₦airaland Forum

Sheikwonder:
November 20, 2016. That marks the last time I sat down to write an opinion piece. Between then and now Trump was sworn in as the 45th president of the United States, Cameroon won the Africa Cup of Nations, Arsenal went from being title favorites to well....being Arsenal...not to mention the shellacking Arsenal received at the hands of Bayern a few weeks back...and...MMM crashed...thus it ever was.

I've been somewhat lethargic this year. Despite 'prophecies' from the 'men of God' promising prosperity as well as the usual claims from politicians that things are 'getting better', the reverse in fact holds true. Garri, yes garri, is now a Veblen good! (You won't get that if you aren't a student of economics)
The other time when I tried to get two sachets of garri with a wrap of groundnut, a small packet of sugar and the ubiquitous 'Cowbell' milk, it cost me 300 naira! 300 g**damn naira! Time was, with 300 naira you could take a girl out on a date and pay her transport fare (ok, admittedly I may have grossly exaggerated things but surely you get my drift). Whoever said recession is just a word should try surviving on my monthly stipend. In all of these there are only 2 real winners. The betting houses who have succeeding in clawing away a sizable chunk of what little we students have and Mr Mavrodi....but what do I know?

Given the above, it's easy to see why I'm lax and mostly unexcited. The silver lining here is that I get to do what I haven't done in ages, namely, write. This brings me to the crux of my piece.

I don't regard myself as a religious person. I generally think that religion has outlived its usefulness although I'd be the first to admit that it has brought its benefits. Religion is to society what Arsenal is to football. Won stuff in time past, play lovely football which is aesthetically pleasing to the eye but as everyone knows will almost never bring in trophies. I am an Arsenal fan sadly, so I'd know. In the same vein, religion has in time past been a unifying force. In the words of Marx:

"Religion is the general theory of this world, its encyclopaedic compendium, its logic in popular form, its spiritual point d'honneur, its enthusiasm, its moral sanction, its solemn complement, and its universal basis of consolation and justification."

Taken at face value, the above quote seems like an argument for religion. Only if you consider the quotes that follow do you get a proper picture of what Marx actually meant:

"The struggle against religion is, therefore, indirectly the struggle against that world whose spiritual aroma is religion. Religious suffering is at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people. The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions. The criticism of religion is, therefore, in embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears of which religion is the halo.”

You see, when Marx made this statement, he made a pithy observation with regards to class struggle. Religion, he said, was the people’s opiate. Opium back then was known for its soothing and soporific effect. When one was tired of the stress of daily life, he could always fall back on this drug for some mild relief. Of course once under the influence of the drug, you are powerless against the happenings around you and become enslaved. Marx was seeking to awaken class consciousness among the masses whom he called the proletariat. They had become completely blindsided by religion for whom it had become an ”illusory happiness” while been subjected to privation. “Work and pray, live on hay, you’ll get your pie in the sky when you die”.


In our world today, religion has indubitably taken center stage. The Pew Research Center estimates that about 84% of the earth’s population have one form of religious affiliation. This is like saying that in every 5 people, 4 are religious. The three major religions, Christianity, Islam and Hinduism alone account for some 4.8 billion adherents. The quest for “God” has surely taken a new meaning!

My major grouse with religion is that it claims to have answers whereas it creates more problems than solutions. I should know as should the average Nigerian. It is a bit difficult to get accurate statistics on religion in Nigeria, but the Pew Forum in 2010 put the statistics at 52% Muslim, 46% Christian and 1% Other. Basically it is correct to say that the average Nigerian is religious.
I could go on to show in what way religion has ‘transformed’ the Nigerian society. I could tell you that we have at every point on our history been led by religious people, either Christian or Muslim. Despite what they hear in the religious houses, our leaders are on average, crooks! This is no sweeping generalization, anyone can see that, Res ipsa loquitor.

