I've been following this trend with keen interest the rate at which young Christians are converting to atheists in Nigeria. Were they not brought up well in the way Christianity or what?

Where did you get your statistic from?

@maasoap Does your post imply that this trend is a bad thing?

ezet:

Where did you get your statistic from?

Good question !!

.

I've noticed it too. And to be very honest I'm also on the verge of losing 'faith'. I wouldn't want to go into the tiny contextual details. Guess you can ascribe the phenomenon to the corrupting influence of exposure, enlightenment, and materialism.

Please can you just mind your religion?

This is a curse to Atheism and like wisely cursing other people's religion.

It's like saying, why are Christians becoming Atheists?

Leave everyone to his/her thoughts, don't change them.

Christians brainwashed everyone when they're children, so when they grow up they won't have to think.

Also, Christians bring a Book and tell us many stories in it.

But Atheism will prove to you why this is this and this is not.

You can tell me Jesus exist because the Bible says so, right?

Now, can you prove to me he truly exist?

pro01:

I've noticed it too. And to be very honest I'm also on the verge of losing 'faith'. I wouldn't want to go into the tiny contextual details. Guess you can ascribe the phenomenon to the corrupting influence of exposure, enlightenment, and materialism.

If you lose your faith for the above , knowingly so, it means you made an informed choice to accept vice over virtue.

[size=13pt]"Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold," - Matthew 24 : 12
[/size]

Thank you very much for this question. My statistics is small but on this nairaland, if you have been following those who claim to be atheists, you wouldn't think twice before you would conclude that this one was used to be Christian before.

^


But you cannot base your stats on 5 atheist trolls on this forum 


However like I said earlier it was prophesied that in the last days because evil will abound the love of many will wax cold.

It is because most christians are protestants and anglicans which literally condones new idelogies even though they are not Godly (e.g the encouragement of  lesbianism etc) thats why most english people don't see the point in wasting their time in becoming christians if they can do what ever they want.

Note
The english wanted freedom in religion thats why they protested against the teaching of the pope (catholic) and formed their own version which is called PROSTESTANT so thats why we have what is called the new testament bible and the old testament was left for the pope to read.

Because christianity cannot stand the test of time.Christianity lacks all forms of logic and God is not the author of confusion.

folarin22:

Please can you just mind your religion?

This is a curse to Atheism and like wisely cursing other people's religion.

It's like saying, why are Christians becoming Atheists?

Leave everyone to his/her thoughts, don't change them.

Christians brainwashed everyone when they're children, so when they grow up they won't have to think.

Also, Christians bring a Book and tell us many stories in it.

But Atheism will prove to you why this is this and this is not.

You can tell me Jesus exist because the Bible says so, right?

Now, can you prove to me he truly exist?

makes no single sense  , contradictory  

OP, I don't know how true your assertion is. If it is true;

It's because the period we are in in human history is all about Skepticism, Science and finding reason.

Those three don't work so well with faith/Christianity.

21st century Christians (that aren't well grounded) often find it hard to joggle the four.

I guess it's easier for us/them to "choose the easy way out"; being an atheist.

How about the wonderful examples Nigerian pastors are showing. Come to church, we will take the little money you have and you wait for God to butter your bread. or by other pastors, its ok to be a lesbian and be gay. or its ok to molest young children in the church, or its ok to sit the most wealthy in front of the church because they contribute more to the church bank account. how about your church pastor asking members to contribute $4000 each towards his birthday celebration or asking you how much you have contributed into thyths when you ask to speak with him concerning personal issues, Need I go on. I have been disillusioned by our so called men of God, But I hold on to my faith because of my own personal relationship with God and trust me its not easy sometimes when there are so much unfairness going on in the world

Because they are beginning to think for themselves.

I'm living in the united states so i cannot speak on Nigeria but if this is true I can believe it.

From my perspective there are three main reasons why this has become a phenomenon world wide:

1) The hypocrisy and failure to lead by action of religious leaders/parents

2) Science

3) 'Monkey see monkey do' or fad.

