Taiwo Gold Ayodeji, an alumnus of the University of Lagos, has renounced his family religion of Islam and turned to Atheism.
Ayodeji, who made this known via his Facebook page, claimed that he “had confirmed to myself a lack of belief in the gods of any religion or in the existence of supernatural entities”
In the post, which has since been deleted, Ayodeji, currently residing in Munich, Germany, said that he did not renounce religion because of the “freedom” in Germany.
According to him, “We are born into this world mostly through our mothers and from birth, we are labelled with a religion, tribe and even social class; we never choose them.”
READ ALSO :Unilag student graduates with 5.0 CGPA
He lamented that because of his decision, he lost a girl he loved so much, lost a couple of good friends and was diagnosed with depression in a Munich hospital.
Full statement below:
I’m now an atheist. There is nothing to hide anymore. I’ve hid this fact for a very long time now. Before leaving Nigeria, I had confirmed to myself that I lack a belief in the gods of any religion or in the existence of supernatural entities. This is not a decision I made because of the “freedoms” of Germany. At first I was shocked and scared that I came to this conclusion. I said to myself: “Ayo, you’ve memorized a decent portion of the Qur’an, you can’t do this, you can’t allow the Shaytan(Satan) to use you now, repent and return to Allah”. I however quickly realized that there was no turning back for me.
I have weighed the evidences for the Abrahamic religions(Judai
I am not an atheist because I want to sleep with different girls, or spend all my time in a club or become a “bad boy”. I’m an atheist because I know with a high level of certainty that no one knows about the existence of a God; if we knew about a God, we would all have the same idea of him/her/it/
My disbelief in God and religion has made the circumstances very harsh for me. I lost a girl that I really loved. I lost the friendship of close friends. I got a few scary and saddening messages from former friends. I was diagnosed with depression by the psychiatrists at my university in Munich. Only few people know this. I was put on Sertraline Zoloft to curb my anxiety and panic attacks. For me it was a painful dawn that I became an atheist. I’m lucky I could pass my exams very well in spite of all these.
Out forefathers evolved a belief in God(s) mostly due to a lack of understanding of natural processes during their time. The hurricane, tornado, tsunami came with their full force and our ancestors thought this was because of their own misdeeds. They knelt and bowed to the sky and begged for restraint. They offered each other as sacrifice to appease the entities that were “controlling” these disasters. Today we know how the Coriolis force, tectonic plate motions and so on drive these disasters. We know today that earthquakes are not due to homosexuality or sin but due to converging tectonic plates.
Some may ask me “now that you don’t believe in God, how would you be moral or good?”. My answer is that morality is not based on religion. If many of us took our morals from religion, we would stone all fornicators around us. We would kill those who don’t believe like us. Morality is evolved; societies that were immoral simply became weaker and died off. They killed each other and looted each other’s property and became weaker ensuring that they weren’t strong enough to defend themselves from warring tribes.
Some may also ask me “if you don’t believe in a God then how did we all get to this world?”. My answer to this is two fold. One, I came here through my mother like most of you. Secondly as regards initial existence, I don’t know how it started but neither do you. The only difference is that I’m honest with this answer. How can we know about things that are beyond our conception? What is wrong with saying “I don’t know about the origins of life”?
I’ve been threatened with hellfire as a punishment for my disbelief. What can I say? Who amongst those who threaten have seen such a place? Many of us are afraid of hell and thus stick to religion. Unknown to us, we create a hell in this world for ourselves and loved ones. Muslims and Christians threaten each other with hell but both of them can’t be correct at the same time. Even within Islam, many think the Ahmadis and Shi’ites are hell-bound.
I think everyone should be free to believe or lack belief in a God or Gods. I don’t criticize others for holding religious beliefs; I only take offence if those beliefs are harmful to other people.
I think that life should be lived with positivity and happiness. Some live longer than others but it’s not enough reason to not be happy in this world.
If I ever return to religion, I would return to the religion of my ancestors. I would worship Eledumare through Ifa and I would happily recite the “Odu”(I lack a proper English translation; someone can help) of Ifa and praise Eledumare. Our ancestors were at peace with this before the invasion of the Abrahamic faiths.
I know I have disappointed many, but each person has an individual course to chart in life. I hope that I would be accepted by those that I love in spite of our differences.
Most of all I wish myself a good life ahead!
Better to believe in a god/gods than atheism cos when u r in trouble u HV a being to cry unto for help and comfort. With atheism u HV no one to comfort u except drugs till u die of unabating depression. The best in life however is to believe in d one supreme God Allah. DNA is a confirmation of a supreme designer/creator. You are astray no doubt.
Disagree completely. Believe in yourself..your own moral values..your choices and your own inner church. The truth is we are constantly reminded by most religions that you are made by a God and that obviously God cannot make mistakes. So, why are some born crippled…some no mind..many with no conscience.. reason..there is no God it is nature..mother nature and natural selection. If your friends and other people around you believed the same way..the world would be much better…not split in to groups..tribes or religious ideas all man made to serve a group of people best at the time. Imagine this scene. You are in last hours of your stay on earth and, peoples of all races and regions take it upon themselves to wish you a speedy and pleasant passing and all is good. Would this not be a better scenario than a single priest.. Iman..or buddhist priest coming in to provide you with a few words of a last rights and peoples of other religions / tribes just walking by because you do not belong to their group. I prefer human nature…and good will of people…not a belief in a non entity. Anyway..it is your choice but remember it was not your choice originally if born into it. All the best.
This is a very touching post. Touching because the writer fell into depression as a result of his new found disbelieve. I suffered the same depression when I turned atheist from christianity. Like the writer, I saw that religion was a creation of man. It was obvious that God did not create the universe; that the rainbow was not a covenant between man and God; that the sun did not stand still; that stars cannot fall from heaven; that the concept of God’s love is a figment of man’s imagination; that religious experiences and ecstasies are workings of the brain; that there are many reasons to see that there is no God or gods in existence. Reconciling my life to these new realization is hard. No one knows but me. My wife will divorce me if she finds out. My mum will die of a heart attack. “How dare you challenge God? You want to die? You want to be miserable?”. I don’t understand why questioning the existence of God is always met with threats of destruction. Not even a conversation of trying to prove that God is true, because actually he’s not real. If God exists, why would he prefer to throw me in hell for not believing in his existence simply because I see no reason to, when he could (since he is all powerful) just give me a reason to believe in him, and not just me, but all the people on earth who don’t see reasons to believe in him? Despite my depression, I feel a huge sense of relief. I struggled for years to justify my Christian believes. Now I am free from that bondage of believing a lie, of putting faith in a fantasy, and of having false hopes in a non-existing all powerful supernatural being, who even by the christian narrative, was outsmarted by the devil. But I still go to church every Sunday and partake in religious activities. It is funny because the more I go to church, the more I see reasons to not believe in God.