A Tough Time to Be an Atheist

I was corresponding last night with a friend who went overseas in October with his wife and two young kids, to join a UN mission. I was always a bit nervous about the whole family going together, as a group, to a country that was plagued with civil unrest, horrific poverty, and had limited medical services.

But one must go where the work is, so off they went--to Haiti.

The subject of our discussion was atheism. You see, they just happened to be on a brief vacation in Miami during the earthquake.

To give the whole thing even more of a Twilight Zone character, I just found out that their house, situated in the hills above Port-au-Prince, is undamaged.

I've followed the news closely and this is the first time I'd heard of any houses in the area being undamaged. Perhaps they were built with reinforced concrete, unlike most of houses in Haiti. I just don't know.

As for the subject of our discussion: we both concluded that it was very difficult to cling to one's atheism at a time like this.

© 2010 Gary Weiss. All rights reserved.