The question posed in the title of this piece is one that perhaps gets overshadowed when one side of the argument calls battle against the other. The religiously minded will declare it simple, you must believe in god or perish not knowing love, kindness and all the other things so exclusively available to followers of whichever text the local populous has grown up on. An atheist may argue that it too is simple and that logic and common sense make belief in any form of omnipotent being a ridiculous notion and that one must cast away such fairy stories in the pursuit of scientific reasoning. I find this does not answer the question however and so find myself pondering a world where, for the purposes of simplicity, one of the arguments is removed.
So picture the following morning we awake to find news channels across the globe have commandeered every channel, the radio is awash with the astounded and every newspaper in every corner of the globe have only one thing to report, God has presented himself to us and his existence is no longer to be questioned! (For this exercise I use the christian god but feel free to insert whichever deity you like)
This news is so astounding that whilst the lifelong religious praise the almighty and cry aloud that they were right, those non-believers stand shell-shocked with jaws agape as they peer upon a different answer to what they expected. The day wears on with many famed critics of religious belief being publicly condemned, some would be attacked and in many countries, flogged, stoned and hung. Where religious war rages, an inflated feeling of 'right' encourages those christian believers to push onwards with their fight, morally backed by the almighty and whilst their opposition, stripped of their beliefs and most probably their convictions, are slaughtered in droves! How dare you speak against he who was first, he who has presented himself as the answer!
The day comes to an end and whilst the christian armies still butcher those that defied god, the quiet atheists approach the almighty with questions of the big bang, of how he/she devised the systems of gravity and thermodynamics and what was the need for a near infinite universe. The great scientific curiosities are laid open at his feet and, should this god not be the violent, jealous being that the bible dictates and wipe out all those that dared to question his universal rules, the greatest questions mankind has devised will be answered. The atheists and believers in the 'wrong beliefs' lucky enough to survive the slaughter will embrace this new truth and the world will go on with mankind enslaved to praising this being at every turn, of giving thanks for their daily bread, the majesty of the world and for the cancer that still kills children, for falling branches that deprive a child of their parents and for famine that causes the death and suffering of countless numbers. No doubt this god, so full of insecurity due to his constant command to kill those who question his word will have his ego stroked atop a glorious throne along with his fair share of young boys and sacrificed babies.
Now picture this, the next morning we awake to find news channels across the globe have commandeered every channel, the radio is awash with the astounded and every newspaper in every corner of the globe have only one thing to report, neurobiologists have finally found the answers to what is love, compassion and humanity, of why we should love our children and feel awe at the world around us. Alongside this, the final piece in the big bang theory has been found, the key to how existence became reality opens a gate where all the answers suddenly make sense and those last bastions of religious defiance are finally broken down. String theory marries up nicely with general relativity and scientists can declare in the most simple of explanations about how we got something (the universe) from nothing. This is all amazing stuff and then Professor Dawkins appears just an hour later and says 'Here it is, the missing link!' The answers are beyond doubt and the leaders of every religious denomination are forced to accept this word.
As lunchtime approaches, atheists the world over sit like giddy children, scouring the web to read this dramatic revelation over and over again. There are parties all over the world and finally people can sit back in absolute confidence that science works! Meanwhile the religiously afflicted go on with their day, thank god for their lunch and ponder what clothes they should adorn for Sunday service. An atheist speaks to his religious friend and apologizes that s/he had spoken so ill of god but 'now you can see why!'
'It is all part of god's plan,' comes the reply to the flabbergasted atheist.
The day draws to a close with one religious denomination killing the other, with atheists still excited about why the universe exists and with the friendly atheist still trying to convince his religious friend to renounce his faith.
The answer I fear is that it is simple, religion or atheism? Religion AND atheism!
