Declaring war on superstition; Ghana needs you to develop

Earlier in part (I) of the same article, "EVERY RELIGION IS IDOLATRY

AND SUPERSTITION" published on the 2nd July, 2015 on this same page, I

pointed out that idolatry is to religion what model is to science and

concept is to philosophy. In addition, idolatry is not just the

physical or mental representation of the inherently Unknowable spirit,

but also the infusion of the known; Matter, with the supposedly

spiritual powers of the unknown; Spirit. So in part (II), I shall

focus on the superstitious aspect, again using the popular and

populated religion of the trio, Christianity. For it is Christianity

that had successfully crucified the Ghanaian and Africa mind, chaining

us down to prayer is the key and miracle is the rule mentality.

1. THE SCRIPTURE AS A WORD OF THE CREATOR

The Ghanaian masses still believed that the bible, quran and other

scriptures were written by the possible Creator of this universe.

Worst of all, we regard it as full of superior pragmatic cutting egde

knowledge across the spectrum of human endeavour against the

background of challenges; morally, medicinally, educationally, and

politically among others as far as ameliorating or eliminating the

effects of these challenges are concerned. Meanwhile compared to any

version of encyclopedia, every scripture fades away significantly

despite the claim of divine authorship. A book, if any was written by

the Creator of this universe, should indeed be an encyclopedia of

solutions to our problems on every facet of life. African, for

instance should be able to read in such a book, how to eradicate

malaria, one of our greatest challenge among others.

The bible, quran and other acclaimed holy books are such no books. Not

only that, they are truly vacuous in any pragmatic developmental

knowledge as well as uncertain and ambiguous in moral precepts. So it

beats once imagination how a scripture written in generations when

superstition was the rule and not the exception, become an absolute

indispensable guide to people in a generation with exponential factual

knowledge. And we look on with total indifference as a nation with

hopes to develop. It is suicidal to underestimate the threats of

superstition to national development. And that is what Ghanaians are

doing.

2. SPIRITUAL CAUSALITY OF EVENTS

The human world is a collection of events. An event is an occurence in

spacetime continuum. Natural events such as tsunamis, earthquakes,

volcanoes, droughts, floods, diseases, pestilence among others are

detrimental to the world of man. Cultural events such as war,

corruption, oppresion, repression among others are equally damaging to

the world of man.

All these events; both natural and cultural, demands understanding if

any progress could be made in accomodating the consequences of such

challenges as in ameliorating them. But religion teaches that, nothing

occurs except the Spirits wills it. Even the development of an

individual or nation is willed by these Spirits. In that milieu and

ignorant of the causes but believed to be willed by the Spirits,

humanity must appease ritually and via genuflections and endurance of

suffering as the only last resort.

Endurance of suffering implicitly becomes a measure of one's

spirituality. Or so the beliefs goes. It is the main reason why the

most destitute are deemed as highly spiritual. And Africans hence

Ghanaians see themselves as highly spiritual because, we are enduring

suffering..preventable suffering. It is dangerous and acidulous to the

developmental agenda of a nation where every occured event in the life

of a person and nation is interpreted as occassioned by Spirits,

therefore tackled from that perspective. The Christian religious

sycophant will even tell you that such sufferings are nothing compared

to Jesus Christ endured. You can see how religion had crippled and

psyched up the person to endure suffering. That is the Ghanaian, the

African. Superstition thrives in the soil of ignorance indeed.

3. PRAYER IS THE KEY

RELIGION has deceived mankind for so long, that prayer is the key.

With prayer, the religionist claims communication with the believed

Spirit willing the natural and cultural events. They believed it as

the greatest tool or weapon ever fashioned by man to confront his

existential challenges. The Spirit can do everything, especially with

the fervency of prayer on the part of the believer, the convinced

believer. Afterall, with the superstitious interpretation of events as

willed by God, prayer is deemed as capable of making God multiply the

favorables ones and certainly undo the unfavorables ones. The only

race or group of people who are still, statistically a victim of this

belief on national scale is the Black race. And being Africans, the

Ghanaian is no exception.

The truth is where there are convinced Christians the deception is

fossilized. In their majority, they make the nation a praying one

despite its futility. When allowed to dominate the public space and

unchecked, the consequences are manifolds of apparent wallowing in

even preventable sufferings. There could be hospitals but prayer camp

would be preferred. As reason dictates the continual evaluation of the

circumstantial challenges of the people, faith disregards them,

because it implies doubting. And religion hates doubts.

In short faith shall reign instead of reason in dealing with

individual amd national challenges. As such one wonders how Ghana full

of religionist, of whom the majority are convinced

Christians.......making the nation a praying one, can develop when the

circumstantial challenges of the masses are disregarded, even by the

people themselves becuase of this faith. It is time Ghanaians come to

the realization that prayer had never been the key. Thinking is the

key. Development is driven by the people....the masses as they keep

evaluating their conditions and seeing the forever need for

improvement. And think of actions to improve them.

4. BELIEF IN MIRACLES

Prayer, according to religion, is the key. It compels the trusted but

unwilling God to exert its authority in nature on behalf of the person

or group thereof praying. That is called miracle. The convinced

religionist has much faith in its occurence as man shall certainly die

one day. As if nature has no say in what happens within it. Meanwhile,

the little known about nature as revealed by sciecne, teaches that

nature abhors miracle. It is inherently impossible, at least on a

scale that could propagate national development that we all want. Like

we can pray, and the current energy crisis could be solved instantly.

This inherent impossibility of miracle in nature is the requisite for

man to think his way out or round it for success. The fulfillment of

that is technology, born of proper thinking called science.

Belief in miracle is dangerous to a nation with hopes to develop

because it creates the impression of possibilities of everything on

macroscopic scale, even without an effort by man. Prayer, whether you

are on your knees or walking up and down, and doing so in silence or

shouting over the roof that your are blowing tongues is no physical or

intellectual effort. A pseudo-hope of nothing is impossible in the

life of the people, the religionists because of the belief in

scripture written by god, spiritual causality of events, beliefs in

prayer and miracle is acidic to the developmental aspirations of a

nation. It makes the people lazy intellectually, psychologically,

politically and above all scientifically.

CONCLUSION

Knowledge is power. But so is ignorance. The only difference is that

the former makes you aware of the latter, because it scratches it.

Knowledge scratches ignorance, that is why any form of acquired

knowledge that does not reduce temporary ignorance of mankind is

superstition. This is the knowledge content of all religion;

Traditional, Christianity, Islam and others. It poses an almost

irredeemable real threat to the developmental aspirations of a nation.

As a result it must be our duty led by the educational institutions to

declare war upon this form of knowledge to deny it public space and

dominance that it stealthily seeks vehemently.

A nation risks stagnation with respect to massive human capacity

development as far as thinking, persistent thinking via the complex

events inbued with challenges are concerned, when the populace are

convinced of the dittos of religion. This is because when

superstition, dressed up as "unshakable infallible truth" is

operationalised by the people, their minds become crucified.

Irrationality strictly becomes rationality, prayer becomes the key,

miracle the indubitable rule and doubting a sin. In sum, superstition

becomes super-scientific.

Evidently and shockingly, Ghanaians are convinced of these "unshakable

infallible truths", and so have remained indifferent to superstition.

The fear of god is never the beginning of wisdom, rather, it is the

beginning of accepting temporary ignorance and enduring preventable

sufferings in the name of spiritual growth. Therefore, it is the

acquirement of biblical, quranic and traditional knowledge that the

Ghanaian and African is destroyed.

SESHIE, STANLEY

Email; seshiehanku@gmail.com

Whatsapp; 0508951323