Blame not the clergy but the average religious nigerian who takes pride in being dumbed down by religions and their doctrines.

What should we expect from a nation full of people who have absolutely no belief in their own ability to build a functioning and prosperous civilization?

The white supremacists/racists of old were correct about us when they accused us of being feebleminded and incapable of creating and maintaining functioning civilizations without external assistance.We cannot stand on our own to live our lives successfully without the need for crutches.And those crutches are religious beliefs in whatever form or guise, and,boy, do we have them right up our behind!How so so embarrassing for us to have proven these despicable white supremacists right.

The clergies are the reflections of our failings.They see that we need crutches and they merrily provide them to us,  making a nice living doing it.They are there to remind us what a failure we are both as a people and as a race. When is the next miracle show? Absolutely embarrassing.

Yes, the saviour can't come soon enough to save us from choking on the suffocating stench of our failings.You all pray hard . . .

^^

ROTFLMAO. . .

Until they come to realization that REASONING is a better bargain than 'faith/believing' they need not to be pitied. Show no mercy to fools

And to say one of them was awarded the list of the 50 MOST INFLUENCIAL MEN ON EARTH yet in a terrorist nation is something one should weep about.

Not to talk about the Jet merchant whose cathedral ranks the BIGGEST ON EARTH. Yet all they do is talk big things and pour oil as though we were asking for one to fry dodo

I wish i could find some humour in this rut we are in,mazaye, but i can't.This is killing us.Believing in God has not and will not solve our problems, but dig us deeper into the very depth of them.Only real deep belief in OURSELVES to make the difference will do the trick.

This is why religions and their doctrines of doom are so dangerously toxic to the human psyche.They make denigrading ourselves a virtue and not the vice that it really is.

Do you remember the christian song, "Amazing Grace"? That song even makes unconscious people call themselves "WRETCHES" via it's lyrics.

We really need to wake up and outgrow this mind virus while there is still time.Atleast to prove to those white supremacists that they are not right afterall.Our dismal situation is becoming more and more embarrassing by the day.It is really pathetic.

I remember the last time pope John Paul came to nigeria which i saw shown live on TV, and i saw a multitude of nigerian religious idiots falling over themselves to touch this man's papal frock for the hope of some kind of blessing!I wanted the ground to open up and swallow me up as i looked on with unbearable shame. . .
I  for my race.We've been hit real bad.

mazaje:

^^

ROTFLMAO. . .

^^

We really have been hit REAL hard. . . . .

Tonye-t, what are you doing here? Dont tell me You're off-duty today you abandoned your cohorts in your favorite thread. I dont think they will be happy with you

Tonye-t:

Mr.J,

Believing in One's God-given potential is not wrong, Believing and putting this potentials to work is also another thing not yet wrong. Everyone knows their potentials and this with its limits. That's not the issue at hand.

Believe me, tonye-t, that is exactly what the issue is.The problem here is that we have been so programmed not to know our God-given potentials, what the limitations are, and how to utilise them to their fullest potential.We're so thoroughly programmed that we have to always look outside of ourselves for doing the smallest of things that are meant to serve US!Why?Because we have been made to believe that we cannot provide for ourselves that which we need to make us happy and whole.We are always looking up to someone or something above us(e.g. to some god or to the white race) to get what we should and could provide for ourselves, anybody else but ourselves.

The fact that we don't even know this for a fact is the end result of the programming regime that is well orchestrated and executed via religious doctrines.If you don't believe me, the next time you go to service, pay more attention at what is being preached from the pulpit and what the lyrics of the hymns are telling you.

Tonye-t:

Mr.J,
All Humans are by nature religious beings whether you like it or not, ask me how? When you were born, you did so thru' a family, whose conducts you were obliged to keep. This submission molded the very essence of your matured and supposed responsible being in a way or more whether you accept this fact or not makes no difference.

If this is true, how then could there be civilizations free of religion . . . like the scandinavians for example.I do not agree with this postulation of yours.

Tonye-t:

Mr.J,
Howbeit now you are grown, you choose not to conform to some of the ethos as was taught you if not all together. Hence you're looking out for people and friends who share the same belief system and ideas as you with a code of conduct consciously or unconsciously. Now this to me is religion with a sect as grammatical prefix . So the idea of a wading off religion for nations building should not come near. else i'll scream hypocrisy!  

If i outgrow a religious doctrine that seeks to degrade me as a human being and stop me from recognizing my full potential and i rid myself of it, and i look to find and associate with likeminded people, then it does a whole lot for the issue of nation building because only such people can help build a nation to it's fullest glory.
Yes, it has everything to do with nation building, and there is nothing hypocritical with shedding the mind virus called religion and networking with people who are also free of such virus.People who are patriotic and willing to exploit their full potential for the benefit of their motherland are always a great asset to any nation.

