Every time an accident happens in or around a worship place in Nigeria these days, some young fellows who think they have an axe to grind with God, or who feel they have acquired enough education or knowledge to know that religion is for the lily-livered, or who try to convince themselves of their non-belief in the existence of God, rather than confront the real issues, see an opportunity to show how liberated they’ve become. They did it after the September 12, 2014 Synagogue Church building collapse in Ikotun, Lagos, and they are doing it now following the December 10 Reigners Bible Church building collapse in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.
Granted, the grab-grab, fleshly, hypocritical lifestyle of many so-called religious leaders in the country today is enough to scandalise a young mind, plus there’s enough depressing frustration caused by decades of failed political leadership. However, where youths in other climes have taken the path of full participatory – if revolutionary – politics to turn their destiny and that of their nations around, many Nigerian youths are falling into the same old blame-it-on-God trap, the same God whose existence they claim to doubt.
For a sampler, I’ll share a recent conversation we had on the Facebook wall of a not-so-young Nigerian I know personally. I’ll mention no names. Before that, here’s a caveat: All quotes in this article are reproduced as lifted from Facebook – unedited. All errors contained therein are those of the original authors of these quotes.
A day after the Akwa Ibom disaster, this friend wrote: “God is Omnipotent… Omniscience… He sees and knows everything. He knew the church in Akwa Ibom will collapse and kill those people. He did absolutely NOTHING to stop the mass murder. Then again this is his modus operandi.”
As you would expect, her foot-soldiers, mostly young people, quickly swooped on the sumptuous feast their matron had served. One wrote, “God is fiction. The evidence abound everywhere.”
This attracted several likes, prompting Matron to add, “Sometimes when his bored and needs excitement, he sends a Tsunami or earthquake to entertain his boredom.”
Well, you see two supposed atheists: one says God “is fiction”, the other says God sends “Tsunami or earthquake to entertain his boredom”. Which God then?
Matron got more support, then someone took God’s side: “Did you also stop to ask if that was a ‘church of God’? If you do not understand everything, don’t even conclude.”
A weak defence, if you asked me. And the “atheists” punctured it immediately, arguing that those who gathered in that church were certainly worshipping God, not Satan.
I followed for a while, then commented: “Why do you blame God for what is clearly a human error? A poorly structured building is bound to collapse, today or tomorrow. The killers are those who authorised the ‘rushing’ of the building, probably setting aside standard construction procedure. You go to a bar, drink yourself to stupor, then go behind the wheels and hit the road and then turn around to blame God when the inevitable happens?”
Well, I had stirred the hornet’s nest, and the battleground shifted to my comment thread, which closed at 18 replies.
“But if that drunk driver survives an accident you will thank God. If that building collapsed and no one died you all will say it’s God’s work. WHY?” one “atheist” asked.
“God could have prevented it…human error or not, if he cares to. I will not let 50 innocent people die because of the mistake of 2 people. Even before the law that’s mass murder. Not excusable,” said Matron.
A believer countered: “I understand why you think this way, but this is purely a human error. When investigations are carried out, you will clearly find out that there have been earlier warnings concerning this building and its strength, and God can’t force us to obey him, the decision is ours to take. God uses human beings to function on earth.”
“God uses human beings to function on earth? So why didn’t he use these humans to make sure his church was properly constructed?” the “atheist” said, asking why it was “ok to praise God when people survive man’s foolishness but not ok to blame it for disasters involving man’s foolishness”.
“By your logic should we agree that god deserves no praise when his believers survive a misfortune?” he queried.
“God is not an it. Maybe if you re-phrase we can continue the discussion,” said the believer, obviously not noticing the inconsistency in the atheist’s lines, referring to God as “it” in one breath and talking about “his” believers in another breath.
Even the “atheist” did not notice. “To me god is an it,” he insisted.
I watched this God bashing from the sidelines for a while, then quoted I Cor 1:25: “The foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.”
“Bros, we don wise pass that level. It’s either it makes sense or not,” Matron attacked.
I thought deeply, then wrote: “What’s the source of your wisdom? What’s the source of your life? The air you breathe? How many hairs are on your head? On your whole body? At what exact time did you sleep last night? At what exact time did you wake up? How long are you going to live on earth? What’s the exact date of your exit from this life? Let’s see just how wise you are. My dear, generations of philosophers have tried, unsuccessfully, to argue what you’re trying to argue. But it’s your freewill, use it.”
Silence.
“My prayer is that you encounter God someday. It’s never late. And you’ll make a great labourer in his vineyard.”
Silence.
When I checked, Matron was off to another thread bashing other commenters. Till today she hasn’t answered my questions.
But why is it fashionable these days for young people to claim to hate God? Is it a way of venting their frustration? Are they just looking for relevance? Do they want to show they have gone to school? Or are they thinking that perhaps by professing atheism Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook founder who claims to be a professed atheist, will recognise them and somehow make them rich? I can imagine.
Merry Christmas, dear readers. Remember the reason for the season.
Chuks Oluigbo
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