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Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 4:52am On Mar 20, 2018

The account of the origin of the universe given in the Bible would embarrass the naive, the gullible, the minimally educated and many infants.
But not some Christians, apparently.

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Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 5:08am On Mar 19, 2018

THE QUESTION BELIEVERS CAN'T ANSWER

Ask a person why they believe in God and they will probably give you a reason.

Then ask them:

1. If they believed before they discovered the reason given. They did*.

2. If they would stop believing if their reason could be shown to be invalid. They won't*.

There is only one conclusion you can draw from these responses--the believer has not given the true reasons they believe. So repeat your question, "Why do you believe in God?"

The most common answer at this point is, "F**k off!"

*With very few exceptions.

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Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 5:23pm On Mar 18, 2018

4kings:
They've been wired not to consider that...
They truly belive their God is the ONLY true God.
(Atleast most of them)

Muslims are not afraid of Christian hell and Christians are not afraid of Islamic hell.

They are both right.

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Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 4:06pm On Mar 17, 2018

Christians, how can you be terrified of Christian hell but completely unconcerned about Islamic hell?

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Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 5:43am On Mar 17, 2018

CHRISTIANITY OR ISLAM?

Christians and Muslims worship the same god; the god of Abraham. If Islam is true, Jesus was a liar. If Christianity is true, Mohammad was a liar. So which one do you most trust?

The one who claimed God was his dad? The one who claimed to have died for three days? The one who cursed a fig tree for not bearing fruit out-of-season?The one who claimed the stars would fall to earth? The one who told his followers to drink poison?

Or the other one? The one who believed stones and trees can talk? The one who believed the sun sets in a muddy pool of water? The one who owned slaves? The one who claimed the first man (Adam) was 90 feet tall? The one who claimed to have long conversations with an angel? The one who married a nine year-old child?

Not much of a choice is it?

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Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 9:37pm On Mar 12, 2018

THE TRUE STORY OF DEREK

About 80 years ago, a baby was born into humble circumstances in Baabda, Lebanon. He was called Derek. I don't know the exact date he was born but I know his father trained him as a car mechanic and, as a teenager, he began to earn a living repairing cars.

Although he received a minimal education and probably never learned to write, Derek was a wonderful speaker. When he began telling stories, a crowd would soon gather round, eager to hear what he had to say. Initially, he told stories with a moral but soon moved on to telling people how they could make their lives better.

One such day, a crowd was listening to him intently when a ragged servant girl pushed to the front of the crowd. She called to him, "Derek, please help me. My master forced me to sleep with him and when my mistress found out she put a knife in my eye and I'm now blind and cannot work."

Derek held her hand gently and pulled her head to his chest. "Open your eyes for you can see" he whispered. She opened her eyes and her face lit up, "I can see!" she cried, as large tears rolled down her cheeks.

After that incident, Derek's reputation grew and so did the crowds who came to hear him speak. He did more amazing things.

One day, a tearful wife helped by her five children brought her dead husband to Derek. He had died two days ago and the woman was beside herself in grief. Derek spoke a few quiet words and the man began to stir as if he was waking from a deep sleep. Soon he was standing up, laughing and joking with the joyful crowd.

Derek had an extraordinary secret to tell his followers but he waited until his reputation was sky-high before he told them. He said they all knew his father Robbie. But Robbie was not his real father. His real father did not live in Lebanon, in fact he did not live on this planet.

His father lived in the constellation Andromeda, 97 light-years from Earth. A few people could not believe this revelation but many did, and it added enormously to Derek's stellar reputation.

Derek's growing popularity did not please everyone though. In particular, it worried religious leaders who thought Derek was leading people astray so they began to preach against him. Derek predicted they would come after him and so they did.

One warm evening a mob formed and grew in size and anger as they roamed around looking for him. When Derek heard about the mob, rather than hide, he went out to talk to them. But his sonorous voice and sweet words were no match for the mob. They beat him with baseball bats and hacked at him with machetes.

By the time the mob dispersed, Derek was unrecognisable. His body parts were strewn across the road and his blood ran away down the gutters.
Distraught followers collected the parts they could find and dropped them in a plastic bag. It was the best they could do. But this is not the end of the story.

As the tearful followers sat around staring at the bloody plastic bag, they began to see movement. Inside the bag something was happening.

Suddenly, the bag burst and Derek jumped up, damaged and covered in blood but alive and smiling! He spoke to them all briefly and then said goodbye to each one of them individually--almost 500 people witnessed this miracle.

Finally, he looked up and said he was going home to his father, but he would be back. He flew up into the sky like a rocket and disappeared from view.
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I don't suppose anyone reading this story thinks it is true. It is far-fetched and the only evidence we have is my story written years after the events by someone who wasn't there. There is no other evidence that Derek ever existed, let alone that any of the events described actually happened.

We can say exactly the same about the existence of Jesus and the events of his life.

Actually, we have slightly better evidence for Derek than we have for Jesus. At least you know me, the author of the story, but we have no idea who wrote the Jesus stories.

