I first wrote this article in response to a brilliant village square article on ordination of female clergy by Sheyi Oriade in July 08

Re - Examining Christian Beliefs:
Paper 1 - Beliefs

Introduction

This is one of a collection of four essays. Whilst it is obviously better to read them together as a set, each of the papers can still be read and comprehended individually.

These essays are not an attempt to review and discuss every conceivable Christian belief; one would need a book of probably five or more volumes of at least a thousand pages each to do justice to that.

My approach is dictated and driven by my purpose, which is to encourage others to look critically at their religious beliefs. The approach is to concentrate on a few fundamental ones, those ones that in my opinion underpins a lot of the Christian doctrines and to use a few examples to illustrate the point I am trying to make in each category.

The four papers in the collection are :

Paper 1 – Beliefs

Paper 2 – The Bible

Paper 3 – Jesus

Paper 4 – Christian Dogmas

Belief is an interesting and perhaps an important word especially in a religious context. Humans have fought countless wars, sacrifice a lot and surrender many lives defending or standing up for their beliefs.

There are those who believe rightly or wrongly :

1. That blowing themselves up in a suicide bombing will make them martyrs, guarantee them safe passage to heaven, be blessed with seventy virgins and dwell in heaven with Allah for eternity.

2. In the sovereign almighty God worshipped by the three monotheistic faiths of Christianity, Islam and Judaism.

3. That those of a different faith to theirs are infidels and therefore do not deserve to live.

4. In life after death while others believe that once you are dead, that’s the final end.

5. In Karma, that is, what goes round comes round and everybody in the end gets what they deserve.

6. In some part of the world that they need to and would once a year cut themselves with knives and cutlasses and split their blood on the street in worship of their God.

7. In worshipping cows and stones as gods, praying and making sacrifices to them.

Needless to say that because you believe in something does not necessarily mean it is true. Facts and evidence are often optional extras in beliefs. Faith on the other hand is usually the key ingredient.

Belief of the type that I am interested in and which is the subject of this paper is that arising primarily from the Christian religion. Some would call them Christian beliefs, doctrines, fundamentals, tradition etc. They are the embodiment of what defines the Christian religion.

Let me digress a little and say from the outset that I cherish freedom in all its facets; it is an absolute fundamental to me. I respect and would defend with all that I have the freedom of individuals and communities to live their lives as they see fit. This paper is therefore not about bible, Koran or religious bashing of any sort. Some of the words might be critical or even harsh in places, that is simply because I believe in calling a spade a spade. I make no apologies for my comments and or conclusions, it is a free world.

Freedom cannot be just about agreement, whether it be with those or things that you agree with. It also has to be about having to understand the right of others to condemn, criticize, joke about or disagree with what you perhaps believe fervently and have probably spent a life time defending.

These essays/papers are about my findings, what I discovered from a critical evaluation of my Christian beliefs. I am not a theologian, priest or biblical scholar, just an ordinary Christian taking a very close critical look at my Christian beliefs and the tradition that I was brought up in.

One does not need to be a biblical scholar or have a PHD in biblical studies these days to unravel things by oneself. For those who care to look, over 200 years of biblical scholarship is out there now in simple language and easily accessible too. The last 20 years has also

seen the emergence of bodies like the Westar Institute and The Jesus Seminar who have actively promoted religious literacy and made available invaluable critical biblical scholarship work to ordinary members of the public.

The Background

a) In The Beginning

As with many Christians, whatever their denomination, my faith is one that I was brought up in. Both my parents were practicing Christians; their religion was at the centre of daily family life. I was therefore naturally brought up in a Christian home with Christian values and beliefs. And apart from the usual rebellious teenage years, I made a conscious choice to continue in the faith of my parents.

Like most Christians, I followed the orthodoxy as I was taught. This, my son is the bible; it is the word of God, all of it. Jesus is Lord, God the father, son and holy spirit. Heaven and Hell is real my son. Jesus is the only way; all unbelievers are going to hell. God is the creator, grantor and giver of everything.

You need to be saved my son, Adam, Eve, the original sin, the whole works. You see my son, it is very simple, it is black or white – it is either the path of righteousness or eternal damnation. But…but uncle I said, how do you know it is true? Listen son, it is because it is in the Epistle to the Corinthians and the pastor also said so.

