₦airaland Forum

I always hear peole say that we need special prayers for this and special prayers for that. For a long time I have always wondered what was so special about special prayers considering that both types are directed at the same diety.

While on the same subject, I would also like to repeat what someone asked the other day: Does prayer have a validity period? what I mean is that If one prayers early in the morning for health, blessings and protection, does one necessarily need to pray again before each meal, or during the day and again before one goes to sleep? Would one prayer a year not be sufficient if we truely beleive ? Does faith need to be constantly recharged like a battery? Is constant prayer not a sign of a lack of faith because one is not sure of the efficacy of prayer and so it has to be repeated as often as possible?

Pastor AIO:
wow! What an interesting line of Enquiry.

Please o, can anyone point to one loving Act that God has done so that we can silence these atheists?

And before we do so, can we perhaps define what a loving act is? Would an act of mercy constitute a loving act? Would sending manna from heaven constitute a loving act? ie would feeding people be a loving act? what about clothing people? Would covering Adam's unclothedness constitute a loving act?

What about Mercy? Is that a loving Act?

What about forgiveness?

You make me laugh. If he created adam naked , how would covering adam's unclothedness be an act of love?Omg. I can't stop laughing.
As for manna. thats a fairy tale. It is likely that being in a new place with new vegetation, they woke up one morning and found some unfamilair fruits that tasted sweet on the ground and were asking what is it(MA NA?). manna means what is it? Since then how many manna has fallen to feed the world's starving children?. the starving children of Somalia NEED MANNA NOW. where is this loving god?
And by the way, after supposedly giving manna to the isrealites, he killed 40,000 of them from the time they left egypt till the time they reached their so-called promised land. Its all in the bible. Where is the love?
Clothing peopl? i buy my own clothes, I dont know about you.
Mercy? what mercy? sending people to hell for eternity for not believing in him or his many minions is definitely not an act of love. Its infact, silly.

davidylan:
@ globexl

Isaiah 14: from verse 12
Ezekiel 28: verse 12 downwards

Thank you Davidlan. Good to see you again.

I hv just read the references.
Isaiah 14, from veres 12 sounds like poetry reading or lamentation from the prophet isaiah. It is clearly not a tale and I doubt if it was intended to be seen as such by the writer himself. "Oh Lucifer son of the morning"? It does not state who lucifer was. Is this small passage the basis upon which the Lucifer, satan and devil stories come from?

Ezekeil 28:12 down Starts with Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus and say onto him,
there is no reference to Lucicer or satan in the whole passage.

Pls pls pls.
Dont listen to these people. This is how they get people hooked with fear. Everyone ,including myself, have good , bad, frightening and confusing dreams. Its perfectly normal. PLEASE stop trying to induce fear and paranoi in yourself by trying to look for an interpretation of your dream. C'mon. We are in the 21st century, not the dark ages. Once you start looking for meanings and interpretaions, you are setting urself up for manipulation by either balalawos or these pulpit pimps on this forum. You see how they swarmed at you with responses?. You are the perfect mugu for them. They prey on fear. I have dream of all sorts every single night. So what?
Grow up. you have all the faculties you need to meet every challange that life throws at you. Dont be afraid of anything. the mind is funny and mysterious. It conjures up all sorts of images.Your dreams are likely a reflection of your psychological state of mind. Nothing else.
Forget about interperetations. Tomorrow , you 'll have another dream. If you spend your waking hours trying to interpret every dream, what time would you have to live your life?.
A word is enough for the wise.
A mugu is born evry second. I hope you are not one .

plappville:
Matt23:23 was for((KJV Matt 23:23)Jesus said,
“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.)

but not for (U dont have to say all christians are deleting/silenting some verses in the old testament, some laws are over shadowed in the old TM by the new NT when Jesus came.) U are trying to misquote me, i dont change te scripture.



[b]You did not really go to search for love in the bible but voilence , U only read the old testament and your eyes keep seeing the word VOILENCE; iF U MUST JUDGE THE BIBLE? TRY TO READ FROM A TO Z THEN TELL ME IF your STATEMENT IS CORRECT.
The Bible is full of great verses and passages about love topics. God’s love for us is a perfect example ad starting place to study on love. There are also great verses about lov in relation to marriage, brotherly love or friendship, and loving your neighboor. and u are here saying a different thing, its   to know though.