I wonder then, why so many people believe the Jesus story but no one believes the Derek story? What is the difference? The difference is you were raised to believe the Jesus story and that makes all the difference in the world.

But does that make it true?

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Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 5:54pm On Mar 11, 2018

Lance Sievert

To my Christian, Jew and Hindu friends:

I really enjoy seeing a Muslim woman freeing herself of the hijab. I will wager that you feel the same.

What are we enjoying really? That a woman has her face uncovered? I don't think that is really the case. What we are appreciating is a person being liberated from religious oppression and control.

The hijab is really a symbol of how much power religion has over individuals, families and societies. For those who grow up in a religious culture, religious oppression is not religious oppression, it is normal, everyday life, and is rarely ever questioned, that is, if questioning is even permitted.

Religious power and control embeds itself in every facet of life, so as never to be separated, but instead, is permanently infused in every aspect of daily life and the individual psyche.

Add to that, that most of those oppressed cannot themselves recognize that oppression and cannot conceive of another way. This means that ending oppression and harm emanating from the practice and observance of religion is almost impossible to achieve.

It makes change exceedingly slow while extending the duration of the harm and allowing that harm to reach more people.

Now when you think of a hijab, I want you to ask yourself, "What is my religion forcing upon me?" What is your figurative hijab? How is the power and control of religion oppressing you? Has your religion embedded itself in every facet of your world? Can you imagine, or are you even permitted, to think of another way?

Do you really believe that if one religion can control a whole people, that your religion is not also controlling you?

Are these not important questions that you should have the freedom to ask? Has your religion gained enough power and control over your loved ones, that they will even permit you to ask?

Try taking off your "hijab" and find out.

Thanks for reading...
Love,
Lance Sievert

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Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 2:40pm On Mar 11, 2018

joseph1013:
[b]THE MUSLIM WHOSE PRESENCE DEFIED CHRIST
by Professor Pius Adesanmi

Modees Usman, one of my protégés, was supposed to come and see me at the Ake Arts and Book Festival last month in Abeokuta. The gentleman is a patriotic Customs officer and, in my estimation, one of the brightest hopes for the sort of pan-Nigeria I envision ceaselessly in my public reflections. A devout Muslim, his sensibilities and advocacy for Nigeria reach across all our fault lines and bitter divisions. He is a picture perfect portrait of my ideal Nigerian. Suffice it to say, he did not make it to Abeokuta for our meeting. However, he sent a carton of non-alcoholic wine to me through another wonderful pan-Nigerian patriot, Remy Binte Oge.

My protégé couldn’t make it to Abeokuta because he had to travel to Calabar to attend the wedding of his childhood friend. He was in fact the designated best man at the occasion. I sent word to him that his attempt to bribe me with a carton of wine would not work: he would still have to pay a fine for failing to somehow find a way to visit me during my last trip to Nigeria.

I had no idea that a little drama was playing out in Calabar…

Modees, obviously, is a Muslim. His best friend who was getting married is a Christian. A Muslim was going to be best man in a Christian marriage! The Christian groom and his Muslim best friend thought nothing of this until wedding day and the officiating Pastor somehow caught wind of the faith of the best man and refused to proceed with the ceremony. It was bad enough for Modees, a Muslim, to have come to defile the body of Christ in his church! To approach the pulpit as the best man in the wedding was adding insult to injury! All entreaties to the Pastor failed. No Muslims allowed here!

The story of this foolish fundamentalist Christian Pastor in Calabar is the story of Nigeria. It is indeed the story of Africa. It is the story of the failure of critical intelligence. It could very easily have happened the other way round. It could have been Modees getting married and his Christian friend being bundled out of the ceremony for defiling a Mosque. The trouble with Nigeria, the tragedy of Africa, is that in a world of mutual connectivity and global influences and interactions, we have not figured out a way of making whatever we accept from the outside, whatever is forced on us from the outside, sit on the solid foundation of our own worldviews and humanity.

We forget that Christianity and Islam did not invade Africa purely as faith. They couldn’t have for they are much more than faith. They are also cultures for they took on the cultures of either their places of origin or their sources of global dissemination. Europeans and Arabs injected a great deal of their cultures and values, of who they are, into the versions of the creeds that they introduced to Africa. Because he lacks critical intelligence in his embrace of these two religions, the African thinks that the African in him must die as a pre-condition for his being a true Muslim or a true Christian.

This is the source of a strain of pathological fundamentalism that is strange even to the 'owners' of those religions in Europe and the Arab world. This explains why the modern Nigerian Christian – the sort who jots his Pastor’s sermon on an iPad – condemns the New Yam Festival in his village as a pagan practice while enthusiastically invading the Ikeja Mall to buy Halloween costumes for his children. That is why people demonstrate peacefully in Saudi Arabia whenever Europe draws cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed but Nigerians kill fellow Nigerians on account of ideological conflicts between Europe and the Middle East.

That is why Modees was thrown out of a Christian wedding in Calabar.

Modees was thrown out because Muslim and Christian faithful in Nigeria have killed the spirit of accommodation, humanism, and tolerance which informed the religions of their forefathers. They do not know that African Traditional Religions, like every other faith, also come complete with values that should inform their approach to the foreign religions they now practice.

