IS RELIGION REALLY EVIL? - (originally published in Vanguard)
IS religion evil? Wait, don’t crucify me yet. Read below and make up your mind. Even Jesus Christ had a sham trial before Pontus Pilate before he was crucified. I contend that religious wars have killed more people than AIDS, malaria, famine, holocaust all put together.
That is a fact. People have committed atrocities, discrimination, murder, hatred, rape under the disguise of religion and in the name of God. Osama Bin Laden is killing people in the name of God. Mullah Omar and the Taliban have denied women education and freedom in the name of God. David Koresh, “the last prophet” of Waco Texas, raped and physically abused young children in the name of religion.
Bob Jones Christian University refused to enroll black students until 1971 and forbade interracial dating until 2000 based on religious beliefs; “that God intended segregation of the races and that the scripture forbids interracial marriage.” Pat Robertson and Jeremiah Wright preached hatred, intolerance, discrimination all in the name of God Almighty!
Esther my friend has avoided her mom for over 10 years. “Witch craft is not my portion” she insists. Their relationship has been strained ever since her 83-year old father passed away. Their pastor insists he was killed by his wife, Esther’s mom .
“That is what happens when a Christian marries a Muslim, light and darkness don’t mix” he explains. It didn’t matter that he was elderly, diabetic and with a bad heart.
Between 1933 and 1945, six million innocent people including children were tortured, and massacred by the Nazis in Germany. Some sent to humiliating concentration camps where they were subjected to agonizing mental maltreatments.
Their only crime; they were Jews! On September 11, 2001 the landscape and mind set of America were changed forever when 3000 innocent people were murdered in their primes by fanatic lunatics fighting the “holy war” jihad in the name of Allah.
In 2009, Nigeria saw a blood bath, again, in the name of God when some idiots decided to kill innocent people in an attempt to stop the advancement of western technology. The leader of the faceless cult Boko Haram was “accidentally” killed in a crossfire by the Nigerian Military. Found in his possession were 6 or more different cellular phones… the same technology he was fighting to abolish!
A friend once proudly told me that he knows Nigerians could be fraudsters, con artists, drug peddlers, 419s but that “they will never blow themselves up.” Those were the good old days before Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab, a privileged son of a wealthy Nigerian decided to upgrade Nigerian CV to include international terrorism when he attempted to blow up flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit in the name of Allah. What a shame!
There is no ideological justification for strapping explosives in your underwear; just plain craziness and stupidity. AbdulMutallab can now meet his 70 virgins without his balls! Since he has successfully castrated himself, he should be a beautiful bride to his fellow inmate Richard Reid, the shoe-bomber. Underwear bomber meets shoe bomber.
The fact that he still has any teeth left speaks volume about American kindness. Were that to be in Nigeria, there would have been rubber tires around his neck and his burnt corpse deposited along the road. Better still, his body would have been ridden by “accidental discharge” by the Nigerian Police.
May be religion is not the problem after all, just a few deranged criminals using the name of God to commit atrocities. Food for thought.
That is a fact. People have committed atrocities, discrimination, murder, hatred, rape under the disguise of religion and in the name of God. Osama Bin Laden is killing people in the name of God. Mullah Omar and the Taliban have denied women education and freedom in the name of God. David Koresh, “the last prophet” of Waco Texas, raped and physically abused young children in the name of religion.
Bob Jones Christian University refused to enroll black students until 1971 and forbade interracial dating until 2000 based on religious beliefs; “that God intended segregation of the races and that the scripture forbids interracial marriage.” Pat Robertson and Jeremiah Wright preached hatred, intolerance, discrimination all in the name of God Almighty!
Esther my friend has avoided her mom for over 10 years. “Witch craft is not my portion” she insists. Their relationship has been strained ever since her 83-year old father passed away. Their pastor insists he was killed by his wife, Esther’s mom .
“That is what happens when a Christian marries a Muslim, light and darkness don’t mix” he explains. It didn’t matter that he was elderly, diabetic and with a bad heart.
Between 1933 and 1945, six million innocent people including children were tortured, and massacred by the Nazis in Germany. Some sent to humiliating concentration camps where they were subjected to agonizing mental maltreatments.
