₦airaland Forum

Antiparticle:
@SonOfEl
Ok. You can have your god... in the same way that all the world's people have that ever lived enjoyed their hundreds of thousands of gods.

Yomboy4ever:
May God forgive you for supporting evil and attaching his Name dis.

Antiparticle:
@SonOfEl I applaud the efforts you likely expended on your search for God. From your write-up these three phrases resonated with me:


The bolded once again implies to me that a God of justice "who rewards those who diligently seek Him" does not exist.


Indeed. I solidly agree that it takes faith (without any smattering of evidence) to believe. Unfortunately I refuse to have faith in a genocidal/infanticidal/homicidal psychopathic deity. I also refuse to have faith in a deity that doesn't even hold true to his own supposed standards of being just and interventionist. I refuse to have faith in a deity that expects people to fight his own wars for him. Such a god would be immoral, untrustworthy, and would not be worthy of worship. Thus, my conclusion still stands.

If Jesus existed, he was not the first person to revolutionarily teach people how to love others. Also, the notion that he resurrected is an invention. I will not base my faith on the sinking sand of an invented story. If god(s) exist and he/she/it/they want me to believe, he/she/it/they know how to reach me.

Since Yahweh is "all-powerful" and "instantly heals" swollen badly twisted ankles like @KingEbukasBlog's, then it should be so easy for "Him" to show me and all the other non-theists/atheists that "He" is alive.

Please modify your post above by deleting my long post that you quoted. It occupies too much space. Thanks.

Abbeyme:
Be careful what pictures you photoshop

Much as that device looks promising on her ...

Antiparticle:
@bstringz
I don't owe you an explanation about my search for God bro. But let me start here.

I can tell you that I was born into a Christian family... and for the past decade and half (up until sometime within the past year) I was a very strong and genuine Christian. I really tried hard to follow God. But certain things that happened in my life and in the life of people I loved caused me to start asking critical questions a few years ago about the role of God in the empirical world. I became deeply curious about if God was indeed interventionist, if he was an active observer, or if he was just a passive observer in the world. I was deeply and genuinely Christian during this time... I spoke to other solid believers and leaders of my fellowships/church (whom I mostly still respect) about it and we would think it through together. I also read lots of books by deep-thinking Christian theologians. Sometimes I would get satisfactory answers, sometimes I wouldn't. But I didn't make a big deal of the lack of answers. I also, as you would expect of any genuine Christian, prayed a lot for God to help me work through these things.

For at least seven of the last ten years that I was a passionate Christian, I had all these doubts. Yet, they didn't change the extent of my belief in God as I had strong "unshakeable" faith. The straw that gradually began to break the camel's back was when I started doing my own readings on world history and apologetic theology over the past three years. Through these past three years I prayed and prayed that God should reveal "Himself" to me. During these years, I also started to become sensitive to the contradictions and homicidal/genocidal/infanticidal acts by God in the Bible... yet I explained them away so I could preserve my faith. I still hadn't lost my faith.

Notwithstanding, I realized that all miracles that ever happened to me or anyone I knew or heard about could not stand the test of empirical scrutiny (as a physicist/statistician/engineer, this was so easy to do). The notion that God answered prayers, too, failed to be true to when placed beside control experiments.

One thing I also thought of a lot: if God was interventionist and if "He" performed miracles like healing @KingEbukasBlog's twisted and badly swollen ankle, why didn't he intervene when black slaves (most of whom had become Christian when they arrived the Americas) prayed that he free them during the hundreds-year-long captivity by European Americans? It makes no sense that a just interventionist God would consistently ignore bigger atrocities yet perform instant miracles when it came to things like hurting ankles. This dealt a big slap to my idea of a God of justice. The Old and New Testaments promise an interventionist God of justice, but I began to realize that "He" has been no where to be found. At this point, I still hadn't stopped being Christian though I was already heavily discouraged.

What began the radical shattering of any semblance of my Christianity and theism was my research on the authenticity and reliability of the story of Jesus's resurrection. Prior to that, I had still chosen to believe everything by faith because I had thought that my concerns were inconsequential if Jesus indeed resurrected and rose from the grave. Well, quickly into my research I realized that it is a commonly accepted knowledge (amongst dead sea scroll researchers and academic theologians) that the earliest versions of the book of Mark (the oldest Gospel) had nothing about the resurrection story in it. It was in the later versions (that other people had copied and rewritten) decades after that the story had inexplicably become included.

