Andrew Efemini
The reactions to my earlier post on this subject forced me to take some time before continuing. It is on record that religious persecution has a long history. Ludwig Feuerbach left the university system because he was denied his position as a Professor. Bruno Bauer was dismissed from his position because of his views on religion.
The struggle between the church and scientists who propounded the heliocentric conception of the universe is well documented. The prevalent knowledge as shown by Joshua commanding the sun to stand still is the geocentric conception. Today we know that the idea of the sun moving and being asked to stand still is false. Humm!
What I have done in the first post is to respect our right to worship while drawing our attention to how our mode of worship is contributing to early or unnecessary deaths due to laborious and time consuming worship styles. I hope that churches will learn and adjust accordingly. My concern today is religion being a vehicle for promoting false consciousness.
Freed slaves in America and Europe were given the Bible and encouraged to look forward to heaven and to forgive their slave masters .
Please the first message Christianity should convey is that there are two worlds; the real or physical world and the world of imagination or heaven. In the former, we earn and live by how we work or labor. We live by the nature of social contradictions or economic system we have. Economic system which defines the character of exploitation or slavery we experience. In this real world, believers must understand why they are unemployed or exploited by the system in their society.
In the imaginary world or heaven, religion must comfort man that he should not be overwhelmed by anxiety and anguish having come to consciousness about the reality of death. Religion in this sense becomes therapeutic. Man sure needs this therapy to overcome the fact that he will die. Islam as practiced in Nigeria and may be in the world may be guilty of fixation and producing robotic individuals who are fed with medieval values of middle east cultures.
Religion must be reformed to promote radical consciousness. Religious messages must free man from exploitation and open our eyes to the evil and exploitation of our mental weaknesses by politics, religion and religious leaders.