The buck doesn’t stop there, it goes all the way down. Over 3 million Nigerians participated in the failed Ponzi scheme known as MMM. It was advertised in churches! A fraudulent scheme which was promoted in the “house of God”. Pastors encouraged their members, some even took from church coffers to invest in the scheme. Avarice in the “house of God”.
Need I mention Islam? Al-Qaeda, Al-Shaabab, Hezbollah, ISIS, and much closer to home, Boko Haram. All terrorist groups that run on Islamist ideologies. Religion has caused more wars in history than any other thing. This is a verifiable fact.

We have heard of different cases where religious buildings collapse due to negligence and people die. Does the government hold the religious leaders culpable? No. They do not want to risk the wrath of their many followers who are valuable given their voting influence. In fact, the same followers will say “Touch not mine anointed…..”. Religion, not the law, reigns supreme.


Every year, we hear prophecies from “men of God”. Apparently “God” revealed the future to them. At the end of the year the disparity between the prophecies and reality are as far apart as east is from west. Yet followers will blindly defend these religious leaders to the death. For every failed “prophecy”, it was “the will of God”. Oh really?
We are told about how people get “healed” at crusades. People with supposedly incurable diseases like cancer and HIV get “spontaneous remissions”. Hallelujah! Yet for every one person who gets a “healing”, there are thousands with common ailments who leave the crusade grounds disappointed. “You need to have more faith” the pastors say. Indeed. Isn’t it rather convenient that “God” only performs “healings” on crusade grounds? He is omnipotent, and omnipresent. Surely with “faith like a mustard seed” one need not go as far as Ogun State to get “healed”. Then again, you must remember that if the “men of God” perform their “miracles” on the streets, the people would have no reason to go to church to pay their offerings and the usual “10%” called tithe.
I will not talk about the irony in giving 10% to “God” while your children cannot afford to attend schools owned by your church. Or the joke in having 5 of the 10 wealthiest pastors in the world coming from Nigeria while 60% of Nigerians live on less than a dollar a day; ”in everything give thanks”.

Our thinking has become completely warped by religion. We select our leaders not based on merit but based on their religion. So we must have a Christian/Muslim ticket for the posts of President and Vice-President respectively. So who is going to represent the minority who do not belong in any of those religions?
At work we see religious bigotry in place. He is Muslim therefore he is not fit for the job. She is Christian therefore I will employ her. We sacrifice effectiveness on the altar of religion. Look how that has turned out for us.


I will take it a step further and engage the controversial subject of sexual orientation. The majority of Nigerians are clearly against homosexuality, not based on any concrete reason stemmed in logic but because it goes against their religious beliefs. It is a good thing that some people are beginning to wake up and realize how atavistic and anachronistic it is to base one’s present beliefs and way of life on “holy books” written hundreds and even thousands of years ago. The same religious books that condemn homosexuality are mute when it comes to the subject of slavery. In fact, many slave owners back then were religious people who based their beliefs on these religious books. You only need to see the movie “12 Years a Slave” to get my point. Fortunately, some people woke up and realized that slavery is barbaric and today it has largely been abolished even though other forms of it such as child labor and human trafficking exist today.

Some will argue that religion is the basis for human law and without it there would be chaos. This is an untruth or as they say now, an alternative fact. People are born with an innate sense of morality which is a concept that exists outside of religion. No one is born “Christian” or “Muslim”, they are born human. Environmental determinism says that our environment to a large extent determines who we are. Thus you are likely to be Hindu if you were born in India and Muslim if you were born in Iran.

Our conscience exists as a moral compass to tell us if we are right or wrong. However our conscience is subjective and can be conditioned such that we no longer feel wrong after repeatedly doing something bad. Now a religious person would argue that this is where religion provides rules of behavior whereby if one falls short he is punished by a higher authority who is in this case, God. Yet this can easily be countered by recalling that even terrorists who have knowledge of what their holy books say still go ahead to commit heinous crimes not in spite of their religion but because of it. Ironic.

