ghostofsparta:

Hence I was specific by mentioning the God of the Jewish ethnic group called Jehovah. But I get your point anyways.

Have you read the book God Is Black by Naiwoh Osahon ?

I get yours too.

No I have heard about it but haven't been able to get my hands on it. Though I read an article of his a while ago about Adam and Eve and the "original sin"

ghostofsparta:

Please do not do the mistake of assuming the word God to be exclusive to Abrahamic religions alone. The bolded God should have been a Jehovah or Allah. Feel free to ask any question about the ancestral believe systems. Judaism wherein Christianity and Islam is derived is the ancestral believe system of the semites 'Jews and Arabs' and not of us Africans.

Noted. But I was referring to the God your friend mentioned (in the story about the laptop).

eleojo23:
I had to create this topic because of something that happened recently.

Mr. Kunle, a man I know, contracted tuberculosis early this year. He died few days ago because he refused medical attention until when it became too late (as I later found out from one of his co-workers). Tuberculosis is treatable (the drugs are free) but when not properly handled through early diagnosis and drug therapy, it could lead to death. It is a disease that no one should die of if proper medical treatments are employed but Mr. Kunle died because he refused to go for treatment on time.

This is one of many of such cases where people refuse medical treatment.
The reason that most of them give (in the Nigerian society for instance) apart from the expenses involved is that they have 'faith' that the sickness will go away.
Some people discontinue their medication with the belief that a miracle will occur. No doubt, miracles do occur but one should not stop taking his medication because of that.
My aunt has a heart disease and she is believing God for healing but that does not mean that she should stop taking her medication.
Some people neglect symptoms of illness in their bodies and say 'nothing will happen' and they refuse to go for medical check-up. But before they know it, a lot has happened and they are down with a serious illness.
Others tell themselves that they are now well even when the sickness is still evident.
There are people who have been placed on a diet because of an existing medical condition but they keep on eating what they should not eat hoping that 'nothing will happen'

A lady had cancer but she kept having 'faith' that it would go away when she knew her faith wasn't strong. By strong faith I mean a strong conviction that circumstances will definitely change. She eventually had to go for chemotherapy but by that time, the cancer had already reached the metastatic stage where the treatment could hardly be of much help to her. She could have delayed the course of the disease and prolonged her life if she had sought for medical help on time.

Let me state clearly that I am not against relying on divine healing. What I'm saying is that God can use anything including drugs to bring your healing.

There are many people who have died untimely due to this practice. People who can hardly trust God for little things instantly become 'faith giants' and refuse medical help when they have life-threatening illnesses. The outcome is usually not good. You don't have to insist on walking on foot when a car is available to take you to your destination.

Thank God for divine healing. In fact, I've witnessed it before. But please if your faith is not strong enough (by the way, what some people have is not even faith, they just live in denial), it is not a bad thing to go for medical treatment. It may be where the solution to your problem lies.

Know when to seek medical help. If you feel that this is against your religious orientation, you may want to have a rethink.

The earth is the Lord's and its fullness including drugs and medical procedures.
God did not allow all these medical breakthroughs we've had over the past century and decades for nothing. Please as much as you can afford it, avail yourself of the numerous medical help that is available today. There are many deaths that would have been prevented if people sought for medical help on time.

Let me make this clear once again, I have not condemned faith healing neither have I put Medicine on a pedestal.
My point is, God is able to heal people divinely but please do not rule out medical intervention.

Everything is at God's disposal to use and that includes medicines/drugs. So, don't hesitate to visit a health care professional when you need help. Your family and loved ones still need you around (alive) for a long time.

Do you know anyone like Mr Kunle? Counsel and encourage such a person to seek medical help today.

Stay healthy.

I believe people that die this way do so for a good cause. In the end they are used as examples to educate the public. So Mr. Kunle didn't die in vain. Thank you for using his story. Hopefully lives would be saved from this.

timmy2409:


Faith + Works = Results
Works - Faith = Results
Faith - Works = FAIL

Have you seen the failure rate of WAEC candidates lately?. I doubt these folks would even understand this simple equation.

