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 Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 12:06am On Jan 01, 2019 |
"YOU ARE NOT THE CENTRE OF THE WORLD Most people tend to believe they are the centre of the world, and their culture is the linchpin of human history. Many Greeks believe that history began with Homer, Sophocles and Plato, and that all important ideas and inventions were born in Athens, Sparta, Alexandria or Constantinople. Chinese nationalists retort that history really began with the Yellow Emperor and the Xia and Shang dynasties, and that whatever Westerners, Muslims or Indians achieved is but a pale copy of original Chinese breakthroughs. Hindu nativists dismiss these Chinese boasts, and argue that even airplanes and nuclear bombs were invented by ancient sages in the Indian subcontinent long before Confucius or Plato, not to mention Einstein and the Wright brothers. Did you know, for example, that it was Maharishi Bhardwaj who invented rockets and aeroplanes, that Vishwamitra not only invented but also used missiles, that Acharya Kanad was the father of atomic theory, and that the Mahabharata accurately describes nuclear weapons? Pious Muslims regard all history prior to the Prophet Muhammad as largely irrelevant, and they consider all history after the revelation of the Quran to revolve around the Muslim ummah. The main exceptions are Turkish, Iranian and Egyptian nationalists, who argue that even prior to Muhammad their particular nation was the fountainhead of all that was good about humanity, and that even after the revelation of the Quran, it was mainly their people who preserved the purity of Islam and spread its glory. Needless to say that British, French, German, American, Russian, Japanese and countless other groups are similarly convinced that humankind would have lived in barbarous and immoral ignorance if it wasn’t for the spectacular achievements of their nation. Some people in history went so far as to imagine that their political institutions and religious practices were essential to the very laws of physics. Thus the Aztecs firmly believed that without the sacrifices they performed each year, the sun would not rise and the entire universe would disintegrate. All these claims are false. They combine a wilful ignorance of history with more than a hint of racism. None of the religions or nations of today existed when humans colonised the world, domesticated plants and animals, built the first cities, or invented writing and money. Morality, art, spirituality and creativity are universal human abilities embedded in our DNA. Their genesis was in Stone Age Africa. It is therefore crass egotism to ascribe to them a more recent place and time, be they China in the age of the Yellow Emperor, Greece in the age of Plato, or Arabia in the age of Muhammad. Personally, I am all too familiar with such crass egotism, because the Jews, my own people, also think that they are the most important thing in the world. Name any human achievement or invention, and they will quickly claim credit for it. And knowing them intimately, I also know they are genuinely convinced of such claims. I once went to a yoga teacher in Israel, who in the introductory class explained in all seriousness that yoga was invented by Abraham, and that all the basic yoga postures derive from the shape of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet! (Thus the trikonasana posture imitates the shape of the Hebrew letter aleph, tuladandasana imitates the letter daled, etc.) Abraham taught these postures to the son of one of his concubines, who went to India and taught yoga to the Indians. When I asked for some evidence, the master quoted a biblical passage: ‘And to the sons of his concubines Abraham gave gifts, and while he was still living he sent them away from his son Isaac, eastward to the east country’ (Genesis 25:6). What do you think these gifts were? So you see, even yoga was actually invented by the Jews. Considering Abraham to be the inventor of yoga is a fringe notion. Yet mainstream Judaism solemnly maintains that the entire cosmos exists just so that Jewish rabbis can study their holy scriptures, and that if Jews cease this practice, the universe will come to an end. China, India, Australia and even the distant galaxies will all be annihilated if the rabbis in Jerusalem and Brooklyn stop debating the Talmud. This is a central article of faith of Orthodox Jews, and anyone who dares doubt it is considered an ignorant fool. Secular Jews may be a bit more sceptical about this grandiose claim, but they too believe that the Jewish people are the central heroes of history and the ultimate wellspring of human morality, spirituality and learning. What my people lack in numbers and real influence, they more than compensate for in chutzpah. ~ Yuval Noah Harari's "21 Lessons for the 21st Century" 5 Likes 1 Share |
| Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 3:00pm On Dec 31, 2018 |
"In premodern times religions were responsible for solving a wide range of technical problems in mundane fields such as agriculture. Divine calendars determined when to plant and when to harvest, while temple rituals secured rainfall and protected against pests. When an agricultural crisis loomed as a result of drought or a plague of locusts, farmers turned to the priests to intercede with the gods. Medicine too fell within the religious domain. Almost every prophet, guru and shaman doubled as a healer. Thus Jesus spent much of his time making the sick well, the blind see, the mute talk, and the mad sane. Whether you lived in ancient Egypt or in medieval Europe, if you were ill you were likely to go to the witch doctor rather than to the doctor, and to make a pilgrimage to a renowned temple rather than to a hospital. In recent times the biologists and the surgeons have taken over from the priests and the miracle workers. If Egypt is now struck by a plague of locusts, Egyptians may well ask Allah for help – why not? – but they will not forget to call upon chemists, entomologists and geneticists to develop stronger pesticides and insect-resisting wheat strains. If the child of a devout Hindu suffers from a severe case of measles, the father would say a prayer to Dhanvantari and offer flowers and sweets at the local temple – but only after he has rushed the toddler to the nearest hospital and entrusted him to the care of the doctors there. Even mental illness – the last bastion of religious healers – is gradually passing into the hand of the scientists, as neurology replaces demonology and Prozac supplants exorcism. The victory of science has been so complete that our very idea of religion has changed. We no longer associate religion with farming and medicine. Even many zealots now suffer from collective amnesia, and prefer to forget that traditional religions ever laid claim to these domains. ‘So what if we turn to engineers and doctors?’ say the zealots. ‘That proves nothing. What has religion got to do with agriculture or medicine in the first place?’ Traditional religions have lost so much turf because, frankly, they just weren’t very good in farming or healthcare. The true expertise of priests and gurus has never really been rainmaking, healing, prophecy or magic. Rather, it has always been interpretation. A priest is not somebody who knows how to perform the rain dance and end the drought. A priest is somebody who knows how to justify why the rain dance failed, and why we must keep believing in our god even though he seems deaf to all our prayers. Yet it is precisely their genius for interpretation that puts religious leaders at a disadvantage when they compete against scientists. Scientists too know how to cut corners and twist the evidence, but in the end, the mark of science is the willingness to admit failure and try a different tack. That’s why scientists gradually learn how to grow better crops and make better medicines, whereas priests and gurus learn only how to make better excuses. Over the centuries, even the true believers have noticed the difference, which is why religious authority has been dwindling in more and more technical fields. This is also why the entire world has increasingly become a single civilisation. When things really work, everybody adopts them." ~Yuval Noah Harari's "21 Lessons for the 21st Century" 9 Likes |
| Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 4:40pm On Dec 30, 2018 |
Adekunle Adeite wrote: Ọ̀run Àpáàdi Àpáàdi is broken clay pot, a potsherd. Ọ̀run is the ‘world’ beyond the sky. Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther joined the two words together and thought it should mean ‘hell’. That was how Crowther brought a lot of laughable translations into Yoruba vocabulary. When convenient for him, he substituted English words with Yoruba words that have nothing in common with those English words. At other times, he would just add a vowel to the English word or name and boom, Jacob will become Jakobu, John became Johanu, and Moses would become Mose. He sold that crap to the generation before us. He couldn't do much with Isiah and Matthew, so he left those ones alone, but he made sure Luke became Luku. Crowther’s translations have gone so far that some non-Yoruba scholars refer to a false Yoruba belief in some ‘heaven of potsherds. An example is Peter Ogunboye and Lois Fuller in the article ‘The Human Soul in Yoruba/Igbo Tradition and the Bible’ published in Africa Journal of Evangelical Theology Vol 19, Issue 1 of 2000 (Pp. 75-86). That a Yoruba Muslim or Christian has been indoctrinated with the concept of heaven and hell does not make it a Yoruba belief. Yoruba beliefs are those that existed before Crowther and Rev. Samuel Johnson. Talking about after-life in Yoruba belief must include Àtúnwá and adìyẹ-ìrànà. ‘The idea of reincarnation among the Yoruba is indicative of the belief in the immortality of life. The actual word for reincarnation in Yoruba is Atunwa. As a matter of fact, the word ‘Atunwa’ implies the second rebirth of a person or the shooting forth of a branch or born again” Ogungbemi (1997:77) Crowther assumed that bad people would have to walk on potsherds to pay for their sins. That was his thoughts, not Yoruba belief. Yoruba has no HELL. 3 Likes 1 Share |
| Sports › Re: "The Super Eagles Thread: The Road To AFCON 2027, 2028 And 2030 World Cup by joseph1013: 12:56pm On Dec 30, 2018*. Modified: 3:41pm On Jan 12, 2019 |
THREAD AWARD 2018 Guys, the voting has been extended till 7pm on Monday, 14th January. Kindly cast your votes. You have the whole of the weekend to do so. The winners will be announced on Tuesday. CATEGORIES 1. Most Controversial Poster 2. Most Interactive Poster 3. Most Intelligent Poster 4. Most Resourceful Poster 5. Most Respectful Poster 6. Most Consistent Poster 7. Most Positive Poster 8. Best Sense of Humor 9. Most Critical Poster 10. Nicest Poster 11. Most Influential Poster 12. Most Pro-Foreign Born Poster 13. Most Pro-Naija League Poster 14. People's Favourite 15. Most Sentimental 16. Notorious Silent Reader 17. Impressive Thread Newbie 18. Diehard Super Eagles Fan 19. Best Friends 20. Most Outstanding Poster 21. Overall Best Poster 22. Top Dramatic Topics 23. Honourable Mention: I, by the power vested on me by this thread, unanimously give this category to one of my favorites on this thread, GoldFish80. It's been a while I've seen him here, and I hope he's alright. Please let's know. To vote, simply quote the post, and write the name of the poster(s) in front of the categories. The most notable mentions takes the award. cc: icon4s, tbaba1234, TheSuperNerd, AIG07, Isahalbash, Safarigirl, Joebie, Kog45, Goldfish80, daveP, kennysville, realpoacher, komekn, Mujtahida, certitude, humility017, forgiveness, enomakos, TheGoodjoe, Mikael2, petrobros, Bascovanveli, TheSuperNerd, chrisoblog, loogan, Jarus, do4luv14, icon79, maidaboi, terzurum5, Okpekyandega, TheSuperNerd, lakesidepapa, goldfish80, Xzbit91, lexyman, Humility017, ChrisKels, bigblangston, goke7, Chrismario, Daninya11, shawwal1, ganiyat2adeyeri, yemyke001, edi287, krattoss, eseose9, oasis007, jihday, Terzurum5, M7even, Daninya11, Michael2, andrew444, kentebemoney, BascoVanVeli, rabzy, Nedville, Safarigirl, Taliban, ChrisKels, Chrisoblog, mujtahida, enomakos, confun, EEGA, COOL10, Earthquake1, elyte89, junnyjake, darkelf, davep, edi287, Sportilitica, Certitude, Chrismario, Danielnino00, Trinity, zayyadidris, Magink, Curtisaxel7, krattoss, petrobros, Odunayaw, Charlesemeka85, do4luv14, realpoacher, chiscodedon, zoboizee, raindodger13, wayodude, Naijaphobia, Truidstar, oloriooko, maidaboi, Onozboy, jieta, Jihday, loogan, Diavolo, gameliel9, cc12, isan, kennysville, busky007, kingphilip, Sadiqali24, Unlimited22, Sainty92, alexie4real, Eseose9, Seunvense, goldfish80, Oasis, KpagoGin, Mazimee, Clementoke, bishop 88, slayerforever, Jiday, Soetanoreoluwa, Edopesin, shaveman, signz, DrLikita, Kellycute, bossto, Eawwal, Psittacus, Zicky, HZwriters, YKalhaji, Klexycole, Fabyom, Bibidear, etc. I tender my unreserved apologies if your name is not here. Please VOTE if you've not done so. Let's not hound you abeg. 7 Likes 3 Shares |
