This Cuban’s Take on God and Humanity
Rosa Martinez
HAVANA TIMES — I don’t know whether I actually believe in God or any supernatural forces. All I know is that, every night before I go to sleep, I pray to something you could call a divine power.
The first thing I ask for is good health and long life for the people I love, especially my two daughters, who are the most important thing in my life, and for my younger brother, who’s a bit spoiled and nuts but can be the sweetest guy in the world.
Then, I ask for the wisdom needed to deal with my everyday problems, the strength to continue moving forward, luck to improve the household finances and peace, for me and the entire world.
I don’t know whether God exists or not, whether he can actually hear me, or see me. I only know that I try not to offend or hurt anyone around me, and not out of fear that the Almighty will unleash his fury upon me. I do it because I wouldn’t be able to sleep peacefully at night otherwise.
I hate lies and I don’t consider myself capable of killing anyone (unless that person put my life or the life of one my relatives at risk). This, however, has nothing to do with the fact lying and murder are two of the 7 deadly sins, but with the kind of education my parents gave me.
I try to help my workmates, neighbors and friends, not because God demands kindness towards others, but because I know that we ultimately reap what we sow. Many a time we walk away empty-handed, no matter how much kindness we plant.
Maybe I do believe in God. At least I pray and make promises to him when someone I love gets sick. When I see my daughters, healthy, happy, alive, almost perfect, I feel that I believe in God.
Yes, maybe I do believe in God. But I don’t believe in all who follow him.
I simply cannot believe in those who use religion to distance themselves from their families, much less in those who spend hours and hours in church, claiming they want to follow Christ’s example, and then curse their own children when they get home.
I cannot believe in the Catholics when their religious leaders rape children and young people around the world, nor can I believe in the 50-year-old Afghan clergyman who married a 8-year-old girl and, on their wedding night, unable to penetrate her, cut her vagina, leaving her to agonize for hours and ultimately bleed to death at dawn.
I believe in God, but I do not believe in all human beings.
Rosa,
Christopher Hitchens, the late great anti-theist of our times would always ask this question of all audiences on the epic anti-God debating tour he undertook after publishing his book : “God Is Not Great : How Religion Poisons Everything”;
Try to name a single good act done in the name of religion that could not have been done by a non-believer who was moral .
Then , he would ask, try to think of any evil acts done solely in the name of God or religion .
It is quite easy to see that you would have problems naming any examples in answering the first question and no problem at all listing many instances you know of in answering the second question.
As for the concept if an “intelligent designer” ; noted U.S. astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson shot down that idea , that foolishness by pointing out these two things: First this so-called intelligent designer created humans as his top item, his best creation , to rule over the others . Yet this celestial “genius” gave us a system where we swallow food and breathe using the same pipes causing many to choke to death every year. Whales and porpoises, our inferiors, were given SEPARATE holes for breating and eating by this Divine Creator but humans got the second best system ??
Then he said this: This “intelligent designer” placed our sexual organs right next to our organs of waste excretion which is analogous to building an amusement park right next to a sewage treatment plant. .
INTELLIGENT DESIGNER ?????
Think about these things.
Tyson also said that the fact he finds most amazing in the universe is the fact that far from being just a mote in God’s eye , a lost corner of the immeasurable universe and alone and separate from everything, we humans are composed of exactly the same elements : hydrogen, oxygen, helium carbon and nitrogen of which all exploded stars are composed and in the same ratios .
We humans, far from being alone in the universe, are of the same stuff of all the stars.
Science is far better than religion for miraculous revelations because the miracles of science are real .
Good article However i would like to suggest that i hope you do not believe you
did anything yourself U are blessed with great writing skills and imagination But you did not come this way alone Call it divine intervention 😉
You said Yes, maybe I do believe in God. But I don’t believe in all who follow him. And rightfully so man cannot compete-
Carry on!