okay @ topic, corruption is everywhere so stop blaming it on Religion. Are d politicians stealing under d umbrella of religion?

musKeeto:
Lol. Was about to post the same, but you'd have to agree that religion and the question of God's existence are quite related.

Well sir, I believe they are related but the thread is about how religion could be the hindrance to Nigeria's development.

musKeeto:
As per your previous post, please could you define religion?

Because it seems like you're trying to dissociate Chrisitanity, and in extension Islam amongst others, from religion.

Religion can be viewed from different perspective sir, but if you are concerned about me dissociating Christianity from religion then you need not worry cause I believe that Christianity is also a religion. I brought out Christianity cause I am of the opinion that I am no competent to talk about other religious bodies.

musKeeto:
As per being docile, the promise of miracles and quick breakthroughs via the power of annointing, are these irreligious activities or promises?

If someone who calls him or her self a Christian decides to forget about the ills perpetrated by corrupt politicians because a so called man of God made a promise of miracles then that individual knows nothing about Christianity. For starters it is very selfish and ungodly to look out for only ones self. If someone lives with the hope of a miracle, how then does the individual care for others? Speaking out against injustice, corruption etc and doing something about it in the right way is more appealing to God than being submissive because of a promise of miracles.

and besides, do people stil pray dat prayer? give us our daily bread? we pray for open doors, favour, prosperity, protection etc.

Redmosquito:
Corruption should be everywhere except religion! Dat is meant to be a holy place. For us to witness even an iota of corruption means something is being done wrong and that means everyone needs to use their brain and abandon the teachings of modern christainity or whateva religion you have. We should not prolong and encourage it by continuing to indulge on such religious practices that we well know to breed and feed the already corrupt ways. In short every religious fellow needs to question his religion!

Good evening sir,

I understand your angle but do not agree with the 'abandon religion" bit. Do we abandon the constitution of Nigeria all together because politicians are corrupt? I believe what we need is a wake up call. If done right, everyone or at least the majority would be able to root out all those selfish "men of God". But again I do not believe that every 'man of God' is motivated by greed and selfishness.

Redmosquito:
Root out? Root out what? when everone is afraid! When noone knows the wolves from the lamb! Religion has held us down too long man! There is almost nothing we can do about it

Sir, with respect I don't think you consider yourself to be part of those religion has done that to. I know for certain that religion does not hold me down. On the contrary it has made me to see the wrongs done by some men, and it also helped me to be a man of action instead of staying down to accept these wrongs. If religion can do this for me, I really do not think that religion does the opposite for the next man. People are weighed down by what they perceive to be religion and not what it actually is.

Redmosquito: Corruption should be everywhere except religion! Dat is meant to be a holy place. For us to witness even an iota of corruption means something is being done wrong and that means everyone needs to use their brain and abandon the teachings of modern christainity or whateva religion you have. We should not prolong and encourage it by continuing to indulge on such religious practices that we well know to breed and feed the already corrupt ways. In short every religious fellow needs to question his religion!

i do get ur point n i agree dat people no longer reference God. Everyday n everywhere, churches r springing up, why? Cos it's d quickest way 2 succes. One just needs to hold fast to God's word so as not to be misled.

Redmosquito: yes! And do millions still die of poverty and malnutrition?

death is no respecter of persons brother.

Religion will bring Africa to its knees eventually

Redmosquito: Ban religion? No! Way too much volcanoes will erupt! We think a religion is bad but a lack of it is worse! Do we really think that the black man is gentle and peaceful , yes the blackman. We are like an injured animal, shot and beaten, afraid to attack because of the shackles that holds us in place, yes religion shackles us in some ways. The removal of such shackles will tear Africa apart

very true, i don't support it's ban as well. religion has more advantage so it should stay. imagining a world without religion is chaos.

luxanne: am trying to understand y he is so upset wit God to d extent of calling Him names, he looks like a lost soul to me.

There is a high chance that you are the lost soul.
God does exist, but he never answers prayers. Unfortunately, God is defined by the Bible to be a prayer-answering being. The contradiction between the reality of God and the definition of God proves that God is imaginary.

Redmosquito: and what if the God's word we perceive as God's word is already tainted?

