My People Perish Due to Lack of Knowledge
What motivate to me to write this post is born out of the fact that human brain should be made to think, reason and to arrive at logical conclusion. The problem of most people in Nigeria is that they are intellectually lazy. They rely on one man to interpret scriptures for them and at the end of service they close the books till the following weekend revving in the promises of the so called man of God. The brain processor should be made to think and the RAM to work to their full capacity.
The damage imported religions have done to my people cannot be underestimated. Don’t get me wrong I am not saying that people should not be religious but when the religion you practice does not have positive effect on you and the society, should we not reexamine our thoughts and check whether we are actually doing what is right.
First and foremost we are made to believe that our forefathers are Idolater and as a result they are all bound to enter hell fire. Is there any evidence to confirm that 100% of the people that existed before foreign religions are idol worshipers? This to me is selfishness; they believe so far they enter heaven, no other person matters. Christianity is even funny, they said you cannot enter heaven except you are a born again i.e. accept Jesus as your lord and savior. This concept raise some questions, 1 what about those that died before Jesus came into the world 2. Is Jesus a universal God.3? What about those that died before Islam and Christianity came to Nigeria? It needs to be stressed that it is not Islam or Christianity that introduce concept of Universal God in Nigeria. Yorubas have had word like Olorun , Eledumare and Ibos have word like Chukwu long before Islam and Christianity came to Nigeria. The name Orunmila means Olorun lo mo eni to ma la i.e. only God knows who will be successful in the hereafter. The success in this case is not material things but ultimate entering of heaven. This means they believe in the day of Judgment.
The bulk stories in the bible are the stories of Israelite. When they talk about Israel or Israelite today the first thing that come to the mind of an average Nigerian is Christianity but in Israel up till today , 77% of the populace are Jewish, 20% Muslims and 2% Christians. Majority of those 2% Christians are Immigrant (Wikipedia). Jewish or Judaism is far from Christianity in their mode of worship cause they do ablution and they also pray bowing down. This is a country where Jesus was born, if actually what Christians in Nigeria are talking about is true, by proximity factor we have more Christians in Isreal than in any part of Africa.
When Jesus said: An evil and adulterous generation seeks after Miracle; he must have had Nigerians in Mind. What we have are greedy pastors and greedy followers .The religion that was imported to Nigeria has now been repackaged and now being exported to the missionaries putting ingredient like miracle(JUJU) and cheap visa to heavens as if they pastors are the manufacturers of heaven tickets.
Money is the root of all evils. Pastor are greedier than Babalawos , if you make a salary of 100,000 in a month you will be paying tithe of 10,000 in a month . Even if you want to make sacrifice, will you be using 10,000 naira to make sacrifice every month. What will you use as the sacrifice ingredient that will make it 10, 000 ( turkey , chicken ?) even if it is up to the amount will it be every month you’ll be making sacrifice.
And they will tell you Owo ni keke iyinrere i.e Money is the vehicle of religion. Pastors like entrepreneurs want to expand their businesses. He knows, the more investment, the more the congregation hence the more money that accrue to his purse. The problem about their followers is that their brain is Pentium 1 and their RAM IS 32MB while those of pastors are CORE 5 with RAM of more than 6 GIG. No matter how much one tries to explain the concept to them they will not understand, they have been bounded to the shackles of religious Dogmatism.

You have some good points but why waste time with babalawos too?

Why not just can all the religious nonsense and invest the money into charitable works?

In regards to the tithe pastors, 10% is a lot. But they have very unique ways to milk ppl. Are all those anointing oils and blood of jesus ribenas free? What about church literature, shows, music, sermons etc. Also they have special days for certain problems where seeds, offerings are placed.

If you total it all a dedicated fanatical xtian can spend up to 40% of their income on church related materials etc.

@ Atheist because Babalawos are even more truthful than the so called pastors. They will tell ko gbowo , ko gbobi, ko gbebo i.e God does not collect anything and that the kingdom of Heaven is free yet they indirectly and directly collect all your money.

^^^^

I agree. But it is still better to can all this religious stuff and invest the money

You both take money for spiritual services. The only difference is that one is open about it while the other is deceitful.

@op, actually you made some good points that I really admire. It's quite true that many christians of today Nigeria are intellectually lazy and therefore allows some dubious pastors to perpetuate their exploitation of the their congregation/followers.

But on a more serious note, religions give hope and peace of mind in every individual. For instance,we have many realists who are still attending churches,not because they're bounded to religion dogmatism but because of necessary peace of mind derived from it.

Another reason why Nigerians are too much obsessed with religions is POVERTY. Despite being lazy or without survival skills or jobs,some people still think that by going to church and pray like mad,their lives would suddenly change over night from poverty to richness.

I love religions because it gives one's hopes and peace of mind.

D sage:

I love religions because it gives one's hopes and peace of mind.

Yes but what good is hope if you have to sacrifice too much to attain it. If the religion had few negative connotations and religious leaders were not enslaving ppl it might have been worthwhile.

Also hope can be negative too. Too much belief in hope and miracles can make ppl lethargic and this why some never question the status quo. Never question their pastors ripping them off, politicians ripping them off, foreign companies ripping them off etc.

Atheist:-D:


Yes but what good is hope if you have to sacrifice too much to attain it. If the religion had few negative connotations and religious leaders were not enslaving ppl it might have been worthwhile.

Also hope can be negative too. Too much belief in hope and miracles can make ppl lethargic and this why some never question the status quo. Never question their pastors ripping them off, politicians ripping them off, foreign companies ripping them off etc.

Here I'm not talking about foolish hopes or hope of paying with your entire money to attain that common among some christians these days. I'm talking about the following hopes;

* hope that gives one's a feeling of self worth as a human.

* hope that gives one's a sense of belonging as a haman.

* hopes that gives peace of mind,eg love, humility and hapiness.

D sage:

Here I'm not talking about foolish hopes or hope of paying with your entire money to attain that common among some christians these days. I'm talking about the following hopes;

* hope that gives one's a feeling of self worth as a human.

* hope that gives one's a sense of belonging as a haman.

* hopes that gives peace of mind,eg love, humility and hapiness.

I agree. The base instinct of religion is good. It has been abused by men to meet their selfish, greedy, carnal demands.

Atheist:-D:


I agree. The base instinct of religion is good. It has been abused by men to meet their selfish, greedy, carnal demands.

Exactly sir.

D sage:

Exactly sir.

first time i wwill be agreeing with you.

good job OP.

Ymodulus:

first time i wwill be agreeing with you.

Really? That is nice.

@ op,
First of all it is igbo, not ibo. Or would you rather I called you Yoruba?
Secondly you give pastor followers too much intellect by attributing to their information processing system a Pentium 1 and their RAM 32MB. If they had one hundreth of that, they would be intelligent.

D sage:

Really? That is nice.

yeah