FtbCon: Atheism with a conscience!

FtBConscience-BannerGooglePlus-545x136

FtBConscience is on this weekend (Friday 19th July 2013 – Sunday 21st July 2013), with the theme ‘Atheism with a Conscience’. You can join FtBloggers and our array of distinguished panelists for a stimulating weekend without leaving the comfort of your home!

Join us live as we discuss Atheism, Religion, Social Justice, Science, Art, Love, Grief, Mental illness, Video games and a host of other interesting things! There will also be live Atheist music performed by our in house musicians!

I am one of the speakers on the panel Atheism is Not Enough, Saturday 20th July, 2013, (10am to 12pm CDT (UTC – 5) / 4:00pm-6:00pm British Summer Time, GMT +1). I hope you will join me for this interesting discussion.

You can visit the chat room here, follow/tweet @ftbcon, or post on our Facebook page if you have any questions!

It is really sunny here in London,  we are experiencing a heatwave, so I might live-stream from one of the beautiful parks in London, the queen’s palace or set up cam near Prince Williams and his wife, Duchess Catherine, who is due to deliver the next royal baby any minute now. We might catch a glimpse of Kate going into labour! Well, it could mean a hasty panel on Monarchy and the privilege of Birth.  Now, got to go get my background just right, after all this is gonna be live!

BTW, at the end of the conference, you can also hangout with FtBloggers and our wonderful panelists for drinks. I heard there is beer, chocolate, Ice cream, erm… sorry atheists; we won’t be eating babies, they are not on the FtB conference menu!

Marriage Equality for England and Wales; A Victory for Equality!

Great news! There is Marriage equality at last for England and Wales! The House of Lords has now passed the equal marriage bill at its Third Reading for England and Wales. The bill should receive Royal Assent soon. This will pave the way for same-sex couples to have access to marriage equality.

This is a positive step forward not just for England and Wales, but for humanity as a whole too.

 

SDC16601 SDC16594

Kudos to every individual and organization, who lobbied their lawmakers, rallied and stood up for Marriage equality.

I join all progressive minded humans to celebrate with England and Wales on this momentous occasion.

The Equality train must go round faster and faster. It is my hope that the equality train arrives in Africa sooner than later, it surely must have a stopover in Nigeria soon. [Read more…]

Why “Thank God I am still better off than some” is a selfish prayer and attitude

734924_268214039970930_2030938367_nSince being forced into the unemployment market, I have noticed an increase in people telling me to be thankful to God that I am still better off than others. Of course, they know I am an atheist, but believers eagerly pounce on any opportunity to tell atheists that ‘God’ is great. I have even been told that the rough patch I am going through is God’s way of showing me he is the Almighty God, and he wants me to recognize it, go on my knees, and accept him as God and only then would he make my path smooth again. ROTFLMAO!

OK, I won’t even go into the childishness of such a God or the morality of anyone who thinks such a God deserves to be praised or why God takes on the personality of his believers/creators. That is a story for another day. Now, let us not divert too much, the topic for today’s discussion is ‘Why “Thank God I am still better off than some” is a selfish prayer and attitude. Here is an analogy to get us started.

In a village, lives an all-powerful king who has the powers to make all things happen. He is famed as omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent, he could grant every heart desire if he so wish. Villagers often gather in his golden palace to praise him, pray and give thanks to him. [Read more…]

Child abuse is not discipline or African, it is simply cruelty to children!

Nigerian couple who beat their six children jailed after Coronation Street barmaid Michelle Collins gave evidence against them

 

  • Couple beat their children with brooms, hoovers and wires, claiming they were possessed by evil spirits
  • They gave their baby morphine overdose after her first birthday
  •  ‘I am beaten without mercy’, said an SOS note written by one of the children
  •  Parents alleged Miss Collins wanted to ‘steal’ their children
  •  ‘We are innocent, this is a miscarriage of justice’, screamed the couple as they left court…

 

Yes, it hurts me personally and in every humane way possible when abused children are not believed when they finally find the courage to speak out. It also hurts me to no end that in the part of the continent I come from, people define ‘child abuse’ in a different way and conveniently brush it aside by calling it discipline!

It is indeed sad that some Nigerians consider this case as ‘culture clash’ and even racial discrimination!

To many Nigerians, it is considered normal for pastors to accuse children of witchcraft and slap them in churches. It is considered OK  for prophets to take children to beach sides and beat them mercilessly while their parents shout “Hallelujah”, under the ‘acceptable disguise’ of casting out evil spirits from the children.

