By Philip Amiola
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I have observed with strong feelings of embarrassment, the degree to which people can be so enslaved by religion that they would go to great lengths to defend their religious views. People have been known to mutilate their bodies and engage in other forms of unseemly behaviour in the name of religion. Some members of a religious sect even go as far as committing such heinous crimes as arson, murder and rape all in the name of religion! How debased can the human mind be to commit such dastardly acts in the name of God! Such is the power of religion to condition people’s minds. As I pondered events surrounding Pope Benedict’s resignation and misleading rumours of his subsequent conversion to Islam, I was awestruck at the magnitude of influence wielded by religious personages and religion itself.A classic illustration of what religion can do to people’s minds is a story which recently made the rounds in Nigeria about a baby who was born clutching a copy of the al-Qur’an from the womb! I first got wind of this news on an online forum for university students where I expected the story to be greeted with some scepticism, but to my dismay, the supposed intellectuals fell for it hook line and sinker. With such comments as “Allah is mighty!” my friends went all the way against every principle of nature to prove that the “supernatural incident” was, among other things, an evidence of the greatness of Allah and a warning of impending judgement to the infidels.
I had earlier read a similar story about a commuter bus being caught in an inferno with everything destroyed and all the passengers roasted to death while a copy of the Holy Bible remained untouched by the fire. It's amazing how quickly we employ such misguided stories as groundless evidence to support our faith. Religion is indeed the opium of the people! Now, I'm not disputing the fact that such incidents could have happened by chance or careful manipulation, but it defies all sense of justice and truth to attribute them to an act of God. Perhaps it would have been a more plausible story if the Bible had saved the vehicle from burning and the lives of the passengers from being wasted. Truth be told; the Bible and the Quran in and of themselves are just like any other book. You may not really get the raison d'être of any book simply by reading the letters. To grasp the message, you must understand the spirit of the author.
It is high time we stopped fooling ourselves and subjecting ourselves to needless mental torture by means of propagandist ideas and religious hype. With the heightened awareness of the supernatural world that has characterised the past decade globally, one will have to be either sincerely ignorant or deliberately dishonest to deny the existence of God. But God and religion are not the same! Religion does not make us relevant before God. True religion is a vital relationship with God which causes His life to be reflected in us and through us as we personify His attributes, the core of which is love. We need not discard logic to substantiate our religion or faith. Faith and logic can actually agree. Our life of faith must be a response to God’s power at work in us, not to some fancy mental or emotional footwork by anyone, regardless of who they are.
Philip Amiola is a teacher, writer and a campaigner of empowerment. He writes from Lagos, Nigeria.
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Excellent write-up! One very touching and true line in this write-up is ". But God and religion are not the same!" This is indisputably true going from the numerous criminal acts being carried out by men in the name of God.
ReplyDeletePeople kill, steal, rape, all in the name of God - but God is none of these!. Religion, as it is today and had always, has become the bedrock of criminality and injustice against each other by men.
Even the bible made us all to know that the so called christianity is not a relegion but a way of life after Christ.
ReplyDeleteI therefore want to encourage all of us to strife to live in accordance with Godly Principle and not put relegion b/4 God Himself.
What are you saying? 'so called christianity'? Pls pls pls....think before you write.
DeletePhilip, u are right. love of GOD is the ultimate. religious fantasies are debasing. truthfullness to GOD is also knowing that HE is able to fight and defend HIMSELF whenever.. OGE
ReplyDeletePHILIP AMIOLA IS A FOOL TO SAY THAT THE WORD OF GOD WHICH THE BIBLE IS LIKE ANYOTHER BOOK,YOU PHILIP BETTER REPENT AND ACCEPT THE LORD JESUS AS HIS PERSONAL LORD AND SAVIOUR BEFORE THE WRATH OF GOD WILL FALL ON HIM.IF YOU PHILIP DONT KNOW WHAT TO WRITE WITH YOUR LITTLE KNOWLEDGE YOU STOP YOUR STUPID COMMENT ABOUT THE WORD OF GOD.GOD IS A CONSUMING FIRE BE WARNED.
ReplyDeleteman to you what do believe in.live your life as if God exist and if he doesn't exist you won't have anything to loose.
ReplyDeleteMr. Philip, dat was a gud one. Very few ppl have de mental capacity to see dat "God and Religion arent de same". When u're able to see things outside de boundaries of religion those who have an overdose of de "opium" begin to call u names. I'm glad there's someone out there who sees religion de way I do.
ReplyDeleteWhen a reckless driver drives a good car recklessly, the fault isn't the car's but the driver's.
ReplyDeleteThis is my first time of commenting on this forum and i must say this is the most unbiased deep thinking article i have read yet. I totally relate with your write up Philip. Just for your consideration, have u considered perhaps as a past time or full time, of maybe operating a blog site? i think you should. Kudos!
ReplyDeleteIt is obvious that Almighty God (mind you, there are other gods professed by different religion and no two religion have thesame god)has no religion cos he is not a man like us. The Almighty however has principles and desire of us best practice in our relationship with him our creator and with our neighbours. It grieves him the way we live our lives as if there is no tomorrow and especially the way we treat ourselves. It was the practice of over endorsing in religion to the detriment of the will of God and humanity that prompted God in his loving mercy to send Jesus to come and teach us the way of God and to reduce emphasy on religion and self and to emphasize more on God and humanity. You read how Jesus used to criticize religious bigots and of course that was the grievance of the Jewish leaders against him and he willingly accepted to die for the message of truth which he brought. That perfect way of life which is pleasing to God is the way of christ and that is what ppl named as Christianity. god didnt name that way of life as Christianity. It is the ppl of old who were not even christians themselves that named it christianity and that is the way that is pleasing to God. In true Christianity, no murder, arson, terrorism, corruption, hatred, strife, holier-than-thou, rape, etc. This are only found with the devil and its adherents. Therefore, accept the way of Christ and be saved.
ReplyDeletePhilip should know that his comments are blasphemous to both Islam and Christianity. Imagine ,one of his supporters saying so called Christianity .Can't you tolerate religious people even where they are not forcing you to embrace Christianity or Islam?
ReplyDeletePhilip, hear me Religion is real and the transport medium of God's identity, message and commandment to man. come what ever mischief adultration and game play within it dont ever imagine that religion is fake or irrelevant make use of urs which is real to help the matter. People are who dont believe in God, despise and fight God does that mean God is not real. So if people are messing with religion its no yard stick to determine religion being seperate or aligned with God. thanks May God Almighty continue to Bless our spirit with Genuinity of His Purpose.
ReplyDelete