So no, we don’t need religion. The French philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau in his social contract theory argues that man being prone to rebellion and wanton desires realizes the need for authority. So he surrenders some of his freedom to a higher authority, the government, who in turn enters a contract with the individual to protect him from his own excesses as well as the excesses of others. The individual must thus obey the law as the law is an expression of the general will. The law having its legitimacy derived from the people is autochthonous and is the standard which all are subjected to. When one person falls short, he must face the music. I do not answer to secondary laws derived from holy books as they are “subjective”. I will not commit murder not because the Bible says “Thou shalt not” but because the law says so. This is one of the problems in our legal system because laws have become subjective; Sharia law in the north and Judeo-Christian laws in the south. How does that even work?

In the end, I hold no grudges against anyone who chooses to follow organized religion. However it becomes an issue when it begins to permeate every sector of life. As Marx says, “Man makes religion, religion does not make man”. For some, the promise of “eternal life” is enough for them. I prefer to live life based on what is, not what will be.

So what is your question

adepeter26:
Am not saying fishes bro. I mean 2 whales, 2 sharks, 2 dolphins.... Do you know how big whales are?? How did he transport them from their habitat to the Ark?

Secondly, concerning the polar bears & penguins, how did they transport themselves??

Hope you are clear with the questions ABI.? (someone asked above, how did the parasites also enter the Ark because if you are a microbiologist, you will understand some are obligate intracellular)....

Whales and shark is their records that they were inside the ark.

Parasites in the Ark.

Hahaahhhaha.

Sorry I will get back please, on a journey, network issue

adepeter26:
I know you won't be able to answer the questions. But guess what? I will give you the benefit of doubt.

I talk am. Engineerboat must pick a fault cos he can't answer it.
Anyways, list down the derogatory statements and insults from the Op

I knew you would never disappoint .

You Only came to Register ya presence and tried derailing by pickin faults

Like i told you ealier on, i will not get engage im abuse with you because of your mindset and choice of language.

But be rest assure.

You read the account in genesis, where was it mentioned that Fishes where put into the ark.

Is the world then like ours today.

Are you telling me we have as many population as then this day.

Are you saying the continent is as many as the 7 as we have today.

adepeter26:
Majority of us must have read how Noah built his Ark and housed all the animals. But somethings about the Noah story doesn't add up and I would need better clarification

My questions now are;
1. How did he get the sharks, dolphins and whales on a ship with no water to live in?
2. how did he get kangroos, koalas and such to come across the seas to the middle east?

Morealso

View these images
https://scontent-lax3-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/fr/cp0/e15/q65/17553932_10155128675353879_8574577072686533767_n.jpg?efg=eyJpIjoiYiJ9&oh=764d49dc0503a446fde0e5d67fa58222&oe=5961F89A
https://scontent-lax3-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t31.0-8/cp0/e15/q65/p720x720/17632392_1357661967653992_8701398458351990478_o.jpg?efg=eyJpIjoiYiJ9&oh=63e4bec22ef29fc81a7de1a3a8ab0081&oe=599768CB

Cc MZlady39, Wilgrea7, felixomor, engineerboat Doctoralien, enshy, Junia, Tosyne2much, Kondomatic, all NL Christians


No bashing or insults Pls

This are good questions, that will be answered.

But the way people throw caution to the wind and start making derogatory statements and remarks is a cause for concern.

When this is put to check, certainly i will get involved in the discussion.

adepeter26:
We all sabi Virgin Mary wella for Bible.

we all knew how she got pregnant via the holy spirit and conceived Jesus. Most defend and believe in this holy spirit like kilode.
Majority of Christians also go as far as shouting "THE POWER OF GOD IS GREAT", "THE POWERFUL GOD" etc....

Now my question to the Devoted Christian Guys and Men on NL and worldwide is:

Many people believe what has been written in the bible.



- Would you ve believed the holy spirit impregnated her knowing fully well that God is still the same god yesterday, today and forever. God is still alive, performing miracles, signs and wonders.?
- Would you Ve questioned the holy spirit since things of the spiritual cannot be understood by mere physical intervention?


