I was born into the Cherubim & Seraphim Church. I grew up to become a servant in the church. As a kid, there are things I saw in that church that up till today, I still do not understand. Religion was a beautiful and an inseparable part of our life then.
Because I was raised by mostly foster parents, I had the opportunity of switching churches. As a kid, the time I spent in Catholic every Christmas period gave me a different view about religion. Catholic was interesting too even though I hated the every early morning hail Mary ritual that my Catholic family subjected me to during the vacation period. I only recently learnt that there is an aspect of the Roman Catholic Church that was different from the one I knew as a kid which they call Charismatic.
As a kid, I became the best Bible reciter in my pentecostal Church at Warri for several years until I left Warri. Up till today, I still believe I know the Bible better than many people who call themselves preachers. I do not believe you need any spirit to guide you in understanding the Bible. Its a just a history book; open your mind and you will understand it like any other literature story book. You need good education to understand any book. That's it.
As a grown up, I fell in love with Pastor Chris Oyakhilome (and I still do) and became a member of his Loveworld Ministries. Even as an agnostic today, I still buy his CDs and listen to his messages. I consider his messages as useful for its philosophical value and not necessarily for its religious value. I left that ministry because their entire operations was too sophisticated to be qualified as a religious organization. Who says religion should not be sophisticated anyway?
Religion is a useful tool. It is useful to the society, to the government, to the individual and yes to the entire moral world order.
I was once atheist. I found that position as a bit offensive, so I shifted ground. As an agnostic, I will continue to read the Awake and Watchtowers, watch Pastor Oyakhilome's preachings, give my offerings when I get invited to a pentecostal gathering and close my eyes when others are praying.
I have an interesting concept about God even though I doubt his existence entirely. People say God is good. This cannot be true. Good is a creation of the society. To say God is good is to subject God to the rules of the society. God cannot be bad either. He could understand the concept of good and bad but can certainly not be subjected to it, except he no longer precedes the world. Good and bad can only apply to man, even in man's world,the concept is relative. This is why the God of the Christian old testament seem more real than that of the new. God cannot be loving or kind or fair. God has to be pragmatic.
I know a few pastors who for economic reasons preach Christianity but are agnostic in heart and lifestyle.
The God I will worship must be my God. Mine alone. He must learn to play by my rules. He is to serve me, he must be fair to me at all time. The world is too competitive for two men to share the same God.
Religion, just like politics and education, is useful but it is not imperative. I wonder how people believe in the concept of hell and heaven. There are so many things that man has created through time. Religion and God are one a few; all useful for a healthy living. I believe so.
If your religion and God is not useful to you, please discard them both and try something new. Everything should work together for your good.
There is something I like about pragmatism as a philosophy. It states that if what you believe in works for you, that is your truth. Anything that works for you is your truth.
Your truth might not necessarily be the truth. Just hold on to your truth while we continue to look for the truth.
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