Living in a civilized state, the the religious beliefs of others, whether christian, Moslem, Buddhist,Zoroastrian , etc does not, in any way, affect your life. You would hardly notice.

But , living in Nigeria, the religious beliefs of others, your neighbors, your friends, your relatives, etc, does effect you, whether you like it or not.

A recent nairaland post credited to a former British expat in our oil industry says that Nigerians can tolerate just about any moral or ethical malfeasance from friends and colleagues, but the one malfeasance they simply cannot tolerate is a person who does not attend church , mosque or any any other form of religious service. That is is the one that the society stands firmly against.

Most atheists are people at peace with themselves, their environments, their communities, their social, moral and ethical responsibilities. In an ideal secular state , the atheist has no problems.

But in a society like Nigeria, I often wonder as to what is the responsibility of an atheists.
In a place like Nigeria where individual rights are easily trampled upon, how should an atheists defend his rights?
How should an atheists defend his community and his country from the debilitating effects of what are clearly religious beliefs that tend to dislocate and poison the moral and ethical landscapes of his community?

From noise pollution to traffic gridlocks on the Lagos Ibadan express.
There is no single day that a half literate m.or.on does not barge into office, confront me on the road, on the bus, and in even in my home to promote one church program or another.

On one occasion I impulsively reacted violently on a young man for putting a religious sticker on my vehicle without my permission. I did feel bad afterwards for perhaps, overacting.

It seems quite easy for atheists, agnostics, deist and other non-consumers of religious BS to bury their heads in the sand and pretend to be indifferent to the toxic religious fumes that circulate around them.

But the dilemma is how can anyone be indifferent to the ills of his environment, and also, how can one speak up or do something without feeling like an intolerant bigot?

i believe that no matter how enlightened, pure, or spiritual that a person is, it is impossible and quite impossible to isolate one's self from the social ,moral and ethical dislocations in one's community or nation.

Everyday in the news, we read and hear of the many scandals and catastrophic events directly associated and linked to religion and activities of religious men.
At what point does an atheist, agnostic, deist or a pagan become active in checkmating and confronting these abuses by religious nuts and the numerous tragic cases of misplaced trust?

When can an atheists become a community activists without the constant fear of being called or labelled a bigot, an evangelistic atheist, or an intolerant religious persecutor?

If Tb joshua, Adeboye or any other fraudster goes on public TV to make wild unsubstantiated, and potentially dangerous claims, is it within the rights and duties of an activist atheist to take the same public forum to repudiate them?

I think that a degenerate, debilitating religion of fraud by fraudsters is damaging our social, moral and ethical landscape.

Do we all have a patriotic responsibility to step up and confront it?

It goes beyond patriotism, we owe it to our society to speak out. And it is so much easier these days thanks to social media, remember LB's letter to the Muslims.

I think it's quite easier to be a deist than an atheist since deist's can say they believe in God. The video below explains a deist's dilemma in 2 short minutes. What an atheist said about my deism being a transitional state before being atheist was laughable and annoying.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxHWq-94nfg&nomobile=1&gl=US&guid=&client=mv-google&hl=en-GB

Uyi Iredia: I think it's quite easier to be a deist than an atheist since deist's can say they believe in God. The video below explains a deist's dilemma in 2 short minutes. What an atheist said about my deism being a transitional state before being atheist was laughable and annoying.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxHWq-94nfg&nomobile=1&gl=US&guid=&client=mv-google&hl=en-GB

My point is about the role of non-religious people to checkmate the abuses and the negative social and moral dislocations caused by evangelical superstitions and mercantilism.

You were aware of this before embracing atheism. Why the complaint? You chose yourr path

Thanks for the op, Plaetton!


I have been trying to say this for months on NL!

There will come a time to speak up on religious intolerance.

tobechi74: You were aware of this before embracing atheism. Why the complaint? You chose yourr path

Nope....most of us dont realise how intolerant mamy religious people are until we become irreligious

Sometimes, you begin to wonder why seun does not attend any function or comes out in public.

tobechi74: You were aware of this before embracing atheism. Why the complaint? You chose yourr path

You should be ashamed of yourself for this comment.

Logicboy03:



Nope....most of us dont realise how intolerant mamy religious people are until we become irreligious

Tolerance has its limits which is usually justified by people on the long end of the sick and despised by victims.

Uyi Iredia:

Tolerance has its limits which is usually justified by people on the long end of the sick and despised by victims.

Well said

Atheists are crying

engrtee: Atheists are crying

Yes, if the problems caused by religion in our country does not make you want to cry, then I don't what could.

We are not wallowing in self-pity here. No.
We are talking about standing up and challenging the rapaciou conmen of bling bling Christianity, violent and intolerant Islam, and promoting true secularism as enshrined in our constitution.

@op, very nice topic, and a very very sensitive one at that, this is something that needs real discussion about, the negative effects on our society is very debilitating, and it has caused more problems for this country, religious zealots are dying everyday because of ignorance, but can u give food to someone who doesn't want to eat?

There's a saying that u can only take the donkey to the stream, but u can not force it to drink from the stream, I believe every freethinker here became a freethinker from his or her own volition, personally, I searched for what I thought to be the truth before I arrived at freethinking, I had practiced various religions, and I discovered that they were all about the same thing, and that is control, religion is all about control, but my point is that I ventured out to search for the truth with an open mind, only an open palm can receive, a closed fist can not receive.

In the case of our country, I do not think or believe that majority of Nigerians are willing to accept the notion of the non existence of God, cos the idea of a personal God has been enshrined into the very hearts of most Nigerians, what I think we should do, as freethinkers, is to make information readily available for people who genuinely want to seek for knowledge, cos if we are not careful we might end up being bigoted like the very people we seek to enlighten, cos right now, I can assure u that most atheists feel that anybody who embraces religion has not seen the light, so we have to be careful,

@op, very beautiful and insightful post.

bolaino: @op, very nice topic, and a very very sensitive one at that, this is something that needs real discussion about, the negative effects on our society is very debilitating, and it has caused more problems for this country, religious zealots are dying everyday because of ignorance, but can u give food to someone who doesn't want to eat?

There's a saying that u can only take the donkey to the stream, but u can not force it to drink from the stream, I believe every freethinker here became a freethinker from his or her own volition, personally, I searched for what I thought to be the truth before I arrived at freethinking, I had practiced various religions, and I discovered that they were all about the same thing, and that is control, religion is all about control, but my point is that I ventured out to search for the truth with an open mind, only an open palm can receive, a closed fist can not receive.

In the case of our country, I do not think or believe that majority of Nigerians are willing to accept the notion of the non existence of God, cos the idea of a personal God has been enshrined into the very hearts of most Nigerians, what I think we should do, as freethinkers, is to make information readily available for people who genuinely want to seek for knowledge, cos if we are not careful we might end up being bigoted like the very people we seek to enlighten, cos right now, I can assure u that most atheists feel that anybody who embraces religion has not seen the light, so we have to be careful,

@op, very beautiful and insightful post.

well said