You get the gist; you simply don’t ask questions, well not of the difficult type any way. To ask such questions is deemed to be unbelieving and heresy. I remember asking once about how God can be three in one, lets just say that the look I was given puts me in my place.

b) Growing Up

As I grew older, I struggled with a lot of what I am being told and taught in church. A look around me in the church and christiandom generally shows me clearly that all is not well or perhaps not as black and white as I have been told. There is as much hopelessness, trouble, afflictions, heartaches, broken lives, greed, dishonesty and all those other everyday problems of life in the church as there are outside of it.

You then look outside and see that those in the world as we call them, the supposedly wicked and ungodly ones prosper and do very well. They are not worse off than you are (whatever yardstick you use) and in many cases they are actually better off.

I can hear my friend John now… hold on brother Olu, not so fast…the Lord or Christianity does not promise you a cushioned and trouble free life…so what are you talking about. Remember it is only God that adds with no sorrow.

Okay brother John, some of what you said may well be true….why then are all these evangelist miracle workers naming and claiming it and selling the prosperity package on air, land and sea, everywhere, everyday. These miracles they are selling only seem to apply to them. Judging by their flashy cars, villas, planes and diamond rings, they seem to be the only ones that get the blessing whilst their congregants perpetually wait for these promised miracles.

So my friend - they are either selling a lie, exploiting and making mugs of innocent, and often vulnerable people or they serve a different God from the one they are preaching…so which one is it? Ah.. brother Olu, you are thinking too shallow about these things…..Christianity is about salvation….oh….really.

c) Human Suffering

One of the things that I have struggled with most is seeing terrible things happen to very good people. And in my time, I have seen some terrible calamities befall Christians and Christian families. We were supposed to be serving a God that is all knowing, all present and all powerful. The same God that brought Israel out of Egypt with a mighty hand, the one that parted the red sea, the one that created the world in seven days, the almighty God of Abraham.

Why then does he not answer the prayers of his people? Why does he allow all these terrible things to happen in a world that he created?

I can hear my friend John again…brother Olu, who are you to question God? He is sovereign, he does what he likes, that is why he is God….

Okay my friend, if that is so, why then do we have all these televangelist miracle workers dishing out all these formulas that works and solve all your problems? .…7 ways to….21 steps to.…14 keys to…12 paths to.…?. They all seem to have a formula to work God out and unlock his ways. Isn’t it dishonest then my friend for these ever growing numbers of miracle workers to continue to claim to have a key to what they don’t know or understand?

Why do they traffic in certainty? Is it sheer ignorance or dishonesty?

Why do they yank misquoted and unrelated bible passages here and there to justify their exaggerated and often false claims?

I can hear John again - Brother Olu….aba…it is about faith. Believe it or not, I have had many a similar conversations like this with my very good friend and a dear brother, John. A great man of God.

I don’t have anything against the clergy in whatever form, be they pastors, evangelists or whatever.  One of my best and childhood friend is a Baptist minister.

One of my brothers is an ordained lay pastor in one of the mainstream evangelical denomination. He is a man with a great love of God, impeccable morals, enormous intellect and wisdom way beyond his years; a credit to the collar. There are, I am sure many like him who work tirelessly and honestly, shepherding their flock and doing a fantastic job. I have enormous respect and admiration for them.

I sadly however have to say that the likes of them are in my opinion, the exception, especially in the Pentecostal circuit. From my experience in the UK, the US and Africa, most are of the miracle worker/prosperity seller ilk. Ignorant cowboys, twisting and manipulating both the message and its recipients for their own personal gain whilst in the meantime committing terrible atrocities with human lives in the process; all in God’s name.

The word “Ministry” has over the last two decades become the most abused word in the English language. God must be a very patient person with a good sense of humour.

d) Two Tragedies

Let us forget about the holocaust, the tsunamis and all the other innumerable human tragedies of the last century for the time being. I will just highlight as examples, two particular tragedies closer to home that shook me to the core. I will be vague about some of the details of one of these two events out of respect for the family of the deceased.

I remember the loss of a christian brother in England a few years ago. This was a Christian brother who had paid a lot of money out of his own pocket to go on a Christian evangelism mission to the Caribbean. The purpose and the norm on these missions is usually to preach the gospel, distribute free bibles to the locals, paint the local schools and carry out all sorts of other community/missionary work, the missions usually last about two weeks.

