emisun: logging in as an atheist.....processing......complete.hello brothers and sisters
hi, and we are here giving you a heart-warming welcome with ONE LOVE that unites humanity progressing forward un-shackled by superstitious backwardness.
hi, and we are here giving you a heart-warming welcome with ONE LOVE that unites humanity progressing forward un-shackled by superstitious backwardness.
i've been lookin from afar logicboy. for once i still dont know where i stand on atheism. its pretty hard to break some chains. but i know there are some things we need to mend concerning religion
diluminati: i've been lookin from afar logicboy. for once i still dont know where i stand on atheism. its pretty hard to break some chains. but i know there are some things we need to mend concerning religion
I have been an atheist for over 2 years in the UK but I started commenting on Nairaland few months ago. The thing that pushed me to start commenting on Nairaland was the issue of extreme religiosity in Nigeria. Yes, Nigeria has always been extremely religious but the tipping point was when I was driving past old kent road on a sunday in London and realising that there were 15 churches on a single road and all of them were full of my fellow Nigerians (Sunday is when you see people in Nigerian traditional attires packing the buses and streets of old kent road). Nigerians are carrying their religious zealotry to the UK, where British people are not church goers (66% of british christians havent gone to church in over a year). Over 35% of british are said to be atheists.
This drove me into a frenzy. I started commenting and making numerous threads on Nairaland. I made sure that I was an atheist zealot and very prolific making atheist threads. Now, many people on Niaraland (painfully including my fellow atheists) have rebuked me and called me different names such as a "militant atheist" or "evangelical atheist". However, many of them have overlooked one fact- I, logicboy, have made an effect on Nairaland. Before I started commenting on Nairaland, there were only a few topics per day concerning atheism or criticizing religion. What people dont realise is that in the process of complaining about my numerous atheist threads, the discussion is shifting towards atheism. Every time someone comments or criticizes my threads, atheism is addressed. Now that I have been commenting for some months on Niaraland, the number of atheist or anti-religious threads per day/week have been increasing. Count the first 10 threads on the religious section and you will find at least 4 of them being skeptical about religion or based on atheism. What was once a small and controlled issue is becoming more and more frequent. However, I can not take the credit for everything, other atheists or agnostics or skeptics were very influential too in this change. There is no way one man or atheist can do everything by himself. Every comment by an atheist is a move towards popularizing the topic of atheism.
The more atheism is discussed, the more people start asking questions about religion. The topic comes before the message. By moving the debate towards atheism, it becomes more recognized and gives us atheists a chance to explain why we dont believe in God and why people should be careful with religion. I have to state here that this is the basic difference between a christian evangelist and an atheist speaker; the atheist doesnt want to be controlled by religion in his/her personal life and wants people to question their religion while the evangelist wants people to convert to his or her religion to be saved. Agnostics, deists, pantheists are cool with me as an atheist. You dont have to be an atheist.
[size=14pt] A war we can win[/size] Yes, a war against the excesses of religion and religious intolerance. I am not saying that I want to eradicate all religion. I and many other atheists only want people to question their religion and cut out the extreme parts of religion however they can peacefully. It is anyone's human right to choose and follow his or her religion of choice. However, that religion should not be used to kill (Boko Haram, terrorism), to divide (North and South Nigeria, Jews and gentiles), to oppress (women, gays), to defraud (tithe fraud), to humiliate (atheist are fools, burn in hell), to molest (churches and children) and to control (brainwashing the masses eg Oyedepo slap supporters).
This war is a verbal and non-confrontational war. If we cant challenge religious bigots and extremists in court, we must challenge them on paper and on the internet. The internet is where religions can not oppress anyone. Freedom of speech and anonymity on the internet shields from oppression and gives freedom to criticize what is taboo. This is why we atheists must always be active on the internet if we can. It was the internet in form of a youtube videos and blogs that led to Oyedepo being taken to court. It was the internet in form of blogs and youtube that led to "draw Muhammad day" as protest for free speech in Islam.
If there is any atheist that feels that we should just keep quiet and leave the religionists to their folly, the answer to that is; will you be happy if it your child that is beaten because of a false accusation of witchcraft? will you be happy if it is your daughter that is oppressed? will you be happy if you are the one being discriminated at because you dont believe in a religion.
It's your choice that you refused to believe the message that God sent through his prophet Muhammed, just be ready to reap the benefit someday. And the benefit is eternal hell fire waiting for you. You're responsible for your eternal fate, you wont say you were'nt told that Muhammed is the true messenger of God.
Are you scared of this. NO. Thats exactly the way your threat sounds.
For anyone unable to watch the video, this is a transcript
I'm sorry but I don't want to be an Emperor, that's not my business. I don't want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible, Jew, gentile, black man, white. We all want to help one another, human beings are like that. We all want to live by each other's happiness, not by each other's misery. We don't want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone and the earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful. But we have lost the way.
Greed has poisoned men's souls, has barricaded the world with hate; has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed.
We have developed speed but we have shut ourselves in: machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical, our cleverness hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little: More than machinery we need humanity; More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness.
Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.
The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men, cries out for universal brotherhood for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millions of despairing men, women and little children, victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me I say "Do not despair".
The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress: the hate of men will pass and dictators die and the power they took from the people, will return to the people and so long as men die [now] liberty will never perish. . .
Soldiers: don't give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you and enslave you, who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel, who drill you, diet you, treat you as cattle, as cannon fodder.
Don't give yourselves to these unnatural men, machine men, with machine minds and machine hearts. You are not machines. You are not cattle. You are men. You have the love of humanity in your hearts. You don't hate, only the unloved hate. Only the unloved and the unnatural. Soldiers: don't fight for slavery, fight for liberty.
In the seventeenth chapter of Saint Luke it is written: - "The kingdom of God is within man" Not one man, nor a group of men, but in all men; in you, the people.
You the people have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness. You the people have the power to make life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then in the name of democracy let's use that power, let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give you the future and old age and security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power, but they lie. They do not fulfil their promise, they never will. Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people. Now let us fight to fulfil that promise. Let us fight to free the world, to do away with national barriers, do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men's happiness.
Soldiers! In the name of democracy: let us all unite!
