According to a recent poll, Uruguay has the highest percentage of atheists in the world. I’ve wondered why that particular country would serve host to so many non-believers. I can’t recall anything in recent memory occurring in Uruguay that would give rise to so many disavowing God.

I would have put my money on some more obvious choices. Take Bosnia, for instance. There Christians and Muslims slaughtered one another and committed a host of unspeakable atrocities every day. It was obvious, despite their professed allegiances, that they too have rejected putting their faith in a divine being. Their religion had nothing to do with God and everything to do with guns.

A trip to Northern Ireland would convince some of us that this country so rich in religious tradition has also turned its back on God. We could listen as ordained ministers shout threats and warnings at each other. We could join in prayers for the destruction of others. We would quickly see that there is another country with a large number of atheists.

Or we could just look around us right here in the good old USA. In recent weeks, there have been a number of horrifying instances of religious people displaying their lack of faith. Sexual abuse of children, embezzling the funds of others, physical beatings of spouses...all perpetrated by religious people who surely don’t believe in God, at least not the God most of us have been raised to revere.

Perhaps the Uruguayans are on to something. Maybe they’ve watched what is going on in the rest of the world and simply concluded that the very worst thing that could happen to their little country would be to have too many folk believing in this God who encourages such outrageous and offensive behavior.

I suspect that nothing is more painful to a believing Jew, Muslim, Christian, Hindu or Buddhist than to read newspaper accounts of the so-called faithful fighting one another. Even the most pious of believers must be tempted to toss it all in and join the folk of Uruguay.

Bosnia, India, Ireland, Pakistan, America...the list is long of countries that appear to have far more non-believers than believers, despite what the polls proclaim.

As a Lutheran, I bear the sad legacy of a denomination that stood quietly by as a violent despot rose to power with promises of anti-Semitism and world domination. In Germany, the Lutheran Church was remarkably silent in the face of such horror. By such silence we proclaimed what we really believed in.

Such a legacy is not limited to Lutheranism but that does not make it any less painful. It is a disturbing reminder of our need to be on guard against such horror occurring again.

On evidence, it would appear that the most dangerous cause is a religious cause but closer examination would show that such religious causes have nothing to do with God.