No, these are not rare occurrences, as I wrote in a previous post, these things happen almost every minute of the day, just visit Lagos Bar Beach!

Parents beat their children with brooms, cut them with sharp objects and inflict all sorts of injuries on their children and wards, all in the name of discipline and these are normally the same parents who steal in their workplaces and brag about their 419 activities in front of their children [Read more…]

Killing in the name of their Skydaddy: Boko Haram Militants Kill 29 Students, Teacher in Yobe, Nigeria School Attack

409263_194632337300826_100002621825953_318303_1770217189_nKilling in the name of God is unfortunately as old as the first time Man created God in his own image. Boko Haram, the Islamic terrorist group against western education in Nigeria struck again early this morning. According to reports: boko_haram561_2

 Armed Islamic militants have killed 29 students and an English teacher in an attack on a boarding school in Yobe State in northeastern Nigeria.

 

Survivors being treated for burns and gunshot wounds said some students were burned alive in the attack, which allegedly took place early Saturday and which is believed to have been carried out by the radical Boko Haram Islamic group.

 

Gunmen stormed the premises of Government Secondary School in the town of Mamudo in Yobe State at around 3am, setting fire to parts of the complex.

 

Dozens of children from the 1,200-student school escaped into the bush and have not been seen since, reports Sky News

http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/boko-haram-militants-kill-29-students-teacher-in-yobe-school-attack/152599/

484898_433952073352485_1826309972_nIt is said that those who make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. These horrible people are living testimony to this fact.  Pigs that are for no just reason, much loathed in their various Holy books, are definitely better than those cold blooded murderers; after all pigs don’t kill for any imaginary Sky daddy.

 

BTW, people who want to stone LGBTs to death in the name of their God are no better than these Boko Haram terrorists. [Read more…]

‘Our Senators are Hypocrites’

i

ORIGINAL INTERVIEW LINK- http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/our-senators-are-hypocrites/104344/

(BTW, you totally should read the wacky comments on the original interview link)
Yemisi Ilesanmi describes herself as ‘proudly bisexual’. After gaining her LL.B from the Obafemi Awolowo University in 2004 (four years after she should have qualified and 10 years after she was initially admitted as a student), she was admitted to the Nigerian Bar in 2005. Asked about the time gap, she chuckles in recollection, ‘Well I had some issues with the university authorities’. Pressed further she says, ‘Weeell, we ‘kidnapped the then Vice-Chancellor, Professor Omole! We had only dirty, brown water coming out of our taps in the halls of residence and we were expected to drink that?!’ her voice rising an octave. ‘Well, we thought we should just give him a dose of his own medicine so we “took” him to spend quality time with us!’

If by now it has not been clear that the interviewer is speaking with a non-conformist, it is now.

Ilesanmi worked with the Nigeria Labour Congress in Abuja from 2002 until recently. Aged 36, she holds a Masters of Law Degree from the University of Keele, UK in Gender, Sexuality and Human Rights. Now resident in the United Kingdom, this trade unionist, human rights activist and poet sent in a position paper to the Senate hearing last October on the anti-same sex marriage bill. She was however unable to come down to Nigeria to make her presentation personally but says she now plans to do so for the House of Representatives public hearing.

The coordinator of the campaign group Nigerian LGBTI in Diaspora Against Anti-Same Sex Laws, she has travelled extensively as guest speaker to promote gender and youth issues, labour rights, sexuality rights and international human rights. [Read more…]

Why Are Many Nigerian Christians So Senseless? Part 1

397963_3119174180996_1313772884_3317714_985286396_n

I often receive some very ignorant comments from believers, mostly Nigerian Christians who pompously inform me that I am going to burn in hell for not accepting Jesus Christ as my personal saviour. They claim if I do not stop campaigning for equal rights for all, which basically mean, I should stop the ‘gay agenda’ of promoting lesbians, gays , bisexuals and transsexuals as PERSONS entitled to human rights,  I will feel the wrath of their all merciful, all loving but obviously vengeful and insecure in his sexuality God. Oh, how they love calling me a fool because their precious bible claims anyone one who says there is no God is a fool. However, I must say, this comment on my fb wall by a deluded Christian is a prime example of just how senseless many Nigerian Christians are.

omololu alejo new

Yemisi Ilesanmi the anti Christ. I am sure that you are a vessel of the devil in this end time but we are specially annoited and commissioned to frustrate and fail you.

