₦airaland Forum

Excellent article by Mr. Aribisala. However, OP should learn to post things in the appropriate section. This, I think belongs to Politics not Religion.

Also, whenever you copy and paste somebody else's writing, its best to put it in a quotation box so people don't think you're plagiarizing.

F00028: you need glasses ni?

mtcheeew! all you negroes at the bottom of the evolution chain think you are more darwin than darwin.

the title says "FAVOURED RACES"

And you can think you can understand the entire book just by looking the title? That must have been what you were doing throughout secondary school then. It explains why you're so dull.

F00028: and guess what:

In his next book, The Descent of Man (1871), Darwin ranked races in terms of what he believed was their nearness and likeness to gorillas. Then he went on to propose the extermination of races he "scientifically" defined as inferior. If this were not done, he claimed, those races, with much higher birthrates than "superior" races, would exhaust the resources needed for the survival of better people, eventually dragging down all civilization

This is a bare faced lie! It amazes me how you religious people can claim holiness one minute and bear false witness against a dead man the next. Talk aabout a forked tongue!

The truth is that Darwin was about the least racist person on earth while he was alive. He spent months living with and befriending "savages" from an island tribe and he reported that they were no less intelligent than the average white person. He aargued that the differences in aappearance between races were all superficial and the differences in behavior merely cultural. He debunked the belief (widely held by creationists at the time) that Africans were a separate species, more closely related to apes.

It's funny that modern-day creationists are ascribing to Darwin the racist beliefs of olden day creationists. You guys are all a bunch of liars and ignoramuses. Shame!!!

Tayeni: We need more of his kind here in niaja...superstition and tribalism is killing d black race.........RIP

The best we have is Leo Igwe.

He's the founder of the Nigerian Humanist Movement and has done good work in rescuing children accused of witchcraft from their crazy, abusive parents. He has also been beaten, threatened and arrested several times for his work. A few years ago some thugs broke into his house and beat up his father so badly that he lost an eye.

He doesn't get anywhere near the recognition as he deserves.

Chinwem: The death , burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ fulfilled no less than 29 different Old Testament prophesies . You can trust your bible, it's true.

No it ain't.

What actually happened is that the people who wrote the new testament had read the old testament so they arranged their stories so that they matched. This should be obvious to anyone who hasn't been indoctrinated and brainwashed into believing Christian dogma without question.

Edit: I had no idea Nairaland had so many gays! This is actually pretty encouraging. I'm not gay BTW, before you guys start attacking me. However, I do support equal rights for all people, gays inclusive.

If you seriously want to criticize men like Darwin or Dawkins, I suggest you at least read their writings themselves rather than blindly accepting the mangled, misunderstood, strawman versions that religious clerics like to litter the internet with. Here are a few links to their books.

The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex by Charles Darwin
On the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection by Charles Darwin
The Blind Watchmaker by Richard Dawkins
The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins

NB the last 2 are torrent links to pirated versions since Dawkins' books are copyrighted. You can search for and buy them on Amazon if you're feeling like a virtuous Muslim.

Pure ignorance.

You copy/paste the rantings of some butthurt muslim fanatic without even bothering to find out first hand what Dawkins actually said. You highlight the full title of Darwin's book while completely failing to comprehend its meaning. (I don't know why its so hard for you people to realize that you can only learn about science from a scientist and not from a religious cleric).

FYI, Dawkins has never said anything remotely racist, criticizes religion in general and has spent far more time attacking Christianity than he has Islam. If you want to convince people like him to stop criticizing your religion, maybe you should start by convincing your brothers to stop blowing innocent people up every 5 minutes.

Ubenedictus: actually italo is right, at the time of galileo, galileo's thesis was consider a hypothesis, it wasn't yet proven

Except that Galileo built a telescope which he used to observe the planet Jupiter and its moons and prove (as far as it was possible back then) that the earth was not the centre of the solar system. The church made no attempt to disprove his findings or proffer a better theory. They just imprisoned him and told him he was going to be tortured and killed unless he recanted. Go and read a little before you post nonsense.

galileos original thesis had to be modified since much parts didn't hold.

