Hello to all nigerians, am i relatively new in nairaland and this will be my first post in the Politics section,

After going through other topics on Nairaland i have noticed some people are too quick to dismiss an ethnic/religious group because of the actions of one person or a few people,
For example if there is a news report of a crime commited by someone from the Igbo tribe, it wont take long before someone comes and post something like : "this igbo people self na so them bi", likewise if the crime was done by a Hause, yoruba, ijaw, calabar etc someone will come here and blast all the people of that tribe,
My fellow nigerinas isnt this a bit childish, except for two years out of the country i have spent all my life in Nigeria and i have travelled around the country, i have met good people of yoruba, hausa, igbo, calabar, idoma etc origin, and i have also met bad people from those same ethnic groups,, same goes for both religions, though i am an atheist i have have met good and bad christians and muslims ,
so please when next there is a report on something bad done by someone from a certain part of the country lets be objective in our criticism instead of crucifying everyone from that part including women and children and animals,
after all corruption that is killing our country is not only found in one part of the country, its is found in every council, local government, state and constituency,

Please i did not open this topic so that it can turn into a war zone like some other ones i have seen, if someone does not agree with me he can tell me in a kind and polite manner so that i can correct myself,

peace out

finally i forgot to add the quran and the bible especially if you are looking for a good laugh and crazy people, , let me give you a little review to get u rolling, there is this guy in d bible and quran called abraham about to slaughter his son because he heard voices in his head telling him to do so, lol, classic nollywood stuff,

most of the ones i wanted to recommend have already been mentioned so i will add just a few more, :
1. GOD: The failed hypothesis by victor stenger
2. Demon haunted world by carl sagan
3. The Selfish gene by richard dawkins
4. Mistakes were made (but not by me) by Carol Tarvris and elliot aronson
5.The evolution of god by robert right
6.cosmos by carl sagan
7.the whole shebang by timothy ferris
8.in search of schrodinger'cat by john gribbin
9.sophie's world by jostein gaarder

@abuzola
hi, whats up?, if you read through the posts u would have seen that i wrote little bits about my journey to atheism, though its not a comprehensive account because my journey was a really long one,
as for you saying that i was not a practicing muslim, this is the same old "no true scotsman" argument, .that just makes me laugh, i was as devout as you can get, i prayed the 5 daily prayers in the mosque as well as the naafil prayers, i used to fast mon and thurs, i did not shake hands with women, at one stage i did not even allow my jeans below my ankle, right from a young age i had already memorized a large chunk of d quran, i used to give a lot in charity (and i still do), etc, so please abuzola .dont u dare tell me i was not a practicing muslim, though i am not a believer anymore , i dnt hav any problems with muslims and christians, like i said earlier on this thread my family is made up of muslims and chirstians, as long as they dont try to force their beliefs and morals on me then thats fine by me, peaceout

zzjwgyst

@imhotep,
so you are into eckhart tolle type "new age" stuff? am i right?

@imhotep,
so what do you believe in? are you a christian or muslim?

@imhotep, if there were no dragons there will be no people who didnt believe in dragons

@ilosiwaju
whats up? how can we get in touch?, i cant figure out how to send personal messages on this forum

@ banom

lol, i hav already given my life to the "flying spaghetti monster"

Riff-Raff:

@ g1
welcome 2 Nairaland religion section.
I was a former muslim before turning into an athiest. There are some other ex-muslims around, only dat they are very rare.
I'm based in lagos. M lucky enough that half of my friends turn athiest after i was able 2 enlighten them about my views on religion. Some are stil religious but they are d ones in d closet weneva i am around for d fear of a long arguement dat they always find themselves speechless after.

Why not keep reading d threads here, u can discuss any topic wit d athiest here on Nairaland.

Hi Riff raff, thanks for the welcome , nice to meet a fellow ex muslim, is there a way we can get in touch?, so what made you turn into an atheist,

@ deep sight, so what are you? what do you believe in?

Deep Sight:

^^^ g1 - this post defines you clearly as an agnostic, and NOT AN ATHEIST.

SO MAYBE YOU SHOULD BE LOOKING FOR AGNOSTICS IN ABUJA - NOT ATHEISTS.

And this again affirms my proposition that most so-called atheists do not even know the meaning of atheism.

whatever you want to call it Deep Sight , be my guest, atheist and agnostic do not believe in a personal god, thats the bottom line,

ancel:

@G1: Using your reasoning above, if I travel to Gobi desert and I cannot get reception on my favourite Etisalat network, so I cannot send an SMS to my girlfriend, does it mean the Etisalat network does not exist?