The brother had worked very hard like all the others on the trip and on the last day of the trip which was the only day off they had, he went to swim in the sea to enjoy their only day off. Sadly he suffered serious spinal injury that day as a result of a swimming accident. He never recovered from those injuries; he died at home in England a few years later after years of prolonged suffering.

One of my younger brothers was for many years, head of sciences and house master in a top private African Christian secondary school. The school vacated for the Christmas break in Dec 2005 and a lot of the students boarded a plane to travel home from the north to the eastern part of the country as they did at the end of every term. Sadly, the plane crashed on approach to landing at the destination airport, it literally overshot the tarmac and busted into flames.

103 people died in that accident, including 60 young children coming home on holiday from this Christian school. A popular lady evangelist also died in that accident. Many of the parents were there at the airport waiting for their children to arrive, most of them therefore witnessed the calamity unfold in real time.

I remember visiting my brother in that school shortly before he left in 2006, he showed me the booklet of the memorial service held for the deceased victims of that tragic accident; it had the pictures of all those students. He knew them, all of them individually, he had taught many of them for years. I saw the pain on my brother’s face as we looked through the booklet; it was one that is hard to put into words.

He told me that there were a few families that lost two or more children in that accident and that there was at least one family who lost all their children on that day. I can only imagine the pain of a mother standing at the observation window of an airport watching the plane carrying her only two children bust into flames.

If miracles do happen, if prayers do get answered, if a mighty hand was ever needed, it would have been very appropriate on those two occasions. I can tell you a dozen or so more terrible calamities that I have seen befall lovely Christian people.

Why does God always appear to be indifferent to human suffering?

Why do such bad things happen to good people?

I can hear my friend John again…em…em…em…even brother John has little to say this time. There is of course the customary Christian line…the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away…many are the afflictions of the righteous…bla... bla… bla. We are very good and well rehearsed in these situations. God does not need anyone to apologise for him, he is a big man, he is the almighty God, he is well capable of speaking for himself.

Whichever way you choose to dance around this, the inevitable fact is that God does not intervene in the affairs of mankind in the way that we have been taught or led to believe. It may well be that we need to reevaluate our traditional understanding of him.

The question must be asked whether the orthodox father Christmas image of God - dishing out goodies to the good guys and punishment to the baddies is a massive myth.

e) The Only Way

Apart from the difficulty of coming to terms with God’s perceived indifference to human suffering, there are a number of other issues or Christian orthodoxy that makes me frankly, uncomfortable.

The Christian claim of exclusivity is one of those ones that I have always struggled with. It is one that is very difficult to believe and/or embrace. That ever present Christian arrogance - we of course are saved, the chosen people, the royal priesthood, we are right and everybody else is wrong.

If the Christian claim to being the only way to salvation is true, the implications of that is that all Muslims and Judaists who are also monotheistic and worship the same Christian almighty God of Abraham and Isaac will all be going to hell. That surely can’t be true or right. What kind of a God would condemn millions if not billions of faithful and dedicated Muslim and Jewish worshippers to eternal damnation just because they didn’t believe in Jesus. That in my opinion would be an awfully cruel and unjust God.

f) Opening My Eyes

I then came to a slow realisation that contrary to the orthodox Christian view, with religion, there is hardly anything like absolute truth, it is more often than not, serial dogmas.

God may not be the problem; there may well be a lot that is wrong with human interpretation and understanding of him.

Whatever or whichever it is, something is not right somewhere, I needed to understand what I believe; I need to look beyond the orthodoxy. I don’t mind being led but I must no longer allow anyone to lead me with my eyes closed. That seems to be what I have allowed to happen for most of my adult Christian life. Difficult questions must be asked, it is time to open my eyes.

This was the beginning of my quest to try and distinguish between Christian dogma and truth, as far as humanly possible. It is a journey that has taken seven years and is still ongoing. Knowledge is never perfect so the learning continues.

Believers, God, And The Human Suffering Problem

I want to start by dealing with two related issues which are relevant to this section of the paper since they are directly related to the issues of human suffering which I raised earlier. 

The problems that human suffering poses for believers in God has its roots in the traditional Christian understanding or should I have said misunderstanding of God. This in my opinion revolves around two issues – The Christian beliefs about the attributes of God and the theology behind God’s reward and punishment system. So let us look at both briefly for the time being.