Of course they had to be modified, he made his observations in 1610!!! Do you really expect him to have discovered the final answer to life, the universe and everything in 1610?!? You religious people say the daftest things sometimes.

FYI no scientific theory needs to be 100% accurate. Newton's wasn't, Einstein's isn't. All a theory needs is to be closer to the truth than what it's replacing. Galileo's was far better than the bronze age bullshiat the church was promoting at the time.

It would interest you to note that the works of galileo in question were simply and advancement of another mans thesis.

No sh;t Sherlock!

Do a research on d topic in question.

Maybe you should take your own advice?

Ubenedictus: you have very little knowledge of the topics you dabbled into. Ignorance is a disease!

On the matter of the church's other crimes against humanity over the millenia, maybe you should drop the silly ad hominems and prove me wrong.

I already know you can't, but I'd like to see you try just for the lols.



Edit: I added a link since I know you are stubborn and you love to argue blindly

An anti-superstition campaigner and medical doctor has been assassinated by unknown gunmen in India just days before after his anti-superstition and black magic law was accepted to be tabled before parliament.

From indiatoday.in

Narendra Dabholkar, a well-known rationalist pushing for a law against superstition in Maharashtra, was shot dead outside a temple in Pune on Tuesday morning.

Dabholkar, a doctor, was at the forefront of a campaign to persuade the Maharashtra government to pass an anti-superstition and black magic bill. Right wing Hindu groups including certain sections of Warkari sect and political parties have been opposing to the bill.
Dabholkar gunned down by unidentified motorcycle-riding assailants around 7.30 a.m. near Omkareshwar Temple, when he was on a morning walk, police said.

The two gunmen fired indiscriminately at Dabholkar and sped away, leaving him in a pool of blood.

He was rushed by other co-walkers to Sassoon Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.

Pune Police Commissioner Gulabrao Pol said they were investigating the motive.

Police claimed to have got some leads on the killers, adding that at least four bullets found their target in the victim's neck and back.

Dabholkar was the founder of Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti (Committee for Eradication of Blind faith) that aimed to change social mindset and inculcate scientific temper.

Dabholkar's murder comes days the state government promised to introduce the long-pending Maharashtra Eradication of Blind Faith Bill in the current assembly session.

Dabholkar, who was in his 60s, began working against widespread superstition in 1983 and in 1989 founded the committee.

He also wrote many books on superstition eradication and confronted tantriks and seers who promised miracles.

He was also the founder of a de-addiction centre in Satara and also edited Marathi weekly Sadhana.
Condemning Dabholkar's killing, state Home Minister R.R. Patil vowed that his killers would be nabbed at the earliest and police were working in this direction.

A rationalist known for his bold views and sustained campaign against superstitions for over three decades, Dabholkar had rubbed many people the wrong way.

He led agitations against superstitions, animal sacrifices and even water pollution.

Dabholkar's killing has been widely condemned by people from all sections of society, most vocally on social media.

[img]http://media2.intoday.in/indiatoday/images/stories//2013aug/dabholkar_350_082013104126.jpg[/img]

RIP Dr. Dabholkar.

May your death inspire others to take up your cause here in Nigeria, and all over the world.

@ OP

If you don't like it, then don't watch it and don't let your minor children watch it. Nobody is forcing you. And its not like you can stumble on it by accidentally paying for DSTV, then accidentally going to the channel, then accidentally entering the special code to unblock it.

You may think its bad, but if other adults decide they want to watch it, then that is their right and their business. You have no right to decide what images another adult should be able to look at. You are not the moral guardian of society. Your moral standards are not the same as mine, neither are they the same as Sani Yerima's. What makes your opinion of what is moral better than Yerima's or mine? (you'd better not mention religion!)

I don't watch Big Brother (or any form of broadcast TV other than the rare bit of news and sports), but I will fight for the rights of others to watch whatever nonsense they want.