[b]John 3:16  “For God so loved the world,that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should notperish but have eternal life.

Romans 5:8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 8:37-39  No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

1 John 3:1  See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

Love One Another Bible Verses

Romans 13:8  Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.


Galatians 5:13  For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

Ephesians 4:2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,

1 Peter 1:22  Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart[/b]

What Did Jesus Say About Love

Matthew 6:24-25  ”No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.  “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

John 14:21-24  Whoever has my commandments andkeeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”  Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” Jesus answered him,  “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.

Jesus came because he loves us so much, his LOVE was poured all over in the new testament for us to obtain love.[/b]

More LOVE verses for u,

Matthew 22:37–39
Jesus said to him, 'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself

1 Corinthians 13:1-3
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

1 Corinthians 13:4–8a
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails ,

Proverbs 15:17
A bowl of vegetables with someone you love is better than steak with someone you hate.

Proverbs 17:9
Love prospers when a fault is forgiven, but dwelling on it separates close friends.

Proverbs 17:17
A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.

1 John 4:18
There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

So do more research about love in the bible before u judge.

My brother, we are not talking about writing about love or making references to love. Anyone can write about love. What we are saying is that  the very acts of love are missing in the bible, especially the so-called great love that god has for his creation. For example , why would a loving god who created all, then choose one tribe over thousands of others that he supposedly created? He then commands this one tribe to hate and kill other tribes? He even kills his so-called chosen people when they marry members of other tribes. Where is the love?
In sunday school, I used to wonder whether it was another god   that created the Phillistines, the egyptians, the people of Jerico, ammonites,and the list goes on. And what could have been their crime?. It sooooo hilarious when you hear an African deluding himself that the god of Isreal loves him.
Anyone who reads the bible and does not ask themselves these common sense questions is, ?

Two days ago, a lady was preaching to me on how satan fell from grace and so on. So I politely asked her show it to me in the bible. She did not know where to  find it in her bible. She promised to look for the chapter when she gets home and would come me back to let me know. Well, its been two days now and she has not called me .
The point is that she has no idea where the satan story came from but she has believed it all her life .And so have almost all christians. They have no idea where the satan, Lucifer and the fallen Angel story came from.
Any christian volunteers from the house wish to enlighten us?

mazaje:
Is there a method, mechanism or criteria to determine what parts of the bible are to be followed and what parts are OK not to follow?. . .I say this because I see christians picking and choosing moral codes and injuctions from the bible they believe is right for them and discarding what they don't believe is right for them. . . Christians pretend that the morality they do choose is authoritative while ignoring the fact that the parts they don't like have the same authority. The excuse I have heard christians use most is that the morality they don't like was for people of a different time or something along that line when put in a corner just to excuse some absurdity away. . . .Some will say Jesus has done away with the OT laws but they still quote many OT laws to justify their claims or moral principles. . . .

Here is an example:

Homosexuality is a sin. Homosexuality is evil. Homosexuals should not be allowed to marry, for it says in the Word of God:

Pretty clear, right? Many Christians all over the world make a strong effort to publicly condemn homosexuality as a bad thing because Go says its bad in the bible.

Yet there are other rules that Christians seem almost completely silent on, yet there they are, in the word of God, sometimes within a page or two of all of that Same-sex-comdemning stuff. . . .Things like laws regarding women. . . .

In the NT we find injunctions like. . . .

I've meet many female pastors, and most churches I've been in women speak freely. . . .

If the writer of this verse visit's christian churches today he will shed tears. . . .

Laws of violation

I guess this verse needs to be read to so many Christians. . . . .

I could go on, and on, and on. Needless to say, there are MANY rules in the old and new testaments that are blatantly ignored. Why? Why focus on some rules and not others? Why are some parts of the bible so often repeated, and others completely ignored?

So again I ask:

Is there a method, mechanism or criteria to determine what parts of the bible are to be followed and what parts are OK not to follow? Or it is their individual infallible holy ghosts that tell them so?