1)  Understanding God  – The Attributes of God

Mere mortals like me cannot make arrogant claims about having a perfect understanding of God (that is the exclusive preserve of fundamentalist televangelists - they know everything, and also claim to talk to God daily).

I make no such exaggerated claim, I am one of the many or shall I say one of the rest of us who are not that privileged. We have to rely on detailed study and careful critical analysis of the various materials available and the related theology.

The theology on the attributes of God is a good example of how the bible has been and is constantly being extended beyond its original context and scope and in many cases, beyond credibility. The traditional Christian belief is that God is Omnipotent, Omnipresent and Omniscient.

Here is the problem

If you believe in such a God who is omnipotent and omniscient then he cannot be a good God. A good God that is omniscient and omnipotent could surely have designed and delivered a much better universe than the one we have now. I can hear my friend John again…hold on brother Olu….what are you on about…God is good all the time..

That may well be true my brother but it may well be that your traditional superman view of him is a wrong view.

If one is omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent, one can certainly do phenomenally better than the status quo and come up with a much better universe, without the tsunamis, hurricanes, tornados, earthquakes etc.

If on the other hand you think he is definitely a good God, then he cannot be omnipotent and/or omnipresent. Because if he were, he would surely alter reality by intervening in human affairs.

A wrong understanding of God, be it in personality, attributes, scope, and /or limitations has serious implications for Christian believers. I am convinced with almost absolute certainty that the traditional Christian understanding of God is a terribly faulty one.

If the Christian view and belief in God is that of a monotheistic overseer of the universe, gifted with omniscience and omnipotence, and judging among souls, that God is a human creation and a human delusion.

 2) Understanding God - Human Suffering

The problem of suffering is a notoriously difficult issue for religions that believe in the existence of a good and loving creator who is transcendentally separated from his creation - which is what mainstream Christian tradition believes and what the bible teaches.

As Bishop Holloway puts it - If you posit a god who is transcendentally external to, yet is the creative cause of, nature; and if you further refine this idea of God to include the attributes of omnipotence, omniscience and moral perfection, as is the case in the developed Christian tradition; then you are faced with the difficulty of explaining the presence of suffering in a world created by such a being.

There are of course the usual theological constructions based usually on literal reading and interpretation of the bible in an attempt to give meaning to those parts of the bible that were not meant to be read literally or universally applied. Devoid of their original context and scope, these passages inevitably result in wrong beliefs.

One such theology is the one below on a part of the reward and punishment system. This is one of the Christian beliefs at the heart of the understanding that we have of God in relation to the issue of human suffering.

The Theology - Human Suffering

The first step and the essential claim in this theological construction was that God rewarded his righteous and obedient children with prosperity. This may be an old teaching, but it is still been banded around even today: it is one of the fundamental convictions of American Christian Evangelicalism and Pentecostal Christianity all over the world. Sign up to the true God, it says, walk in his way, and he will cause you to prosper. Tithe your substance to God and his representatives on earth, and he will reward you.

The most egregious version of the doctrine is found in Psalm 73:

25 – I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread.

26 – They are ever giving liberally and lending, and their children become a blessing.

27 – Depart from evil, and do good; so you shall abide for ever.

28 – For the Lord loves justice; he will not forsake his faithful ones. The righteous shall be kept safe for ever, but the children of the wicked shall be cut off.

29 – The righteous shall inherit the land, and live in it for ever.

The Second step of this is based on verse 28 of the psalm. Not only does God actively reward the righteous with prosperity, but he actively punishes the wicked with adversity. This follows the most ancient view that suffering was God’s punishment for human wickedness.

The Third step in the evolution of this idea is the claim that if you are suffering, if you are having a hard time, if you have lost everything, then God must be punishing you for your misdeeds; however secret and unknown they are to others. A lot can be said about trials and tribulations, Mr Job and co. lets leave that for later.

The final step of this theory or interpretation is that this reward and punishment system is then said to operate at the group as well as the personal level. God therefore does not only punishes individuals for their own misdeeds, he punishes whole societies for the misdeeds of sinful individuals who happen to be in their midst.

This was a claim made in response to 9/11 by Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, the popes of American Christian Fundamentalism, whose initial reaction to the atrocity was to see it as God’s wrath on the wickedness of liberal America. A similar accusation was heard from Muslim clerics in Indonesia after the tsunami on Boxing Day 2004. According to them, God was cleansing the land of the corrupting effects of Western tourism on their previously pure society.