OK, let’s forget that he got the spelling of ‘anointed’ wrong, although that is quite funny because that word is always on the lips of Nigerian Christians, e.g. “I am anointed” , “Anointing fall on me” and the very popular “Buy your anointing oil!”

I will proceed to critically scrutinize this comment as it shows the level of religious ignorance the average Nigerian Christian suffers from.

[Read more…]

Twenty Reasons I am Distressed by Religion and its Believers.

  1. I am distressed when I share confined space with believers and their every word is filled with God delusion.941411_10151608187783704_423354122_n
  2. I am distressed when religious leaders accuse children of witchcraft and those self-styled prophets are allowed to freely abuse vulnerable people under the pretence of casting out demons.
  3. I am distressed that the opinions of religious leaders are deemed more important than scientific evidence.
  4. I am distressed when a child is forcefully infected with the cancer called religion 
  5. I am distressed that creationism is taught in all Nigerian public schools but evolution hardly made it to a biology class curriculum.
  6. I am distressed when I get a group mail message from a feminist group, asking for prayers for a sister who is seriously ill in hospital and members start sending prayers to different Gods.
  7. I am distressed that I am most likely to get banned and be isolated from such feminists groups if I sent a response suggesting practical assistance might actually help more than praying to our different skydaddies e.g. financial assistance, volunteering to take or pick up her children from school or just writing her encouraging letters and asking her how we can be of practical help. Actually such suggestion cost me a long time feminist friend.
  8. I am distressed when religion makes me lose intellectual respect for those I used to like because in all honesty, I cannot have any intellectual respect for someone who believes there was a talking snake, a Noah’s ark or gladly quotes the commandments of a war mongering, pedophile prophet.
  9. I am distressed that I almost choke with disbelief whenever I am forced to share passenger seats with Nigerian religious believers, even in a London red bus, as they loudly narrate and gesticulate profusely on their phone to their captive audience at the unseen end, about how God just saved them from the evil plots of wicked village people, who somehow from the remote part of a Nigerian village, managed to use ‘juju/ voodoo’ to send UK immigration after them in London.
  10. I am distressed by the ignorance and bigotry of religious believers.
  11. I am distressed at how vindict734721_528376913849040_653880745_nive many believers are in the name of religion. The faithfuls are always praying to their Skydaddy and his warrior angels to destroy and kill their enemies by ‘fire by force’, never a word of love, always an orgy of vengeful vendetta.
  12. I am distressed that I can hardly hold a conversation with Nigerians including some members of my family without them mentioning God in every sentence.
  13. I am distressed that the God delusion has broken families and driven a wedge between many family members with the many accusations and counter accusations of witchcraft.
  14. I am distressed that quotes from the Bible and Quran are deemed perfectly good reasons to oppress women and even stone to death gays, lesbians, bisexuals, Trans and women accused of committing adultery.
  15. I am distressed every time I see a picture of a blue eyed, blonde Jew on a cross hanging on the wall of a public school, a village church or from my mother’s bedroom because it is another reminder of colonization and mental slavery.
  16. I am distressed because the Gods now embraced by Africans have no physical or cultural resemblance to them; it is another reminder that Nigerians import everything, including Gods. Africa can’t even export its own Gods.
  17. I am distressed when the sculpture of a white, pale woman aka ‘Holy Mary’ occupies a place of pride in the center of a remote village in Nigeria.  It is distressing that even though the foreign sculpture has no resemblance to th734789_334547843328637_241749167_ne village inhabitants, it is somehow deemed the most sacred sculpture in the village.
  18. I am distressed when an African quotes from the Bible or Quran to justify the oppression of another. I wondered if they did not read the parts in their precious holy books that clearly states that they are not the chosen race, that it is OK for the chosen race to enslave them, rape their wives, kill their children and animals. Do they have such short memory that they have forgotten that the bible and the Quran they hold in such high esteem were used to do just that to their ancestors?
  19. I am distressed that it is increasingly becoming difficult to have adult friends who do not have imaginary friends; they all talk about having a friend in Jesus, angels and skydaddy.
  20. I am distressed that even though I am the one who does not believe in a talking snake, a talking donkey, a virgin mother, a Noah’s ark that ferried all living things on earth, yet somehow I am the one the believers call crazy.

