sauer:
incredibly ludicrous!

Goldieluks:

I don't expect you to agree with the above as it is. Your eyes is
wide open, but your mind and heart is spiritually blind.
May God touch you and change your mind set.

sauer:
now, that one actually got me cracking.
If only you could find reasons for being a Christian outside of parental influences, I just may believe you. But then, am sure you can't.

Logic Mind:

Haha.
I believe a Mr Intelligence would do you a lot of good.

sauer:
There are millions of atheists who don't believe any damn thing and just live their lives like it has an end to it!

Goldieluks:


"Train up a child in the way he should go, so that when he's old he/she
will not depart from it"(focusing on a child brought up in a christain home) You should know that every parent influences their
children in different ways. But when these children becomes adult, it is either
they choose the ways which they think/feel they have been missing,or they stick to
the old natural ways they learnt from their parents/parental figure,but then not depriving themselves
from knowing right from wrong obviously.

queensmith:

I don't think most here actually know what an atheist is, thats probably what scares them soo much.

Goldieluks:

I don't expect you to agree with the above as it is. Your eyes is
wide open, but your mind and heart is spiritually blind.
May God touch you and change your mind set.

shymmex:

When I said "voodoo" - I meant the sacrifices involved in some African spirituality.. IFA philosophy doesn't deal with sacrifices, and rituals - it's just higher learning about creation, and how to connect to the supreme being directly - it's similar to metaphysics and religion (without the allegories, remixes, and the boogeymen involved in religion). It's a direct connection... I'm still learning about it, and hopefully, I will be able to learn more when I visit ile-ife sometime next year.

That was a typo. I believe God definitely has to be a woman (or feminine) because the first creation definitely has to be a woman - and since we were created in his image.

sauer: What do you seek to achieve when you say god is a man or a woman, or when you try to stay within the limits logic affords you and claim god has no sex?

queensmith:

Thats a very very good question, was talking about this yesterday. In one of Karl Marx's books (or the other dude i forget) he talks about how in Africa god was was an overweight woman. When the europeans travelled through africa and noticed this they felt insulted and before you know it god now looks like a french whitehaired man. It's weird. I remember thinking that casting morgan freeman as 'god' in the movie bruce almighty was weird, and it's obvious to me now that that was the whole point.
Why is god envisioned as a european white man instead of a black woman? Since the middle class white man is at the top of the social hierarchical scale it's very possible that the whole idea of god is just an imaginative form of our real lives. An exaggeration of current realities. The book was pretty interesting!

Goldieluks:


So what you are saying in a nut shell is that, you don't believe in the existence of God,
because you read a karl Marx book?

cowgurl: Amen to that prayer. @ Sauer, how long have you been this way and why?

emöfine2:
By the way Shymmex, are you learning Ifa from the exterior or are you also practicing it whilst you learn? Do you find it to be on a similar philosophical axis as Ancient Greek theology? (I have my reasons for asking)

emöfine2: Extremes exist in every society; so if theism existed so would have atheism even agnosticism and so on etc...the titles or description may have been different in relation to the society/culture at the time. Atheists (in the west) were relatively silent prior to 9/11 so I can only imagine how silent or private African atheists are concerning their unbelief in a traditionally spiritually steeped continent. We really shouldn't be crediting the Europeans for everything now...Christianity included.

For the sake of our fellow Africans on the North Eastern tip of the continent whose history intersected with Christianity long before many Europeans adhered to the faith and the first European missionaries on the continent I consider it a disservice to them to donate the larger Christian body to the Europeans...our history with Christianity may not resemble other Africans history with the faith.

sauer:
Frankly, I don't think I've "been in any [this] way". I'd like to believe I just express normal thoughts here. I often wonder why so-called Christians, especially the ones in Africa, have not bothered to question a religion purposefully handed to them by missionaries who took a boat and set sail for the west African coast. They might as well have arrived in Nigeria by accident, for all we know. And isn't it obvious all they employed for their conversion duties were simply perseverance and conviction? These which by themselves prove nothing of the truth of their "good news". Smh!

I'd be very concerned if I were a christian. Why should I take church or any sweet-talking pastor seriously?

cowgurl:

Because I connect with it.
Won't it be insane of me to question that?



From my understanding of the scriptures, the building or the pastor isn't the church, WE ARE! That's the mistakes most of us make.

cowgurl: To me, the Bible is just like every other book I read, I take what aplies to me and can't question what doesn't even though I have questions.

Goldieluks:




That is where you go wrong dear. People think that intelligence attained from
vast knowledge of studying human theories, makes them a complete being.
But that is not always the case,because the type of intelligence we humans should be aiming
at, is that of understanding and knowing the Bible at our finger tips, because on the
day of judgement God will not be interested in your worldy knowledge, by asking (my son/daughter
how many chapters of karl max's/sigmund freud/mark johnson's book did you study.