Nobody is saying that you should discard your Christianity or Islam and go back to worship Ogun or Amadioha. But, at least, reduce your ignorance of what they thought of the other; reduce your ignorance of how the faith of your forefathers handled difference. Let me invite one of Africa’s foremost thinkers, Professor Ali Mazrui, to instruct you. Let me quote in detail from Professor Mazrui’s book, Resurgent Islam and the Politics of Identity:

“Of the three cultural legacies of Africa (Indigenous, Islamic and Christian) perhaps the most religiously tolerant is the indigenous tradition. It is even arguable that Africa did not have religious wars before Islam and Christianity arrived. Precisely because these two latter faiths were universalist in aspiration (seeking to convert the whole of humankind), they were inherently competitive. In Africa, Christianity and Islam have often been in competition for the soul of the continent…Indigenous African religions on the other hand are basically communal rather than universalist…By not being universalist in that sense, the African traditions have not been in competition with each other for the souls of other people. The Yoruba do not seek to convert the Ibo (sic) to Yoruba religion or vice versa. By not being proselytizing religions, African creeds have not fought with each other. Over the centuries, Africans have waged many kinds of wars with each other but hardly ever religious ones before the universalist creeds arrived.”

There you have it. The Ogun worshipper did not seek to convert or kill the Sango worshipper. The devotee of Obatala did not try to break the ikenga of the devotee of Amadioha. Tolerance was the foundation of the faith of your forefathers. How does adopting this foundational spirit of tolerance and injecting it into the Islam and Christianity you practice in Nigeria today make you any less a Muslim or a Christian? How exactly does the presence of Modees as best man in the wedding of his Christian friend diminish your Christianity?

In Zaria, you are even dividing and killing each other within the same faith along Shiite and Sunni lines imported from the Arab world – with the Army pouring petrol into the fire and committing possible crimes against humanity by mowing down civilians in a residence after clashes initial clashes on a road, all sides trading accusations.

Yet, the Pastor who threw out a Muslim from his Church will not hesitate to break the law by organizing a Christian event to block major roads in Calabar and make life difficult for his fellow Christians locked in a hellish traffic jam. Every Friday, Sambo Dasuki, Nigeria’s greatest thief at the moment, still does very public photo-ops from the prayer mats of the Mosque he attends.

Fundamentalist professions of Islam and Christianity have not stopped you from making Nigeria a cesspool of hate, theft, and corruption.

Tolerance was the foundation of the religion of your forefathers. You are welcome to continue to spit on these ancient religions and condemn them as pagan or idolatry. That is your wahala. But, know this: any Christianity or Islam which requires you to forego the tolerance inherent in the religions of your ancestors is leading you straight to hell for you will steal, hate, and kill in the name of such a Christianity or Islam.[/b]

Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 7:52pm On Mar 08, 2018

Pablo Okwukogu

You'll be on your own in a bus, on the street, in a keke...and one person clutching a Bible will approach you, offer you a leaflet inviting you to their church..with a punchline that says

"your life will never be the same after visiting our church"

This is the height, they don't know you but they're sure about the state of your life and how it will be after visiting their church

You ignore them, return home, use social media to rant about it, still some people will come on your post to tell you to respect people's beliefs.

What the actual f**k is that?

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Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 11:04am On Mar 07, 2018

Jekwu Ozoemene

There is nothing like the Abrahamic faith Satan in the Yoruba Pantheon of Gods.

Esu is the God of mischief, the trickster god, a God of frightening excesses who is also a protector.

Of course not a protector when he purposely leaves a gourd of palmwine for Ogun to drink, get inebriated and slaughter his own people in battle.

Esu's equivalent in the Norse pantheon of gods is Loki or Hermes or maybe Mercury in the Roman pantheon.

Not even the Greek Hades approximates the Abrahamic faith Satan, neither is the Igbo Ekwensu, who like Esu is originally a trickster god (alusi), a master of commerce and a god of war and victory.

The predominance of Satan or Shaitan of the Abrahamic faith is also a new development following beliefs in witchcraft, demonic possession and sorcery much like Africa's explosion of Pentecostalism.

Not sure how Beelzebub the Prince of Darkness (Lord of the Flies) came to be an appellation for the Abrahamic faith Satan though.

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Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 9:46am On Mar 03, 2018

Agbaosi Gloria

Some things leave you confused, angry and spent.
My Facebook friend AnoDavinci Ebirim is free to write his atheists posts.
He will call the Christian God names.
He is free to do so.
I still respect his opinions on other subjects apart from religion.

I have never for one day been to his wall to insult him or tell him my God will kill him and his whole generations yet unborn.
Nigeria is a secular state.
He is the owner of his data and his networking device.
I don't need to fight for a God who should be protecting me.

It makes no sense.

Ess Dee Gee , someone I respect so much, I wish he can be more active on social media again, I miss his contribution on various issues.
He doesn't believe in the Christian God again.
I've not for one day attacked his stance on religion.
That doesn't mean I don't hold my faith dear to my heart.