Now I won't say the 'MAJORITY' are converting to atheism but rather a great number of the young generation. Even if it is only 10 percent it is in my opinion too high but not for just no reason at all. The first reason I listed above regarding the hypocrisy and failure to lead by example by the leaders and parents is the BIGGEST reason. Most of these young athiest believe it or not used to attend church, synagogues, mosques; etc very often and are children of very religious parents or at least pretenders. These kids are taught the biblical texts and told to do certain things while avoiding others YET they are seeing on CNN and even in their own back yards religious wars. They've seen their parents or adults doing the VERY thing they warned the youths not to do and are victims of - or have personally seen the ills of - the leaders doing bad or 'unGodly' things. This not only confuses them but angers them and they begin to question. They question themselves about the purpose of church or praying and if there even is a God and if so why hasn't he 'struck down' the socalled back sliders? By not seeing this happen they lose faith.

Science comes to play because modern science basically tells us that the beliefs of our ancestors are not only myths but false. Most religions today have their roots in ancient philosophies. From Egypt to Greece, you will find the same stories remixed in every holy text. We went from being polytheistic beings to for the most part monotheistic. Science teaches the youths that the ability to pick and choose the traits and demands of God is proof that he is a figment of our imagination and questions why hasn't he shown his physical self. A lot of kids who have lack of appreciation for life or nature (and therefore cannot appreciate the signs of God's glory upon realizing their parents and leaders are hypocrites) take to these misleading teachings of science. This is why most athiests are now using The theory of Evolution as their religion and Charles Darwin as their Jesus.  

The 'Monkey see Monkey do' element is closely related to the science aspect and comes in because a lot of atheists are VERY articulate and skilled in converting people to their nonbelief. I will give that to them. Some of the 'monkies' are people who actually believe in God but have questions. These folks may pray to God for vanities or genuine things but due to lack of patience and strong faith choose to listen to man rather than read the signs. These people are confused and believe that tagging along will somehow sadden or anger God into doing things their way to win him over lol. (As if he has anything to prove to us  ) Now imagine this kind of person or their 'converter' having access to television and networking programs (esp. the internet). You can see why this sad movement is gaining momentum.

Ultimately I blame the established religions and their socalled followers. Instead of arguing about God's features or lack there of much less his name, they ought to be living by the scriptures instead of confusing these poor children and leading them astray. I only feel sorry for the atheists, i harbor no hatred or ill feelings for them as I know they are rebelling.

The absolute truth is this , many pastors were not called by God, they actually called themselves. Many do not actually understand the way God works and yet they say they are leading people to Christ. The day such followers start thinking for himself you should know what the result will be. Those followers that stick with men of God(ordained and called by God) hardly leave the religion. To me I don't have problem with the Atheist  they are being factual and real, if you are able to convince them enough that Jesus is for real they will return back to the religion, but this is where the problem lies,  how do you convince a man who had once gone to church and saw that instead of the church being a non-profit organisation it had become a huge business venture when some of the pastors are being investigated for money laundering.

My main point is this true men of God should go after people who once served their God as Jesus illustrated this in the parable of the lost sheep.

pro01:

I've noticed it too. And to be very honest I'm also on the verge of losing 'faith'. I wouldn't want to go into the tiny contextual details. Guess you can ascribe the phenomenon to the corrupting influence of exposure, enlightenment, and materialism.

It's because they lack proper mentors and are expecting some kind of big sign.

The absolute truth is this , many pastors were not called by God, they actually called themselves. Many do not actually understand the way God works and yet they say they are leading people to Christ. The day such followers start thinking for himself you should know what the result will be. Those followers that stick with men of God(ordained and called by God) hardly leave the religion. To me I don't have problem with the Atheist  they are being factual and real, if you are able to convince them enough that Jesus is for real they will return back to the religion, but this is where the problem lies,  how do you convince a man who had once gone to church and saw that instead of the church being a non-profit organisation it had become a huge business venture when some of the pastors are being investigated for money laundering.

Maybe true to a small extent, but you are actually taking away the factor of responsibility on the part of church members and so called former christians.

While many are deceived , the truth is , if they ever read the bible and studied it properly rather than listen to ordinary men, maybe we will be in a diferent situation today.

