There is an organization in Nairobi, Kenya, called “Atheists of Kenya.” Its mission statement explains that, in 2016, it became “the first non-religious society to be registered in the country.” Before that, it had been a more casual group of Kenyans meeting because of their shared interest in promoting atheism. The government at first did not wish to register them, viewing them as a threat to the “interests of peace and welfare or good order,” but a threatened lawsuit changed that. These atheists are serious people.

The atheists are careful to explain that they are not devil worshippers. Instead, their atheism revolves around the absence of deities:

Atheism is in the broadest sense an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities.

Atheism is contrasted with theism, which in its most general form is the belief that at least one deity exists.

Their goals in promoting atheism are to achieve science and rationality; to root ethics in rational and humanistic ideals; “to promote skeptical inquiry”; to create an atheist community with activities, speakers, and debates; to foster acceptance for atheism in Kenya; and to engage in social issues affecting them and the wider community. These atheists are earnest people.

It also turns out that these atheists are gracious people because they just lost their organization secretary…when he found God:

This evening, regretfully, our Secretary Mr. Seth Mahiga made the decision to resign from his position as Secretary of our society.

Seth's reason for resigning is that he has found Jesus Christ and is no longer interested in promoting atheism in Kenya.

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— Atheists In Kenya Society (@AtheistsInKenya) May 29, 2021

If you click through to the letter in the tweet, it’s an amazing bit of civility, without the animus one would expect from a group that lost an employee to a belief system they oppose:

This evening, regretfully, the Secretary of the Atheists In Kenya Society Mr. Seth Mahiga, informed me that he has made the decision to resign from his position as Secretary of the society.

Seth's reason for resigning is that he has found Jesus Christ and is no longer interested in promoting atheism in Kenya.

We wish Seth all the best in his new found relationship with Jesus Christ. We thank him for having served the society with dedication over the last one and half years.

The position of Secretary of the Society has been rendered vacant. We are calling upon Kenyan atheists who would wish to join our Executive Committee to send their CVs to info@atheistsinkenya.org.

Harrison Mumia, President Atheists In Kenya Society

Cargen House, 2nd Floor, Nairobi • *254 799 919 666 * info@otheistsinkenya.org www.atheistsinkenya.org

That letter was so gracious and so gosh darn amusing that a lot of people suspected it was a hoax. However, the information on the website appears to be real. I’m sure, too, that a lot of people would love to learn Mr. Seth Mahiga’s story.

I hope more of the members of that society find their way to the Judeo-Christian faith because they do seem to be genuinely decent people searching for humanist values. What they fail to realize is that, in the long term, atheism always becomes the antithesis of humanism.

Without an externally created moral order – i.e., the Judeo-Christian God – all moral order eventually devolves into two things: navel-gazing or rules from a strong man. We’re seeing both in America, with magical “science” (gender switches and climate change as the reason for all natural, social, political, and economic phenomena) and with the state imposing more and more constraints on human conduct since too many people have lost sight of the moral rules that the Founders considered an integral part of a free, functioning republican democracy.