| Sports › Re: "The Super Eagles Thread: The Road To AFCON 2027, 2028 And 2030 World Cup by joseph1013: 9:39am On Dec 30, 2018 |
Icon4s:Interestingly, Curtisaxel7 did vote last year. |
| Sports › Re: "The Super Eagles Thread: The Road To AFCON 2027, 2028 And 2030 World Cup by joseph1013: 8:07am On Dec 30, 2018*. Modified: 9:36am On Dec 30, 2018 |
Icon4s:You won't believe I actually did a lengthy post on it on the 27th only for it to get lost while clicking submit. You know how demotivating that is. Same thing happened when responding to the players award on your post. Okay...I will find time this morning to craft another for the annual thread awards. |
| Sports › Re: "The Super Eagles Thread: The Road To AFCON 2027, 2028 And 2030 World Cup by joseph1013: 2:13pm On Dec 29, 2018 |
tbaba1234:Do these boys understand that these sort of spendings, especially for someone whose career has not kicked off, is a liability? People like Juan Mata are such excellent role model in financial management for footballers. 5 Likes |
| Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 2:43pm On Dec 25, 2018 |
MERRY CHRISTMAS! Every Christmas, I repeat this post for the sake of the new readers. Long, but insightful. https://www.mjemagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/XMASS1928.jpg Whenever you say Jesus is the reason for the season, you need to be reminded of some historical facts. The history of Christmas is very long & tortuous but I'll try & present an abridged version here. Of course, I expect everybody to know that the origin of Christmas has nothing to do with Jesus or Christianity but in case you didn't know, your ignorance should be cleared by the time you finish reading this. What you're about to read may be something you've never heard before. To start with, why December 25? The day Jesus was born (if he ever was born) is not known. That's strange! Almost all persons who have a wide impact on the world have known birthdays. The census reported in Luke (the one requiring Joseph & Mary to travel to Bethlehem) actually never took place and the story of an astronomical event ('Star in the East') reported in Matthew as to have happened around then is yet to be verified by scientists. There was a Roman pagan celebration of the birthday of Mythra, the Sun God. This celebration took place on December 25. When the Roman Emperors forced the whole world to become Christians ('Catholicism'), they needed to accommodate everybody into the church. One way of doing that was to inculcate some of their customs into the church. Since the Christians at that time associated Jesus with the 'Sun of Righteousness' mentioned in Malachi 4:2, Emperor Constantine drew a parallel between the two 'Suns' (Mythra, the pagan Sun & Jesus, the Christian Sun) and decreed that December 25 should be used to celebrate the birthday of Jesus. As an aside, every time you go to church on Sun-day morning, you're testifying to Mythra, the pagan Sun god. Before then, Jehovah was worshipped on Saturday while the Sun God was worshipped on Sun-day. Because of the implications on the religion, some early Christians didn't like the idea that Christmas was a pagan invention. So they invented an alternative theory. 1st century anonymous work said the world was created on March 28. Iraenus (a 1st century historian) plagiarized that & said Jesus must have been crucified on March 25 & if so, he equated the equinox (March 25) with the conception of Jesus. This made so many early Christians BELIEVE (what can't belief achieve?) that Mary must have been impregnated by the Holy Ghost on March 25. And if someone got pregnant on March 25, then she must have given birth on December 25, i.e., 9 months after. But this attempt is funny. How can you just base your belief on someone else's conjecture? And if the Son of God wasn't conceived through natural means, how are you sure that the pregnancy went the natural way of 9 months? Jesus could've spent 15 months or 3 months in her mother's womb: you can never know. The caroling was a Christian conversion of the pagan Koliada. The gift-giving spree is reminiscent of an earlier Roman pagan celebration of Saturnalia. The Yule (or Yuletide) is the name of an indigenous midwinter festival celebrated by ancient Germanic peoples. The Christmas tree is a direct importation of the pagan tree worship which was tied to the Thor god. Father Christmas & Santa Claus are fictional figures but even though the idea of the former predated the latter, they later became unified into a single personality. Santa Claus is the anglicized form of 'Sinterklass' which simply meant Saint Nicholas in Dutch. St. Nicholas was a Greek bishop who was noted for taking care of children and rewarding the well-behaved ones with gifts. Even though the St. Nicholas Day (a feast of giving in its own right) is still celebrated on December 6, the St. Nicholas concept (called 'Santa Claus') was superimposed on the preexisting Father Christmas as a means of further Christianizing a pagan celebration of December 25. All these pagan origins made a section of the 17th century church to frown on Christmas. In addition, they discovered that no saint celebrated their birthday in the Bible (in fact, Job & Jeremiah cursed their birthdays) and every birthday celebrated in the Bible (Pharaoh's in Genesis 40 & Herod's in Mark 6) was marred by an evil consequence. Called the 'Puritans' (an essentially reformationist Protestant movement), they campaigned against the pagan & unbiblical celebration called Christmas. In fact, they were the ones ruling the English Parliament & they outlawed Christmas for these reasons. As they were the colonial masters of America ('New England'), Christmas was similarly outlawed over there. Even though, political dynamics restored Christmas to Christianity later (18th century onwards), such puritan sects still exist today. Examples are the Jehovah Witnesses & the Deeper Life Bible Church who don't celebrate Christmas for the same reasons. But some of those Christian sects go to church on Sunday. As I said earlier, worshipping Jehovah on Sunday has exactly the same origin as celebrating Jesus' birth at Christmas: so why they have problems with Christmas & not Sunday services is still a mystery. Anyway, Christmas is now approaching the status it started from — a non-Christian significance. The progressive secularization of the festival is obvious in the songs: some are outright religious songs (e.g., 'Silent Night', 'Hark! The Herald