What Do You Believe?
I have been taught in Sunday school since I started going to church as a little kid, that God is the arbiter of all things; that God is the creator of heaven and earth and he decides what happens to whom and when. This seems like a good way to explain the questions above but in reality, it doesn’t really answer them. I was listening to a philosopher’s opinion on this issue and he was saying that this kind of “God is all in all” statement shuts down your reasoning and effectively renders the part of your brain that asks questions useless! While the Christian part of me wanted to cut off the man’s head for uttering such a ridiculously blasphemous statement, the other part of me that reasons and asks questions immediately started to reason it out.
What if it is indeed true that this whole thing is one big lie? In a country like Nigeria for instance; People go to church just because their pastors tell them to come. People have no personal opinions on issues as they are content to believe whatever their pastors tell them. People cannot reason out decisions made by the pastors as they now see their pastors as greater than God himself. How does one explain the case of a very big “Man of God” who slapped a young girl in the full glare of everyone just because the girl claimed to be a “witch for Jesus”? How do you explain it when a church asks its low income earning members to contribute money to build a university and at the end of the day, even the guy that contributed to the building of that university cannot afford to send his child to the school because he can’t afford the tuition and other fees? Yet he still contributes more towards the development of the school when asked.
How do you explain a Bishop in an orthodox church that goes into the vestry to drink alcohol when he is supposed to be observing lent? How do you rationalize the fact that a pastor goes about with bodyguards and armed policemen all in the name of security? Who wants to kill him? Why? How do you explain a situation where a pastor lives like a drug lord at the expense of his congregation? How can a pastor spend his church’s money lavishly and with reckless abandon when there are people in his own congregation who cannot afford two meals a day? How does a pastor think to build or buy mansions and choice estate all over the world when there are members of his own church whose permanent abode is under the third mainland bridge? What does God have to say to all these? Surely he can’t be pleased? Something has to be wrong somewhere.
I however believe that religion is a personal matter. Nobody should tell you what to think. If you feel like believing that there is God, you should. If you don’t feel like it, don’t. At the end of the day though, every man will be responsible for whatever his decisions and/or indecisions are; first in this life, then in the life hereafter (if there is one). I will end with a quote I heard from friend of mine; “I WOULD RATHER LIVE MY LIFE AS IF THERE IS A GOD AND DIE TO FIND OUT THERE ISN’T, THAN LIVE MY LIFE AS IF THERE ISN’T AND DIE TO FIND OUT THERE IS”.
AKINSOLA, Olumide B.
Ibadan, Nigeria.
www.maengboukzi.blogspot.com
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