Most who are deceived are deceived because they choose to be , period !!!

"For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear."-2 Timothy 4:3

They say to the seers, "See no more visions!" and to the prophets, "Give us no more visions of what is right!Tell us pleasant things, prophesy illusions. - Isaiah 30:10

But the innocent and naively misled are the ones we should be wooing and prayerfully bringing back to the fold.

Atheist goes like this.

What is religion? A belief system in the "super natural being".

Who is the super natural being ? It could be an alien in outer space you know.

And the logical reasoning continues,

*facepalm*

It is so becos there are freedom of worship in Christianity while there is no freedom of worship in Islam(i.e Shariah Law) once there is freedom of worship in Islam you wil see Muslims doing the same.

MsDarkSkin:


The 'Monkey see Monkey do' element is closely related to the science aspect and comes in because a lot of atheists are VERY articulate and skilled in converting people to their nonbelief. I will give that to them.
Now imagine this kind of person or their 'converter' having access to television and networking programs (esp. the internet). You can see why this sad movement is gaining momentum.

The irony of this as it relates to Christian evangelism has me feeling sorry for you, after all it was this same "Monkey see Monkey do" that made you a Christian.

Torch1:

It is so becos there are freedom of worship in Christianity while there is no freedom of worship in Islam(i.e Shariah Law) once there is freedom of worship in Islam you wil see Muslims doing the same.

In Christianity, you are allow to question all you want without repercussions and most Christians are very laid back with their religion.

logica:

The irony of this as it relates to Christian evangelism has me feeling sorry for you, after all it was this same "Monkey see Monkey do" that made you a Christian.

the REAL irony is that i, MsDarkSkin, am NOT a christian.

[size=38pt] FAIL! [/size] 

I, like atheists, believe religion to be misleading and irrelevant (i've got my personal beefs with Christianity especially) HOWEVER, I [proudly] do believe in God. 

MsDarkSkin:

HOWEVER, I proudly do believe in God.

Sorry about the assumption. So can you expound on the above? This, "proudly believe in God" thing.

well what I mean is I believe in God.
I am not ashamed of it. In fact I would wear a t-shirt for a whole year
confessing my love for the Creator!   

I just don't think I need to be a 'religi-tard' to love him (or her  ).
I don't need to belong to a CULT  to give God thanks and praises;
nor would I join one (a cult) to disregard God ).

that is what I mean.

Interesting. So how do you go about giving thanks and praises? What doctrine describes the God you believe it? Where is this God located? Does he speak to you? I need more information if you don't mind.

lol one does not need to wear a sari, bear a cross or wear a yamaka or what have you to praise God.
I talk on the inside. I "bless" my food in what is known as prayer. I don't close my eyes, get on my knees
with my hands clasped together. I walk around, drive, and even sleep  talking to God. I get the responses
based on the happenings in my life and daily.

For example, if I were to ask God to please bless me with the strength and courage throughout the day
to face difficult people it MAY or may not happen the way I want to but it happens. If I were to have a
negative run in with someone later on in that day, I will usually find myself on the 'calm side'.  A bit annoyed but not bitter. I see that as blessing. A sign that I am heard. I believe God also sends people to pass his message.
Words of encouragement, advice; etc.

No doctrines, no scriptures (although I have read and found some truths in the Qu'ran and Bible), no traditional
garbs are needed to describe or prove the existence of my God. Just every day life and seeing the good AND bad is all I need. Learning lessons throughout life and seeing that no matter how bad it gets it will ALWAYS get better is all I need. The natural resilience that most people recognize and appreciate even after suffering is proof that God is great. Living in the region in America that I do and being able to see all four seasons, and their beauty is proof that God is great. I can go on but I don't need to as I am not trying to convert. I just know that God is in my heart and soul.

OK. I can surmise you are a religious person going through a metamorphosis as clearly many of your beliefs are religious (especially Christian) and even going by such phrases as "confessing my love for the Creator", "give God thanks and praises", "proof that God is great" and "I just know that God is in my heart and soul" are quite familiarly religious (Christian).

T'care.