Confessions of an Egyptian infidel
Though never officially recognised, atheists and agnostics have always been part of Egypt’s landscape. So it’s time society granted us our right to believe… differently.
Daily News Egypt / August 15, 2013
By Khaled Diab
Believe it or not, I am a member of Egypt’s least-recognised minority. No, I’m not a Copt or a convert or a Bahá’í even. I am an agnostic atheist, or an atheistic agnostic. Basically, I don’t know whether or not God exists, but religion, in my humble view, is clearly manmade and not heaven-sent.
If there is a god, he set off the Big Bang and then took cover to view the handiwork of the magnificent laws he set in motion to govern the universe. He is not an interventionist micro-manager who, for some unfathomable reason, decided to place us, insignificant flecks on the back of an insignificant speck that we are, at the centre of his entire scheme.
This is the first time I’ve made such a declaration of faith, or faithlessness, in an Egyptian newspaper, and it is bound to outrage some readers and cause offence to others. That is not my intention. Although I do not wish to insult people’s most intimate beliefs, I believe I also have a right to express my heartfelt convictions, and ones which I arrived at after years of doubt, questioning, hesitation and thought.
When it comes to finding religion, we hear of epiphanies, moments when someone suddenly wakes up and sees the light. I don’t know if this is true, since I’ve never experienced a religious awakening. When it comes to losing your religion, as REM might put it, it’s more like a slow bleed or a debilitating terminal condition in which there can be periods of recovery but the end is not far off; it involves soul-searching and soul-destruction.
http://www.dailynewsegypt.com/2013/08/15/confessions-of-an-egyptian-infidel/
Talk about putting his money where his mouth is. He's publishing this on the day after this happened.
http://www.thetakeaway.org/2013/aug/14/violence-escalates-egypt-pro-morsi-massacre/
Many more photos at this link.
http://darkroom.baltimoresun.com/2013/08/violence-bloodshed-continues-in-egypt/#1