It is a personal race.
No compulsion in religion.

Ese Walter doesn't want anyone to tell her anything about the Christian God, I've respected myself and I don't go near that subject.

This isn't an excuse for anyone of you to attack them.
Anyway, they can hold their own. You attack them at your own peril.
Don't say I didn't warn you.

The bull-roarer (oro) that makes its outings in the midnight is found majorly in the South west.
It's only the initiated males that can come in contact with it.

I was actually born into the voice of the bull-roarer.
If there is one culture I'll want the government to stamp out, it is the 'oro'
It restricts one's movement.
It tampers with my right to move freely.

Right in front of my paternal family house is the house of the 'Iyalode Oro'.
The open space in front of our house is where egungun, igunnuko, oya, paje and all the various African gods display their dance steps.
All these were the hallmarks of my formative years.

My late maternal grand father was the son of another Iya- Olode oro.
I can sing few of the songs they render to Iya-Olode Oro... ( e ba wa pe Iya Olode Oro... Iya Olode....)
I'm not digressing.

I don't like that part of the culture.
It is an infringement on human rights.
Nigeria is a secular State.
If my gods demand that I bring 10 human heads and I go ahead and do so, I am nothing but a mass murderer.

Now, this is where I am heading to.
A fellow decided to take to his timeline to abuse the Mohammed of Islam.
When I saw the post yesterday night, I knew hell will be let loose.
I turned on my notification for that post.
I followed silently.

The young man has received over 17 threats to his life in his inbox.
Most of the Moslems that dropped comments on the post boldly and publicly declared to him their willingness to kill him and cut off his head.
They explained it in vivid details how they will go about the killings.

Boldly.

Confidently.

You come to public space to tell someone you will kill him if he dares step his foot in the north.
You went to his inbox to threaten him with death.
You turn around to say you love your "peace Loving Islam and I will kill for my Mohammed ".

In a secular state!
In a country that has a constitution and has laws!
Whatever the fellow wrote is never an excuse for such.
People are free to write a truckload of nonsense on their wall, in as much as they haven't broken any law of the country or harm anybody, it is their freedom.

The worshippers of the African gods do not take a cutlass to your head for calling their gods man-made gods.
The Christians do not take to the sword to defend their God.

Why will some adherents of Islam feel the need and the confidence to kill and maim in the name of their own God?
Why?
Someone will sketch a cartoon of Mohammed in one faraway land and some people will start killing others in Nigeria!

It is time we amend our constitution.
During government functions, prayers are called for from both Christians and Moslems.
This is wrong.

What of the Sango, Orunmila, Obatala, Amadioha and atheists?
What of them?
Are they not Nigerians?

After the national anthem, opening speech should follow and the function should end with the national anthem.
Leave the prayers for people to do in their places of worship.

For how long are we going to do all these nonsense because of religion?
Someone will win a court case as a governor and he will spend state money on thanksgiving.

What is all these nonsense?
And if sharia law is stronger in the Moslem north than the constitution, I think it's time we go back to Federating Units.

Let's know where exactly we are heading to.
We need to attend to these fundamental issues.
We are NOT one.
We are lying to ourselves.
We are Not.

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Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 4:23pm On Mar 01, 2018

Azaya

Post: How does the sun generate its own heat?

Commenter 1: It's one of the mysteries of life. We can never know. It's only God that knows.

Commenter 2: We do know actually. It's hsisyrhehsjjs according to science.

Commenter 1: Oversabi! Is it not scientists that change their mind all the time? All these their theories that are not even facts. Tomorrow now they will say another thing.

Me: *clicks on commenter 1's profile pic* *Profile picture says "I am for science"*

LOL! We will be alright, last last. Or not sha. What's my own.

Abeg who get Visa to Canada?

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Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 4:38am On Feb 28, 2018

THE TRUTH ABOUT ATHEISTS

Before you know any atheists, you might believe the stories you hear about them. You might believe they are immoral, amoral or just evil. You might believe they are lost and aimless or they are drab, cheerless people who have no hope, no love and no happiness in their lives.

But once you have met them, and you can hardly avoid meeting them if you spend time on social media, you find the caricature is quite wrong.

Atheists are just ordinary people with husbands, wives, families. They have ordinary jobs and there are very many of them who are happy, positive people who have done well in life.

You will discover that atheists are not involved in a great conspiracy with Satan to hurt believers or challenge God. In fact, you'll realise atheists find Satan and God equally unbelievable.

Take time to talk to atheists and you are likely to find they are driven not by hate but by love. They see how religion harms people around the world and they want to stop it.

A radical believer may drive his car at high speed along a crowded pavement creating death and injury; a radical atheist won't harm you. A religious person would be far safer in a room full of radical atheists than he would be in a room full of people with radical religious beliefs.

Believing in God can turn reality upside down. Believers often say God is love but read any book of the Old Testament and you'll see the opposite is true. Believers often assume atheists are aimless, unhappy and hateful but talk to them and you'll see you have that upside down too.

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Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 6:13pm On Feb 25, 2018

Charles Uzor

Religion might have its uses.