There, also, was no external evidence, EVER, of any of the miracles that Jesus did. I mean, NONE! Jesus lived during the Roman Empire. This empire had well-read literate historians who wrote down the most remarkable things that happened even three hundred years before Christ was born. The Romans were an extremely well-organized and powerful empire. Yet, they said nothing about Jesus' miracles or resurrection story. Admittedly, one historian by the name of Josephus wrote about the existence of someone who some people today think was Jesus, but even Josephus made no notes about his supposed resurrection or miracles. This started to raise massive red flags that I couldn't ignore. I realized that the miracles stories of the Bible were written at a time of vast superstition... it was a time when several false miracle stories existed... monarchs & certain humans were considered divine, etc. Without external evidence, this was what truly shattered the credibility of the Bible.

The revisionist history of Christianity didn't help either (I discussed this in a previous post).

My exit from Christianity was unplanned and shocking, even to me. I had realized that it was all a sham. I was in a state of panic for six weeks as almost all my friends are strong Christians. Same for my immediate family. No one in my immediate family knows yet, and I am still concerned at the outcome if any one of them finds out (though that may change in due time).

I am very surprised that it would be someone like me, with so much faith at the time, that would become non-theist. But now it makes sense... I was always the kid who asked lots of questions in class. I was always the kid who wanted to know how something worked. It was only a matter of time before something in my life caused me to start asking critical questions about Jesus/God. This is how it happened.

You think that I decided to stop being theist because it would benefit me? As an act of self-preservation I had chosen to keep believing in faith for as long as I could, until I realized that faith in the face of overwhelmingly conflicting evidence was false. Being non-theist hasn't changed my behavior whatsoever...the only thing that has changed is that I don't believe in theological/spiritual fairy tales any more... I don't engage in futile prayers anymore... I don't starve myself in the name of fasting anymore... I don't go to church anymore unless I want to go hang out with my friends there and enjoy the community of people that I like there.

So, there it is.

PS: In response to the comment on your first sentence: how could you be "very sure God revealed himself to [me] if [I] honestly [sought] him without any doubt"? Are you a mind reader? Or you say this because it is somewhere in the Bible? Dude, I know Hebrews 11:6 states that God will "reward those who earnestly seek him", but I now know that this is not true.

PS: Please no one should quote this post. It is just too long! lolz

CHoccolaTE:
[img]http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQMeaI6pKOAKuQpgg5AYDLx9lnzhQrrCXghB0yVsBFfEpRnd1G5bOgf_lc[/img]

GentleNaaz:
please, do u knw hw much it costs to run Msc in FUTO? I want to pick form dia ds month

melzabull:
APC is a scam

Nalikedis:
Hahaha... Well nothing like London university but University College London and UI was University College Ibadan and UCI started awarding degrees since its inception...must you twist facts in order to satisfy your ego? quote author=SonOfEl post=38590761]OP, you are wrong. this is why:

1. UI started awarding degrees in 1965 after it cut its umbilical cord from London University. achebe, soyinka and co who graduated before had no degree from UI, because then, it was a college affiliated to London. it was called the UNIVERSITY (of London) COLLEGE IBADAN.

2. ABU has more of quantity than quality when compared to UI, UNN, and arguably UNIBEN. a lot of its alumni are not internationally reputable. No offense though, ABU is strong, solid, and boasts of some of the best alumni Nigeria can offer.

3. UNN started awarding degrees in 1964. it was the first school to award degrees with Nigerian alumni, hence its name University of NIGERIA, Nsukka. just like UI, it boast of alumni of international repute.

in view of these, the order should be:

#3 - ABU
#2 - UI
#1 - UNN

others follow. thank you.

SonOfEl™

dhc:
I bear an ibo name unfortunately, but I'm from Ika "Agbor" in Delta.The person you are trying to correct is more accurate than you in miles.The statement in bold is wrong.I am not ibo and would NEVER EVER EVER like to be regarded as a part of that disgustingly accented and crafty tribe.

SonOfEl:
OP, you are wrong. this is why:

1. UI started awarding degrees in 1965 after it cut its umbilical cord from London University. achebe, soyinka and co who graduated before had no degree from UI, because then, it was a college affiliated to London. it was called the UNIVERSITY (of London) COLLEGE IBADAN.

