Science, atheists and faith (3)

In his letter Fanatical Form Of Atheism (December 23), John B. Pace employs the unusual tactic of trying to depict atheism as a faith, apparently tacitly admitting to the problems of religion while saying “so do you”!

Atheism is no more a religion than baldness is a hair colour. It is simply the lack of belief in any god. Of course, most atheists rely on science as the most reliable source of factual information but so do most religious people. For instance, science says that rainbows are formed when sunlight passes through raindrops. The Bible says that rainbows are placed there by a forgetful god to remind himself not to drown everyone and everything on the planet.

I suspect that many believers would go with science on this one and with good reason. Science has shown its reliability by being willing to accept new evidence and learn from it.

I think most atheists would be willing to believe in God if God were to prove His existence. My understanding is that He is both omniscient and omnipotent, so He should be able to think of something that would convince everyone and then do that thing. Instead, all we have is an old book that says that God exists and millions of people who accept this without question. How can we determine whether what this book says is true?

Fortunately it is the Bible itself that provides a solution. According to Mark 16:17-18, “these signs will accompany those who believe… when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; and they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well”.

Now, obviously, I would not ask anyone to do anything potentially dangerous such as drink deadly poison but, as I’m sure Mr Pace knows, Mater Dei Hospital constantly faces a problem of insufficient beds. If he is one of “those who believe”, he should be able to place his hands on any sick person and heal him or her. Even if he limits himself to one ward a day, we should clear up the backlog in no time. We’d be able to replace our ambulances with one true believer on a motorbike – they’d get there sooner and heal them on the spot – and convert Mater Dei into a worship centre, but first things first. Please let us know when all patients have been dismissed on account of being fully healed. In the meantime, forgive me for not holding my breath.