And to the Devoted Christian Ladies and Women on NL, Can you just become pregnant via the intervention of the Holy Spirit without any sexual intercourse with a male counterpart


Cc felixomor, 4evergod, enshy, kingebukasblog, Junia, Tosyne2much, Doctoralien, engineerboat, MZlady39
Cc Hahn, obinna58, jonbellion, frank317, kevoh, akintom, Seun, hopefulLandlord, ScepticalPyrrho

Hmmmmm.

Since you have decided to come out this way. Know for sure that i will not join you to discuss on an issue, while you keep dishing out derogatory remarks on God and those you are discussing with

If you want us to have robust diacussion on this issue, derogatory remarks on persons must be out.

When this is done. We will discuss

Nebuchadnezar:
why are you calling my name anyhow?

Hahahahahaha

I never know someone bear that name on Nairaland.

So sorry about that.

I was referring to Nebuchadnezzar in the Bible

Seun:
Scientists have a pretty good explanation about how planets came to exist, in the aftermath of the big bang. If you aren't convinced by their explanation, that would not mean the Bible's account of creation is true. The honest position would be to say that you simply don't know how the earth came into existence. It is ok to say you don't know when you don't know.

What brings about the bang.

Where did the bang comes from.

Its just like saying you dont exist. Or can you describe your conception to delivery the minutes by minutes how it happen

LiberaDeus:
Its people like you that makes christians and religious people generally look stupid.

This is the daftest comment i have read in a long while.

Now i have a challenge for you,
hold your breath for 30 minutes and come back and tell me that God exists.
Christard

Simple comprehension, its now a problem.

I never said anybody would die.

Its you people that's making your conclusion.

adepeter26:
Now, when we say, "employ" maximum of the brain, you will say "no".

Even the stories narrated by ya Jesus in the form of parables, what were they? Weren't they fictional ideas? Did the prodigal son ever existed?


Think, think bro,i say think

Did Jesus walk on water.

Did he open blind eyes

Did Jesus raise up Lazarus

Did he healed the leper

Are those fictions to.


Are you a human being. Do you exist.

By your analogy you don't exist

adepeter26:
I don't know why you hold so much esteem to biblical stories that is full of fictional ideas, casts and characters.

Fictional you say.

That means you are not a human beeing right now. Because somebody told you that you are a human being and you believe that.

But accordinh to your analogy you are not a human, you dont even exist at all. Is that correct.

Now how so you convince me that you are a himan being

highscript:
instead of you to follow that moroniç bible verse that says "If someone slaps you on the right cheek,
offer the left cheek also"
I insulted your father, why can't you describe your mum so as to insult her too.
Omo Jesu ode

Nebuchadnezar also said the same thing to the 3 Hebrew children.

He eat grass till he comes back to his senses

jimmyjenseng:
There's no point having this discuss with you.
I can't waste my time on someone like you.
smh.

I will not descend so low to abuse you, because thats what you are looking for.

But know for sure ighehin ni ye oloku ada.

jimmyjenseng:
How does this relate to the request made?
You claim your god answers your prayer right? And I asked that you pray to your god to heal the amputees where I live and also heal my friend's mother. Is that too much?

Am also telling you how God answer those that did not believe He exist

highscript:
don't make reference to something that happened 3,000 years ago ...talk of what happen few years back, Adolf hitler can represent pharaoh etc

Paul breathing opening his two eyes to ask Christians about who is their.

Am very sure you know how God dealt with him till he come back to ask, he stricken blind "God am so sorry"

Is that the experience that you want

highscript:
don't make reference to something that happened 3,000 years ago ...talk of what happen few years back, Adolf hitler can represent pharaoh etc

Why wont i make reference to it.

Infact Nebuchandnezar said who is that God.

Am sure you know how he end his life, even b4 that am sure you know he was eaten grass like animal until he come back to hia senses that God really exist. Is that what you want

jimmyjenseng:
Also, my friend's mother suffer from quadriplegia. I hate to see her - my friend - soak her pillow with her tears. All she needs right now is a miracle. I would appreciate if you pray to god to heal her mother now.

Pharaoh was once in your situation but because he did nit believe there is God. Pharaoh also said "who is that your God". Am sure you know the end of his life.

adepeter26:
Seems ya comprehension skill is lacking...

