allAfrica.com: Nigeria: The Power of Fiction (Page 1 of 2)

APART from science and technology, religion is the greatest force shaping contemporary society. In Europe, there is a palpable decline of religion, which began more than a century ago.

The situation in Europe at present proves conclusively that a society can make rapid progress in enhancing the wellbeing of its people in an atmosphere of attenuated religiosity.

But there is an irony here. More than any other continent, Europe is responsible for spreading one of the biggest religions the world has known - Christianity. Yet European countries have one of the lowest growth rates in Christianity, both in terms of the number of adherents and those opting for ecclesiastical duties.

Thus, it is a matter for serious thought that Nigeria is witnessing unprecedented growth in Christianity and Islam, the Abrahamic missionary religions which, in various complex ways, served and still serve, as instruments of colonization and cultural alienation. However, and paradoxically too, Nigerians are going through hell at the moment.

Therefore, if the current wave of religiosity in the country is a force for good, why are things falling terribly apart? Past and present Nigerian rulers, including President Umaru Yar' Adua, are very religious people who pray fervently for the upliftment of Nigeria.

Still things are getting worse in all aspects of our national life, to the extent that the country is looking more and more like a failed experiment in nation building.

The question that naturally arises at this point is: what exactly is religion? What is the nature and origin of religion? Has religion been a force for good or evil?

Does the world need a new religion to replace the older ones, a religion that is sensitive to the amazing developments brought about by science and technology? The following discussion is a critical examination of these and related questions.

The term 'religion', like most words which designate various forms of human activity, is not easy to define. The major reason for this is that the very activity, or range of activities, it demotes is very complex.

To the theologian, sociologist, anthropologist and lay person, religion means different things. But it is not correct to say that whatever anyone believes strongly in constitutes a religion for that person.

Certainly, the element of "strong belief" is a component of every religion, although how strong a belief should be before it can be regarded or quality as a religious belief is not easily decidable. Atheists such as a Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, Tai Solarin and Bertrand Russell, for example, had strong beliefs in some systems of propositions.

But, in the conventional sense, they were not religious. It is equally wrong to say that religion is morality, and vice versa. People generally think that religion and morality are inseparable.

Sometimes people are misled to think this way because they uncritically believe that a morally upright person must be a religion person; that one cannot be moral without being religious. But religion and morality are neither synonymous nor inseparable.

One can be morally upright without adhering to any religion, just as a very religious person can be morally depraved. Actually, religion requires morality for it to win acceptance or adherents.

That is why every religion embodies a system of moral prescriptions which reflect the socio-cultural milieu in which the religion was spawned, as well as the ethical intuitions of the most prominent personages in that religion. Now that we have clarified some misconceptions about religion, we can attempt a lexical definition of it.

Etymologically, the word 'religion' is derived from three Latin words, viz, ligare (to bind), relegere (to unite), and religio (relationship).

Thus, according to Professor J.I. Omoregbe, religion "is essentially a relationship, a link established between two persons, namely, the human person and the divine person believed to exist".

Omoregbe's definition captures some essential qualities of religion - its bipolarity and its dependence on a supernatural being believed to exist. But it does not specify the sort of relationship entailed by religion between the human being and the divine.

The human person reveres and worships the transcendental divine being, whilst the deity, God, provides protection and salvation for the worshipper, both in this life and in the hereafter. As we suggested earlier, the word 'religion' designates a complex form of human activity.

Therefore, it should not be surprising that different philosophers have posited various theories to explain religion. The German philosopher, Ludwig Feuerbach, in his magnum opus, The Essence of Christianity, claimed that religion is essentially the alienated worship of human nature in the form of a God.

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