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The
Most Religious Country in The World: A Praise or Mockery? By Okoh
Emeka Since
BBC aired the result of their survey
called
“WHAT THE WORLD THINKS OF GOD”, a survey of peoples religious
believes held in about 10 countries (US, UK, Israel, India, South Korea,
Indonesia, Nigeria, Russia, Mexico and Lebanon) with the participation
of about 10000 people, I have read and heard a lot of comments from
people of different levels and from people that view the world from
different angles. On that faithful day I was stuck to the screen with
some of my friends who were equally as keen as I was to see the result
of the said poll. I knew before hand, that Nigeria will fair well and I
was right; I equally guessed right that Russia and south Korea will
naturally fall in the list of the least. I watched with interest the way
green white green was climbing the graph battling it out with Let
us take it one after the other, 100% of Nigerians more or less believe
in God. Is there anything wrong with that? Of
course, there is completely nothing wrong in believing in God, in
fact I believe that everybody on this earth believes in God one way or
the other, atheism in the real sense of that word does not really exist,
atheism in itself is a believe system, the truth is that many people in
trying to differentiate themselves from generally accepted norms at
times go to the extent of self deception, that is why some will rather
tell you that they believe in a greater power
only if that greater power cannot be called God; we are not going
to argue about that, call Him whatever you wish- higher power, greater
power, super power, the fact remains that we all somehow recognize His
existence, there are still so many unanswered questions and not few
coded mysteries about our universe that science is yet to clarify, till
that clarification comes and very convincingly, I will continue to
believe that there is a higher or greater power and that greater power I
have chosen to call God. Big plus to Nigerians, for been bold enough to
acknowledge the existence of God but a bigger minus for been one of the
least saintly/godly nations on earth. Prove me wrong.
My
journey from the most religious country to one of the least religious
countries in the world empowered me with unquantifiable experience, if
95% of Nigerians regularly attend religious activities, in Russia the
percentage is from 7 down wards, the fall of Stalin’s USSR left the
whole population in confusion especially where it touches ecclesiastical
question, Russian youngsters are even more confused, many young Russians
will easily say that they don’t believe in God but when you ask him
the same question the second time, that “nyet” (no) may eventually
result to nye znau= (don’t know). The Kremlin has been trying to
change what they call the emptiness of the spirit that the population is
passing through, president Vladmir Putin is always at sight in any major
religious activities hoping that he can effect change using his
personality and the love the Russian populace have for him;
today more than 70% identify with the Russian orthodox church but
mainly for historical reasons rather than a firm belief. Contrary to my
projection people showed extraordinary interest to see Mel Gibson’s
film The Passion of The Christ, the film still stands as one film that
stayed in Russian cinemas for a reasonable period of time and in fact it
on in some cinemas till date. The day I succeeded in seeing the film I
was touched and baffled by the quietness in the hall apart from subbing
that could be heard from all angles. There were heated debates on TV
stations between the atheists and the its protagonists, survey conducted
by the atheists themselves show that less than 5% of the population as
at today claim to be atheist. Furthermore,
91 percent said they regularly attend religious services and 95 percent
said they pray regularly. Notwithstanding that Nigeria is stinking, the
prayer I think, still make so many people to either pretend that they
are not perceiving anything or to be strong enough to cover their noses
with anything available thus allowing co-existence no matter how
artificial it may look. I think that God has a hand in keeping Nigeria
as a nation till date and even making her the “happiest” nation in
the world. The one that interested me most is the next: over 96 percent
of Nigerians accepted that believing in God makes for a better human
being. It carries weight don’t you think so? Before now I had thought
that better human beings make for a better society; can a country of
better human beings also be one of the or rather the most corrupt
country in the whole world? Insecurity, indiscipline and selfishness,
are becoming custom in the country of God. What a contrast! Although we
pray regularly, attend religious services yet our characters testify
fully against all that. Could it be that we have bad teachers or are we
simply bad listeners? Whichever one it is, the facts remain that the
church and the mosque has the least positive influence on the Nigerian
society, that churches are occupying every available spaces in Lagos has
not made Lagos the best place to sleep with two eyes tightly closed. Am
not pushing the works of security agents to the church or mosque but you
must agree with me that 96% BETTER persons can easily transform the
remaining 4% to BEST persons. Here I would give a tiny plus for merely
acknowledging that God makes for a better person but a very tick minus
for refusing to allow him make us better persons. I
don’t know about you but I would rather chose to relate more closely
to that adamant atheist or to that person who believes that David
Beckham is more influential in his life than God as in the case of
England where about 36% of the people that took part in the poll said
that Beckham is more influential their lives), if that person is
principled and of good character, such person will without doubt be
easier to handle than a wolf in sheep’s clothing, am talking about
that person that acknowledges the existence of God, not just that, but
also claims to believe in Him, and then goes further to accept that
believing in God makes for a better human being, all these
notwithstanding, his life is nothing but a public display of the
opposite.
The
church should recognize that they are loosing the battle, we need
retreat, repositioning and a new strategy of attacks, high number of
church attendees and uncountable numbers off church buildings and sign
post should not deceive anybody, results should be measured by what is
on the ground, there is little or no behavioural evidence depicting what
we claim to be. If
am to murder sentiment and draw conclusion from the facts, I will
without fear or favour say that Nigerians are the greatest pretenders in
History, we pretend to believe in what we in reality never believed or
do we actually believe but have chosen to subdue any positive reflection
that such believe can bring? Thereby, reducing ourselves to a mere
object of mockery. I refuse to accept the result of that poll as praise;
you may think otherwise, my position is not unchangeable but it will
take you a lot of works and convincing arguments to make me shift my
position not until you do that I will stand by my point that we were
mocked rather than praised full stop. OKOH
EMEKA MOSCOW
RUSSIA |