Spiritualism: the bane of Ghana’s development

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• MINOR CASE 10 years ago

  Remember. Ghana is at the Autralopithecus aferensis stage in our evolution as a nation. These gods tell us when to work and when not to work. Ask the farmers and the fishermen. what an aberration in this century.

  Remember. Ghana is at the Autralopithecus aferensis stage in our evolution as a nation. These gods tell us when to work and when not to work. Ask the farmers and the fishermen. what an aberration in this century.

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• Freeman 10 years ago

  Creationism has been exposed as a historical fairytale of ancient Jews by the theory of Evolution. Unless we liberate our minds from religious domination, GHANA and for that matter Africa will remain underdeveloped. The slick ...
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  Creationism has been exposed as a historical fairytale of ancient Jews by the theory of Evolution. Unless we liberate our minds from religious domination, GHANA and for that matter Africa will remain underdeveloped. The slick con men now call themselves "men of God" using religion as a lucrative enterprise, while keeping their followers from thinking critically to find solutions to our problems. All their so called miracles are staged otherwise all the cripples, blind, deaf and other sick Ghanaians will have been healed. The traditional religious leaders, okomfos and witch doctors are now making a strong comeback to get a piece of the national pie. We must liberate our minds from mental slavery imposed by colonial and traditional religion else we cannot progress. The VRA officials who paid out GHC24,000 to the Aboadzi river god are incompetent, must refund the amount to VRA and be replaced by competent engineers. Religion has kept our leaders in perpetual slumber. Religion should not be thought in our schools, it belongs in churches and mosques. Our students should be masters of STEM courses instead of religion

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• Omanbabea 10 years ago

  Don't blame religion for the failures of Ghana. Corruption! not religion is the problem. True religion rather encourages honesty and hard work. The Bible even says "my people perish for the lack of knowledge." So religion it ...
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  Don't blame religion for the failures of Ghana. Corruption! not religion is the problem. True religion rather encourages honesty and hard work. The Bible even says "my people perish for the lack of knowledge." So religion itself is not the problem but your corruption that leads to abuse of religion and abuse of everything else is the problem.

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• Prof Lungu 10 years ago

  Omanbabea,
  You are fretting too much on this one!
  
  This is a special case where people allowed their belief in religion to over-ride their mental faculties, as the writer says. They used public funds unwisely.
  
  It is a c ...
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  Omanbabea,
  You are fretting too much on this one!
  
  This is a special case where people allowed their belief in religion to over-ride their mental faculties, as the writer says. They used public funds unwisely.
  
  It is a case of religion interfering with governance.
  
  Assuming they gave all the funds to the fetish priest and the priest(s) used all the funds for the business of "the blessing", you cannot tell us there is "corruption" there! But that is still abuse of public funds.
  
  ITEM: The persons who paid that money should be charged, and forced to refund the money.
  
  Peace!

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• AUSTRALIA 10 years ago

  I do not know how many times Ghanaians will be told that the concept of God is a complete fallacy and unless our leaders start thinking scienticically our nation will forever remain a banana republic.
  All our so-called intel ...
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  I do not know how many times Ghanaians will be told that the concept of God is a complete fallacy and unless our leaders start thinking scienticically our nation will forever remain a banana republic.
  All our so-called intellectuals are brain dead and unless they wake up from their stupor and rid themselves off this false religions Ghana should say goodbye to any upliftment.
  Please do away with all so called men of God because there is no God anywhere,do away with okomfos,witch doctors,spiritualist etc and that will be the start of our journey to development

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• Prof Lungu 10 years ago

  READ: "... I humbly suggest that those who facilitated the payment of the said amount to appease the river god be surcharged..."
  
  WE SAY: Agree!

  READ: "... I humbly suggest that those who facilitated the payment of the said amount to appease the river god be surcharged..."
  
  WE SAY: Agree!

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• JA 10 years ago

  What nonsense is this?

  What nonsense is this?

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• Kwame 10 years ago

  Prof Lungu it is a fact that even the neoglobalism of the west is under the guild of religion. What the imperialist refer to as the Achilles hill of socialism is religion. They claim that it was their arming of the Mudjahidin ...
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  Prof Lungu it is a fact that even the neoglobalism of the west is under the guild of religion. What the imperialist refer to as the Achilles hill of socialism is religion. They claim that it was their arming of the Mudjahidins in Afghanistan to overthrow the government of Babrak Kamal was what brought the Soviet Union and socialism in Eastern Europe crumbling. The yellow, velvet and Arab springs were under the guild of religion, namely Christianity and Islam. Slavery, colonization, racial segregation, apartheid and neoglobalism were done under the guild of religion. It is a fact that after the second world war most of the wars fought within nations are religious ones. The East and Western Pakistan wars for the partition of India were fought of religious line, with the mainly Islamic East and West taking up arms to secede from India after independence.
  The Afghan war in which the ruse of freedom was used was stated clearly by the west that they armed and trained the Islamic terrorists to protect freedom and Islam against the communist in Kabul. The Algerian war of independence saw the Islamic terrorists backing the colonial power France. The situation was not and is not different in sub-Saharan Africa, because the forces which were against our independence and self determination were the priests of the Abram religions. The matter was not different in the former Portuguese Spanish colonies. As we have written already apartheid itself was from the pen of Rev. Wooweod of he Dutch Reform Church.
  The structural adjustment polices by the Breton Woods Institutions lead to the withdrawal of state subsidies, as well as free education and medical care in countries around the world, both developed and developing ones. With state protection of the poor and vulnerable in society they are forced to seek protection from the forces of supernatural forces. Such socioeconomic situation puts more financial power in the hands of the forces of religion, which they do not had earlier, including the opium money that the Islamic terrorist accumulated in Afghanistan. We as well witness the legislative and armed attack by mainly followers of the Abram religions on the followers of other religions. In a case in Ghana the legislature passed a law banning Etroxovi, a religious sect which has not murdered no one, unlike the Abram religions.
  Society have its spiritual values that are different from religion, and that other aspects of human endeavour are the spiritual values of society. Thus the spiritual is the effort of all mankind to subdue nature and improve on his well-being. That is the reason why all aspects of human endeavour are part and parcel of the spiritual values of society that stimulate people to act and make new discoveries. Thus Isaac Newton law of gravity is a spiritual value for a physicist.