Its refreshing to see intelligent Nigerians/Africans with active minds. There is nothing worse than a people that do not know their history and do not even care to find out. I truly am awestruck by the level of knowledge the posters on this thread have. I wonder why we don't have more people like this in positions of influence in this country

GooseBaba:
The residual madness of abrahamic destruction still continues in the minds of gullible africans that refuse to reason objectively without subjecting themselves to mental enslavement.

The other day we saw a sitting president going on religious priglimage to worship another man's god. While the other candidates vying for the position of presidency are already going on their own pilgrimage to worship another god in a different country. Smh

All it takes is for one to emancipate themselves from mental slavery. And it's really simple.. Critical and objective thinking that you have no option but to expand your mind and gain enlightenment through research, research and more research.... Knownledge is constant we learn everyday. The mind/brain is powerful, but a terrible thing to waste...

The unfortunate truth is that we are still colonized- mentally and spiritually. Nigerians are so pre-occupied with the present that they do not look back into their history. If we really look back our forefathers adopted these religions for strategic purposes (access to education, better lives, trade, etc), most were forced, other strong-wiled ones where killed for not adopting/converting.

Adolf Hitler- 'The man who has no sense of history, is like a man who has no ears or eyes'

mralabs:
Trust most Nigerians take on this will be; 'Recolonisation begins' but what if he turns Zambia to Dubai in 6 Months? Let the debate begin.

Guy Scott, previously vice president under the recently deceased former Zambian President, Michael Sata, 77, has officially been appointed as Acting President of Zambia.

President Scott is now the first white president of any African nation since Former President FW de Klerk conceded power to Nelson Mandela in 1994. He had presided over several official functions in the absence of Former President Sata, but was never appointed acting president until earlier today.

Former President Sata died late on Tuesday in a London hospital after a long bout of illness.  

President Scott will now look to complete the last 3 months of Former President Sata’s term. However, it is unlikely that he will be eligible for the coming round of elections due to constitutional stipulations affecting his citizenship.

Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-29816559

Source: http://saharareporters.com/2014/10/29/zambia’s-president-guy-scott-becomes-first-white-president-post-colonial-africa#.VFEJba_xa2Y.twitter
 

Two points.

Firstly I do not see this as a route to 'recolonisation'. Guy Scott also has a background that supports Zambian nationalists; his family was very active in the Zambian anti-colonial movements. As it is unlikely that he will be eligible to contest in the elections I think we can look at this as temporary.

Secondly, what are the basis of you assuming he could 'turn Zambia to Dubai in 6 months'? Are you saying this is only achievable with a white man president or colonisation should take credit for the black man's modernization and therefore is the only route to advancement?

BossTtdiamonds:


Don't argue with those who are foolish to the things of God.. As the sayin' goes.. They'll bring you down to their level and beat you with experience..

@macof

I believe you should take this advice.

ghostofsparta:

Hi there, I can relate to the sort of angst those brainwashed ignoramuss furrowed in you, I go through it almost everyday. Believe me when I say everyday. I know the feeling. In my restive bid to enlighten fellow youths whenever at every opportunity they needlessly make references or draw comparison to passages from either of the Abrahamic religions I have had countless,heated arguments with religionists here in Yorubaland such that I am always awestruck at the degree to which their mindset is irredeemable. Recently, two friends of mine were all having this argument about our indigenous believe system is appropriate and suitable to our lifestyle here in our society rather than the Jewish method of approaching things here such that it careened over various issues until it resorted into a twist. This happened last week. I asked the so self-believed Christian friend that isn't Shango greater than Jesus considering so, so and so points, to which he repeatedly yelled Jesus is far more powerful than Shango, despite before that moment we've shared our experiences on various matters relating to our ancestral believe system, in fact he's from a one of those Yoruba town where Shango is their major deity among the Yoruba pantheon. The vehemence at which he claimed the supremacy of the Jewish prophet over those of his so much angered the third friend that he reacted by gesticulating his left hand violently saying "Why you go dey tok like this?", his hand upon hitting the edge of my laptop got the screen cracked immediately. Minutes later, he kept saying, initially as a joke then later as something he believed that it is Jesus Christ whom I and the other friend refuse to accept that responded as such as to impress on us his powers. As he continued stating his delusion from time to time, I couldn't help but to ask him why did Jesus saw it fit not to answered my prayer back then when I prayed to him and why can't he attend to those Boko Haram captives who would really use his help, instead it is me he feels worthy of convincing of his powers? He said, those ones in their heart don't pray to him, that it is only when they're in danger that they remember Jesus and he doen't work that way. I asked how does he know they aren't even more close to their Lord Jesus, son of Jehovah than him? As ususal...he digressed the answer to that question away. Yesterday, afternoon he brought in another old friend of his whom after talking about some books ended up arguing over Christianity again......to which I eventually had to let him know to keep his religion beliefs to his personal life rather than coming to condemn me for not accepting his views on how scientists and us pagans are the ones responsible for the evil in this world. This is what I go through from time to time. I can relate to your bottled up feelings of intense disapproval as their barrage of falsehood unease you.

