What assholes like Parris do not understand about religion in Africa is it is not like religion in the sheltered world they come from. In Africa people actually believe it.
People believe that God will punish their neighbours for their sins - and that God doesn't care about collateral damage when he does it. So they think if their neigbours sin, well that will bring famine.
They think if the tribe over the hill is doing well, and it doesn't agree with them on God, then the tribe over the hill has a deal with Satan lets go kill them.
In South Africa, because patronising pricks like Parris don't understand the effect of religion, we have six year old children being burnt alive because "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" and God says sin transmits to people's children.
There are three year olds being kicked to death because people do not understand that in Africa, there is a significant number of people who actually believe.
If you want to fix Africa, then what needs promoting is actually a very atheist concept - shit happens, deal with it. Shit happened to your ancestors? Deal with it.
You live in this world, the next probably doesn't even exist, so if you want to get heaven you are going to have to make your own right here on earth, and that means actually thinking about things rather than just jerking off some big bearded white man in the sky.
How do you "Honour" your ancestors? Be a better person than them. Don't fall for the same shit they did and don't blindly support things because "You gotta have faith." Criticise your leaders, don't accept the idea that with the ability to torture comes authority.
Real authority can only come with reason, not with brutality. The God of the Bible is evil not simply because he instructs people to do bad things, but because he doesn't use reason to explain his instructions, he uses brutality.
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40. Comment #315735 by zahamba on January 8, 2009 at 11:07 pm
But this doesn't fit the facts. Faith does more than support the missionary; it is also transferred to his flock. This is the effect that matters so immensely, and which I cannot help observing.
Delusion is bliss!
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41. Comment #315737 by Communist on January 8, 2009 at 11:21 pm
Matthew Parris' reasoning and logic reminds me a lot of the US neocons. In the neocon mind set, thougth constructions need not be true or even sincerely held beliefs in order to be useful. We may as well stick to a lie if the lie serves a purpose. I wonder what Parris would make of it if he found out the he himself was the victim of such a propaganda scam. Other Comments by Communist
42. Comment #315739 by Dr Doctor on January 8, 2009 at 11:25 pm
Good for the gander, not for the goose. Other Comments by Dr Doctor
43. Comment #315757 by DamnDirtyApe on January 9, 2009 at 12:11 am
Africa needs religion, particular those wonderful 'miracle baby' churches.By miracle they actually meant stolen.
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44. Comment #315776 by DoctorE on January 9, 2009 at 12:42 am
So they need to be Prisoners of a white god
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5151512921334112942
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45. Comment #315777 by Corneel on January 9, 2009 at 12:45 am
I have worked several years in Africa (still am in fact) and the mentality Parris describes is very much prevalent in Sub-Saharan African (SSA) society (though he forgets another aspect: male chauvinism) and it is one of the problems that stands in the way of the development of SSA. However, as far as I can tell Evangelical christianism does little to change this mentality (nor do any of the other flavours of christianity or Islam). In fact most of the people I met that were best able to rise above that mentality were independent, educated women. In my opinion, for the development of Africa education and training is the most important factor, especially education of its womenfolk.Other Comments by Corneel
46. Comment #315787 by nalfeshnee on January 9, 2009 at 1:04 am
Now a confirmed atheist, I've become convinced of the enormous contribution that Christian evangelism makes in Africa...
Matthew - you may want to check the dictionary definition of "confirmed", dude.
It it is not a synonym for "borderline", "fair-weather" or "pseudo-".
(Other than that, an "excellent" rating to the posts from Diacanu and Taliesan)
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47. Comment #315790 by Katana on January 9, 2009 at 1:11 am
This guy is one of the worst kinds of religious apologist, where they think the lower classes and savages couldn't possibly live a life without a god of some kind.Rather than wasting money on trying to introduce another set of beliefs to the nations of africa how about spending some cash on education and healthcare so they can empower themselves.
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48. Comment #315792 by nalfeshnee on January 9, 2009 at 1:15 am
Incidentally, has anyone noticed the irony (?) of the "Background" section placed in the middle of Parris' article?It contains links to the following edifying articles:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article5395194.ece
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/article5036128.ece
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/article4772737.ece
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article5058019.ece
They may provide background but they most certainly do not provide support to Mr. Parris' claims.
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49. Comment #315801 by AllanW on January 9, 2009 at 1:27 am
Agree with Corneel and Katana here. I read this piece over Christmas when it was published and could only conclude that what Parris (normally a columnist who speaks a lot of sense) is saying is that in the absence of education and tolerable economic conditions that anything that gives people a sense of purpose is to be welcomed. Setting the bar a little low, isn't it? Other Comments by AllanW
50. Comment #315811 by Logicel on January 9, 2009 at 1:41 am
Parris wanting Africans to feel hope based on a delusion is psychologically dangerous. Being envious of what he considers a glowing kernel of invincible joy and continuous positive expectation mysteriously held by Christians is being envious of something that does not exist.We need solid reasons to hope for a better life—sometimes that only reason is the motivation to succeed in getting out of a hopeless situation by emigrating or giving everything to the next generation so they can have a better life. Such motivation occurs because we are humans not because of a belief in a Jewish zombie.
Parris is putting the cart before the horse or perhaps it would be better phrased as that he is encouraging a feeble, crippled, blind horse to pull a very important cart of motivation, hope, and success.
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1. Comment #315592 by Animavore on January 8, 2009 at 4:06 pm
Only real problem I can think of is it will increase the amount of Christians in the world. A fact which may come back and bite us on the arse.
EDIT: In fact a thought just occured. They're trying to ban displays showing human evolution in some African Natural History Museums and if these people got enough power we could see the censoring of evolution in Africa and archeologists being banned from digging around and finding important fossils detailing our history.
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