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(NYASATIMES) Malawi’s anti-God activist courts controversy

Malawi’s anti-God activist courts controversy
By Nyasa Times
Published: January 17, 2011

Head of Malawi’s Association of Secular Humanism, George Thindwa, continues to cause uproar in the country with his anti-God activism. His exclusive interview in a local paper has sparked debate in the southern African nation

Thindwa is also reported to have been forced out of the public commuter bus after he publicly stated that he did not believe in the existence of God. Speaking to the Weekend Nation exclusively, the secular humanist said the world was created by “a big bang” and that it was formed some 14 billion years ago.

Thindwa: So what is God?” -Photo/ NPL

“The God creation myth does not make sense and it is illogical. Things cannot be created from nothing and where was God when He was creating the world?” Thindwa said according to the paper.

Explaining his “big bang” story, he said: “There was some small universe in the form of an orange fruit which burst and from the burst—called the big bang, planets like Earth, Jupiter, Mars etc were formed.”

He added: “The support for the big bang is that even at the present moment, the universe is actually expanding and that is a fact. Take note that as you go into the past, evidence and information becomes very difficult to get by, hence quite difficult to know what happened before the big bang.

“This you will see contrasts completely with God creation myth of the Genesis. Genesis says the Earth is older than the sun yet it is the sun that is old and the earth actually rotates around the sun.”

And on Sunday, a public bus – travelling from Blantyre to Lilongwe – forced Thindwa to disembark when he challenged a Christian preaching in the bus not to take it for granted that every passenger was a Christian or religious.

“I was asked to drop at Zalewa road block because I had a problem with many passengers in the bus in terms of my belief,” he confessed to a local radio, Zodiak.

Thindwa contemplates a legal suit against the bus operator saying he feels offended because the Malawi law gives everyone freedom of belief and expression.

He says he does not fear for his safety despite growing concerns by majority Christians who are increasingly irked with his anti-God stand.

“I do not fear, that is my belief and those people who believe that Malawi is a God fearing nation they are entitled to their belief,” he said, according to Zodiak.

Thindwa has also called religious leaders who perform miracles as “religious propaganda”.

“Why can’t they cure Aids through their miracles? Why do we need hospitals across the country if religious leaders can perform miracles? Why can’t the miracles heal the blind or cure the lame? The leaders go to hospitals for treatment but they tell their followers that prayers will heal them,” he said in his newspaper interview.

He also pointed out that “there is no life after death.”

According to Thindwa, the Secular Humanism members, who pay subscription fees, meet weekly to “discuss issues that negatively affect Malawians based on superstition.”

On his religious family background, Thindwa said: “I grew up with my grandmother who taught me this religious stuff but when I experienced the world around me, all religious beliefs did not make sense.

“There is nobody who cares for us human beings; why the poverty, the sickness, and the strong winds in Lake Malawi that killed people when the waves were harsh in my village, the death of bread winners? So what is God?”

Thindwa’s Secular Humanism group recently raised a total of 15,000 kwacha (about $90), to pay the fines and secure the release of three women jailed for witchcraft. He says he is working for the release of 50 other women.—(Reporting by Judith Moyo, Nyasa Times)

Labels: RELIGION

posted by MrK @ 5:59 PM