Their only crime; they were Jews! On September 11, 2001 the landscape and mind set of America were changed forever when 3000 innocent people were murdered in their primes by fanatic lunatics fighting the “holy war” jihad in the name of Allah.
In 2009, Nigeria saw a blood bath, again, in the name of God when some idiots decided to kill innocent people in an attempt to stop the advancement of western technology. The leader of the faceless cult Boko Haram was “accidentally” killed in a crossfire by the Nigerian Military. Found in his possession were 6 or more different cellular phones… the same technology he was fighting to abolish!
A friend once proudly told me that he knows Nigerians could be fraudsters, con artists, drug peddlers, 419s but that “they will never blow themselves up.” Those were the good old days before Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab, a privileged son of a wealthy Nigerian decided to upgrade Nigerian CV to include international terrorism when he attempted to blow up flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit in the name of Allah. What a shame!
There is no ideological justification for strapping explosives in your underwear; just plain craziness and stupidity. AbdulMutallab can now meet his 70 virgins without his balls! Since he has successfully castrated himself, he should be a beautiful bride to his fellow inmate Richard Reid, the shoe-bomber. Underwear bomber meets shoe bomber.
The fact that he still has any teeth left speaks volume about American kindness. Were that to be in Nigeria, there would have been rubber tires around his neck and his burnt corpse deposited along the road. Better still, his body would have been ridden by “accidental discharge” by the Nigerian Police.
May be religion is not the problem after all, just a few deranged criminals using the name of God to commit atrocities. Food for thought.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Sifo on
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Dear Angela we must not blind ouselves to the fact that relegion is the only abstract force known to man that is greater than the fury of nature. All relegions claim acentry to the Almighty God but in their various doctrines left a lot of grey areas that can be exploited maliciously or otherwise. Most people will see a glass as half filled with water while others will see the same glass as half empty. It all boils down to the basics...Religion, like Life is what you as the believer makes of it. It can make or marr you. We all have to be careful in our followership of relegion as with our positive or collectve responsibilities, we can make a difference and make constructive impacts to our society.
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Permalink Reply by Olugbenga .G on
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Great topic and bravo to Dr. Olufowobi Gbadebo. It's a shameful act for one to take glory for a job well done by another. I'm not here to cast any stone neither judge you Angela Ofomola. Apparently, you acted to be the original author. It's better to deviate from such path. Encouragement is what we need to give to those who took their preciuos time to educate/entertain us. Walking on such an horrify path can only discourage the gifted.
The deed is done, the message is sent. Better still, swallow your pride and apologize to your readers especially the original author Dr. Olufowobi Gbadebo. Just a piece of advice Angela....Face of Africa is who you are but not in this forum!
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Permalink Reply by Ohwotu Ewoma Fortune on
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Sister!! you do not get it do you?? You didn't hear Carl Max? Religion is the opium of the poor!!...............
Religion to me is just one way in which a selected sect of the public control the others...... Our laws which we flout look at them critically you see that they are mostly embeded in religion..... see the thing is Bull S***.. Come to think of it why did the white man when bringing us christianity why did he hold the bible in the Right hand and the gunpowder in the left hand??
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Permalink Reply by Akamelu Michael on
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Critically looking at it, I do not see religion as evil, I think that religion is..." lets conduct ourselves in this manner, shape our spirits and morals in this way, uplift our conscience in that way, then call God a supreme being" but unfortunately, as usual in Nigeria, everything is abused even God himself. That is why we can think that some religious fragmentation are truly incompatible with nature and sacrilegious.
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Permalink Reply by Shams O'Muyiwa on
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i am baffled that Angela has not responded and in clear terms apologised. Whereas, I am inclined to think her action was an oversight or act of ignorance, her silence and absence of apologies to original author and this forum could lead to other conclusions.
F.G: Well, sorry that your articles has been spread is this way. However, I want to pick you up on the content. Since you have published this article and possibly sent it far and wide and I want to also assumed that you are an academician adequately guided by ethics of research, can you please justify your claim that "...religious wars have killed more people than AIDS, malaria, famine, holocaust all put together..." Is this true? I didn't see your footnote to justify this fanciful but false claims. This is exactly what the security agencies with big-budgets want us to believe to take away all our civil liberties, justify their big-brother agenda and subjugate our intellect.
