RELIGIOUS MISHAPS AND RITUAL KILLINGS: WHAT THEISTS ARE NOT (BUT SHOULD BE) DOING

 "This, to me, is the true horror of religion. It allows perfectly decent and sane people to believe by the billions what only lunatics would believe on their own. If you wake up tomorrow thinking that saying a few Latin words over your pancakes is going to turn them into the body of Elvis Presley, you have lost your mind. But if you think pretty much the same about a cracker and the body of Jesus, you’re just a Catholic." - Sam Harris.

Yesterday, I read about the death of a certain Kayode Badru on social media. Mr Badru had allegedly died in Gbagada General Hospital after he was inadvertently set ablaze during a prayer session in a Celestial Church of Christ. According to reports, Mr Badru had been soaked in inflammable perfume "from hair to toe" and had candles lit around him when he caught fire and got burnt. 

This unfortunate incident happens just a few days after the tragic murder of Iniubong 'Hiny' Umoren, a young fresh graduate who was only looking for a job as a way to make ends meet before her NYSC posting. Hiny fell into the hands of an evil, bloodthirsty family of alleged ritualists, the main villain being their son Uduak Frank Akpan. Several other graves and bones belonging to other human beings brutally murdered for suspected ritual purposes were also discovered during the investigation into Hiny's death.

One thing is clearly and undeniably common to both of these occurrences—they are directly linked to spiritualist, religious, superstitious beliefs. One is done with the belief that inflammable scents, naked fires, and vapid chants can connect  humans with some spirit beings who can be appealed to for help. The other is done with the belief that certain parts of the human body carry an essence that makes them appropriate sacrifices for spirit beings to generate some favour, usually financial, for the one who does the sacrifice. 

It is almost impossible to find someone who is an atheist or, at the very least, a sceptic, engaging in these kinds of dangerous, nefarious acts. The fact that there is a lack of belief in, or at least significant doubts about, a spiritual realm makes it very unlikely for such people to commit these kinds of atrocities. Modern sophisticated religious apologetics may try to distance religion from these actions, but it is patently obvious that there is an inextricable link between these atrocious, unpardonable actions and an unshakable belief in the existence of spirits and what those spirits demand of people in exchange for favours.

One more thing that is patently obvious is that both of these tragic events could have been avoided. With a little scepticism, science literacy, proper moral education, and absence of childhood indoctrination, these dastardly actions perpetrated in the name of spirits would never occur. However, when atheists and sceptics raise these issues, religious people and spiritualists often push back with apologetic rhetoric. "This does not represent the true faith," they say. "Christianity is not a ritualistic enterprise involving candles and perfumes. It's a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus."

But do the people doing the candle-perfume rituals know this? If they did, why do they continue to do what they do, endangering the lives of people every day? And if they don’t, why are you, the 'knowledgeable' Christian, not doing everything in your power to educate them? Why focus on atheists and sceptics trying to point out the problem when you should be dealing with those on your side who are indefatigably striving to give you a bad name? 

I am writing this post not as a rant, though there is surely a lot of that here. Rather, I hope for it to be a challenge to theists and believers of the supernatural out there; to those who believe in gods, angels or spirits. Clean up your camp. Not only are these evil people making you look bad, but they are also killing people and sending them to their early graves. We are tired of hearing case upon case of negligence and evil done in the name of spirits whose existence and intentions are completely inaccessible to any reliable truth-finding model. Do something about this. Clean up your camp. I do not want there to be another person needlessly abused, maimed, or killed in the name of a spiritualist belief or religion. We should have left this nonsense in the distant past. You are holding civilization back when you insist on doing things in these ignorant, archaic ways or defend the motives and rationales of those doing it. 

But let's face it. These so-called apologists are fundamentally no different from the spiritualists in question. They share a belief in the existence of supernatural entities; they share the belief that these entities are, at least, more powerful in some ways than humans; they share the belief that these entities can be entreated to act in their favour and to achieve their personal goals. The only difference lies in the content of what the spiritual entities are said to demand. And if all they do is to convince their counterparts that these spirits are, at least, not seeking innocent human life or body parts, this would be a good place to start. Even if you will not abandon the faith, at least purge it of these disastrous tendencies it manifests among your fellow believers. 

But how will this be achieved when the necessary ground for such conviction to be made—sceptical and critical thinking—is already abandoned in favour of blind faith and reliance on spiritual authority? Critical thinking is vital to society. We need it for growth and development. We have neglected it for far too long. It's high time we began to take it more seriously. 

There need not be another Kayode Badru or Hiny Umoren. All it will take is to stop annexing our thinking faculties to unseeable spirits or thinking that they have any solution to offer us. And how could they, when there is literally no evidence that they even exist in the first place?!