There is no evidence whatsoever that God behaves in this way. Not in post biblical times anyway. What we are left with are the myths and the symbolic narratives of the biblical stories. The biblical stories, I will deal with in paper 2 on the bible. The reality in the world that we live in is that so many, many, many,  good, innocent, honest, Christians and non Christians alike are afflicted, become casualties and suffer terrible calamities without any fault of their own and without any divine intervention.

Pastor - slain on the road by armed robbers, (He just left the evening service on his way home), a whole school of young girls buried alive in an earthquake, the pastor’s wife dying prematurely (after months of prayer and fasting), Congregants shot dead in the middle of a church service, Christian mother losing all her three children on the same day. Most would qualify as faithful (as per verse 28 above) but if we could rewind the clock and ask them, they would probably feel forsaken. It simply does not work the way they said it does.

Possible Resolution

In my search for an answer, the best that I found was Bishop Holloway’s conclusion on this.

He suggested that there are two possible routes to the resolution of the problem suffering poses for believers in God. One is to abandon the belief: in Mrs Job’s words, to curse God.

The other possible resolution is to find a satisfactory theological answer that vindicates God. I have never found a satisfactory theological answer that could possibly vindicate God. Let me know if you find one.

It is obvious to me and to millions of others that the orthodox father Christmas image of God is almost certainly a false one. So many have their hopes hanging on this.

Finally - The Purpose

This should normally be at the beginning of a paper but I want it to be at the end of this first part, after the reader has had at least a small dose of the paper’s contents.

The purpose of writing these essays is not to convince anyone that I am right in my findings and/or conclusions or that I have suddenly unravel some mystery that has somehow eluded everybody else. Not at all.

I am hoping that by sharing my findings with others, it will encourage more people to look critically into their own religious beliefs, whatever that may be. Come to whatever conclusions you may but you owe it to yourself to look. Whatever you find, myth, truth or a mixture of both, I assure you it will be worth the effort. The need for a critical evaluation has never been greater than in the current climate of rising religious fundamentalism.

Some are afraid of what they might find if they look too deeply. One brother once told me – “once you start to unravel these things, it may all unravel”. To which I replied, I didn’t bundle it together in the first place so why should I care if it unravels, it is not my problem.

As one philosopher once said “If a god could be killed, it ought to be killed”.

To spend a life time in a state of precritical naiveté, reading the bible literally in that boxed up orthodox way is allowing oneself to be led with both eyes closed. That, in the 21^st century seems to me to be an untenable position for an educated adult.

“Seek ye the truth, whence it may lead, whatever it may cost”

Shalom

Steve Adeleye, a chartered accountant lives in the UK.

August 2008

Robot  # 1 | 08.10.2008 23:51

...Read the full article.

Tunde meee  # 2 | 09.10.2008 06:07

Oh My God!!! What a beautiful well thought and properly put together write up. In the process of knowing God, the first step is to Question His existence and the extent of His power. Examples abound in the Holy books of prophets of God asking question of Him. Prophet Ibrahim(A.S) in the Holy Quran was once unsure about the form His God takes to such an extent that he thought He was the sun but rules it out when the sun set. He tried same with the moon but ruled it out in the morning when it disappeared. Later the Almighty revealed His Majesty. Same happened to Moses(A.S) when he requested to see the Lord's face. This was the same reason for which the Holy Prophet Muhammad(SAW) went into the Cave for many years before he was siezed by the Power of the Almighty. God remains Omnipotent(All Conquering), Omnipresent(Ever available) and Omniscient(All knowing) but all these depends on your knowledge of Him. A verse in the Holy Quran says"God bestow wisdom to whom He pleases and to whomever He bestowed wisdom, He has done a big favour, but no one realises this except he is intelligent"(Sodaqallahu liazeem). Due to the limitation of human knowledge a lot of misinterpretations are given to whatever happens to us here in the world. Most of us worship our Lord in exchange for his Goodies. There is no where in the Holy books in which God promised that no 'evil', (please note the sign) shall befall His believers, Wherever such exists it will be in relation to life hereafter. Shall we take 3 instances of limitation in human knowledge for which many of us has had to ask for God's forgiveness after it became apparent to us that we have certainly erred: 1. Not a few of our parents and probably some of us prayed and probably fasted for Nigeria to be independent from colonial masters. If God had rejected the prayer then, wouldn't it have been a good thing? Recently not few of us had voiced it out that we could have been better off being under the Colonial master at least we could have had them to blame for our woes as a nation. 2. Had Babangida been killed by Dimka in 1976 or by Orkar in 1990, he probably could have been a hero and we could have blamed God for his death. Is Babangida not better dead then than what he did to our Dear nation in the end. 3. Had Obasanjo died in the Prison of Abacha, he could have been a celebrated man and God would have been a victim of his family's (probably all Nigerian) bitter tongue. The man is a big disappointment to all who knows him at present. Think of other examples of such in your daily activities. A friend of mine missed the Kenyan Airline that crashed few years back on its way from Dubai. He cried for missing the flight but woke up the next morning to praise God for His favour on him and His family. Lastly let me say that what human called evil may be good afterall and vice versa. God is just but His ways are different from what we know. " Say He God is One. On Whom all depends. He begets not, neither is He begotten. And there is none like Him"(Quran Chapter 112). Whatever you can comprehend in form, shape or character is not Him. Whatever attribute you give to Him that you are able to think of another with same is not for Him.