Uyi Iredia: These weren't in the sacred text known as the Bible. Not to mention the fact that Paul's writings were more like guidelines to be considered at one's discretion. It is very possible there were other letter which modern Christians weren't afforded the opportunity of seeing.

What rubbish are you saying? The gospels several times describe Jesus reading from "the scriptures". Both the gospels and Paul's letters quote from them extensively. But because they didn't call their sacred texts " the Bible", you want to claim they didn't have sacred texts?

I know you are fond of posting arguments that know fully well are nonsense, but this is a new low, even for you.

Uyi Iredia: Read well. The meme you ascribed to Christianity addresses Religion and is flawed in that there are religions which didn't start out pre-supposing a deity or having sacred texts. Funny enough, this was quite true of Christianity which, as far as I know, didn't have a sacred text in its infancy.

Christianity had the writings of its founder, Paul more or less at its beginning. And even before that, there were the Jewish holy books i.e the Old Testament.

The meme may not apply to all religions, but it fits Christianity like a custom made condom.

Nice try though.

@FrostyZonn

The difference is that this [img]http://img1.nairaland.com/attachments/1256363_Makes-perfect-sense_jpg5ec80431e2812d6efe92a0e5b45a881a[/img] is what christians actually believe
















While this [img]http://4.bp..com/-MPC8CP_0Og0/Tke4-ft5kgI/AAAAAAAAAgI/Q7mDox9E75M/s1600/atheism.jpg[/img] is just a collection of strawmen that in no way reflects the accepted scientific view.

I don't care what people say. I don't care what the league table says. I don't care what the results are or how many goals they conceded. All I know is that Arsenal is the best team in the world and Arsene Wenger is the best coach in the world.

No matter what, I believe in my heart that it is true.

Sloganz: Okay i am starting to adjust to my life as an atheist.
So far nothing is different in my life, just the fact that my Sundays are free.
I no longer have that burden of waking up and going to church, fortunately!

Am i the only atheist here?

lol @ bolded. OP must be new here.

In any case, welcome to reality. Do your family, friends and co-workers know you've unplugged yourself from the matrix? Or ate you living in the closet?

We need more atheists living openly to counter all the hatred, disinformation and discrimination against us.

Lordave: So Donnie was gay

More like Donnie is gay.

He may be able to suppress the urges, but they are inborn and there is no cure.

Expect to see a big gay sëx scandal involving him in a few years.

Jonah was kidnapped by aliens, obviously.

https://www.paranormalpeopleonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/19cb52_ancient-aliens.jpg

lol @ italo

Changing the meaning of well know words to win an argument is a time honoured tactic of religious apologetics.

1+1=2? But what is the real meaning of the word 2?

If they had sense, they would have killed her and set her body on fire after räping her. That way the born again rëtårds here would have been praising them for not suffering a witch to live

DEGREE2466: Hypatia was killed not because of her philosophical teachings but because she exacerpated the altercation between governor orestes and bishop cyril. So her killing has nothing to do with catholics rejecting free thinkers rather she was a hellenistic magician who sided politics.

But that not being the issue; as for the time of those happenings was there any other church that bears the name christianity apart from catholic church?

Hypatia was attacked in her carriage, dragged out into the street, beaten, dragged into a church, stripped nåked, clubbed to death, then her body was chopped into small pieces and set on fire. But to you, the Christians responsible had very valid reasons for doing murdering a harmless, defenceless woman in such a brutal manner. After all, how could she dare give her opinion on a disagreement between 2 men. Any other Christian would have done the same thing under that kind of provocation, abi?

I also like the way you've fixated on Hypatia while dodging all the thousands and thousands (millions?) of other people the church has murdered over the centuries through the the crusades, the inquisition, the witch trials in Europe, the church approved genocides in South America and all their other many acts of evil.

DEGREE2466: At EVILBRAIN: I dont think you know anything about history at all. How can you say that catholics are the causes of the dark ages in Europe?

For you information the period of renaissance in the history of the early europeans was managed by the catholic monks and even the books written by the great philosophers like plato, aristotle, descartes and so many of them were preserved by the catholic monks when the barbarians envaded the roman city which brought about the dark ages of the roman empire.