Angel Sing') while others are purely secular (e.g., 'Jingle Bells', 'Days of Christmas'). There have been campaigns in the US to convert the greeting, 'Merry Xmas', to 'Happy Holidays'. The Philadelphia State outlawed Christmas carol in schools. Christmas is increasingly becoming more of a secular celebration than religious. Nigeria is one of many countries where Christmas is a public holiday. How that happened is well-represented in the picture above. I'm sure seeing that picture will make you love Xmas as an African. Enough said! And FYI, in case you think it's the whole world that's celebrating the 'born-in-a-manger' story, you need to read this. Christmas is NOT a public holiday in many countries like Afghanistan, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Comoros, Iran, Israel, Japan, Kuwait, Laos, Libya, Maldives, Mauritania, Mongolia, Morocco, North Korea, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, & Yemen. Countries like Somalia & Brunei have even banned Christmas celebrations with anybody doing something as simple as wearing a Santa Claus hat to spend 5 years in jail. Of course, that's how intolerant Muslim-dominated countries can be to foreign ideologies compared to Christian-dominated countries. Countries like Japan, where Christians are a tiny minority, widely celebrate Christmas purely for the exotic cultural & secular significance. Thanks for your time Merry Xmas (sorry, Happy Holidays) to you all! 4 Likes |
| Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 11:46am On Dec 19, 2018 |
THE NECESSARY BEING I had a discussion with a random person offline who preached to me about my soul and the need for it to be reborn. The discussion went something like this (paraphrased): T: God exists A: Define what you mean by God. T: Humans cannot define God. You seek the impossible! A: Then what is it that exists? T: The Alpha and Omega. The supreme being. A: So an undefined supreme being exists. How do you know? T: Yes a supreme being. I know because we exist. God is the necessary being and everything else is contingent. A: What is a necessary being? T: The being without which nothing else could exist. A: I see. But why is the necessary thing a being and not something else? For example, why isn't it something simple like a field or a force or a form of energy or a quantum process? T: Because there had to be a decision to create something and only an intelligent being can make a decision. A: So do you think an intelligent being makes the decision to create every drop of rainfall? T: No, not a drop of rainfall, that's just physics--no decision is required. A: So, if the necessary thing was a field or a force or a form of energy or a quantum process then the creation of everything would just be physics. And no decision would be required. T: You think you're smart but you won't be laughing in hell. A: Okay. Too often, I find that asking questions rather than trying to pointblank refute theists' assertions is the way to avoid headaches. 2 Likes |
| Sports › Re: "The Super Eagles Thread: The Road To AFCON 2027, 2028 And 2030 World Cup by joseph1013: 11:45am On Dec 19, 2018 |
... ChrisKels:I hope these accolades don't get to his head. Iheanacho is now a painful sight to behold, despite how much promise he showed early on. 5 Likes |
| Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 6:14am On Dec 17, 2018 |
pressplay411:I don't think I am interested in a god that has filled you with so much hatred. 5 Likes 2 Shares |
| Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 6:13am On Dec 17, 2018 |
TATIME:I am an atheist by choice. I look forward to being convinced if the arguments are watertight. |
| Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 12:36pm On Dec 14, 2018 |
TATIME:Ah...Jehovah Witnesses. They are perhaps my favourite Christians. I like to describe them as a Protestant sect minus hellfire and the Trinity. I remember reading Raymond Franz’ book, Crisis of Conscience. Ray is a former member of the topmost echelon (the “Governing Body”) who was later excommunicated. Anyone interested in the JW doctrine will find tremendous insights therein. TATIME, I will not bore you with a lot of epistles. I will ask only three questions that bother me the most about your sect: 1. JW believe that the year 1914 is very significant; that 1914 was the beginning of the Endtimes, when God established his Kingdom in heaven. In 1914, Jesus received kingly powers from Jehovah. Because of how significant the year 1914 is, The End is supposed to come within one generation after 1914. Why has the world not ended? 2. JW do not believe in evolution. While they believe that the universe and the planet may be billions of years old, the human race is only some six thousand years old. How then do you explain the many archaeological evidence of humans having existed for hundreds of thousands of years? 3. I know JWs don't believe in blood transfusions; they would rather allow the person die than acceded to blood donation. How do you reconcile that as a person despite our great advances in technology that has made blood donations very safe? |
| Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 6:24am On Dec 14, 2018 |
LordReed:Zeus be praised! 1 Like |
| Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 6:23am On Dec 14, 2018 |
9inches:It's interesting that two people of (assuming) two different sects of christianity are telling me I'm a potential convert in back to back posts. Thank you, Jesus. I also thank you sir for your concern. But I don't think I am a potential catholic convert, but then, I may be wrong. I saw the two videos. The second one caught my attention. The damsel said she believed morality must be objective, then she found out that Catholicism gave her the best explanation. That's interesting. You know, it's like someone saying that Buhari must be Jibrin, and then encounters the IPOB crowd who provides him with their own (subjective) evidence. He thereafter thanks his stars and becomes a Biafra warlord. There is a term for what the two of them did in Cognitive Psychology; Confirmation Bias. I would think there is a logical reason for her conversion. Something like an actual evidence of the existence of the Catholic God, since some sects in Christianity do not belief Catholics are Christians anyway. Would you be kind enough to tell me why you are a Catholic? 1 Like |
| Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 5:50am On Dec 14, 2018 |