Jagunlabi  # 3 | 09.10.2008 10:14

I believe the issue of faith and believe is one that has puzzled man from time immemorial, because it's as old as the origin of man himself. Theories, philosophies, mythology has been so built around it, that to begin to unravel it, you begin to get to a maze. Even as it relates to the issue of knowledge, Apostle Paul during his days was considered mad because of his religious conviction("Paul, too much knowledge seems to have made you mad, Somewhere in the new testament). I see where bro Steve(you are my broda, bro) is coming from, but that is still using our limited knowledge to inquire about a limitless God,and before you say there they go again always looking for a mild excuse to avoid the issues(like bro John). I do believe in an indepth intellectual arguement, i also believe that we should be like the people in Berea(Acts 17:9-11) who not only listen to their teacher(read Pastor) but went home and searched the scripture "if those things were true".And by way of digression, i might agree that at time, today's pentecostalism(especially the way it's practised at times in Nigeria) has elevated mediocre to the level of notoriety. This does not diminish the potency, authencity or validity of the bible, being God's word, try as we may to intellectualize, analyse or decipher it. Matter of faith are just that, they are based on faith, which has no reasoning in logic or rationality. Example, we feel the effect of the wind, but we have never seen the wind. You go to a gathering and there are chairs there provided, you don't start a debate, if the chair would seat you or not, you just sit, what you've demostrated, is faith. There is a chair and you sit down, that's how it was in the beginning, now is,so it shall be world withour end(Amin). As to God not responding enough to human suffering, i do appreciate your very vivid and moving example, especially, that of parent watching their children, perish, or the tsunami disaster. However God is not the author of evil(James 1:13-15), how do we begin to square our knowledge of a loving and gracious God, with a world in turmoil, war, diseases, market-crunch. If we believe in the authencity of the bible(this bibeli again) it states that the world(the comos system) is not control by Him(1John, 2:15-17), but the earth(the totality of the systems) are the Lord's and the fullness thereof.Confused?(welcome to confused.com), that's why issue of faith would not follow our logic or rationality. Until we come to the level where we surrender our faith, the infiniteness of it, it's irrationality, we would continue to ask question, which we might not be able to find answers to and in the process, it becomes a dog chasing it's tail.

draftman  # 4 | 09.10.2008 11:58

The previous response responses one from Muslim point of view and the other from the christian point of view is exactly why we should question all our beliefs. Most of us just follow our parents teaching as the author have said-whether that is right or wrong we do not question it. Shouldn't we ask the critical question of who is this almighty and how does it want to be worship if he need to be worship. We are just follow-follow like herd of cows without critical thinking. We african pray and pray, churches and mosques at every corner, but our social situation is getting worse and worse does that mean prayers doesn't work, or there is no one to pray to. I think the agnostic are the only one who got it right, they just do no, which is the most honest things to say. We all have adopted all these imported religions as the only truth, even though we just belief in god we never seen. As the author pointed out, how can all the religion of the words worship differently to the same God. If God only chose one, I guess billions will be going to hell, just imaging the chinese. The best practice is to use your heart as your guide, if is not right then don't do it. I am tired of everyone is in their religious corner with their "holy book" that was written by someone else that doesn't look like you. Theare are too much confusion and imperfection, which makes me think that religion is man's invention not God's intention, since god is perfect.