So I suggest you go and read history.

You're the one who need to go and read. Go and read about the inquisition. Go and read about the death of Hypatia, the massacre of the Cathars, the history of Catholic antisemitism.

The church actively suppressed all free thought and scientific thinking for centuries. They killed countless numbers of "heretic" philosophers and made questioning their ridiculous superstitions a capital crime. Christians are always criticizing Muslim countries for killing those who speak against Islam, but the muslims never tortured people, tore out their tongues with hot irons, then burnt them at the stake along with all their writings. Compared to the old Christians, the worst Muslim fanatics are merciful and civilized.

I suppose you think it's a coincidence that the dark ages coincided exactly with the rise of Christianity as the dominant religion/political force in Europe. You think it's just by chance that scientific, economic and social progress started again (after a thousand year halt) as soon as the church became weak enough that scientists, philosophers and free thinkers were again able to exchange ideas openly without worrying about being tortured and burnt alive by the Christians?

Imagine what humanity would have achieved by now if Christianity hadn't held us back for a millennium? Man was walking on the moon within 500 years of the fall of Christianity as a political power. Imagine it we had walked on the moon in 1000ce? We would have been living in Star Trek by now.

Deleted.

Double post.

souldust: But going by your 1:1 arguement, if the population of women in a locality is way beyond the population of men like it was in Rwanda after the genocide (population of women to men was 7:3) then, polygamy is ok?

The imbalance in Rwanda was transient and soon corrected itself. Most things that cause gender imbalance (war, migration) are transient. Meanwhile, the problems caused by polygamy are long lasting, and the practice itself is difficult to stop once it becomes widespread. So no, it's not okay.

Your logic claims that the validity of any marital institution depends on numbers and not on social solidarity, social responsibility as well as the agent of socialization it is. I wonder if people capable of any clear and sound judgement would agree with you.

I said polygamy causes social problems. I never made any statement on the validity of anybody's marriage. Don't put words in my mouth.

Your continous pointing to the divorce rate in the north so as to discredit polygamy makes me to ask if you know about societies in other parts of nigeria where polygamy is practiced and if divorce rate is the same.

Polygamy is practiced to some degree in virtually everywhere in Nigeria. It's just more prevalent in the north due to Islam. Consequently, all the social problems caused by polygamy are worse there. In other parts of Nigeria, polygamous marriages are the exception especially among younger people and are becoming much less common.

The reason for the divorce in the north is due to easyness involved in the process. To divorce his wife, the man has to point at his wife and repeat three time that he divorces her and thats it! I find that annoying

If you do some research, I think you'll find that divorces are easy to obtain in all cultures practicing polygamy. Polygamous marriages are by their nature less stable than monogamous ones especially when you're the third or fourth or tenth wife. The problem is not unique to Islam.

i can sense so much hate in you.

What, are you a psychic or a native doctor or what?

@ Souldust

1. Having multiple sexual partners increases the risk of HIV and STIs. This is a fact and I wont waste time arguing about it. The more sexual partners you have, the higher the risk. If a man has 4 wives, all of them are going to get whatever diseases he is carrying. If a new wife is HIV positive, then all the others will eventually become HIV positive. Plus the greater the number of wives, the greater the likelihood that at least one of them will be unfaithful at one point or the other. HIV and STIs are not due to immorality. A chaste woman who has had multiple husbands due to death or any other reason will have the same risk of HIV as one with the same number of partners due to sleeping around (actually, more since women who screw around also tend to use condoms.)

2. Even if just 20% of men marry 4 wives each; with a 1:1 Male:Female ratio, it means those men will have cornered 80% of the women leaving just 20% of left for the remaining 80% of men to struggle over. This is a very simple concept to reason out so I don't see what room there is for debate. That polygamy leads to a shortage of marriageable women is an undeniable fact. The existence of widows in the north doesn't disprove anything. If those women were marriageable, they would be married.