TATIME:Thank you for your concern, sir. What you have written about sounds appealing, so I ask what is the name of this group of true worshippers? What sect of Christianity are they? Please, let's start from there? 4 Likes |
| Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 4:48am On Dec 11, 2018 |
CAPSLOCKED:Profound! 1 Like |
| Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 4:47am On Dec 10, 2018 |
Steve Chike Abia Superstitious beliefs come at a cost to the society. When we say money rituals DO NOT work - human body parts do not and can never magically vomit money for anyone; it has no basis in reality; there is no evidence that it works and anyone who remotely believe in such baseless myth is not only irredeemably stupid but also a danger to people around them - we are not only trying to debunk a bogus myth, we are also trying to keep the society sane and safe. We can see the toll it is having on us. People are murdered everyday for nothing, human body parts are trafficked and ladies underwears are snatched at gunpoint. Rationality is sacrificed and absurdities take over. Superstition is dangerous to the general wellbeing of the society. The idea that worn, dirty panties can magically make one wealthy can only be believed by a degenerated brain. It is this same superstitious insanity that motivates some young ladies to take pictures of men to some religious jamboree they call 'Shiloh' with the aim to 'spiritually' manipulate them into marriage. Money ritual starts from the mind. Anyone who really believes it works is a potential ritualist and a danger to the society, because the first step to murdering people and using their body parts for rituals is to believe it works. There is an urgent need to dispel this dangerous myth. It is a hoax that has taken the lives of innocent people. 8 Likes 3 Shares |
| Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 8:18am On Dec 04, 2018 |
That thing Father Mbaka did Peter Obi on Adoration Ground? That is the exact same thing they do to you in your local church every time they make you dance to the front of the church waving your offering in the air. Publicly shame you into giving money whether you have or not, whether the church is in actual need or not..... Peter Osun. You go to church every Sunday and enrich charlatans but you are here being silly! 2 Likes |
| Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 6:39am On Dec 01, 2018 |
John Ogunlela If I were foreign and my first and sole contact with the Yoruba culture was through the 'home videos', I would think the women of that tribe are shrieking, pugnacious idle hands who do nothing but design devices against men all day and spend the night at the spiritualist's shrine. I will think the men are noisy and thoughtless wine bibbers who love strictly sex, easy money and pretence to wealth. I will think they all have a big tribal inferiority complex that makes them feel a trip to London even if in a fake visa is the meaning of life. I will have the impression that the young men are vacant of mind and completely lacking in vision besides to become experts at swearing and cursing and toying with women when they take a break from armed robbery and doing crack. The anger, pugnacity and aggression in those videos is overpowering and nauseating to be mild. The simplicity of the scripts venerate mediocrity, superstition and utter foolishness, elevating mediocrity to the point of worship. They portray their tribe in the worst dingy light possible and present their children as objects of intimidation and oppression. Hardly do people keep their words and most friendships end up on the slaughter slab of treachery. You can safely predict the trusting friend who helped the other with school fees will end up getting poisoned by the friend he helped all so she can convert the title deed of his property to her own. Revenge is the rule, forgiveness is hardly known except forced Intl the script and acted in a most unnatural manner. The women are hardly ever portrayed as capable of putting their brains to use except in scheming to steal a friend's spouse. And they never achieve anything with their lives besides marrying a rich and often abusive man. At a point I began to suspect this could be a sinister programme to destroy they Yoruba race through negative portrayal but look a bit closely and it is the product of the race itself! Those videos are the products of hurried, underdeveloped ideas, quickly parboiled to be served to unthinking people whose daily lives run on base superstition and archaic traditions. The central theme is to sell and make a little money before the buyers of the movies can get a little education and stop hoping in a swarm of spirits and in blind luck. Absolutely nothing of value is espoused in these movies apart from a desire to make money by providing a feed for shameful ignorance. It is the rise of the aggressively ignorant section of the people, taking advantage of cheap technology and a market of deeply ignorant stream of people who were spawned in the Years of the Locusts, the years of darkness. They affirm these ignorant swarm and tell them they are okay the way they are and they need not aim higher. After all, their type have gone to London and have brought back a used car with the sound system maxed out. They even built a duplex in Lekki - and isn't this the zenith of life itself! So, what happened! Did this people produce Wole Soyinka and Ola Rotimi? Were Herbert Ogun'nde and Duro Ladiipo acorns from their tree? Did D.O Fagunwa right in that language and was it that tribe that produce Sunny Ade, Twin 77, Art Alade, Jim Rex Lawson, I.K Cairo and Orlando Owoh? Wow! That was another Yoruba entirely. It couldn't be this one! 4 Likes 2 Shares |
| Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 11:09am On Nov 29, 2018 |