allaccess  # 5 | 09.10.2008 12:44

=draftman;278178>The previous response responses one from Muslim point of view and the other from the christian point of view is exactly why we should question all our beliefs. Most of us just follow our parents teaching as the author have said-whether that is right or wrong we do not question it. Shouldn't we ask the critical question of who is this almighty and how does it want to be worship if he need to be worship. We are just follow-follow like herd of cows without critical thinking. We african pray and pray, churches and mosques at every corner, but our social situation is getting worse and worse does that mean prayers doesn't work, or there is no one to pray to. I think the agnostic are the only one who got it right, they just do no, which is the most honest things to say. We all have adopted all these imported religions as the only truth, even though we just belief in god we never seen. As the author pointed out, how can all the religion of the words worship differently to the same God. If God only chose one, I guess billions will be going to hell, just imaging the chinese. The best practice is to use your heart as your guide, if is not right then don't do it. I am tired of everyone is in their religious corner with their "holy book" that was written by someone else that doesn't look like you. Theare are too much confusion and imperfection, which makes me think that religion is man's invention not God's intention, since god is perfect. draftman, I feel sorry for Christians and Muslims - complete waste of time and effort.,

DeepThought  # 6 | 09.10.2008 14:09

Oga Steve: Repent! Repent!! Repent!!! you sinner Or else you will burn in hell fire :D O.K , jokes aside, I belive the above to be a comical if not perveted representation of the idea of God and just man reflecting and projecting their own wickedness onto God. But luckily, that model which i''ve rejected is not the only possible representation of the concept of God. There are many alternatives, some I consider to be better, and some I consider worse. If you are bent on believing in a God, I guess you will just have to keep searching till you find the particular concept you're confortable with. The problem is you may never find the satisfactory alternative you're looking for and you might give up out of despair. I've regretfully had to seriously consider the possibility that he/she might not exist. Paradoxically, I still haven't given up hoping I'm wrong because of the very strong human need/desire which plauges me along with the majority of humanity. I prefer to hope he/she exists, is "good" and that the human mind at this stage of development is just incapable of understanding this intelligence. Good luck in your search and if you find what you're looking for, pls I take God beg you.....don't forget to PM me O!

Dewdrops  # 7 | 10.10.2008 03:57

=Robot;278047>...Read the full article. The search for salvation continues. =allaccess;278194>draftman, Most pagans are better than these so called Christians and Muslims. I feel sorry for Christians and Muslims - complete waste of time and effort., Totally agree.............a bloody waste of time. Killing themselves for nothing with their quest to establish for the superiority of each individual religion. A human being remains a human being......regardless of what kind of religion he or she practices. Most even have shrines under their beds, with the blackest of hearts of the darkest of darknesses. The saddest part is that you really can't tell which religion is being practiced. With all the wahala..we are all subjected to the same chances of successes/failures, happiness/sorrows, life/death processes. I am a Christian! I am a Muslim! Who cares what you are? Just be yourself and stop faking it like an orgasm. It is pathetic Just a label to ascribe one's self like any other label......the only benefit? It makes the individual feel good about himself or herself. What a waste of time I say. If the white man or berbers did not come to the shores of Africa........I often wondered what the religionists will be worshipping now.........probably their kitchen tables. Same old same old pieces of shits, repeated and repeated over and over again......like severely impacted/constipated gramaphonic parrots! Thank God for choices.....we shall see who will get there first with all the hypocrisy of this religion rubbish of do as I say and not as I do. Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiioooooooooooooooorrrrrrrrr!!! Who wan know? Especially in places like Nigeria where the average "religionist" is also a "cultist"" I wish I were God........as soon as most of those idiotic 2-left-k-legged ritualists showed up to give their useless "thanksgiving offerings" in front of the church/mosque.....I would instantly strike them with paralysis so they would start excreting and urinating on themselves for all to see........never to leave that church till they died. Instant justice! To teach these fake spiritualists not to dream of using my name in vain. God is truly a merciful God I always say. If only Man was God!!!!! Justice would have been instant!