Good question.
How many christians do you think actually read the bible? And how many of those that read it do u think actually understand it?
Selective amnesia is a part of human nature.
Since I was a teenager, I have been searching the bible to see any proof of this love of god that is preached so very often. I'm yet to see any act of love in the bible. all I see are hate, anger, tantrums, prejudice, wars, genocides and injustice.

jayriginal:
^^^ In addition to the above you would think that Paul would harp on the teachings of Jesus instead of needlessly complicating things. What happened to lessons like the beatitudes ? What happened to the emphasis on loving your neighbour ?
Why did Jesus say he would drive those away because he was hungry and they wouldnt feed him ?

Why is the mumbo jumbo of Paul preferred ?

interestingly, Paul never ever quoted Jesus in any of his sermons. Paul neither knew Jesus nor what Jesus stood for. what we call christianity todayis essentially Pauline doctrine. if Jesus is the cornerstone of Christianity, then any doctrine that contradicts him sholu be null and void.
The reason that Pualine doctrine enjoys suprememacy is because Jesus never intended to be the founder of a religion. Paul did.

When ever you post your views on a public forum, you have to expect responses from others that may repudiate or discredit your viewpoint. There is nothing wrong with that. This is afterall, a public forum and not a house fellowship as some might wish to believe. There is absolutely nothing wrong with having healthy debates about religion. The problem is with posters Like FROSBEL who spews nothing but insults and hate at anyone whose viewpoints differ from hers. I am surprised that the moderators leave her unchallenged to go from one thread to another spewing her messages of hate to muslims, jehovas witnesses, catholics, athiests and even her fellow churchtians.
FROSBEL is the one person that poisons every thread because once she enters a thread,the tone of the thread immediately changes from discussion to insults. If you doubt it, just check all the archives. She is clearly not mature enough for healthy debates. There too much hate in her heart.
There is nothing wrong with disagreeing if we can stick to the issues and desist from insulting others.
Lets act like grown ups.

HHmmm. Interesting revelation. The definition of agnosticism fits perfectly well with my viewpoints. So I guess I'm an agnostic after all parading as an athiest. LOL.
HHmm. But I guess i share much more in common with athiest than thiest.

Same as taking opium.

@Deepsight:
Common sense , philosophical logic, faith: they are all in the same subjective realm. whose common sense and whose philosophical logic can we truly trust to discern reality. Is it Socrates, Aristotle, Plato or Pythogoras, not to mention the hundreds of other competing and contradicting philosopies? Is it the common sense of the fetish native doctor or the modern pulpit pimps?
Empirical logic speaks a universal language that all can understand, test and validate. It can also correct itself when new know is available. That is why I maintain that is by far the most reliable means of understanding reality.

@Deepsight:
What we call love is hard to define in real terms because we tend to confuse it with a whole lot of other emotional states. So to talk about love, lets talk about parental love or love between parent and offspring. I can make the argument that parental love is an evolutionary physiological trait. Over time, boilogical organisms developed a mechanism to keep track of and protect their DNA. All animal species show a tendency to nurture and protect their ofsprings. As higher mammals, we call it love. It is just a chemically induced sort of magnetic attraction to anyone carrying our own or similar DNA. Studies have shown that parents and offsprings who are seperated at birth will still exhibit an unexplainable affinity or attraction towards one another if they meet accidentaly even after many yrs or decades after seperation. So, love is in the genes. Its an evolotionary trait.

Also , the fact we have a wide range of mood-altering drugs in the market, both legal and illegal, is proof enough that emotions are the results of simple chemical reactions in the brain.
the human brain itself is a very complex mystery that we are still trying to fully understand. But just because it is very complex does not make it supernatural. Afterall, it has had several billion years to evolve to its present level of complexity.
As for sentience, I believe that as the electrical activity inside a living cell reaches or crosses a certain electromagnetic threshhold, the organism draws to itself some sort of cosmic energy equivalent to its frequency(soul??) and self-awareness ensues.
As we continue to increase the computing power of micrprocessors, in time to come we might be able to create computers that become self-aware. I'm sure you have heard of fuzzy logic chips. These are micrporocessors that are designed to mimic human emotions. Today they are embedded in computers used for currency and equity trading where a lot of human emotions are involved.
The point I'm to to make is that in time, all the hitherto enigmas of conscoiusness and sentience may be explained in purely scientific terms.
I am not aware of the different realms of atheism, and I'm definitely not interested. It sounds like another dogmatic religion. Agostics have a core belief in a creator, and I dont.
I'm just a walking question mark who has the conviction that the intellect is the most reliable arbiter of human realities.
If we must define god as the primordial first cause of all existence, then WE MUST OF NECESSITY also define the nature of god and what was before the first cause. Its very easy for you say its the uncause of the first cause or unmoved mover. Fancy words indeed.Those are just fancy cop-outs. They still dont mean much or explain anything. Its like trying to explain infinite space and infinite time. Where would be the starting point?
Perhaps our brains are not fully evolved to the level where we can comprehend . maybe the electrical activity in the human brain has not yet attained the minimum threshold to comprehend the first cause, infinite space and infinite time and god.
Hence, all attempts to date has been one disaster after another for humankind.