Yet there is no ignoring its ills.

What I heard from the church blaring its loudspeakers next door is a perfect example of religion dividing people.

I think their gospel was focused on generational curses. The pastor cautioned churchgoers against cursing their children in rare moments of anger, because those curses can stick, and cause problems later. Children were cautioned to be truthful always so as not to attract the wrath of their parents.

I listened attentively to hear some words against physically abusing children, but the clergyman never strayed from curses, the most evil form of verbal abuse in Christendom.

But wait for it!

Pastor told the story of men who married perfect women in every sense of the word: work ethic, character, looks, accomplishments, prospects, etc. Unfortunately, life happens and people develop cancer. People suffer mental breakdown. People have accidents. Trust religion to apportion blame to ancestral and generational curses.

Nothing is ever as it seems. Pray hard before you marry. Avoid calamity even if you're getting hooked to a great soul, a born again Christian. Break all ancestral courses.

Never mind that people live more fulfilling lives in the developed world; people live longer and no one is afraid of their own shadow, never mind the long shadows of long - dead kit and kin.

The deadliest battle is a war against imaginary enemies. It is a brutal war of attrition. In the end, the living will always lose against their fabricated enemies.

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Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 2:03am On Feb 25, 2018

THEOLOGY VS SCIENCE

Today is Sunday. And in a few hours, all over Nigeria, people will crowd in churches to hear from the mouth of their pastors, some of whom boast of being graduates of theological school, and who consider themselves experts in theology.

But what really is the deal with theology?

Theology essentially studies simple questions; does god exist and what is his nature? Despite this, and several thousand years of effort, theology has reached no consensus on either question. There has been zero progress.

Why are these simple questions? Because if God exists, it would be blindingly obvious. If God is everywhere, can communicate with every human being and makes local changes to the arrow of time or the laws of nature millions, or billions, of times a day in response to our pleas for help, the evidence for his existence would be ubiquitous. The notion of being unaware of God would be as absurd as being unaware of gravity. God would be part of the fabric of our world.

Science studies the most difficult questions known to man, such as the nature of matter and the origins of the universe. Science investigates things far too small to see and far to big too comprehend. Science can investigate events that occurred long before any humans existed or even before any life existed.

Despite these enormous challenges, in less than 500 years science has transformed our understanding of thousands of deep questions that held our ancestors in ignorance for hundreds of thousands of years.

Theology allowed ignorance to masquerade as knowledge. Science is the key that unlocked the universe.

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Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 9:33pm On Feb 23, 2018*

THE UNBELIEVABLE BIBLE

There is much in the Bible that is so silly, it has to be regarded as metaphor, allegory or poetry. The problem is, the Bible doesn't tell us which parts are literal and which are not. We have to decide for ourselves and, as a consequence, we have the absurd situation where some Christians believe it is 100% literal and some believe it is almost 100% allegory.

The literalists generally take that position, not because the Bible can be defended as wholly literal, but because they understand that stepping away from 100% literal is a slippery slope. If you disregard the parts that demand you suspend disbelief, there won't be much left.

There is also an elephant in the room for those who believe the Bible is almost 100% allegory. They are just an inch away from the concluding that God too is just allegory. Indeed, they have to invoke faith to retain God at all—it cannot be done on rational grounds.

Seriously, what use is a book that can be interpreted so differently by its own supporters? Indeed, what use is a book that would have us believe that an ultra intelligent, invisible, magical being exists, when the book itself is largely unintelligent and unbelievable?

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Sports › Re: "The Super Eagles Thread: The Road To AFCON 2027, 2028 And 2030 World Cup by joseph1013: 6:50pm On Feb 19, 2018

goldfish80:
I find the death of Chinedu Udoji quite incredulous. I heard he was man of the match in the game last night between Enyimba and Pillars only to give up the ghost just 7hrs later after his car crashed into a concrete.
To hear that his wife put to bed just last month. Jesus almighty Christ, what will be the fate of this young family? What will the young woman tell her kid about the whereabouts of his father? Is there an insurance policy for Npfl players?
What a tragedy. What a blow.
Rip capt Udoji.

WOW... What a tragedy!

We need to start running our clubs like proper companies.

I'm gutted for the young family. What a loss!

1 Like

Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 5:35pm On Feb 19, 2018

Olatunde Olayinka Ayinde

Why do we help out others?

Talking about one's random act of kindness in public can sometimes be misunderstood as bragging by little minds. But then, some things have to be said to make a general social justice and development point.

A certain madam was having her car washed one Sunday, many months ago when she was approached by a young man who drew her attention discreetly. He told the madam very politely that he was a student of a higher institution in Ibadan. He needed to pay a certain fee the following day, failing which something sinister and irreparable might happen to his academic career.

He wasn't begging for money but he had a proposal. Could Madam kindly find him work, any odd job around the house or farm or wherever, and pay him an advance, so that he could pay up the following day. He knew this was a risky and ridiculous proposal but he had been out all day. He had told the same story countless times and he was near despair and all he had as collateral was his unproven integrity.