udokaamah  # 8 | 10.10.2008 19:14

"Possible Resolution In my search for an answer, the best that I found was Bishop Holloway’s conclusion on this. He suggested that there are two possible routes to the resolution of the problem suffering poses for believers in God. One is to abandon the belief: in Mrs Job’s words, to curse God. The other possible resolution is to find a satisfactory theological answer that vindicates God. I have never found a satisfactory theological answer that could possibly vindicate God. Let me know if you find one." Although well written this article strikes me as a patch work of self doubt, and defiance to religion, cloaked as an inquiry. The flaw with this article, in my view, is that it presumes divinity to be a body of knowledge to be understood and explained. Unfortunately, divinity can only be revealed. We can and do study ABOUT God. And that is to be encouraged. However, KNOWING God is a revelation. The subject of suffering has been with the human race and has always confounded us, especially when the suffering is undeserved. And we have, in our attempt to make meaning of it, attached labels to it, to numb the pain. However nothing is as beautiful and purifying as suffering. The Puritan Abraham Wright said, "I am mended by my sickness, enriched by my poverty, and strengthened by my weakness…What fools are we then to frown upon our afflictions! They are not indeed for our pleasure, they are for our profit.' We err when we attempt to extarpolate our sufferings with the omnipotency of God. The question may be understandable and the doubts human. But to conjecture that God is some kind of "absentee landlord" (no apologies to Al Pacino), because he failed to intervene and stop the suffering before it happens, is unreasonable even by human standards. Abraham Lincoln in his time of suffering said, "I know there is a God, and that He hates injustice and slavery. I see the storm coming, and i know that his hand is in it. If He has a place and work for me - and i think He has - I believe I am ready." On the subject of suffering, Gods record in human history speaks for itself. Since the author confines his article to the christian faith, my response shall also be confined to the christian faith. God suffered in Christ. The cross of Christ is proof of God's personal, loving solidarity with us in pain. According to Jean Jacques Rousseau; " Yes, if the life and death of Socrates are those of a wise man, the life and death of Jesus are those of a god."I respect the author's quest for knowledge and answers on a personal level. If it is informed by truth and sincere heart, then he is on the threshold of revelation. " Could Hamlet have been written by a committee, or the Mona Lisa painted by a club? Could the New Testament have been composed as a conference report? Creative ideas do not spring from groups. They spring from individuals. The divine spark leaps from the finger of God to the finger of Adam, whether it takes ultimate shape in a law of physics or a law of the land, a poem or a policy, a sonata or a mechanical computer." (A. Whitney Griswold, President of Yale (1957))

overdryv  # 9 | 11.10.2008 04:14

Despite the fact that this author tried to free himself from unreason and irrationality of christendom, it must be pointed out that as Africans we must reject the notion that God could only be explained in the eyes of the white man. Maintaining this position is an admission that black people are a slave race. If after thousands of years the bible could not be correctly interpreted, then one could only question its divine authorship. Talking of beliefs, this is a great departure of African traditional religions. In our settings, we just worship the gods without any need to believe in something. Its more or less a way of life. An example is the issue of prosperity. We dont pray to the gods to reward us with material things. At the beginning of any harvest season with thank them for making the land fertile. The first respondent tried to misrepresent the facts. He mentioned that Nigerians prayed to free themselves from British rule. This is a barefaced lie as there is no documented evidence that people were against British rule. The struggle for independence was a charade initiated by the colonial powers to take colonialism to the next level. From my own understanding, its safe to say that "God" is anything that is outside of our human perceptions. All these notions of omnipresence, omniscience and omnipotence and the word "God" are all human creations. If religion today has become so fragmented, it could be said all followers of religions are worshipping the devil. Being a christian puts you in a firing line with a muslim. In what way are these "holy" people better than the chinese who are atheists? To the author, I'd say the search for the truth would surely outlive you. With all the thousands of bible versions and millions of different interpretatons, the problem would still be there even after Christ has ended his second coming.

Oluwato  # 10 | 11.10.2008 11:17

This article is the perfect example of how limited the human mind is. On his quest to look deeply, believe rightly and "understand", he has simply proven how foolish the human mind can become! "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. .." Psalm 14:1 Author, Enjoy your re-examination. Shalom to you too. When you're ready to truly study and learn (if you ever get ready), PM me and I'll send you some resources.

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