By Richard Odusanya
Let’s begin with the profound words of Pan-Africanist scholar PLO Lumumba, PLO, profoundly posited: “Religion has been used to manipulate Africans into poverty”
From my personal experience and observation; the more religious a person is, the more dangerous he is. Because religion carries with it deep-rooted prejudices that cause conflict, mistrust, and oppression. When you use religious faith to determine what is true, then you open yourself up to delusion. The more religious or “faith-full” someone is, the more likely it is that they will hold destructive, delusional beliefs as truth.
Here is a good example of the challenge: for example, the thing about a delusion is that it is often very difficult to crack from the outside, and intelligence is no defense from the inside against delusion. So, it is this herd mentality, that I think has gotten perverted into religions. Ultimately, religious differences increasingly, cause mistrust, animosity, misunderstanding, and conflict.
More than any other factor, religion divides us mostly when it tells us that it alone codifies true rules for determining what is right or wrong. We are then led to believe that the actions, thoughts, feelings, and beliefs of others are inconsequential when they appear to contradict our understanding of the proper religion of our choice.
We become less empathetic, less tolerant, less merciful, less gracious, less generous, and less humble when we believe that our religion’s morals, cosmology, or manner of thinking are more correct and righteous. We become less connected to the people, animals, environment, and even ourselves when we believe that religious influence renders the influence of those things less important.
Although this might sound idealistic, human beings, if united, could overcome enormous obstacles. Yet, here in the 21st century, religious differences are still dividing us, holding us back from reaching our full potential. Human unity and peace are made unattainable because religion segregates people into clusters of believers and “nonbelievers”.
Religion instills in people the idea that those who differ with their religious beliefs are evil and undeserving of association, or even of their humanity. I was raised in Christianity; I am no longer comfortable with the resultant realities of religiosity because religion instilled certain values into me that it never intended to, through its examples of superstition, irrationality, and dishonesty.
Religion, especially such as the Wahhabism and Pentecostal brands of Islam and Christianity respectively, have continually demonstrated a potency of reducing the masses to illogical complacency.
Consequently, I have learned not to equate belief with knowledge. Belief starts where knowledge stops. They do not shade into each other; no matter how fervently you believe something, you cannot claim to ‘know’ it, unless you can demonstrate it in a way that can be ‘known’ by those who do not believe it. I have learned that it is dangerous to accept irrational claims at face value and that implausible claims, especially relating to the supernatural, would require particularly plausible evidence.
Asked about his thoughts on the future of religion in our growing civilization, Stephen Hawkings responded even in his state of paralysis which is ironically assisted by technology, he posited: “Religion was an early attempt to answer the questions we all ask: Why are we here, where did we come from? Nowadays, Science provides better and more consistent answers but people will always cling to religion because it gives comfort and they do not trust or understand science”
Additionally, faith is impossible to deal with logic. The tragedy of our time is that we seem to rely more heavily on faith than logic and this is perhaps the catalyst for majority of the word in our society and country today. The Government and leaders seem to take the masses for granted knowing the masses can always be manipulated for them by the religious leaders. As such, it is the process of distribution of patronage to the religious leaders that often instigates the many religious tension in our society and country.
In conclusion therefore, this is a clarion call to our revered faith leaders across the different religious bodies in Nigeria to come together and advance interfaith collaboration for peace-building and peaceful coexistence amongst people of divergent creeds. Particularly at a time like this when we are at a crossroads and difficult period given the relationship that exists between politics and religion cannot be over-emphasized in Nigeria’s polity since the evolution of a sustainable democracy has heightened the relevance of religion in our society. Religion has been identified as one of the factors that have divided the people of Nigeria who are divided already.
Finally, while reflecting on questions asked some four decades ago by the Ozzidi king Sonny Okosun “Which way Nigeria is heading to? I love my fatherland. I want to know which way Nigeria is heading to.?” The questions asked in that song are still relevant.
Richard Odusanya