@Deapsight: Enlightening once again. i'll ned soem time to fully digest it before I prepare my counter agrument.

@image123;
I pointed out some common sense flaws in ur argument and I expected your rebuttal but you tactfully dodged and decided to attack my motives. My beliefs are irrelevant to you. Typical. Its a bad habit to ignore the points raised and attack the person.Sign of weakness.
Dont be afraid, No one is here to convert anyone.We are just having healthy debates. ABI? It does not not always have to be about converting any one.
@bluedive: Its quites a shame that only in primitive societies are people still required to indicate their religion on official forms. Yes , I fill in christian or none when possible. So what? why Is that funny to you.? See what religion is doing to your country. Bravo. You must very proud.

The above was for Deepsight. I always for get to attach.

I read today in the news that astromers have discovered a planet orbiting two suns: meaning that this planet would have  perpetual daylight. Very interesting indeed. a few weeks ago I aslo read that the earth may have had two moons befoe a catastrophic collision chattered one of her moons eons ago. I personally suspect that from her size and orbital position, the earth may have had at least 4 moons in her infancy. I eagerly look forward to learning and discovering the many mysteries of our world and our place in the universe. This is what makes life worth living.
The things that are subjective will remain subjective. Perhaps in the several millenia to come, scientific inquiry my lead us to spiritual truths.

I would rather throw my lot in this camp than with the subjective or intuitive revelations of people like Godmouth.

I have not come across any athiest that says there is no beginning or first cause(as u refer to). The idea of a first cause is not the same as the idea of a creator god. If so, then we can easily hypothesize that in the beginning god, existing in the form of pure electromagnetic energy, exploded or imploded, causing the big bang ,and his debris, thereafter condensed to form matter, atoms and light(residual energy) which makes up the physical universe. We can go further by saying that the atoms got together to form compounds which over eons of time and under the right conditions, formed protein molecules( the precursors of biological life).

I can hold on to such beleifs and still have no belief in the existence of god. would that be a contradiction?
Believing that there is no god is differenty from denying the existence of god. Dont you think so? Denying the existence of god means that one is absolutely sure that there is no god. I am not in that camp. Saying that I dont believe in god means that i am yet to see any RELIABLE proof or  evidence, observable or subjective, pointing to it.That puts me in a safer place.

"the pre-eminence of any system, scientific, philosophic or religious, can be measured by the quality of its output and effects on the society". The scientific method(observation, experimentation and analysis) have proved itself far superior in understanding and dealing with human realities than faith or attachments to the subjective first cause or uncaused cause or unmoved mover.

I read today in the news that astromers have discovered a planet orbiting two suns: meaning that this planet would have  perpetual daylight. Very interesting indeed. a few weeks ago I aslo read that the earth may have had two moons befoe a catastrophic collision chattered one of her moons eons ago. I personally suspect that from her size and orbital position, the earth may have had at least 4 moons in her infancy. I eagerly look forward to learning and discovering the many mysteries of our world and our place in the universe. This is what makes life worth living.
The things that are subjective will remain subjective. Perhaps in the several millenia to come, scientific inquiry my lead us to spiritual truths.

I would rather throw my lot in this camp than with the subjective or intuitive revelations of people like Godmouth.

I have not come across any athiest that says there is no beginning or first cause(as u refer to). The idea of a first cause is not the same as the idea of a creator god. If so, then we can easily hypothesize that in the beginning god, existing in the form of pure electromagnetic energy, exploded or imploded, causing the big bang ,and his debris, thereafter condensed to form matter, atoms and light(residual energy) which makes up the physical universe. We can go further by saying that the atoms got together to form compounds which over eons of time and under the right conditions, formed protein molecules( the precursors of biological life).

