The Bible – Inspiration For Immolation?

Cross posted @ Atheist Oasis.

(Hat tip to the Freethinker for this one, and of course Nigerian humanist Leo Igwe)

That old whore Christianity just keeps on mounting a body count, even after the most cherished traditions have been demolished, proven wholly fraudulent both historically and intellectually.

The NGR Guardian reports this horrifying incident:

The father of the children told a local newspaper that he recently noticed the children’s strange behaviours and complained to local authorities. It appears they did nothing to call the children to order. According to him, the children established a ‘strange church’ in his house and commenced their prayers around 10 p.m each day. He tried stopping them without success. And on this fateful night, the children, in the course of praying, made fire with some household items which they soaked with petrol. At a stage, they took off their clothes and jumped into the fire holding copies of the Bible. Three of them who died on the spot have since been buried.

One might ask how a father could allow this sort of weirdness, then again, he was outnumbered 5 to 1, and I would likely freak out myself in that situation.

No one knew exactly what led the children into acting in such a ‘strange’ way. But some of the witnesses interviewed by a local newspaper said the children acted on the advice of a local pastor who told them that their parents were responsible for their joblessness and not getting married. He advised them to burn the items in their home because that was where the parents hid their magic. The village head, Matope, blamed the churches whom he said were misleading the people for this horrible incident. He promised to summon the religious leaders in the area so that ‘they could explain what type of worshipping this is’. This kind of bizarre religious experience is not new to Malawi.

As I’ve pointed out in the past (on the old GifS site), Africa is fraught with this malignant malaise. Conditions remain appalling – poverty, ignorance, poor education. Under these circumstances, religion usually wins. Mostly because it appears to be free, and so many of the faitheists hand out their garbage to an unsuspecting populace.

Malawi has had some instances of this prior:

Last year, police rescued some women who locked themselves up in a hut in one of the country’s remote villages. They were reading their Bible, fasting and praying for weeks expecting some revelations from God. Poverty, ignorance, hopelessness and bad governance have driven many Africans to religious insanity, absurdity and extremism. Africa is literally in a dark age. There is a proliferation of churches, mosques and worship centers. Blind faith, thoughtlessness and spiritual mumbo jumbo direct people’s lives. Many Africans spend a lot of their time praying, fasting and keeping vigil at their homes, in churches, on the hills(also known as holy mountains) and valleys, besides rivers and streams.

Lacking something better to do.

There are few countries  that promote and encourage critical thinking, scientific temper and technological intelligence. Many Africans devote much of their time to all sorts of crazy, useless and meaningless spiritual nonsense. And this is the time they could have used productively to acquire relevant skills and lift themselves out of poverty by working to generate income for themselves. Instead of developing their potentials, most Africans have embraced this fashionable nonsense of blaming others-one’s parents, grand parents, witches and wizards, the West, colonialism and imperialism for all the problems and difficulties they encounter in life.

In a country of victims, external forces are usually blamed.

Unfortunately, the local authorities are doing nothing to tackle religious nonsense and its discontent among Africans. Instead,  African states are sponsoring, aiding and abetting the spread religious absurdities including the misleading messages of priests, pastors, imams and witch doctors. The educational system in most parts of sub Saharan Africa has virtually collapsed. Most industries have been shut down or have taken over by foreigners because Africans lack the required skills- the scientific and technological skills to manage these companies efficiently and profitably.

I think a case can be made for capitalist colonialism – the more people that are kept ignorant, the easier it is to wield the insane threats of religion over their heads.

The police and justice system is corrupt and inept. African governments are not creating institutions to fight religious indoctrination and promote reason and critical thinking. There are no programs to combat the negative influence of churches, mosques and traditional belief systems and liberate Africans from mental slavery and religious stupor. Surely, humanists in Africa are in for an uphill task.

And again, the case is made for the intellectually bankrupt concepts of the afterlife, and divinity.

And the bleat goes on.

Till the next post, then.