Calm down and read this again:

i understand you like KILODE, loud and clear.

just do it please, come back to comments please, do it, please do it to tell God that he does'nt exist

adepeter26:
Back then as a Christian, i use to be scared of death but not anymore.

2) Satan doesn't exist either.
3) I can never, i mean never voluntarily kill myself in my right state of mind.

you directed to a thread.

where you summarized that Satan always rescue those forsaken by God.

SO you dont believe in satan again. then why directing people to that thread.

are you afraid to die, that its just a simple way to who God that he doesn't exist naaaaa

adepeter26:
Your god doesn't exist.

But if you think he exists, then respond to the link i shared above. Visit the link and read its content

I've read its content.

that is why i said hold your breathe for 30 minutes, so that satan can rescue you

adepeter26:
Sorry to say, if this is how you reason, then you are Fvcking daft.....

Bring up constructive argument then we start from there and not this silly point...

I still advice you read more about voluntary and involuntary activities (human physiology)

its a simple practical class, how else do you want to prove that God exist, its just a simple task, hold our breathe for 30 minutes,

You are calling people been daft, hmmmmmm (Let me leave it for another time) i will come back to that later.

But lets carry out this practical illustration, hold your breathe for 30 minutes

highscript:
you that believed he exist and that he's capable of saving you should try it for 20mins..

You ask me what extraordinary thing God Do everyday, so that you can believe.

try it and make a History of the man that break Gods record.


i put it to you try it lets see, and come back here to comment

adepeter26:
You sabi lie oooo. I educated you about seizing of death don't to death, you then increased the timing.... Is that what ya god taught you? To change mouth from 5mins to 30mins?.

Btw, you can't kill yourself by seizing ya breath. Breathing is an involuntary reflex action.

Please educate yourself about THE NERVOUS SYSTEM

Just try it, are you afraid to die, death does not even exist, you will not die, satan will even rescue you, try it lets see

Mementoes:
Oh... please help me beg him to reveal himself to me and I'll dedicate my self to his service, since he answers your own prayers.

its in your hand, a child will be willing by spreading forward his two arms to his father.

Call unto Him for mercy and pardon, see How God will answer your prayer speedily

highscript:
tell your God to do it . How is holding breath a test for the existence of God ??

Just try it, shebi God doesn't exist by your analogy, try and hold your breathe for 30 minutes

ScepticalPyrrho:
Smh

its very simple naaa, hold your breathe for just 30 minutes and come back to comment

adepeter26:
And that's the foolishness in theism....

First, you can never kill yourself by seizing ya breath.
Second, death might only occurs when you seize ya breath for 10minutes and above. (HUMAN PHYSIOLOGical studies)

can you hold your breathe for 30 munites, try it now and come back here to comments

adepeter26:
God doesn't exist. And if he does, please respond to this link then I will proof to you he doesn't.

https://www.nairaland.com/3702503/theists-list-evils-committed-lucifer

i said hold your breathe for 30 munites and dont breathe in, satan will be glad to welcome you

highscript:
who created God's environment?? Its impossible for God to exist before his environment.....

Can you ask your Mummy how the fertilization that gave birth to you happen, let her describe how the whole process start, the way the ovum look like during your pregnancy to your delivery

ScepticalPyrrho:
Prove it.

Hold your breath for 5 munites and come back here to tell me your experience

Mementoes:
Please expatiate. In what ways do we see extraordinary happenings everyday that can only be a miracle?

1. You slept in the night and wake up in the morning, is it in your power

highscript:
he's invisible,to show you he's powerful he doesn't answer requests,he have trillions but to show you how loaded he is financially he won't give you a kobo ..

fallacy.

1. He answers my prayer whenever i call on Him because He's a prayer answer GOD
2. He provides for my needs, in ABUNDANCE.

ScepticalPyrrho:
You might have been deceived.

I'm sure you don't know anything about any god.

any god you say.

but be it known unto you that i know GOD in its fullest