Focus would be on how you understood the Bible and applied it to your everyday life.

sauer:
I've read this and your subsequent comments on atheism. To me, you'd appear not so knowledgeable on atheism and stuff. No, not all atheists believe in the big b.ang. Plus, atheism was certainly not derived from any Egyptian god combination. Some atheists are in fact totally opposed to any form of religious representations whatsoever; it never makes any sense nor solve any problems. There might have indeed been a couple of atheists among the earliest Egyptians, but one can be rest assured their beliefs never stemmed from any cosmological nonsense. If it did, then they won't be atheists, but mere religionists of some other form.

sauer:
There are millions of atheists who don't believe any damn thing and just live their lives like it has an end to it!

Goldieluks:
That is where you go wrong dear. People think that intelligence attained from
vast knowledge of studying human theories, makes them a complete being.
But that is not always the case,because the type of intelligence we humans should be aiming
at, is that of understanding and knowing the Bible at our finger tips, because on the
day of judgement God will not be interested in your worldy knowledge, by asking (my son/daughter
how many chapters of karl max's/sigmund freud/mark johnson's book did you study.

Focus would be on how you understood the Bible and applied it to your everyday life.

queensmith:
I don't think most here actually know what an atheist is, thats probably what scares them soo much.

shymmex:

Do atheists also believe in death?

Logic Mind:

Why would any sane person want to marry a woman like this?

shymmex:

Atheism is the absolute denial of the existence of God or any other gods - and if that's the case, there shouldn't be a situation where some believe in big b.ang, and others don't.. It shows that atheist don't really know what they want... Just like Christianity is about the believe in Jesus Christ - and any 'Christian' who doesn't believe in Jesus shouldn't be called a Christian..

Personally, I think atheists are confused lots. If you don't believe in the existence of a God - then you should be able explain how you got to this planet, and how the universe, and the solar system was created.. And any alternative answer you provide is definitely your 'belief system' - which makes it your religion, period..

shymmex:

Do atheists also believe in death?

emöfine2:
I understood what you were implying...it’s just unfortunate...very unfortunate...that an African traditional practice (vodun) has been reduced to a byword for malpractices and other negative connotations and used to summarize (thereby demonizing) other beliefs on the continent including vodun.

Sure there were some extremely deplorable beliefs and practices (as were around the world) but that should not render whole systems as rotten especially considering the background and trajectory of the imported non-innocent faiths they were substituted for. Moreover many including vodun were not even given a fair assessment before premature conclusions were made and such misconception still persists.

By the way Shymmex, are you learning Ifa from the exterior or are you also practicing it whilst you learn? Do you find it to be on a similar philosophical axis as Ancient Greek theology? (I have my reasons for asking)

Another typo?

emöfine2:

Very interesting...do you recall the title of the book?



Is that difficult to fathom?....would it seem so absurd?...although I doubt that was what she was implying.

However on the flip-side some people believe in the existence of “God” because they read a book...the bible. So if indeed queensmith went about it the other way it’s no different to those who discovered their faith through the pages of a book.

P.S. Goldie don’t bite my head off *runs*

michelin89:
You don't understand that atheists are very individualistic. just because they fall under the same name doesn't make all of them the same. just like christianity has many subgroups, atheism has sub-individuals. they just live their lives on their own. very reserved and self-business minding set of people.

Goldieluks:


If praying does not solve your problems, what does?
It is a two way thing my dear, it is either one believe in God or the devil.
You have to choose one.

shymmex:

Stop dyckriding people on a thread, you simpleton... Do you know what an atheist is?

The same girl who's getting excited about reading a Karl Marx book, I read when I was in college - is out here chatting crap as if she knows a damn thing about what she's talking about...

Your problem is that you're confused, and you're looking for a place you can attach yourself to... Learn to listen when people who have survived your present predicament talk.

Nothing scares me about atheism - I just don't like people living in denial, period.

sauer:
That again is not very fair to knowledge. When people (and most Nigerians I know) hear the word "atheist", their mind just takes flight. What comes to their imagination is better left unsaid

shymmex:

But no matter how individualistic they're, atleast they should be able to explain how they got to this planet - and have some explanation for the existence of life, the universe, and the solar system.. Whatever it's their answer to me, is basically what they believe in..

sauer:
I find no sense in your argument that one's explanation of how one got to this universe serves as basis for one's religion. It doesn't hold water. And you should quit thinking that atheists must have an explanation for how the world all started. There are scientists who are attempting to explain this, some who feel this has been answered and there are people as well who believe such questions are beyond our present understanding. Whatever the case, it's not binding on atheists to explain the world's origin. They could very well care less about that. Oftentimes, what's of paramount importance to them is ensuring that the world is not stuck in thoughts about is past and origins, but instead move forward towards solving its problems and making living better for its inhabitants.