According to Wiki: "The total number of casualties in World War I, both military and civilian, were about 37 million: 16 million deaths and 21 million wounded. The total number of deaths includes 9.7 million military personnel and about 6.8 million civilians." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I_casualties)
Further, "World War II casualty statistics vary greatly. Estimates of total dead range from 50 million to over 70 million. The sources cited on this page document an estimated death toll in World War II of 62 to 78 million, making it the deadliest war ever. ...Civilians killed totaled from 40 to 52 million, including 13 to 20 million from war-related disease and famine. Total military dead: from 22 to 25 million, including deaths in captivity of about 5 million prisoners of war." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_casualties)
And some statistics on Malaria: "Malaria is one of the planet's deadliest diseases and one of the leading causes of sickness and death in the developing world. According to the World Health Organization there are 300 to 500 million clinical cases of malaria each year resulting in 1.5 to 2.7 million deaths. Children aged one to four are the most vulnerable to infection and death. Malaria is responsible for as many as half the deaths of African children under the age of five. The disease kills more than one million children - 2,800 per day - each year in Africa alone. In regions of intense transmission, 40% of toddlers may die of acute malaria."
This list might help you with your calculations: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_and_disasters_by_death_toll
It will be interesting to see your facts: the list of death caused by religion. By the way, you sinisterly refer to the Nazi's gassing of the Jews as if it is part of religions' fault. That event and the world wars were not caused by religion. (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causes_of_World_War_II)
Indeed religion has been used to cause death and destruction and these are inexcusable and I agree with the rest of your article. But don't let us unintentionally make religion the devil it is not and give munition to people who hate religion anyway for whatever reason.
F G said:Angela Ofomola, You should be really ashamed of yourself! This is plagiarism at its best, and people go to jail for this. You completely lifted an article written by Dr Olufowobi Gbadebo and took credit for this. That is called stealing and it is very disgraceful. It is one thing to share articles with friends but give credit to the original author; it is another thing to steal and claim credit I will suggest you pull this down immediately or face legal actions Thanks. Fowobi Gbadebo, MD.
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Permalink Reply by chibu ndubuisi on
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people will kill you better from a religious conviction.
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Permalink Reply by Abubakar Hadisu Bello on
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Writing about the subject matter is good but one needs undiluted facts and evidences to buttress his/her point. The epic centre of the above write up is to blackmail Islam as a religion of evil. Islam is peaceful religion for the entire mankind. Your analysis have not told us the about all those crusaders war fought in the name of Christ. The volume of death and plunder committed against Muslims at that time.
If these is what you said that "religious wars have killed more people than AIDS, malaria, famine, holocaust all put together" then this death is not cause by Muslims but rather Jewish and the extremist Christian in their war of crusaders. The religion of Islam is the foremost known for its human right and woman liberation in the entire history of mankind. Islam place education as paramount issues to its entire adherent that is why the first verse reveled to Prophet Muhammad was to READ. Taliban were wrong by preventing women to have access to education.
People have been prevented to read about Islam because of the truth and peace it present to entire human kind. Please never judge Islam of basics of individual action nor group but of the content of the religion, this is because the religion is not well understood by both the faithful and others. We must read from the fountain the Al Quran and the Sunnah of the holy prophet Muhammad (s.a.w).
Mr. writer is seem you don’t care about more 18 million Palestinian that have been subjected to all sort of human atrocities and crime just because they are not Jewish. Farmland, houses are all destroyed and human loss is unaccounted. Let remember last 60 years Israel was not in the map of the world. Today we know who the real mischief makers in the world are.
Let me just accept that Ben laden did 9/119 even though there still controversies concerning the death toll and real impact of the said planes use to attacked world trade center. This is because it is beyond complex science and technology. Please do you have the figure of death cause by USA to Afghanistan and Iraq just because of said 3000 death and the consequences of USA action? My dear country write not because the west control media and the Jew with christain continue to dominate and write whatever there like we will just accept, the truth all religion have its bad men as u rightly pointed out.
Boko Haram, kala kato, Umar abdulmutalib are all bunch of misguided fellow religion men. They don’t understand the Islam or have a myopic view of Islam itself. Their action have cause more harm than good to Islam .The concept of 70 virgin is for any true martyr that die for a just course of Allah which not just to killed people, but fight against injustice maltreatment , even governance and tyranny of the leadership. Islam place such selfless service high because it want to install justice equity and peace to prevail over tyranny destitution and injustice.