3. Kano state recently acknowledged that they were the divorce capital of Nigeria (overall, 80% of marriages there collapse and 30% within the first 3 years) and even organised a mass wedding to encourage bachelors to marry some of the old widows that nobody wanted. This wouldnt be neccessaty if these men could find women their age to marry. But unfortunately, the young women (and many children) have been cornered by the rich alhajis. Your claim that monogamous marriages are "less traditional" and more likely to fail is complete rubbish.

4. Whether you accept it or not, there is plenty of evidence that a shortage of women encourages male homosexual behaviour. Here are two studies if you don't believe. I'm not going to waste time arguing.

5. I never said northern Nigeria lacked women. I said that polygamy produces a shortage of women because the male:female ratio is 1:1 and some men are taking more than their share. If everybody would just stick to one wife, there would be no shortage. Even if the economy was booming, and everybody had money, the richest men would still corner most of the women and less rich men will have to struggle for scraps. The same problem exists in richer countries that practice polygamy regardless of religion.

italo: Not true. Historically, the Catholic Church has undergone and endured countless and continual persecutions from the most powerful governments in the world. America and China are just two of today's examples. I will expantiate if you need it.

Right the Catholic church is the victim of persecution. The same Catholic church that was torturing and burning people alive left, right and centre for over a thousand years until they finally lost political power. The same church that single handedly caused the dark ages in Europe. The same church whose religious intolerance has virtually wiped out traditional religions in Europe, Africa and South America. The same church that commissioned the crusades. The same Catholic church that sanctioned the brutal sacking of Constantinople, a Christian city whose only crime was being a member of the eastern orthodox church. The same Catholic church that mistreated European Jews for centuries and forced those in Italy to live in ghettos. The same church that supported Hitler and Mussolini during WW2.

Catholics are victims of persecution, that's why their priests can råpe children for decades without fear of prosecution and still retire with full pensions even when they are identified by multiple victims. That's why governments around the world refuse to investigate their shady financial dealings, or prosecute them like the international child molestation ring they are. That's why their former pope is being allowed to end his days outside of prison despite conclusive proof that he was the head of the conspiracy to cover up child abuse and protect pëdõphile priests. Those poor Catholics. Who is going to save them from all the persecution?!

Catholicism is not equal to science. It is far superior.

lol

italo: The Church did what it could to urge caution. Galileo did not conclusively prove his proposition but was trying to proclaim it as truth already.

Are you aware that Galileo said sun is the centre of the universe and it does not move?

You can't even lie in a sensible manner. So Galileo hadn't conclusively proven that the earth moves round the sun abi?

The facts of what happened are well established. Stop trying to rewrite history to make your religion look less silly.

If the Christians had any interest in finding the truth, they would have built their own telescopes and investigated his findings. Instead they arrested him, threatened him with torture, found him guilty of heresy, banned his books and kept him under house arrest for the rest of his life. If he hadn't pretended to agree with their stůpïd, bible based delusion that the earth was the centre of the universe, they would have burnt him alive.

Anybody who thinks contains any useful information about how the world works is a mõrön. Plain and simple.

JMAN05: what was scientific theory when the bible describe water cycle, that the earth was round, and that the earth is hanging on nothing? but now all that biblical truth has now been confirmed.

Stop talking rubbish abeg. When did the bible describe any of those things? Why was it only when secular science discovered them that christians noticed that they were in the bible? Whenever a scientific idea becomes too obvious to dismiss, you people go and look for a vague verse that you can twist to make it look like the bible said it all along. The same bible that spent chapter after chapter on useless advice about what was "clean" (locusts, cockroaches) and what was unclean (menstruating women, and women who give birth to girls) but couldn't tell people to boil water before drinking it.

Why were christians persecuting scientists and free thinkers who questioned their superstitious beliefs? Why did the church try to kill Galileo for proving that the earth goes round the sun and not the other way round?

Keep deceiving yourself that your holy book isn't just a bunch of fables and superstitions. Whatever helps you sleep at night.

jayriginal: In my case its never forgotten and the air is now filled with the need to convert me, to show me the light. The same reaction each time. Its irritating.