2. ABU has more of quantity than quality when compared to UI, UNN, and arguably UNIBEN. a lot of its alumni are not internationally reputable. No offense though, ABU is strong, solid, and boasts of some of the best alumni Nigeria can offer.

3. UNN started awarding degrees in 1964. it was the first school to award degrees with Nigerian alumni, hence its name University of NIGERIA, Nsukka. just like UI, it boast of alumni of international repute.

in view of these, the order should be:

#3 - ABU
#2 - UI
#1 - UNN

others follow. thank you.

SonOfEl™

coolitempa:
Does this animal even have a family....humans are talking and the flat.heads are putting mouth......

danpatrick:
Double-mouthed son of a swine!

engrfcuksmtin:
Although the bible says never answer a fool.............I will advise you to start using your brain and stop wasting your destiny in cooking untrue stories.






















Ogun the god of Iron will kill you if you quote me again.

Zinicc:
Ok we are more brother than the NL moniker shell. Happy independence day to the zoo.

engrfcuksmtin:
May your days be long. The time spent to cook up this theory would have been used by the OP for more productive things if not for himself and his family at least for his immediate community and Nigeria at large. So many brains wasting away on Niaraland....

handie:
Wailers. They'll always find something to wail about. I bet ya'll never thought Buhari will submit the ministerial list yesterday and as such, already prepared ur wailing articles but when he did, u guys just gotta find something else to wail about...... A day won't be worth it without ur wailings na. Tunde Idiagbon a fulani man? I thought I've heard it all. Aso villa chapel closed? Not when the VP himself came out to debunk the rumor(abi our VP is now a liar?). Did VP Osinbajo or Governor El'Rufai come out to tell you there's a rift between them? When'll u wailers start thinking before writing? Ya'll are here wailing and Yomi Osinbajo (SAN) is in Aso rock villa enjoying all the perks of office with over a quarter of a million in his account. In Sanusi Lamido Sanusi's voice, GO AND BUY SOME SENSE. or if you can't buy some sense, In Adams Oshiomole's voice, GO AND DIE

xtrorse:
Bigot, there's no law preventing anybody from moving from one place to another. A dangerous terrain cannot be a hindrance to a good business person.

Get that sense now and stop lazing about, waiting for free handouts from Abuja...

Zinicc:
Pls I disagree with ur statistics '99%', I am from Abia state and as I was growing up I discovered that in my entire Village you can hardly count upto 5ppl that eats Akpu and these people I mentioned learnt how from outside. However I also discovered that most people in my community would treat an Akpu plate, pot and eater exactly like my Dad.
I maried from Anambra and I notice that my inlaws don't also make or eat it in there house either.
That is not to say that greater % of Ndi-igbo don't eat it, but it's definetly not 99%.
Even your 99% proves what i said, 'some Igbos' not most nor all..ok

Ritchiee:
NA WAH O... .
It makes me laugh when IGBOS even call anybody slave talk less of their CHI(YORUBAS)...
REASONS:
1.They are a conquered tribe and would forever be slaves and at the mercy of their conquerors..YORUBAS AND HAUSA-FULANIS...
2.They troop to their conqueror land in order to make ends meet and help in developing their conqueror land...just like Pakistanis in UK helping the BrItons to develop UK.YORUBAS ARE BRITONS...IGBOS ARE PAKISTANIS....
3.Their SLAVEMASTERS...YORUBAS...do not go to their poverty stricken region but go to UK,USA,RUSSIA,JAPAN ETC
4.Their Slavemasters...Yorubas have deported them once but due to a lot of begging,allow them to continue with their modern slavish attitude in YORUBALAND... ETC ETC

Zinicc:
Even some Igbos don't eat Igbo food.
If you eat Akpu in our house then, my Dad will through away the food, the plate, the pot and you from the house.

Kagawa10:
Lol!
To be fair, their jollof rice was okay but their stew and soups are one big hogwash! I don't even want to remember the experience!

Kagawa10:
Ibos are everyone's slaves though!
A rag is even better than thousands of ibo! Lol!
Yeye people!

Kagawa10:
Should I also tell you the state I camped? Lol!
Ibo dishes are watery and irritating though! Who else would make something like abasha and call it food, if not the ibos!