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Permalink Reply by Olusheni Fredrick-Owoaje on
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There is absolutely no excuse for plagiarizing somebody elses work as this is STEALING. If Angela is my student, she will get a very big fat ZERO. Copyright infringement is illegal. I rest my case.
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Permalink Reply by Tajudeen Alabede on
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Without further ado, Angela must be humble enough to tender an unreserved apology to Dr. Gbadebo and members this online community. Intellectual integrity demands this. There is no justification for her to have done what she did. Angela, please, apologise. Tomorrow counts.
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Permalink Reply by Angela Ofomola on
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first let me say thanks to OLUPERY, HAMAZAT KADRIL, DARLINGTON EHWARIEME, dy are the ones poeple call wise one. N 2 say i own dis forum any apology just ask me n i will tell u all "go 2 hell".................... i saw dis article wit my curzen so i decided 2 share d good topic 2 yall.
Sir i mean no harm 2 you or any body, IM VERY SORRY.
I STILL HAVE GOOD TNZ 2 SHARE IF U ALL WANT 2 SEE. DIS SITE IS DEAD N GONE...... N TO ALL DOES REASONABLE POEPLE DY ARE D BEST ON DIS SITE.
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Permalink Reply by Allman Tawaski on
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I think this girl is not the cautious type.she appears aarrogant and unrepentant of her misdeed. Angela or what is she called must get ready to get more civilized else she continues being in ruins. I guess she has not yet made it uni where plagiariasm is more pronounced as crime of staeling intelectual property following improper citing. and her name "ANGELa" is now in abuse.Obasanjo would say to yardua to "take the path of homnur and moral......" by doing the right thing. still yardua though we wouldnt know if he is still consciuos, has not done that but angela is not sick and not bed ridden or depraved in any way, she should take to the path of honour and moral obligation and apologise to the forum and to the aouthor of the article else I MOVE THE MOTION TO EXCOMMUNICATE angelA as deterent to others!!!!!!!
Angela Ofomola said:first let me say thanks to OLUPERY, HAMAZAT KADRIL, DARLINGTON EHWARIEME, dy are the ones poeple call wise one. N 2 say i own dis forum any apology just ask me n i will tell u all "go 2 hell".................... i saw dis article wit my curzen so i decided 2 share d good topic 2 yall.
Sir i mean no harm 2 you or any body, IM VERY SORRY.
I STILL HAVE GOOD TNZ 2 SHARE IF U ALL WANT 2 SEE. DIS SITE IS DEAD N GONE...... N TO ALL DOES REASONABLE POEPLE DY ARE D BEST ON DIS SITE.
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Allman: I agree with you. To Angela, it seems, dissent is lack of wisdom; friendly advice is condemnation. If she has chosen what she considers to be the path of honour, what else can we say than to wish her good luck. Again, I remind her: tomorrow counts.
Allman Tawaski said:I think this girl is not the cautious type.she appears aarrogant and unrepentant of her misdeed. Angela or what is she called must get ready to get more civilized else she continues being in ruins. I guess she has not yet made it uni where plagiariasm is more pronounced as crime of staeling intelectual property following improper citing. and her name "ANGELa" is now in abuse.Obasanjo would say to yardua to "take the path of homnur and moral......" by doing the right thing. still yardua though we wouldnt know if he is still consciuos, has not done that but angela is not sick and not bed ridden or depraved in any way, she should take to the path of honour and moral obligation and apologise to the forum and to the aouthor of the article else I MOVE THE MOTION TO EXCOMMUNICATE angelA as deterent to others!!!!!!!
Angela Ofomola said:first let me say thanks to OLUPERY, HAMAZAT KADRIL, DARLINGTON EHWARIEME, dy are the ones poeple call wise one. N 2 say i own dis forum any apology just ask me n i will tell u all "go 2 hell".................... i saw dis article wit my curzen so i decided 2 share d good topic 2 yall.
Sir i mean no harm 2 you or any body, IM VERY SORRY.
I STILL HAVE GOOD TNZ 2 SHARE IF U ALL WANT 2 SEE. DIS SITE IS DEAD N GONE...... N TO ALL DOES REASONABLE POEPLE DY ARE D BEST ON DIS SITE.
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