God of Men ...Jekwu Ozoemene The concept of “Public Trust” is alien to us, that is why our politicians and God of Men think that the collective coffers are theirs to do their bidding. For the avoidance of doubt, all religious organizations are institutions of public trust thus the general public should ordinarily expect that pastorpreneurs apply the church funds to religious purposes and judicious use. Now, the argument that the purpose the funds are applied should be within the discretion of the congregation is also very valid. However, this is particularly why religious organisations are vulnerable to fiscal abuse because neither church members nor government can effectively monitor their accounts. In fact, as my friend Festus James pointed out to me earlier today, “to put it in clear terms, God isn't deaf, blind or even dead. He's real and very much capable of taking (up) those who abuse the office into where He has called them”. In essence, church members put their trust fully in the moral and spiritual integrity of their pastor, with God as the regulator. But if this “trust” in our Men of God is merited, then how come we have a large collection of multibillionaire pastropreneurs, who do not have any other source of livelihood asides from pastorprenuership? Or is this unmerited grace? Is this wealth from freewill contributions or other entrepreneurial ventures? Is it still part of the public trust? Whether from freewill contributions or not, whether secular or religious, what kind of society do we have if anyone can convert money held in public trust to their personal use (or any use for that matter) with impunity simply because we never want to believe that our spiritual leaders can commit a crime. Because we never want to Psalm 105:15 (KJV), “touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm”? You will recall last year or so, when the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) sought to apply a corporate governance code for all registered churches, mosques, and civil society organisations, a large chunk of Pentecostal Nigeria rose against it. We were told that “anyone who does that (applies the corporate governance code) is incurring the wrath of God. Yes, there could be financial regulation of churches but never in the internal structure of the church”. Subsequently, Government bowed to pressure and suspended the code. Such a retreat by government is also not unique to Nigeria. Recall that in 2007, the US Senate Finance Committee launched an investigation into the finances of 6 televangelists, insisting that taxpayers "should be assured that their donations are being used for the tax exempt purposes of the organizations." The televangelists fought this investigation for four years, and four of them remained unwilling to submit to any “meaningful transparency or accountability”, remaining very uncooperative until the Senate Committee on Finance backed down and instead asked the churches to "self-reform,". Kenneth Copeland Ministries even launched the “BelieversStandUnited.com” in response to the investigation, claiming that the Senate Committee on Finance was targeting Pentecostals. But back home in Nigeria, all churches and religious bodies are registered as NGOs, and this is where Public Trust comes in. Though government cannot dictate to a religious body or an NGO how to spend its money, because of their NGO status, the Government has the right to step in and protect a religious body’s assets since they are held subject to a public or charitable trust (and yes, I agree that Government has an integrity problem as well, but stay with me on this one). However we have also seen from both our local FRC’s experience and that of the US Senate Committee on Finance that Government is usually wary of crossing swords with religion. I think that exceptions can still be made in the public interest, which I agree is often a very thin line between ecclesiastical and secular adjudication. What do I consider public interest and how do I think that we can avoid crossing secular to ecclesiastical? Public Interest should include the abuse of trust and interests of church contributors and churches in misapplication of contributions. Unfortunately, most times, the abused are the last people to realise that they are being abused and in fact are often the ones who take up arms in the defence of their abusers. Public trust could also be the abuse of the church’s tax exemption status to avoid taxation. So government can still establish a breach of trust and actions against the public interest by reviewing the personal wealth, businesses and tax history of pastorpreneurs, their family members and associates. But any government that wants to do this should be ready to face an outcry and backlash from the very people they intend to protect. It is instructive that in the Forbes 2018 Pastor’s Rich List of the ten richest pastors in the world, five are from the world’s poverty capital, Nigeria; Number 1 on the list (the richest) Oyedepo is Nigerian, the third richest, Oyakhilome is Nigerian, the 5th richest, Adeboye is Nigerian and the 9th richest, T.B Joshua is Nigeria. Of the other five on the list, three, Creflo Dollar sixth richest, Benny Hill, fourth richest, Kenneth Copeland 7th richest were all part of the 6 televangelists investigated by the US Senate Committee on Finance. But of course, according to my friend Festus James, all that does not matter because their wealth is from freewill donations. John Copeland, Kenneth Copeland's son and Chief Executive Officer of Kenneth Copeland Ministries is also in support when he asked, “where in the Bible does it say you should have watch dogs and judgment groups that watch over ministries?" 1 Like |
| Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 12:18pm On Nov 28, 2018 |
Charles Uzor I don't want to vex anyone this morning. But this thing I heard gave me sleepless nights. So I want to apologize to church folks before I begin. Someone said our criticism of lavish spending on monuments by religious organizations against a backdrop of misery and poverty was unfair. He went on to state that the church is a veritable employer of labour, responsible for paying salaries to thousands if not millions of people. I will make simple illustrations. Politics in Nigeria employs thousands of people, from notable assistants of governors and legislators to lowly social media vuvuzelas. So would someone argue for increase in politics in order to create more jobs? Is politics a productive sector of the economy? What is its contribution to Nigeria's GDP? So if I'm not mistaken, more churches and more mosques will directly lead to more jobs and greater productivity? What do churches produce, if I may ask? Sorry, we cannot compare religion to entertainment and sports in terms of productivity. Nigerians do not invest money in churches with the expectation that they will recoup their initial investments and make tidy profits. Churches earn millions from people who donate voluntarily to further their religious objectives. Are we arguing that in spending millions, the church contributes massively to the Nigerian economy? So the impact would be as striking as injecting millions into education and local industry? Then of course I support the proliferation of churches. If most or all Nigerians are employed in a church, we will become an advanced economy in just a few years. 2 Likes |
| Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 3:29pm On Nov 27, 2018 |
Jekwu Ozoemene wrote: Nigeria probably has the largest collection of largest church auditoria in the world, as well as the largest collection of future (under construction) largest church auditoria in the world. Our churches are in a perpetual pissing contest to outdo themselves in a "who has the world's biggest auditorium" gameshow. Whether it is the Living Faith Church Worldwide’s (Winners Chapel) “Faith Tabernacle”, RCCG’s “The Redemption Camp”, Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministry’s (MFM) “MFM Temple”, the “Great Tabernacle” of the Apostolic Faith Mission, and now the new reigning champion, the 100,000 seated capacity “Lord Garden” of Dunamis International Christian Centre. I have a feeling that with this development, Salvation Ministries would have to increase the capacity of its under construction 90,000 capacity Hand of God Auditorium. It was initially touted to be the world’s biggest church auditorium upon completion, after all, if I remember correctly, Dunamis’ “the Lord Garden” started off as a 75,000 capacity auditorium. This “my church is bigger than yours phenomenon” amidst our present realities is indicative of the fact that Nigeria is very rich in faith, enmeshed in the pursuit of spiritualty but surrounded by low productivity, poverty and impoverishment. 7 Likes 2 Shares |
| Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 6:19am On Nov 26, 2018 |
HOW TO DEAL WITH MAGIC The moment you accept that magic exists, you are lost. That is the moment when you relinquish your reason. That is the moment, when you accept that some things are beyond the purview of reason and you resign yourself to never understanding them. Worse, you have no way of knowing WHICH events can be attributed to magic. Potentially, anything you don't understand could be magic. Once you accept magic, you are susceptible to believing any story you hear--you have abandoned your ability to distinguish the feasible from the ridiculous. You have reached a place where NOTHING is too absurd to believe. With magic, you can create a world in your mind in which nothing is predictable, anything can happen, nothing can be trusted, the limits of the possible have been erased. In this world, inhabited by powerful and menacing powers and beings, you are helpless--your only hope is to find more powerful magic to counter the threats you face. You have created a mad world. Fortunately, it is easy to make these horrors go away. You just have to decide magic is not real and stop believing in it. Remind yourself, no magic has ever been proven to be real. There are tricks, deceptions and illusions but under controlled conditions they are always exposed as tricks. You should also realise there are a few billion people in the world who are NEVER affected by magic. These people only have one thing in common--they don't believe in it. 7 Likes 1 Share |
| Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 8:13pm On Nov 23, 2018 |
Temi Dayo wrote: It was the perfect Catch 22: American citizen, John Allen Chau, Christian missionary and adventurer got the divine call to go tell the natives of the remote tribe on the Andaman and Nicobar islands about his lord and saviour, Jesus Christ. The Christian gospels hold that Jesus is the only way to God, and that to make heaven, the human has to accept Jesus into his heart and so be saved from God's anger. Now for an acceptance or a rejection to occur, there must first be a hearing. An offer, actually. You cannot be accused of having rejected Christ when you never heard of him. You cannot be said to have accepted or rejected something you were never offered - something or someone you never knew existed. If you do not reject Jesus Christ, you will not be condemned. For some odd reason, it'd appear the same God who sent Chau to go tell the natives what he would do to them if they did not accept his son, as introduced by his son, Allen Chau, did not make this a two-way thing. God, apparently didn't tell the natives to receive Allen Chau so he could tell them how God will roast them forever in hellfire if they didn't repent and become born again Christians like Chau. The decision therefore was simple for the natives. They shot John Chau dead with arrows and buried him even before he could open his mouth and say "repent". Of course, it is highly unlikely they would even have understood what he was saying, or would even have understood the word, "Christ", seeing as these people have not had any physical contact with other humans different from them in 75,000 years, and are descendants of a race which has repelled contact from the world as we know it in 30,000 years. They still haven't heard about Jesus as we speak, so they can still make heaven, seeing as they never heard the gospel and so couldn't know that they had to be born again to enter heaven. They didn't reject Christ. They didn't reject the gospel of Christ. They didn't reject Jehovah. Sense will not kill those Indian island natives. See native sense nah. Chai! ______________________ They didn't break any laws either. They have a territory. They saw a threat to their territorial integrity. They neutralised it. It is what Pentecostals do with demons every morning. Every Sunday. Every weekday. It is what some rascals do every Friday night in my neighborhood, and every night preceding a public holiday. They call their congresses of nuisance and chaos, "night vigil". I hope the woman who stands to yell in front of my gate at 5 a.m nearly every day is somehow empowered to go to the Andaman Islands to do her "morning cry" someday soon. 8 Likes 3 Shares |
| Sports › Re: "The Super Eagles Thread: The Road To AFCON 2027, 2028 And 2030 World Cup by joseph1013: 8:29pm On Nov 18, 2018 |
EEGA:I have no doubt that Keshi would have qualified from that group. Croatia was not spectacular in our game. Croatia grew into the tournament. Keshi would have won the match at best, and drawn at the worst, dispatched Iceland and possibly draw with Argentina, who are at the worst in a long time. You guys need to remember that the 2018 Eagles were the most cohesive and happiest set in about the last 40 years. In 2014, the team was going to the game against France fighting NFF about money. As at match day, players were still grumbling. Rohr might still not have qualified in a group having Argentina, Bosnia and Iran. 3 Likes 2 Shares |