I can hold on to such beleifs and still have no belief in the existence of god. would that be a contradiction?
Believing that there is no god is differenty from denying the existence of god. Dont you think so? Denying the existence of god means that one is absolutely sure that there is no god. I am not in that camp. Saying that I dont believe in god means that i am yet to see any RELIABLE proof or  evidence, observable or subjective, pointing to it.That puts me in a safer place.

"the pre-eminence of any system, scientific, philosophic or religious, can be measured by the quality of its output and effects on the society". The scientific method(observation, experimentation and analysis) have proved itself far superior in understanding and dealing with human realities than faith or attachments to the subjective first cause or uncaused cause or unmoved mover.

You see what I mean? Godmouth actually admits to having dreams but refuses the accept that his dreams and revelations are inside his head.
@harakiri: C'mon why do u waste eenergy arguing with someone who talks to angels.? i know alot of people that talk to angels. Most are in psychiatric homes and a lot of them are alking naked in our streets. Pls ask him what was their skin colour and thier wings. Were they male of female ?Did they speak in english or his native language and what kind of footware were they wearing?.
And most importantly what ground-braking revelation did they have for mankind this time around?
Also ask him how much money he has collected for them and what wiring instructions they left for the remitance.

I hate ,I hate.
what else is new with you?
with so much hate in you, you are pitiful and pathetic, and you hav eno shame advertising your shallowness on this forum. More hate in this life for more love in heaven, right?

Foolish and ignorant Nigerians. lets continue congratulating ourselves that ghana is in the news for fraud. A big clap of hands for ourselves!
If the guy had made a $2b mistake in favour of UBS, he would have been a hero and would have been showered with bonuses. He was their star trader and his exuberance got the better of him. when your trading with so much money in very fast moving markets, its easy to get tangled in a webb of losses that he could not get out of. It also show a lack of oversight on the part of UBS management. obviously, they have weak controls. Despite the headlines, he may be vindicated at the end. There are no such things as rogue traders. You only become rogue when you lose a lot of money for your firm.

Image123:
Go to church and hear testimonies of Divine Intervention, unbelieving mesaje.

Sorry to burst your bubble. Such testimonies are crap. I dont pray and good things happen to me from time time. Is that a sign that god answers my prayers that I do not even ask?
be realistic my friend, on any given period there equal chances of good things as well as bad things happening to you. Is it not so. And ask yourself, how come people only come to church to give testimony of the good things that happen to them? What about those that suffer misfortunes in the same period, who do they have to thank or blame for their misfortunes? If 20 people gave great testimonies of their good fortune in your church today, what about the hundreds of other church memebers who did not?
Its like spending your earnings playing lottery or pool for a long time and one day the odds come in your favour and you win a small amount. Would your winnings validate your habit and justify all your previous losses?
Like I said previously and repeating again , its always a win-win situation for god and his many salesmen. Good things happens , we run to pastor to give thanks(and money), bad things happen, we run to pastor to pray harder(and sow monetary seeds).

Sorry, my last post was in response to Deepsight.

Deep Sight:
Very true. And this is my trouble with the generality of atheists that I come across. They appear obsessively fixated on the idea of God as delivered by religious constructs, and finding absurdity therein, cannot be troubled enough to contemplate the idea of a first cause as a strictly logical and philosophical precept, away from the confines of religious lore and doctrine. That, for me, is not the hallmark of the keen and curious mind.

True again.

A point seemingly lost on those on this board who seek to set out scientific explanations of "how".

I cannot put it any better than MyJoe already has - the prime issue governing the cosmological question is and always has been - "what caused the how."

O yes indeed there are many very poor reasons for adopting an atheistic worldview, and the reason (allegedly) given by Professor Soyinka in the OP is plain disastrous and makes a mockery of his otherwise massive intellect.

I have certainly heard many better reasons for atheism. And like i said, some people do advance poor reasons for their atheism. For example if a man were to tell you that he is atheist on account that he has not seen God appear to him in physical form, would you consider that a cogent reason for atheism - having due regard to what God is said to be - namely - the prime mover and first cause of existence? Is that an element a person might expect to show up for dinner and drinks?

I will task you with providing me with just one - which addresses the logical and philosophical precept of a prime mover and not the religious constructs.