Deep Sight:

This is okay, but you will agree that it hints at horrible religious dogma being one of the driving elements of your atheism. Religious dogma is indeed horrible, such as when certain people tell you that unless you believe in the judicial murder of a Jewish Carpenter then you are going to burn in hell. It baffles the mind that this is subscribed to by centuries of supposedly educated persons. But i want to point out that such dogma has nothing at all to do with the existence of God.

at ancel and deep sight, i cant tell u if god exist or not, so thats why i said am not here for debate, even if god exist all am saying is that he is not part of my life,, he is not importanat to me and i am not interested in any of his religions or books, but if you believe in him thats fine by me, like i said i will open another thread with my story where we could exchange arguments about god, but please do you know any atheists here in abuja?

Deep Sight:

So G1, TELL US WHAT LED YOU TO THE CONCLUSION THAT GOD DOES NOT EXIST.

I hope its not islamic extremism that made you conclude that?

@ deep sight, it had nothing to do with islamic extremism, i have never come across an extremist , majority of my family are what i would call moderate muslims and about say 35% of family from my mothers side are well behaved christians, so i did not become an atheist because of the actions of some individuals or group, one of the first doubts that started to bother me about religion was the thought that anyone who did not belong of a certain faith will burn forever and ever no matter how good a person they were, so i constantaly wondered why my good christion friends and people in other faiths such as hindus will burn forever and ever just because they were born in the wrong family i.e just because they were not muslims, and it is the same for christianity too, that all the other muslims, jews and hindus too will burn forever and ever because they were not christians , so the idea of hell cast the first set of doubts in my mind, that led to other stages of doubt on other parts of religion,

i hope to explain my complete journey to atheism in another thread (its very long), my main reason for opening this thread was to look for atheist/agnostics in abuja,

i do not have a problem with people who believe in god however as long as they dont force their beliefs and morals on me thats fine by me, i still have muslims and christians in my family whom i love dearly,

mazaje:

@ OP
.Most atheist are still hiding in their various closets because of fear of being ostracize by friends family and society. . .There are few atheist and agnostics in abuja but I know it will be hard for you to meet them. . . .

yeah i know its hard finding them, thats why am yet to meet one, but i have not given up hope,

Crude Oil:

Welcome on board. First time to see a muslim turn atheist.

thanks for the warm welcome "crude oil", yeah i know its rare to see an exmuslim turn atheist, but here you have one , do you know atheists here in abuja?

Deep Sight:

I am certain that the only correct explanation that may be given of atheism is that it is a rejection of religion: or the image of God as given by religion - for NO MAN, bar NO ONE can ever claim that he does not regard his existence to have been caused by a factor (however described).

In that sense it is correct to state that 99% of atheists have misapprehended atheism altogether and should be rebranded as "anti-religionists."

mazaje:

How did oneness of infinity create man and other animals? What were the processes involved and how can we know that oneness of infinity did it not the other gods of man made religions that also claim the same?. . . .

Hi Deep sight and mazaje, hope all is good? happy new year, but please kindly carry your debate to another place, if you read my first post you will understand why am here,

please you guys should not turn this topic into another debate "for" or "against" atheism, like i said in my first post i am not here for debate just looking for atheists to talk to, peace out

Tudór:

I have an atheist friend in abuja but he's freaked out about discussing his views up north and might be reluctant to meet you. . . .anyway, what'd you need atheists in abuja for?

just like your friend i have been a closet atheist for a while because i do not know other atheists in abuja here, so i need some one i can chat with and discuss atheism, so if you could link me up with him it will be great,

bawomolo:

welcome man, we need to hear your story.

and stay away from a jihadist named abuzola

thanks for the welcome, bawomolo, do you know any atheists down here?

manmustwac:

Well am waiting to hear it. I even keep asking myself what is the the percentage of nigerian athiests or agnostics to christians and muslims? Do u know whether its 1 in 10 or 1 in 20 etc?

its more like 1 in 1000 , there is a mosque and church in every street corner, so go figure, do you know any naija atheist in abuja?

manmustwac:

welcome to nairaland g1. Hope u find what your looking for, but then out of curiosity can u jist us about your journey to atheism?

thanks for the welcome, as for my journey to atheism, its was a very long one, i hope to give details soon ,

Greeting to all Nairalanders,

i came across this website while looking for nigerian atheists, so i thought i should pop in and check it out, i have noticed that from most of the posts i have read in the religion section, 99% of the atheists here are ex-christians, then i guess i will be the first ex- muslim atheist here,

Like my post said i am looking for fellow nigerian atheists based in nigeria most especially abuja,

As for the believers here (christians and muslims) i come in peace, i am not here to ridicule anyones beliefs or debate anyone about god, am just here to hook up with other atheists here in abuja, Nigeria

regards,
g1