God's word tainted? How do u mean? His word is d bible n i do believe everyone's gat one 2 study

Redmosquito:
Everything is stirred up! Like salt in water, we can see no clear cut difference, no lines of articulation, just one big puddle. If ten pound of mud gets dropped in one pound of pure water, what good is there in it? Imagine a whole nation, with arguably the highest concentration of religious cells nd yet we are like ths, ignorant and poor, we walk to church, our pastors ride jet and we see nothing wrong

Sir, I still do not see how religion is responsible for this. What I do see is a sorry situation where some persons have decided to allow themselves to be mislead by people they trust. What we should understand is that a lot of people have stopped following the teachings of Christ and are now following the epistle of their pastors. Some only believe something, if and only if it comes from the mouth of their pastors.

This has gotten so bad that if the pastor says that murder is good they would accept it without a shred of doubt. I have heard some pastors say things that are obviously against the teachings of Christ but yet the members still revere them like gods. This is not to say that religion caused this trend. People choose to believe what they want and frankly I believe they should be held accountable for their actions. Blaming something or someone for a wrong another person does willingly doesn't quite it for me.

personaldomest: There is a high chance that you are the lost soul. God does exist, but he never answers prayers. Unfortunately, God is defined by the Bible to be a prayer-answering being. The contradiction between the reality of God and the definition of God proves that God is imaginary.

yes, He is a prayer answering God but ur iniquities is wat u shud b worried abot.

Emm...Can someone please tell me what the topic is?

Redmosquito:
The bible is a book wriiten by many men, and compiled by many men. It is true, God did play a role in it, but it can be said to be tainted for man compiled it! Have u not seen the difference between the God of Old testament and the God of New testament? Just read with logic and Boldness! The bible is also from Torah( I have said this before), is dat not proof that somethiing aint clicking

God had nothing to do with the bible. The bible is a book written by men with delusions of grandeur.


Talking snake? Talking donkeys? Samson killing hundreds with the jawbone of an azz?

Christianity and islam are foreign religions that supported the slavery of our forefathers.


When will we stop following the slave religions? Both religions support slavery in their own holy books.


When will we stop believing in superstition? The UK that gave us christianity is now more irreligious than ever. more than one in very 4 british people are atheists or dont believe in any religion.

The Saudi Arabia that was the home of the islam still is islamic and where are they now? Beating women and stopping women to drive.


Look at the most peaceful countries in the world, very secular with a lot of atheists.

Logicboy03:
Look at the most peaceful countries in the world, very secular with a lot of atheists.

Those countries also have majority white/Asian populations with marginal black populations - is it also safe to assume that being white is what is responsible for peace and not atheism?

You atheists are getting dumber by the minute with these shocking lack of reasoning ability.

I know religious people are myopic but its okay. Let me try to help you...........


Let's imagine that I tell you the following story:

There is a man who lives at the North Pole.
He lives there with his wife and a bunch of elves.
During the year, he and the elves build toys.
Then, on Christmas Eve, he loads up a sack with all the toys.
He puts the sack in his sleigh.
He hitches up eight (or possibly nine) flying reindeer.
He then flies from house to house, landing on the rooftops of each one.
He gets out with his sack and climbs down the chimney.
He leaves toys for the children of the household.
He climbs back up the chimney, gets back in his sleigh, and flies to the next house.
He does this all around the world in one night.
Then he flies back to the North Pole to repeat the cycle next year.
This, of course, is the story of Santa Claus.
But let's say that I am an adult, and I am your friend, and I reveal to you that I believe that this story is true. I believe it with all my heart. And I try to talk about it with you and convert you to believe it as I do.

What would you think of me? You would think that I am delusional, and rightly so.

Why do you think that I am delusional? It is because you know that Santa is imaginary. The story is a total fairy tale. No matter how much I talk to you about Santa, you are not going to believe that Santa is real. Flying reindeer, for example, are make-believe. The dictionary defines delusion as, "A false belief strongly held in spite of invalidating evidence." That definition fits perfectly.

Since you are my friend, you might try to help me realize that my belief in Santa is a delusion. The way that you would try to do that is by asking me some questions. For example, you might say to me:

"But how can the sleigh carry enough toys for everyone in the world?" I say to you that the sleigh is magical. It has the ability to do this intrinsically.
"How does Santa get into houses and apartments that don't have chimneys?" I say that Santa can make chimneys appear, as shown to all of us in the movie The Santa Clause.
"How does Santa get down the chimney if there's a fire in the fireplace?" I say that Santa has a special flame-resistant suit, and it cleans itself too.
"Why doesn't the security system detect Santa?" Santa is invisible to security systems.
"How can Santa travel fast enough to visit every child in one night?" Santa is timeless.
"How can Santa know whether every child has been bad or good?" Santa is omniscient.
"Why are the toys distributed so unevenly? Why does Santa deliver more toys to rich kids, even if they are bad, than he ever gives to poor kids?" There is no way for us to understand the mysteries of Santa because we are mere mortals, but Santa has his reasons. For example, perhaps poor children would be unable to handle a flood of expensive electronic toys. How would they afford the batteries? So Santa spares them this burden.
These are all quite logical questions that you have asked. I have answered all of them for you. I am wondering why you can't see what I see, and you are wondering how I can be so insane.
Why didn't my answers satisfy you? Why do you still know that I am delusional? It is because my answers have done nothing but confirm your assessment. My answers are ridiculous. In order to answer your questions, I invented, completely out of thin air, a magical sleigh, a magical self-cleaning suit, magical chimneys, "timelessness" and magical invisibility. You don't believe my answers because you know that I am making this stuff up. The invalidating evidence is voluminous.




Now let me tell you one final story:

God inseminated a virgin named Mary, in order to bring his son incarnate into our world.
Mary and her fiancé, Joseph, had to travel to Bethlehem to register for the census. There Mary gave birth to the Son of God.
God put a star in the sky to guide people to the baby.
In a dream God told Joseph to take his family to Egypt. Then God stood by and watched as Herod killed thousands and thousands of babies in Israel in an attempt to kill Jesus.
As a man, God's son claimed that he was God incarnate: "I am the way, the truth and the life," he said.
This man performed many miracles. He healed lots of sick people. He turned water into wine. These miracles prove that he is God.
But he was eventually given the death sentence and killed by crucifixion.
His body was placed in a tomb.
But three days later, the tomb was empty.
And the man, alive once again but still with his wounds (so anyone who doubted could see them and touch them), appeared to many people in many places.
Then he ascended into heaven and now sits at the right hand of God the father almighty, never to be seen again.
Today you can have a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus. You can pray to this man and he will answer your prayers. He will cure your diseases, rescue you from emergencies, help you make important business and family decisions, comfort you in times of worry and grief, etc.
This man will also give you eternal life, and if you are good he has a place for you in heaven after you die.
The reason we know all this is because, after the man died, four people named Matthew, Mark, Luke and John wrote accounts of the man's life. Their written attestations are proof of the veracity of this story.
This, of course, is the story of Jesus. Do you believe this story? If you are a Christian, you probably do. I could ask you questions for hours and you will have answers for every one of them, in just the same way that I had answers for all of the Santa questions that my friend asked me in Example 1. You cannot understand how anyone could question any of it, because it is so obvious to you.
Here is the thing that I would like to help you understand: The four billion people who are not Christians look at the Christian story in exactly the same way that you look at the Santa story, the Mormon story and the Muslim story. In other words, there are four billion people who stand outside of the Christian bubble, and they can see reality clearly. The fact is, the Christian story is completely imaginary.

How do the four billion non-Christians know, with complete certainty, that the Christian story is imaginary? Because the Christian story is just like the Santa story, the Mormon story and the Muslim story. There is the magical insemination, the magical star, the magical dreams, the magical miracles, the magical resurrection, the magical ascension and so on. People outside the Christian faith look at the Christian story and note these facts:

The miracles are supposed to "prove" that Jesus is God, but, predictably, these miracles left behind no tangible evidence for us to examine and scientifically verify today. They all involved faith healings and magic tricks.
Jesus is resurrected, but, predictably, he does not appear to anyone today.
Jesus ascended into heaven and answers our prayers, but, predictably, when we pray to him nothing happens. We can statistically analyse prayer and find that prayers are never answered.
The book where Matthew, Mark, Luke and John make their attestations does exist, but, predictably, it is chock full of problems and contradictions.
And so on.
In other words, the Christian story is a fairly tale, just like the other
Story santa.

Redmosquito:
I discovered the physics of the atom and then hiroshima was destroyed 2 years later and you say I was not responsible! Whether I meant good or bad, I do hold some level of responsibilty

Sir, this argument does not really follow. If we are to go by your thought process then we could say the individual who made the first vehicle is responsible for the accidents on our roads. And really, the way someone choose to manipulate religion and the choice of the individual to agree to be manipulated cannot be blamed on religion. However, the way someone choose to manipulate religion does not have a direct bearing on whether Nigeria would move forward or not if religion was banned.