The delusion is so deeply rooted from years and years of twisted scriptures, false testimonies, false prophets and false religion. The average person would take a cracked laptop as a show of God's power over a death of a loved one from a disease that same God refused to cure or the Chibok girls that haven't returned. Although my knowledge on African Traditional religion is little, I would rather see Nigerians fighting/defending them over foreign gods.

rationalmind:
My cousin recently told me how amazed he was to find out through nairaland there are several atheists in Nigeria.

In his own words, " Orisirisi, so, someone in his right senses will one day wake up and claim to be an atheist."

Unknown to him, his own sweet cousin is an atheist on same nairaland who just like the OP has learnt to fight the urge to speak.

Those kind of statements are the ones that break my silence! We need to fight the urge 'to not speak/stay silent'. Its tough though. There are a lot of us in this society but if we are not open about it we would never know (ref: the picture below)

krayzieklay:

Lol.. You can say(write) that again,Plaetton. Seriously, you ladies just made my day. I never knew there were female atheists in this country. Btw @ rinrin23,I thought you live outside Nigeria.

Why did you think that?

Raiders:
you are right in a way. However, I don't argue with people about my beliefs because its a waste of time.Its hard to convince someone to change his religious beliefs that he has spend his entire life believing in. When I was in university, I didn't argue with my religious friends because I knew it would not make any different. Anyway, I am the kind of guy who believe that [b] religion beliefs is suppose to be a personal and its wrong to force someone to share your religious belief [/b]You are also right about atheist female having it hard because Nigeria is a society where the female is suppose to convert to the religious beliefs of her husband. I seen many cases where Muslim husband force their christain wives to convert Islam and vice versa.

I totally agree with the bolded

macof:


Beautiful! Just bi yu ti ful
if I could hug u right now I would

We need more brave and intelligent women like u in Africa

Thank you. We are in the minority but we will grow

plaetton:
The sooner the children are exposed to the lies and contradictions of religion, the sooner they start to ask questions and formulate critical thinking.
All a parent has to do is plant seeds of thoughts into a child, and then watch it grow.

My thoughts exactly. I intend to raise curious children and pass on the decades worth of knowledge my own curiosity has brought me.

Raiders:
you shouldnt live a life of pretence as an atheist to your spouse. A husband don't don't respect your religious beliefs don't deserve to be with you. Sadly, Nigeria is a country filled with religious bigots and being an atheists is as worse as being a gay in Nigeria society. I have never really met an open female atheists in Nigeria because most are scared of discrimination from friends and family. Personally, I don't mind marrying an atheist or a theist as long as my spouse respect my religious beliefs and don't try to force her religious beliefs on me or my family.

In most cases its not really the fear of discrimination, its the associated stress- the stress of constant arguments, stress of trying to enlighten them, stress of dealing with the many prayer warriors/prayer meetings/deliverances they would hold on your behalf, etc. I am somewhat open about my religious views and I know the stress its brought upon me, sometimes its just not worth it. I do believe what you say about marriage but the truth is the statistics are not in our favour, which is why marriage for me would be a ''miracle'' (in my 24 years of existence I have only met one somewhat irreligious man, and he happens to be married).

malvisguy212:
the Bible make us to understand that God hate sin, He cant behold a single sin infact Sin take you away from God.the only option the harden minded man has is the testimony of one or two to believe there is God,the op deliver his testimony to you guys,what els do you guys needed? That God will come down to show himself to you?if you want Him to do so, you must called on him.
Please dont ague,if you dont satisfy with my explanation,just pass by. Thank you

Noted. Passing by

urcutecrush:

Truthfully i don't see this happening in the nearest future.hopefully we found our heart desires but if not cheers to many years of pretense ahead.as the case of my future children if possible i will teach them d history and science of the world they are in from early age cos i don't want anybody poisining their mind that their mother is the devil incarnate.if possible they won't take any religious study tho the choice fully lies on them.but as it is now the future looks bleak.I geuss i should stop thinking about the future and enjoy the moment cos nobody knows what the future holds.