My young daughter of 5yrs has started asking who created god. So far, she has gotten no satisfactory answers. I'm afraid that in her young mind, she might begin to doubt the exixitence of god. If she decides not to believe in god as a result, would you call that a bad or weak reason for embracing an athiestic viewpoint? Does she need to write a philosophical or scientific thesis to justify her doubts?
Athiesm is not a philosophical proposition, therefore it does not need an elaborate defence or justification. It is just simple Doubts or rejection of religious doctrine as it pertains to the origin of the universe.
Athiesm, speaking for myself , is not dogmatic . I simply prefer to begin with doubts and seek to arrive at certainties than to begin with certainties, arrive at doubts and then fight to defend my certainties.
As per the assignment you gave to me, here it goes:

I do agree that logic and intellect might not be the sole arbiter of our reality. As an athiest, I contemplate and intuit the possibility of a first cause or prime mover. However, I'm not quite sure whether those insights are genuine or contaminated with the biases of my early christian indoctrination. But whether that is the case or not, my insights or intuits are still subjective and as such , I'm at liberty to give them any coloration that suits my bias or orientation. That is the problem with subjective phenomena: It is too fluid. It can take the shape of any vessel that it is poured into.
No two individuals can give the same interpretation to the same subjective phenomena.
Therefore it is not trustworhty. In otherwords, an intutive revelation is only as good as the head from which it came from. unfortunately, most of the world's religions are built from the subjective revelations of madmen, neurotics and psychopaths, with a few good men in between.
Actually, the idea of the first cause is the basis of most of the worlds religions. It is something that we have been trying to distance ourselves from and is not something that we should be embracing all over gain. Once you accept a first cause, then naturally you assign a personality to it, a name, human emotions, then a tale follows and its DEJA VU all over again.SinceThe first cause or prime mover is arrived at by virtue of intuitive and philosophical comtemplation, it cannot form the basis of any universal theory on the origin of the universe. We've been there and we've done that ,and still ,have not asnwered the even biger question of "what could have caused the first cause?"
Yes, its good to let our imaginations roam free and concieve of all manners of possibilities. I prefer to arrive at the answers by means of scientific deductions, not because it is the only path, but because it is the most trusted and safer means.
My athiestic worldview is therefore justified.

When my child was infant, I used to get an empty box, put a coin or something inside it, close the box and shake it so that she could know that something is inside the box. Then I would give her the box so that she could figure out how to get the coin out of the box. The mystery inside the box would keep her busy for a very long time while I engage in whatever serious work I needed to do. This reminds me of how foreigners have given us this package called religion to keep us very busy, while they go on to engage in more serious things. This package has kept us sooo busy that certain parts of our brain , responsible for healthy skeptism, are not being allowed to develope.
The MUMUFICATION of the primitive tribes of West Africa is complete.

Excellent.
I wish all could read this over and over again to appreciate the full import of this message.However, I fear they will not, because your suggestions call for much critical thinking, introspection and responsibilty on th part of the faithful. To my fellow Homo Religiousus Nigeriana, to be faithful ,means to be totally beholden to the Daddy-please-comeback syndrome. They mistake fear and insecurity for faith. Like you hinted, a truly faithfull person does not need to pray because he or she has already aligned himself with the nous or cosmic frequency. having done so, the material needs become less signicant to the grander scheme of the universe.
You can agree with me that the abundance of prayer houses on every street in our land does not signify an abundance of faith, but a complete lack of it. It clearly demonstrates the pathetic state of our fragmented and confused minds .

toba:
i ve been trying to educate these my little sisters that its your xter that u exhibit right here on earth is what u would be judged with. its not the number of times u attended church or mosque. pple shouldnt be fooled that one u accept a particular religion its heaven or paradise straight, thats a lie. im trying to tell my sis and i do hope they listen to me. same way your attendance in class wouldnt determine your passing exam except what u right down during exam

well said

Both in this forum, this thread and in real life when it comes to tolerance. everyone is obsessed with extoling the supremacy of their particular faith or sect, and damns you are different.

Again @Toba:
Unfortuantely in our clime, It takes strenght of character to accept others without considering the person's religious belief. The responses so far generated in this forum clearly demonstrate that strenght of character is in short supply.
I always ask whether god will judge us based on strenght of our character here on earth, or based on the strenght of our beliefs.

