HOW CAN I MEET GOD For the none atheist or agnostic God exists but the medium through which this GOD can be reached remains a battle ground for believers. Can GOD be reached only true the Arabs? Is GOD a sole property of the Jews? Is the only way found through Christianity? Is GOD found in Hinduism and Buddhism? Is the same GOD present in Ifa and Odinani religious practice? GOD is a creation of culture, it is a genuine attempt by a cultural group to revere an unknown, a supreme being based on the knowledge of their environment and culture, GOD can never be an exclusive right of a particular group as been claimed by the Jews, Arabs and Christians, each culture tries to interpret GOD from the understanding of their environment. Excerpt from cardinal Arinze seminal work SACRIFICE IN IGBO LAND quoted by professor T. Nwala in the 1988 Ahiajioku lecture, cardinal Arinze defined religion as “ consciousness of ones dependence on a transcendent being and the tendency to to worship him” and “religion is the body of truths ,law and rites by which man is subordinated to the transcendent being” the understanding of this transcendent being is a function of the culture of the group trying to understand this being (GOD) and objects and happening within their environment becomes the body of truth ,law and rites through which they try to reach him, according to Rev. Dr Iwe “the awareness of GOD is and has been at all times the common heritage of humanity” each culture has always recognized a transcendent being, an unknown and has genuinely tried to reach him. I find it impossible to believe that GOD an all knowing being would allow the accident of birth into differing religion and culture determine how we reach him, that if I was born in the north of Nigeria and probably to a Muslim family and God knew my destination before birth and authorized my birth into that religion the same God will now require that I convert from a religion which GOD placed me into to another religion so that I came meet the same GOD that authorized my birth into the other religion , GOD rather has given each culture an opportunity to understand it mystery by understanding and searching for the answer through the mastering of their environment, I find mischievous the claim that GOD revealed himself to any particular culture becoming their personal GOD and abandoning the rest cultures, this attempt to personalize GOD by some religion is borne out of the evil nature of man always seeking to dominate and control the rest while annihilating those that refused to be dominated or controlled. Odimegwu Onwumere writing in “Soyinka, Islamized and Christianized GOD” remarked that GOD created man in his own image and man has been returning the complement, trying to create him ever since with his own prejudice and exclusivity, thus man from the understanding of his culture Has been trying to create GOD based on it, I find it odd, funny and disturbing that a particular culture tend to personalize GOD and do the rest cultures a favour by allowing them have a share of their GOD, that a particular culture tend to impose their religious and limited understanding of GOD on other cultures as the only way through which GOD is found and rendering the understanding of other cultures as evil, Chinua Achebe in his last book ‘there was a country: a personal history of Biafra’ was also bemused by this phenomenon questioning the absolutism of certain religions. GOD is not a Christian neither is GOD a Hindu or Muslim, GOD is neither a Jew neither is GOD a Buddhist nor an ifa or odinani religious member GOD belongs to all culture and to any group who seek GOD through diverse understanding of him, GOD is not an exclusive of any religion or culture. onwumere quoting Shiv R.Jhawar explains the concept of one GOD through different religion “the power lies in this analogy: when a river merges into a vast ocean, it loses its identification as a river. Then the ocean declaration ‘I am the ocean’ becomes true. Similarly, when the prophet merges his sense of individuality with the all pervasive consciousness, his declaration I am the only GOD is entirely true. As far as the ultimate realization of every founder of a religion is concerned, it is the attainment of the same absolute reality. It is for this reason that the title Christ conveys exact the same universal consciousness as does the title Buddha” the river here represents different religion and the ocean represents GOD. Each religion has its evil and its good ,the fundamental of a religion are same which is the promotion of humanity .the advancement of humanity in Odinani is embedded in an age long adage ‘Egbe belu Ugo belu’ and the Christian have it as “do unto others as you want others to do unto you” ,similar concepts goes for Islam ,Hinduism ,ifa ,Buddhism and others . The sooner all religion understand that GOD can be reached through other means, and leave their struggle to dominate one another the better for religion. The struggle of domination by different religion has led to wars and great inconveniences in the world. If all religion can leave this struggle for superiority and channel their efforts to maintaining the fundamental of all religion, which is the betterment and promotion of humanity, the better for its survival.
Posted on: Fri, 30 Aug 2013 08:21:36 +0000