Cheers to the years of pretence and living in the present!

malvisguy212:
may God continue to reavel himself to the elect, in jesus name so that the harden minded man will change his way.

Makes no sense. Why not reveal himself directly to the 'harden minded man' so he could change his ways.

urcutecrush:
I can attest to this.the fact that i am female even makes it worst cos they think i shouldn't av any reasonable thought.what I fear is the future will I be able to continue under this pretense.I hope I found someone with likemind.being an atheist in this society is just when u are the only sober person in a car and nobody allows u to drive

I completely understand. We are in the same boat. Its worse for women in this society, you have to be a 'God fearing woman' or no one would 'respect you' and if by chance you decide to be openly vocal about your religious stance this might result in them thinking/calling you a 'witch' and you will suddeny be the cause of every 'spiritual attack' that comes their way.

Funniest part is in your analogy about the car, in a real life scenario you the atheist would be the sober one while the religious ones are drunk out of their minds. And then they sober up and try to preach to you about morality and how 'grace' covers their sins.

I too fear what the future would be like. How would I find a life partner with as much intellect and reasoning as I, how would I raise my kids, what kind of persucution/struggles my kids would go through for being/thinking different.

But I take comfort in the fact that change is constant, and the way this Age of Information is affecting our society for the better. Soon, sometime in the nearest future (I hope) society would look back at its 'primitive' thinking and laugh and learn from it. After all the world's greatest nations/societies went through their own Dark Ages, we are simply going through ours.

rinrin23:
It's posts like these that make me so afraid of a massive outbreak in Nigeria. Can we please stop the ignorance, please!!.

If you're infected please don't take your contagious self to a pastor that's going to be laying hands on others too and preaching to a congregation. This is how diseases spread.

HIV/AIDS has been around for decades and your pastors haven't cured it. Ebola is highly contagious and deadly! Can we please not take any risks, please!!

I'm really so scared of you people, please don't let your ignorance be the death of millions.

I posted the above on a related thread in anticipation of this kind of foolishness, and months later the foolishness presents itself.

urcutecrush:

In point of fact, we humans are a lot like animals and a number of other species have demonstrated that they have something that looks like a rudimentary conscience and a rudimentary system of morals. It has, for example,been observed that chimpanzees will exhibit what appears to be fear and shame when they do something that violates the rules of its group. Should it be assumed that the chimpanzee fears God? Or is it instead more likely that such feelings should develop in social animals?
It's not a surprise that something like this would evolve naturally. Morals are, basically, the rules by which our social groups function. They ensure that things are reasonably fair and that relationships run reasonably smoothly. Social groups simply wouldn't survive without rules, so the evolution of the ability to create and follow rules should be expected. Humans are social animals so it's also to be expected that, like other social animals, we would have social rules which regulate group behavior. We certainly don't need gods to explain it.

Brilliant!

Morals are a by-product of the evolution of our social rules and social conscience. Religion simply takes credit for the work our conscience already does. Human beings do not need a book to tell them that killing is wrong. Nature in itself is self-regulatory.

@lastmessenger if you believe that humans need some form of religion to teach us morals. Please describe your opinion of human behaviour in a world of no religion. Anarchy? Humans will steal and kill themselves into extinction?

hifaif:


Yes, indeed. Takes a whole lot of effort. I hope I can PM you sometimes?

Sure

Godditex:
A man went to a barbershop to have his hair cut
and his beard trimmed. As the barber began to
work, they began to have a good conversation. They talked about so many things and various subjects.

When they eventually touched on the subject of
God, the barber said: "I don't believe that God
exists." "Why do you say that?" asked the customer. "Well, you just have to go out in the street to realize that God doesn't exist.
Tell me, if God exists, would there be so many sick people? Would there be abandoned children? If God existed, there would be neither suffering nor pain. I can't imagine a loving God who would allow all of these things."