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• Awurade Kasa 10 years ago

  In all things we should seek balance because man is a combination of flesh, soul, and mind. Things of the spirit cannot be seen or proved. We need to be up and doing because action and reaction are needed to work together. We ...
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  In all things we should seek balance because man is a combination of flesh, soul, and mind. Things of the spirit cannot be seen or proved. We need to be up and doing because action and reaction are needed to work together. We cannot take away the spiritual part of our being, but we need to use our heads. The Protestant ethic of thrift guided the rise of capitalism and the prosperity of the Western countries.

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• Dennis Awah 10 years ago

  The bible tells us that god is the giver of wisdom - wisdom being knowledge, experience and good judgement. our leaders (those who are christians) understand this and constantly pray for this wisdom, however soince the god of ...
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  The bible tells us that god is the giver of wisdom - wisdom being knowledge, experience and good judgement. our leaders (those who are christians) understand this and constantly pray for this wisdom, however soince the god of the bible is merely a jewish fetish and no real god, they end up with no wisdom, that is why our country is run by extremely devout religious persons but totally incompetent managers of our wealth and resources and even worse problem solvers. i made a comment last week that slaves suffer from infantilism- a belief that they can do nothing unless their slave master who controls every aspect of their life endorses or instructs their actions. ghanaians are still slaves to a white deity who replaced the christian slave master, without his sanction we can do nothing.

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• Rawlings 10 years ago

  Thank u for the story. I believe most Ghanaians are Christians or Muslims and if that's the case why are we afraid of witches? We don't believe in God or Allah to protect us from witches?
  Just look at the amount of indisci ...
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  Thank u for the story. I believe most Ghanaians are Christians or Muslims and if that's the case why are we afraid of witches? We don't believe in God or Allah to protect us from witches?
  Just look at the amount of indiscipline on our roads. Anytime there's an accident purely from our negligence then we attribute it to witches or dwarfs. For a whole minister to attach a religious connotation to a worldly problem which could be solve by planning is just unfortunate and they have to resign.

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• Abubaar M. M. Azindoo 10 years ago

  Fantastic piece beautified by good argument and critical thinking. Permit me to add that spiritualism per se is not a bad mentality, but the abuse of it to the detriment of scientific solutions to societal problems is bad in ...
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  Fantastic piece beautified by good argument and critical thinking. Permit me to add that spiritualism per se is not a bad mentality, but the abuse of it to the detriment of scientific solutions to societal problems is bad in all circumstances.

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• Charles Lwanga Siewobr 10 years ago

  Thanks, Prof Azindoo. It's humbling to receive such complimentary remarks from a literary giant of your status. As always, I am learning from your. Your additions to the piece are well appreciated.

  Thanks, Prof Azindoo. It's humbling to receive such complimentary remarks from a literary giant of your status. As always, I am learning from your. Your additions to the piece are well appreciated.

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• Charles Lwanga Siewobr 10 years ago

  ...from you...NOT your

  ...from you...NOT your

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• Mawuetornam Dugbazah 10 years ago

  Charles:
  
  A very interesting read. Here are my thoughts.
  
  The belief in "spiritual forces" does not imply an absence of the type evidence-based analytical thinking characteristic of "science".
  
  I think the subject you ...
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  Charles:
  
  A very interesting read. Here are my thoughts.
  
  The belief in "spiritual forces" does not imply an absence of the type evidence-based analytical thinking characteristic of "science".
  
  I think the subject you were really trying to address, with respect to Ghana, is SUPERSTITION. There is spiritualism that is excessively IRRATIONAL. There is also spiritualism that is based on sound judgment, evidence and reason. Likewise, there is science that is based on truth. And then, there is science that is based on mere speculation, faulty observations and faulty data.
  
  Too many Ghanaians who have unquestioningly imbibed European scientific thought are on a quest to quench the spirituality of the Ghanaian people. Interestingly, many of these types cannot even effectively apply the scientific thought patterns they claim are so dear to "development". In fact, it seems that the only time they can apply "science" is when it comes to getting paid for "research".
  
  Even the most unlearned Ghanaian is aware that the Ghanaian scientist--not all--talks a good game in the theoretical sense, but is somehow unable to deliver when it comes to innovative application of his or her acquired science.
  
  Let me hear your thoughts.

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• Charles Lwanga Siewobr 10 years ago

  Thanks, Mawuetornam for your insight. I associate myself fully with your views. Perhaps, the issue of science and its application shoukd be a good topic for exploration. But my main concern now is how we are literally enlaved ...
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  Thanks, Mawuetornam for your insight. I associate myself fully with your views. Perhaps, the issue of science and its application shoukd be a good topic for exploration. But my main concern now is how we are literally enlaved by spiritualism or as you aptly put it SUPERSTITION much to the neglect of common sense and thinking. But as indicated, your views are much appreciated.

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