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There is no geological evidence that the great flood which left Noah and his ark-load of animals the only survivors on earth actually happened; the killing of boys of two years and below in Judea, ordered by King Herod in an attempt to smother Jesus, would have been a massacre of such depravity and scale that history would have recorded this dark incident – again, no evidence exists of this genocide.

Such dispassionate questioning of the conceivability of the events chronicled in the bible suggests that religion is a question of faith – not fact; this leaves the narratives on which Christianity is based susceptible to refutation. Why, then, does it continue to flourish? The answer to this question can be gleaned from the role belief plays in human decision-making.

As any spouse knows, marital rows erupt more due to suspicion as opposed to evidence. As suspicion hardens to belief, the paradox of the innocent becomes apparent – while it is possible to verify infidelity, how do you prove the converse? Hence, the belief in unfaithfulness is more potent than the fact of fidelity. This, then, is the strength of Christianity. Like the innocent spouse under suspicion, the burden of refutation falls on the faithful. This is no mean task. Given the weight of evidence necessary to punch holes in biblical lore, the faithful find it easier to acquiesce; the more persuasive arguments about the tenuousness of Christian faith comes from an unlikely constituency – atheist. But because the belief in unfaithfulness is more potent than the fact of fidelity, it is easier to discredit atheists than it is to prove the basis for Christian faith.

This asymmetry has sustained Christianity for two thousand years but the formula is coming under some pressure. While there is empirical evidence that more Kenyans are going to church among other religious venues, the notion that attendance is more to do with socialising than it is to do with faith is gaining currency. While this, in itself, does not disprove the biblical events on which Christian faith is based, it indicates that conviction in the teachings on which Christianity is founded and propagated is waning. More startling is the likelihood that the provenance of this decline in spirituality is rather prosaic, precipitated by a string of broken promises rather than satanic tendencies among Kenyans.

Alongside the decline in spirituality is happiness, optimism, ambition, comradeship, and hope in economic recovery. Christianity promises heaven, the enjoyment of which is deferred until after death. A cynical public has placed this within the context of the youth are the leaders of tomorrow, the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission will slay the dragon that is corruption, pay taxes and things will get better, competition will bring down prices, multiparty democracy will bring prosperity, and better pay for MPs will attract a more accountable and professional legislator. Thus, the human tendency to promise more than they can deliver appears to have wormed its way into the church. As unlikely as it may seem, it has been a short distance between earthly failures and spiritual scepticism.

Weighty connections such as these should be disturbing – this is the stuff upon which the conscientious guilty would pick a knife and cut their own throats. Ironically, it is this disbelief in causality which sustains Christianity – the plausibility that an alternative reading of scripture would demolish twenty centuries’ worth of non-material sustenance keeps churches full of the faithless.