Fiona Earnest

Many years ago, the former Governor of Tennessee, Robert L. Taylor, listened with exasperation to the atheist Robert Ingersol. The speaker was waxing eloquent about Darwin’s new-fangled theory of evolution. On returning home, the Governor picked up his pen and wrote: ‘What intelligence less than God could fashion the human body?

Many years ago, the former Governor of Tennessee, Robert L. Taylor, listened with exasperation to the atheist Robert Ingersol. The speaker was waxing eloquent about Darwin’s new-fangled theory of evolution. On returning home, the Governor picked up his pen and wrote: ‘What intelligence less than God could fashion the human body?

The small town of Memaliaj sits in southern Albania, a nation with a turbulent history. Emerging from decades of communist rule, Albania was once officially declared the world’s first atheist state, a place where all religious practice was outlawed. Today, the long shadow of that era still falls across towns like Memaliaj, where poverty is common and emigration relentless.