This is why I can't stand born again chicks. They can be so annoying with their constant preaching and nagging. Most born again guys will leave you alone if you make it clear you're not interested, but some girls just refuse to take the hint.

"But you're such a nice guy, I have to save your soul from hell fire whether you like it or not!" I've had to turn nasty a few times to get some of the crazier ones off my back.

collynzo2: . And the theory that the entire universe was once a huge mass of rock that exploded for no apparent reason and VOILA! Here we are...is more believable than a Supreme Being creating the earth? Tell me, if I were to take a car apart, place all the parts in a dumpster, blow the dumpster with sticks of dynamite, am I supposed to believe that in a billion years, the car will magically reassemble itself into a working piece of machinery? You need even bigger faith to believe that.

This just made my day. An ignorant creationist's understanding of science theories is just pure comedy gold.

"the universe started from a HUGE mass of rock that exploded". Lol!!! I hope this guy posts something about quantum mechanics soon. Please God, let him start posting about quantum mechanics.

We all need more laughter in our lives.

orgasticdance: Ahh I used to lie a lot about this bit. But ur right, the whole religion rap becomes moot and irrelevant after a while. On a serious note though why are there so few female non-believers, even among the riduculously well read and exposed? Good ol' balz

Trust me, they exist. A lot of them just go with the flow and follow their friends and families to church/mosque even though they know it's all rubbish. Some like the social aaspect of religion. Others don't believe but don't care enough about religious matters to risk alienating people.

But there are plenty of atheist chicks out there. It's just that it's hard to get them to admit it to you if you're also pretending to be religious.

Chibuebem: its not just a belief you see. I experience the REALITY of the scriptures in my life. I know their life and power. Thats why nobody will ever move me. I don't need anyones affirmation to know that Gods word is real and true because I WALK IN THE REALITY OF IT. It is fulfilled in my life. Evil brain has false perceptions of reality.

You just perfectly captured why Nigeria is in such a mess. Because we have too many self deluded people like you who base their all their actions on a version of reality that only exists inside their heads.

People who refuse to accept the truth no matter how much evidence and logic they are shown. It doesn't matter to them that their beliefs are demonstrably false. Elvis is alive, miracle healings, Big Foot, talking snakes, palm reading, speaking in tongues, dousing for water, UFOs, evil spirits. You can tell the difference between fiction and reality.

Why wouldn't Nigeria be in a mess when the lunatics are running the asylum.

souldust: pls i just want to know if you are against polygamy in any way? No attack intended. I asked for a reason. Just give an honest answer pls.

Polygamy harms the society big time.

Having multiple sexual partners spreads HIV and STIs and causes infertility and other long term problems.

The male:female ratio is 1:1 therefore polygamy causes a shortage of marriagable women leading to recruitment of underage girls into marriage (eg in the north) with all the attendant problems.

The shortage of women leads to multiple men sharing one woman. This can be either serially where you have a high divorce rate with women being passed from husband to husband (eg in the north). Or it can be in parallel where a woman is married to old Alhaji, but is scrëwing Ibrahim, the handsome young gateman on the side.

It has also been proven conclusively that male homosexuality is more prevalent whenever there is a shortage of female sexual partners (e.g in prisons, boarding schools and in the north).

The shortage of females also leads to a high prevalence of unmarried non-parental males with nobody depending on them at home and therefore no reason for them to avoid risky behavior. Anybody who is married with a child can testify to how the responsibility calms you down and makes you avoid all the stůpïd things you used to do when you were single. That's a major reason why northern youths are so willing to risk their lives rioting over the most ridiculous nonsense. "Somebody drew a Mohammed cartoon somewhere in Norway, let's go and riot in front of armed police!!!"

Polygamy also by definition discriminates against women and turns them into second-class citizens. If women had the same rights to multiple spouses as men, then marriage would become meaningless.

That's 6 ways polygamy harms society just off the top of my head. If I wasn't so tired (I've been awake for 48 hours straight) I could probably think of more.