Last night I dreamt that I was hiking in the woods with some friends, when we came across a camp. My companions and I explored it for awhile before we came across a pavillion where people were gathered. The children there were milling around, and I struck up a conversation with some of the adults. It turned out to be a Christian camp, not unlike the camp I attended as a child. I was talking to a man from Africa; he was older, and a little bit sad. And he started to talk about what had happened to his home continent over the past few decades:
"Then, the people in Africa started getting enough to eat. No one was hungry, and the children did not die. They went to schools, because there were many schools. And we had doctors and hospitals and there were not so many diseases anymore. Now, most Africans are living long and happy lives."
And I thought, this is incredible, this is amazing, it seems like just yesterday when celebrities were buying African babies as part of their charity cause du jour, and now Africa is a continent of thriving first-world nations. But his face was dejected as he continued:
"The African people believed in God when they were starving. Now that they are not sick and dying and they have food to eat, they no longer need God. It was better when they lived in poverty, because then they had amazing faith in God."
I became indignant and enraged. My hands gestured wildly and I was shouting into his face:
"How dare you say that! How dare you suggest that it is better for people to starve and die, if that is what preserves their belief in the supernatural! How dare you suggest that poverty is anything good! This God did not see fit to save these people from their poverty for so many centuries, and now that they -- they themselves, and not God -- have pulled themselves up to live healthy and full lives, you would say that this is worse than the days when they watched their children die of AIDS. You are pathetic and inhuman to think such a thing!" I continued berating him as the other people watched in a stunned silence before I stormed back out into the woods.
And then I woke up.