The customer thought for a moment, but didn't
respond because he didn't want to start an
argument. The barber finished his job and the customer left the shop. Just after he left the barbershop, he saw a man in the street with long, stringy, dirty hair and an untrimmed beard. He looked dirty and un-kept.

The customer turned back and entered the barber shop again and he said to the barber: "You know what? Barbers do not exist." "How can you say that?" asked the surprised barber. "I am here, and I am a barber. And I just worked on you!" "No!" the customer exclaimed. "Barbers don't exist because if they did, there would be no people with dirty long hair and untrimmed beards, like that man outside." "Ah, but barbers DO exist! What happens is, people do not come to me."

"Exactly!"- affirmed the customer. "That's the point! God, too, DOES exist! What happens, is, people don't go to Him and do not look for Him. That's why there's so much pain and
suffering in the world."

Hope You Gain Something From This!

You visit a barber and get a haircut in minutes. These folks have been going to God for years and still remain in poverty, Nigerian pastors have been praying for good governance yet we are still where we are, so what's the excuse. Why is it that you are more assured to get a haircut at a barbers than to get answered prayers at a church.

There's so much pain and suffering because people are looking to God rather than solving their own problems. Parents are sowing tithes and 'first fruits' instead of putting food on the table and paying school fees. Please! I have gained NOTHING from this post.

There is so much truth in what you've outlined here. I look at my fellow woman and see the ungrateful and expectant nature ingrained in most of us. Most struggle, steal, lie, bleach etc to be beautiful in order to be liked and treated nice by a man who would shower them in gifts they can/should be able to afford on their own. Its sad to see the way women portray themselves these days.

Regarding men being kind for sex, -we weren't born with this mentality, growing up we each have had experiences that have lead us to that conclusion.

Personally I try to be as grateful as possible and appreciate all forms of kindness thrown at me, whether or not I know the end game. I feign ignorance and accept the kindness because I am a genuine person and I naively expect people to be genuine. But honestly a greater percentage of the time its about sex; whether days, weeks, months or years later, it comes out. But I of-course wouldn't discredit or ignore the lesser percentage genuine men out there.

Its not just about sex, or the male/female relationship. Its the world we live in that pushes the idea that 'Generosity is power', and the next person is simply sowing a seed to be harvested later. This is what makes people (not just women) suspicious of each other. A male friend of mine has a female boss buying him gifts all the time and he thinks its only a matter of time before she'll ask for (sexual) favours. Its not just women. People in general have grown suspicious of each other.

hifaif:


Very serious.

It has been a while. How do you do? I missed you.

Yes it has. I've been here, lurking in the shadows. Sometimes it takes a lot of strength to comment and be civil on this forum. Kudos to those of you that are consistent with it!

Horus:
[img]http://www..com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/PRESIDENT-GOODLUCK-JONATHAN-IN-ISRAEL10.jpg[/img]

Goodluck Jonathan praying with Zionists in Jerusalem

Each and every day he continues to prove how much of a weak man he is. I guess this wall holds the power to bring back the chibok girls, solve the bokoharam problem, generate electricity and create jobs.

hifaif:


SMP. Guy, you are so ignorant. Siddhārtha
Gautama (Gautama Buddha) lived and died before Christ, so how could Christ have been his mentor? Maybe, he was Christ's mentor.

As for your assertion that Christ was at age 12 challenging Drs and Profs, any historical document (aside the bible) to back that up? None.

Thank you for educating him. The ignorance on this thread is serious!

musKeeto:

Holy Spirit teaches them foreign languages at the expense of English language.

I am interested.

Where are they?

Ph.D...interesting

malvisguy212: dont worry lady, it is either you see satan or God. It a choice. just one advice, DONT DIE,STAY ALIVE....................UNFORTUNATLY, DEATH COMES LIKE A THIFE IN THE NIGHT.

Makes no damn sense. None!

I find this question fundamentally discriminatory. The kind of question that white men asked each other before racial integration was enforced.

If atheists can let their kids mix with theists , why can't it work both ways. Whats the fear? -that they would question their beliefs ?. Why don't you want them to question it if you are so sure of what you believe in.

Children are made to learn, what better way than through friction. Why would anyone want to raise closed minded children.