Even though I am distressed by all these absurdities, I am happy I am not one of the believers. To be called ‘crazy’ by ignorant people is indeed a compliment.

522305_10151195688974483_1173459083_n

WHY I SPEAK OUT AGAINST RELIGION

532532_340154756059016_2113990897_n

As I have always maintained, I do not care if believers worship a blue-eyed blonde semi-naked Jew nailed to a cross, a bearded dessert dwelling prophet, a fat cow, a golden snake or a thunder God. As long as they do not force their beliefs down my throat, teach it to children as FACTS in public schools, preach it to me in public space or seek to make their religion my state law, I do not care. However, when they do any of these, of course they are going to have their religion put under intellectual scrutiny and if found wanting, it shall be exposed and If funny, it shall be ridiculed. When people preach to me about a talking snake, talking donkey and a Noah’s ark, I reserve every right to ridicule such funny tales and be indignant that anyone should be allowed to teach such absurdities as facts in public schools.

Anyone is free to believe in a cow, snake, a blue-eyed blonde who turned into a Zombie, a long bearded paedophile prophet or a golden snake; it is none of my business so far they keep their beliefs to themselves.

However, it immediately becomes my business when I am forced to adhere to and pay for some ridiculous beliefs of others. I pay my tax as a dutiful citizen, yet those religious establishments are exempted from paying tax, they are sponsored on some ridiculous pilgrimages with taxpayers’ money! This is not even enough for them, as they are always trying to influence state policies and Laws based on their ludicrous beliefs, they even attempt to stop scientific progress especially in the area of Stem cell research all because of their religious belief in the existence of a soul!
522305_10151195688974483_1173459083_n

I am often bombarded with protest messages on my Facebook wall and social media inbox about my anti-religion posts, I am using this post to answer 10 questions that keep popping up, and clarify why I speak out against religion. Now, I have a handy link for the next aggrieved person. Problem solved! [Read more…]

Is the Atheist+ label really confusing?

Would people object to an atheist group showing up at Pride with a banner “Atheist for LGBSDC14859T rights”? Would this confuse onlookers and make them assume that all atheists are for LGBT rights? I was at the 2012 World Pride in London and right behind my group, Nigerian LGBTIs in diaspora, was another group with the banner “Lawyers for Equal Marriage”. I am a lawyer and I also happen to know many lawyers who are against equality rights for same-sex couples. Should the anti-LGBT equality lawyers protest the use of the name ‘Lawyers’ in such context?  Well, that would be silly!

 Just like Lawyers, Socialists and Humanists, I can also use my Atheist self-identity to complement other causes I identify with. No other atheists get to tell me, “Hey do not add ‘plus’ to Atheism, you are redefining it”. I am not redefining it; I am only using what I already am to promote other causes I believe in. [Read more…]

What are Anti-Atheists+ afraid of?

I do not know what the hullabaloo is about Atheism+, why all the hate and tantrums? I understand that people fear change, people with power fear anything that would or could threaten their power base, and because atheists are people, they are not exempted from this fear of change.

 People who enjoy power hardly want their privileged positions questioned. They fight the change makers, they cast aspersion on the oppositions’ characters, they fight tooth and nail to discredit the change and this is mostly what the fight against Atheism+ is all about. The sad thing is, many of those fighting the Atheism+ concept would hardly agree that they fight because they are afraid of change, nope; they would hide under so many notions to justify their stance against atheism+.

 People love to have power over others; the ‘insignificant’ minorities are always the victims. Many so called progressives still use their residual patriarchal power, sometimes unconsciously, to lord it over others but they loathe it when they are confronted with this fact.

 Why am I in support of Atheism+? I am a black African woman who also identify as atheist, bisexual,391462_507881772571218_1254845999_n feminist, socialist and humanist.  Sometimes I join groups that promote all my identities or at least acknowledge some of the things I identify as and with. For example, I identify with Black feminists groups, African labour groups, Labor women organizations, LGBT Atheists, African bisexuals, Black Atheists groups, Working class Atheists, Secular humanists and female workers groups. When attached to my birth identity, these self-identity tags afford me the opportunity to understand at a glance, the demography of the groups.

 I am conscious that not every organization that I identify with, shares my values or all my identities, however when joining or identifying with a group, I consider it important that I network with groups and persons who do not only share a birth or self-identity with me but who also share core values.    [Read more…]