@Toba, Although You and I have debated a lot on this religious forum, I now see that you are an examplary fellow. I salute your  courage and wisdom.

Its beats me why our minds are hardwired to ignore the simplest and most plausible and embrace the one that is fantastic and mysterious. It seems that our brains are hardwired for superstition.The issue on this firum is why prayers are not answered, which to me is an admission that prayers are NOT ANSWERED.

Why is it sooo hard to embrace CAUSE AND EFFECT, CAUSE AND EFFECT, CAUSE AND EFFECT as the supreme and immutable law of the universe?
prayer is a psychological placebo. A feel good-drug that we have desinged to help us cope. That why it is tailored to our often selfish needs. Thats why, like my first post, It is always a win-win situation for god, simply because we just dont get it.
Our nation provides us with the clearest and most glaring example to anyone who needs to understand of the laws of cause and effect.

m_nwankwo:
To pray simply means to open ones spirit to the power of God. It is a communion between God the creator and the "breath of life" that is us. Thus the basic ingredient in a prayer is that a connection is established with the power of God. Once that connection is established, then the praying one will be imbued with all that he or she needs to recognize and live according to the laws of God. It is not difficult to establish this connection as some might think. Love for all that is in existence in tandem with purity in our entire being will allow our spirits to once again gain connection with the pulsating power of God that vibrates within and outside of creation.

Once we consciously or unconsciously  (as it happens with most people) gain connection to the power of God, then we begin to sense that there is more to prayer than asking God to grant some of our mundane desires, many of which are borne out of selfishness, ignorance or both. Gradually, a new concept of prayer emerges and this concept of prayer is inextricably linked with worship. By worship, I mean when a human spirit is in perpetual connection with God such that such a spirit is granted the power to live only according to the will of God. This act of living according to the laws of God then imbues the spirit with the ability to attract from out of the powers of God what such a spirit needs for his continual development and purification. More importantly, the spirit becomes aware that his present earthly existence is just  a snapshot of his entire existence  and that billions or trillions of intermingling threads of fate in and around him have there origin in his multifarious past existence both on earth and in other physically invincible planes of God. He also learns that the laws of God are inexorable and that he must reap the consequences of his activities whether they be good or evil. It is only in tasting the fruit of his seeds can he recognize what seeds are bitter and those that are sweet. Of course the power of God which he is now connected with will give him the strength to experience both the bitter and sweet seeds with gratitude. "A gem cannot be polished without friction nor man perfected without trials" but all the friction and trials are brought about by man himself.

God answers prayers or rejects prayers through his laws. If a prayer is not in accordance with his laws, then such a prayer will not even find homogeneity with the power of God, not to talk of being granted. Many of our prayers never make it to the throne of God because they lack love and purity. Thus strange as it may sound, God is not even "aware" of such prayer. Thus the first step to is to ask what is the will of God in whatever circumstances and if we open our spirit we will be shown what his will is.

As long as we are not guided by the power of God, we are bound to err even with very good intentions. Guidance by the power of God permits us to know his will and act accordingly. If one does not recognize the will of God, he will take a wrong path no matter how good are his intentions. And he who is open to this guidance will bear an inner peace irrespective of his earthly circumstances. Thus whether healthy or sick, rich or poor, etc he bears peace within himself for his spirit is conscious of the what, how and why of all his circumstances. Although sometimes he or she may be beset with frustrations, doubts or similar things due to the density of his physical body, the connection with God will imbue him or her with the strength to dispel the shadows. Again for a spiritually awakened, our only prayer will be that God grants us the power to live only according to his will. And once we receive this power we must use it and if we use it, then, miracles upon miracles will follow us. Yet for many of us, the evil we have done in the past are much that before the new life begins to manifest, the consequences of our old sinful past has to be confronted. It is this confrontation that appear to the seekers as trials, bad things but these apparently bad things are necessary for our spiritual transformation into the new life. Sadly though, many of us lack perseverance and weaken to soon. But with calm confidence in the omnipotence of God, we will be able to confront the consequences of our past activities , close the circle and begin our ascent to the luminous gardens of God where only love and purity reigns. Best Wishes.

Beautiful said. Your post has put in much better (palatable) terms what I hv tried to say with many posts.
Kudos