| Sports › Re: "The Super Eagles Thread: The Road To AFCON 2027, 2028 And 2030 World Cup by joseph1013: 7:37pm On Nov 18, 2018 |
Joebie:Even Oliseh did not cover himself in glory with respect to selection. Silvester Igboun was always the first on his list. I could not understand it until we learnt his brother is the guy's agent. Where is Igboun now? Rohr also has some dodgy selection problems. Ezenwa's surprising calls to the national team and his shocking inclusion in yesterday's game is a baggage that is difficult to explain away. His constant refusal to give Onyekuru considerable time in matches is also to be explained. I think we deserve better than what Rohr is giving us. No coach in the history of the country has enjoyed the kind of support, both morally and financially, he's enjoying from the NFF. If Keshi or Amodu had produced what he did at the World Cup, they would have been sacked. No questions about it. 2 Likes |
| Sports › Re: "The Super Eagles Thread: The Road To AFCON 2027, 2028 And 2030 World Cup by joseph1013: 3:47pm On Nov 17, 2018 |
We've been hard done by two terrible referee decisions in this match. Two goals wrongly disqualified. Shame! 1 Like |
| Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 12:52pm On Nov 17, 2018 |
Guys, let's leave religion for a while, isn't it time we acknowledged what a disaster Buhari is... SMOKES AND MIRRORS ...by Jekwu Ozoemene I am just tired. Nothing adds up. They said that rice importation has dropped, that in fact, we produce so much rice locally that rice mills in Thailand are shutting down in droves because there is no demand from Nigeria. Yet the US Department of Agriculture says that rice importation by Nigeria has increased, and that Nigeria (with a population of 198 Million) will remain the world’s second largest importer of rice by 2019 (second to China with a population of 1.386 Billion). Uncle Lai is now debating whether it has dropped or increased. They said that Nigeria’s out of school children has reduced to 8 million, UNICEF says it has increased to 13.2 million and that Nigeria now has the highest number of out of school children in the world. Lai is still debating this as well. While in opposition, they said that there is nothing like fuel subsidy, that any fuel subsidy payment is a fraud. When they got into government, we not only confirmed that fuel subsidy exists, but that they have baptised it Under-Recovery and are even paying much more fuel subsidy unappropriated, by illegally diverting money from NNPC and NLNG. VP and NNPC are debating whether this is right or wrong... The VP is debating whether it is government or NNPC that is paying the subsidy. The Yorubas say “omi eko, eko ni”, that the water in pap is pap as well. Me, I am just looking. When in opposition they said that fuel importation by independent petroleum marketers was a scam. Now in government, they handle it solely through NNPC and have almost doubled the daily consumption volumes that they previously described as a scam. The NNPC is debating the daily fuel consumption volumes. While in opposition, they said that they will reduce fuel price from N87 per litre to N40 per litre. When they got into government, they first increased fuel price to N141 per litre and subsequently hunkered down and increased it further to N145 per litre. This was while paying more fuel subsidy than their predecessors. We are being told that they may have to increase fuel price again. They said that they have rooted out corruption, plugged leakages, weeded out ghost workers, ended wastage, but the only veritable confirmation of these claims should have been a drastic reduction in expenditure on all those lines. Yet these expenditure lines have almost all witnessed increases, and in the case of salaries, wages and pensions, an almost N500 Billion increase. They say that they are winning the war against corruption, which ordinarily should reflect in our ranking under the Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index. The reverse is the case as Nigeria moved from 136 to 148 in the world this year. Probably the worst ever retrogression within a one-year period. They say we have technically defeated Boko Haram, and that Nigeria is more secure than it has ever been, yet everyday our gallant soldiers are being slaughtered and secretly buried in cemeteries, our kith and kin are daily butchered by marauding herdsmen. They said that they have only borrowed US$10 Billion since 2015, yet they met US$10.31682 Billion External Debt in June 2015, increased it to US$22.083 Billion by June 2018 (in June 2015, met US$1.5 Billion of the more expensive External Commercial Debt and increased it to US$8.8 Billion in June 2018). Met N8.3965 Trillion Domestic Debt in June 2015, increased it to N12.151 Trillion by June 2018. But the naira has since been devalued so the Vice President argues that they only borrowed US$10 Billion, and this by converting the Naira debt using today's exchange rate. They say that they have lifted 10.073million Nigerians from poverty to prosperity, yet a report by Brookings Institution (the American research group) reveals that Nigeria (with a population of 198 million) has overtaken India (with a population of 1.324 Billion) as the poverty capital of the world. 87 million people in Nigeria living in extreme poverty, compared to India’s 73 million. Nigeria’s minister of Budget and National Planning, Sen. Udoma Udo Udoma is still debating the numbers lifted or cast into poverty. I can go on and on (you can add your own), but the summary is that nothing adds up with these guys. It is all propaganda, sophistry, demagoguery, smoke and mirrors. 9 Likes 5 Shares |
| Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 5:26pm On Nov 15, 2018 |
Adam and Eve ‘disobeyed’ God then God punished them with suffering and eternal damnation on their first offense then tried to fix it by making his son (also God) human and forcing him to die for the man he cursed. So many unhealthy ways to show love. But they will say God works in mysterious ways. 10 Likes 1 Share |
| Sports › Re: "The Super Eagles Thread: The Road To AFCON 2027, 2028 And 2030 World Cup by joseph1013: 12:53pm On Nov 15, 2018*. Modified: 1:51pm On Nov 15, 2018 |
soetanoreoluwa:It's not even Monday, his first name is Money. So inadvertently his name (Surname first) is Government Money. |
| Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 11:59am On Nov 15, 2018 |
MuttleyLaff:Again, you are gunning for a fight where none exists. He asks for clarification. The guy has provided clarification using a query. Why are you angry? |