Tonye-t:

Mr.J,

What we all want to know is How do you feel we all should address the issues our figure heads neglected either for fear of death or stu.pidity the tag "merchants of cowardice"Thanks

Each one of us should ask ourselves how we are contributing into the perpetuation of the stagnation in which our nation finds itself.It is no use pointing blaming fingers at others and extricating ourselves from the collective blame or responsibilities.We are all in this together and we are all doing it together.

We are what we believe and our collective beliefs create our collective reality.Unfortunately,at the present moment, our collective reality is the abysmal situation in which our dear nation is in and we are all to blame, so we need to change that.

Victim mentality(which is the psychological state we are in right now) always create victim circumstances, which,in this case, is a very badly run nation.Religions have been an incredibly effective tool in installing, running and maintaining this "victim mentality" programme that is running inside our heads righ now and we need to uninstall, get rid of the old programme and install new and better one.There is no other way.

jagunlabi:

The fact that we don't even know this for a fact is the end result of the programming regime that is well orchestrated and executed via religious doctrines.If you don't believe me, the next time you go to service, pay more attention at what is being preached from the pulpit and what the lyrics of the hymns are telling you.
If this is true, how then could there be civilizations free of religion . . . like the scandinavians for example.I do not agree with this postulation of yours.

[size=20pt]Secondly [/size]

Is it that you dont believe that every human on this earth is a RELIGIOUS ENTITY? Religious entity in the sense that you pledge an allegiance to a conduct called CONDUCT, TRADITION, LIVING either consciously or otherwise.

Take this or leave it - YOUR COLOR AS A BLACK MAN FROM BIRTH AUTOMATICALLY KEEPS YOU AS CLASSEFIATIONE DE' BLACK meaning He is born to think like the black except for any human alteration by omission or commission. Quote me![/color]

jagunlabi:

If i outgrow a religious doctrine that seeks to degrade me as a human being and stop me from recognizing my full potential and i rid myself of it, and i look to find and associate with likeminded people, then it does a whole lot for the issue of nation building because only such people can help build a nation to it's fullest glory

[color=#000099]So what would you call this new gathering of likeminded people. Just a straight answer will do! Also if you outgrow One religion then congrates because you've just been graduated to a HIGHER RELIGION. How does that feel. Religion is part of you and you are part of Religion. Deal with it.Bro!

Tonye-t:



[size=20pt]first[/size]

J,

1. I still dont think you get it! First of all i m glad you've acknowledged the fact that the potentials are GOD-GIVEN and STILL YET WITH LIMITATIONS. And that's exactly where a teacher or someone deemed as higher to help is brought in which is where teachers like our clergies come in.

Don't get me wrong, when i say, GOD-GIVEN right, the GOD i am referring to is NOT the biblical entity bandied by christians as the creator.To me, HE IS NOT.You and i are not on the same page if you think that that is the same entity i referred to as God, just to clear that one up, first and foremost.

The human limitations are there because we are evolving beings, meaning that these limitations are also part of that evolutionary flux.Everything in the universe is in a ceaseless and relentless evolutionary flux.Meaning that these human limitations are supposed to be continually pushed further and further apart, expanding the borders of these limitations to allow us to grow more and more in spirit, mentally, physically and intellectually. 

What the clergies end up doing is to work against the evolutionary impulse of the universe by trying to put a stop to that evolutionary spiritual growth and expansion of human capabilities by keeping a lid on our limitations or at worst, contracting them wherever possible.Clergies are supposed to expand us not contract or stop us entirely, something which the clergies have ben doing to mankind for millenia.

Present day clergies are no teachers because they have nothing to give mankind.They are not trained for that purpose.Their main function is to keep a lid on our spiritual evolution and by so doing dumb us down into non-thinking automatons and spiritual and intellectual morons.That is what they were and are still being trained for.

Clergies as teachers?NO, THEY ARE NOT.

I think the gullible masses are to be blamed. Like jagunlabi rightly said, the clergies recognise the need of the masses to hold on to something and hence exploit that for personal gains such as power and wealth. To say clergies should be blamed for Nigeria's problems is quite overrating them in my opinion because they are not our caretakers,just hypnotists.
We rely too much on religion and we seem to be sinking fast. Pat Robertson said haiti's pact with the deveil caused the earthquake and as if that was not crazy enough, we have Nigerians here on nairaland supporting that claim, c'mon!
If we purge ourselves of this mental slavery and take charge of our lives, things will begin to fall into place. The G.O.s/bishops etc will gradually go into extinction cos if there are no buyers naturally there will be no sellers.