Madam knew immediately that this could be a 419. This could well be a scam. She asked the young man to leave his phone number with her. She would get back to him. So when she returned home in the evening she told her husband the story of this young man and added that it is possible this was a scam but it also appeared the young man was really distressed. Her husband, me, whose mumu button is education and giving young people a chance at life, heard the story and decided to examine it for merit.

I gave the young undergraduate (who I wasn't really sure was really an undergraduate as at the time) a call in the evening. I needed to be sure which one he was: an amateur liar, a professional liar or an undergraduate as per his claim. I knew a bit about his school and department, and a bit about human nature.

So we talked on the phone for some time, and I did a bit of sleuthing. One thing was clear, he wasn't an armature liar, which meant he would get help, if not for being an undergraduate, but at least for putting in a decent effort at lying intelligently. So I sent him 10, 000 naira, which was enough to cover his urgent fees.

He called back on receiving the bank alert and kept praying and "god-bless-you-siring" me. I asked him politely to stop and go on with his life. Over the next few days he called every day to thank me and go through the routine of prayers etc. After much pestering I agreed to meet him.

The first thing I told him was to stop the prayers and blessing thingie. I didn't do what I did for a deity or for a blessing or to go heaven or to avoid hell. I did it because, one, I could comfortably afford it.

Two, I felt it was the decent thing to do.

Three, I needed him to know that in this bleeped up world, in this whole fuckery called life, with the Andrew Yakubus and James Iboris of this world messing up his future and everybody else's future, there are still decent human beings who know that the decent thing to do when another needs help is to provide the help, after having satisfied themselves that the chances are slim that the person being helped out is not out to exploit the pool of human goodness left in the world for those who truly need help.

There is an urgent need to ensure young people keep their faith in humanity. The icing on the cake: investing in human beings and on education is time bound and has a higher chance of yielding good dividend to both the investor and the one being invested in.

He wanted to know what I wanted in return and I said nothing. I have outgrown the myth of heaven and hell as a motivation for being a decent human being.

Instead I told him what I usually tell young people. Go to school. Read widely. Learn a skill. Be the very best at whatever it is that you do. Be a decent human being. When the time comes when you can afford it, find five other persons who are in the kind of shoes you are in today, do the same thing for them. Keep in touch (who knows there might be other things we could do together in future). Ask them to keep in touch too and to do the same for others when their time come. A radiating wave of goodwill, if you wish.

That is how little efforts lead to big societal impacts. There is a selfish part to it too, I admit. That was a tiny effort at reducing the number of potential drop outs, thieves or political thugs, by one. It saves society money, it makes me sleep a little better at night, and most importantly, it made me feel good that somebody was bailed out from some mess.

My friend still keeps in touch, I have learnt quite a bit about his circumstance in life and I intend to buy him a few books that young men should be reading.

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Sports › Re: "The Super Eagles Thread: The Road To AFCON 2027, 2028 And 2030 World Cup by joseph1013: 7:43am On Feb 19, 2018

jerrythafinisher:
Good morning house. sorry to derail, how is this kind of match decided?

From my days of playing PES, the team with the first five red cards loses the match by 3-0.

I checked FIFA and found that a team can continue match with minimum 7 players.

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Sports › Re: "The Super Eagles Thread: The Road To AFCON 2027, 2028 And 2030 World Cup by joseph1013: 3:44pm On Feb 18, 2018

Mickael2:
it baffles me that people are even keying into that rubbish. I mean this was the same Oliseh that took a bunch of unknowns to the top of the league,winning almost all their games at home, if that does not mean that the players are behind their coach I wonder what is. Then Oliseh is sacked and they lost(AT HOME) to a team that they should have defeated handsomely, if that is not the players voicing out their disappointment I wonder what is.

Fortuna Sittard is a local team and most of the top guys want their kids playing for the first team, and this was why Oliseh was sacked

I'm big believer in Oliseh. Long before he got the Eagles job, I had wanted him. While I did not believe in the superstitious stories during his Eagles campaign, I still believed the end would have justified the means if he is still at the helm of affairs today.

But there comes a time when you have to realize that talent is not enough. If you do not have human relations skills, you can only go so far in life. It is said that technical skills will get you into a job, but your ability to work in a group will determine your length of stay.

Even if Sittard suspended him unfairly, there is a way to leave the job respectfully and professionally, in such a way that other clubs would find you attractive. You cannot go accusing a club about engaging in illegal deals on social media. What in the world! What message does that send to other clubs. It does not just have the potential to hurt him, it has the potential to have hurt other upcoming black coaches.

He was a hothead during his playing days. He was a hothead during the Eagles campaign. He has left a sour taste in the mouth of the owner of his last job.

If everywhere you go, you are seen as problematic, believe me, the problem is not with the world. Perhaps you should just look at the mirror to see where the problem lies.

Oliseh should go for help. He is a brilliant tactician, no doubt, but he needs to learn how to work with people.

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Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 1:52pm On Feb 18, 2018

CREATIONIST, FIND YOUR OWN EVIDENCE!

