I have lost count of the number of occasions when atheists have been called “fools” by correspondents in the Times of Malta. Name-calling does not prove anything, least of all the alleged existence of God. It does not occur to these Christian correspondents that the same epithet – “fools” – can be applied to them for believing in a supernatural ‘being’ for which there is no evidence whatsoever.

There was no evidence of ‘divine mercy’ when a catastrophic earthquake devastated Lisbon on All Saints’ Day in 1755 while churchgoers were attending Mass. Thirty churches were destroyed, and thousands of people were crushed to death or were fatally injured. 

Another occasion when faith in God proved futile took place on the feast of the Assumption in Madeira in 2017. Thirteen people were killed and 49 were injured when a giant oak tree fell on them during Mass while they were singing a hymn to the Virgin Mary. In Nigeria in 2016, 160 Christians were killed when a church roof collapsed on them while they were worshipping God. 

The indoctrination starts early. “Our nurses are our first theologians; they talk to children about God as they talk to them of werewolves,” wrote the 18th century French parish priest Jean Meslier in his testament to his parishioners. “Men believe in God only upon the word of those who have no more idea of him than they themselves. Very few people would have a God if care had not been taken to give them one.”

Consolatory myths appeal to many people because they help to assuage their pain and loneliness and to appease their fear and insecurity. In a letter recently sold at auction, Einstein wrote to a correspondent: “The word ‘God’ is for me nothing but the expression and product of human weaknesses.”