Danvon is urging us to allow schools to teach the Bible. That way, I assume he intends that we teach kids the creation story, since he obviously believes that evolution is perfectly unscientific. He insists there is nothing wrong with teaching and promoting Christianity in school.

I'm quite curious about his response to hopefulLandlord. S/he provides danvon with a link to check out what evolution is about, but instead of setting down to get educated about natural selection, he instead impatiently tries to pick holes in the theory.

Why do creationists do this? Why is it that they never present evidence to support their own creationist hypothesis? Because they have none. So they are left with the futile strategy of picking holes in evolutionary theory using half-truths, distortions and lies.

They miss the rather obvious fact that, even if evolution were proven false, their own Biblical theory would not be advanced a single inch.

Creationism needs to find its own evidence and, until it does, it will continue to be seen as a pitiful attempt by believers in superstition and magic to salvage some credibility where none is deserved.

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Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 5:16pm On Feb 17, 2018

danvon:
Sure isn't that what Harry Potter is all about Good witches vs Bad witches besides, Harry Potter has many horrific scenes

I don't like discussions that waste my time. This juxtaposition of Harry Potter and the Bible is obfuscating.

So let me ask you, do you believe we should teach kids from the Bible that they need salvation and that they are born sinners, and that they are damned without Christ?

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Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 4:54pm On Feb 17, 2018

danvon:
Good why don't they read books about a boy who became a Christian that's just fiction, even the Bible is considered fiction by them why don't they read David and Goliath to the children it's just fiction those things are banned but Harry Potter isn't

http://mobile.wnd.com/2003/06/19247/

You don't mind us reading the Bible as the ridiculous book of stories that it is? You mean, we are free to take out the horrific parts and tell stories like that of the Good Samaritan to teach ethics and merits of good deeds to kids?

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Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 4:31pm On Feb 17, 2018

danvon:
Do you know that Harry Potter is read to children in American public schools? I hope you know Harry Potter promotes the religion called 'Wicca'

Yes, it's read as a story that it is. Fiction. Same way some of us were fortunate to be told stories of the tortoise and its tricks under a big tree. Remember tales-by-moonlight?

Wicca is a religious movement like other religious movements. It is not taught in American schools to American school kids.

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Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 4:11pm On Feb 17, 2018

danvon:
Just want to ask a question you said schools don't have the right to indoctrinate someone with their religion

Do schools have the right to teach children evolution theory and flying spaghetti monster?

Yes. Evolution theory deserves to be taught, just like Germ theory, Cell theory, Particulate Inheritance theory, or Dual Inheritance theory. They are all in the same category according to science.

No. Flying Spaghetti Monster does not deserve to be taught in school. It's in the category of Harry Potter series.

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Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 10:55am On Feb 17, 2018

HUSH, GOD IS SLEEPING

The six-day biblical creation story is so flawed and so firmly contradicted by what we know about the universe, that some Christians try to find excuses for it. They say, the universe WAS created in six days but they were not literal days. They were days of millions or billions of years.

Does this make it better?

To match the elapsed time since the true of beginning of the universe, a biblical creation day would have to be equal to 2.3 billion years, which brings its own problems—like grass, plants and trees being created billions of years before the sun…

But there is one way in which this idea is an improvement. The story says God rested on the seventh day. Since a day is 2.3 billion years, God must still be resting and will rest for another two billion years or so.

Now THAT does help —that could explain a lot.

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Sports › Re: The Flying Eagles of Nigeria Thread: Poland 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup by joseph1013: 5:00am On Feb 16, 2018

Present sir!

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Sports › Re: "The Super Eagles Thread: The Road To AFCON 2027, 2028 And 2030 World Cup by joseph1013: 5:02am On Feb 15, 2018

TheSuperNerd:
Dont mind me Chief .... Even while I typed that post and tagged you (as leader of Elders council) and the Pioneer Super OPs, I actually recalled that it was you who first mentioned this. Biko gbaram... lol

Oya... I leave it to you guys to decide who to create. Have in mind too that Sir Joebie is also now a Super OP here. Yep... so If Joseph1013 won't be available to create it then maybe Joebie can create it. But it has always been Joseph1013. Make una choose.

No big deal in creating threads. You should create it.

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Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 7:00pm On Feb 14, 2018

THE BELIEVER'S FINAL CONUNDRUM

My last post "SATAN: SINNER OR SAVIOUR?" suggested the conventional view that Satan is the bad guy could be completely wrong. The evidence clearly shows God was an evil monster and Satan's actions can be seen to be an attempt to oppose Yahweh to make a better world.

This view is a credible interpretation of scripture and cannot be falsified, so all open-minded believers should accept it as a possibility. That raises some interesting issues for them.

If I am right and if good does ultimately triumph over evil, you won't be judged by God when you die-- you'll be judged by Satan. What will Satan look for when he decides on your eternal destination? One thing is for sure, proclaiming your belief in, and love of, the evil Yahweh will be a huge problem for you. What could be more damning than spending your life worshiping and praying to a genocidal monster?

What about faith? Will Satan take a dim view that you believed an avalanche of silly things based on no evidence whatsoever? I'm not sure Satan would find such people agreeable company to spend eternity with.

Satan is also likely to be horrified at the way some believers, at the behest of Yahweh, treated LGBT people so badly.

When Satan looks at what motivated you, I suspect he will be disappointed to find you were not moved to help people for the sake of it but rather to ingratiate yourself with evil Yahweh.

I think Satan is likely to look more favourably on people who did good because they wanted to help others and who weighed evidence to arrive at their beliefs--people like atheists. Satan will put atheists in first class and others will be relegated to lesser places.

There is one thing believers can hope for though. I can't imagine the good-hearted Satan wishing to torture people forever, so I think he will abolish God's cruel and unjust hell. Instead, he might choose to let believers live poor but adequate after-lives, acting as servants to the atheists and gay people in first class. Believers will be cooks, gardeners, housemaids, sewage workers, toilet cleaners and so on.

This presents quite a conundrum for believers. Will they risk continuing to suck up to the evil Yahweh by worshiping him and relying on faith, or would they be better off revising their beliefs through the lens of reason and seeking to do good in the world for its own sake?

The decision is theirs.
.
PS For the avoidance of doubt, this is a hypothetical possibility concerning a hypothetical god and his hypothetical nemesis.

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Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 4:35am On Feb 14, 2018

SATAN: SINNER OR SAVIOUR?

Satan may be the most misunderstood person in all mythology. Millions of Christians fear and loath Satan whilst they worship and love God, but is this fair?

OK, Christians believe God created everything but God was a ruthless killer. He was unjust, frequently killing the innocent to punish the guilty. God was jealous and treated humans as his playthings--rather as a child pulling the legs off a spider. God was a cosmic bully.

God did not want humans to have knowledge of good and evil but just think what that would have led to. Without this knowledge, anything would be acceptable. Genocide, rape, child molestation: what's wrong with these things? That would be our world if we didn't understand the difference between good and evil.

Satan was a rebellious angel but he was rebellious for good reason. He understood how evil God was and wanted to make a better world. Satan helped humans to understand the difference between good and evil but God's wicked response was to curse all of Adam's descendants for ever, and make their lives short and painful.

God killed tens of millions of humans and animals in temper tantrums; Satan killed only ten individuals and these were killed as a bet with God and with God's permission. And remember, God, not Satan, invented and created hell, the most terrible place of torture ever devised.

It's true that the Bible says bad things about Satan. It says he is a liar and tempts people to do evil but, if God is the bad guy who inspired the Bible, what would you expect him to say about the good guy? Perhaps we should add character assassination to God's long list of crimes?

God made many mistakes but he got one thing right, he managed to fool over two billion Christians into thinking Satan is the bad guy when the bad guy was always God.

What a mess--good job it's only myth.

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Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 8:33pm On Feb 12, 2018

THAT HEART-STOPPING VOICE

Sorry, I just don't get this. Apparently, God wants us to know him because he loves us and he wants to save us from the eternity of torture he has prepared for us. And God can communicate directly with each and every one of us.

Just imagine that for a moment. The person who created all life and the universe, knows everything past, present and future and is billions of times more intelligent that we are, can talk directly into our brains! When that voice comes into your head, there would be no mistaking it.

No one who hears God is going to say, "Damn, my tinnitus is playing up today!" or "I wish I would stop having these dreams." or even, "Yes, my Lord Thor, Your word is my command. I will sail west and attack the Christians in the land of Breteyne."

No, once that voice starts talking to you, you'll stop dead in your tracks, time will stand still and every other sound and thought will be blocked out--you will be in the presence of greatness and you will KNOW who is talking to you. Yet this does not happen.

Think about India. Across India there are vast swathes of land where hundreds of millions of people live and none of them believe in God. If God talks to them, they seem, ALL of them, seem able to put it down to tinnitus or bad dreams.

The most populous country in the world, China, was the same and so was Japan, Korea and many smaller countries.

The great continent of Africa was the same until European missionaries took Christianity there not much more than 100 years ago. Before that, Africans ignored God's every attempt to communicate with them. ALL of them ignored him.

I can only think of two possible ways to explain these facts:

1 God chooses not to love or save billions of people (but can change his mind, for example, after Christian missionaries take God to them).

2 God does not exist. Many people hear voices in their heads and attribute them to the god they were raised to believe in.

Have I missed anything?

PS Interestingly, I believe in no gods and I never hear alien voices in my head. This is also true for millions of other atheists.

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Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 2:13pm On Feb 11, 2018

Bolaji Yusuf

I am shocked that Nigerians are not believing the snake story. The story that a giant snake swallowed a huge chunk of money at the JAMB office.

Is this not the same set of people that believe cats wants to do all the bad things to them. That owls in their compound or in the ceiling wants to assassinate them?

Or the one a donkey was talking via influence of a spirit?

Can't spirit influence snake to swallow money?

No be inside this country person drive several kilometres without fuel to his home(Not petrol station) and parked the car too?

What of those ones where human beings dey born snake nko?

Yet....una dey make mockery of snake swallow money?

Make snake visit all of una and have a conversation on you people's "selective beliefs"

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