The BIG BANG vs The BIG MAN UPSTAIRS!

Absolutely everyone seems to have an opinion on the issue of religion vs science! There are many who do not believe in God and think that all life in this universe is a result of science. On the flip side there are those that do believe in God and the story of Genesis. There are also those that sit on the fence and simply are not sure. Personally this topic brings me a lot of heartache. I was born into an extremely religious catholic family. My grandmothers would put Dot Cotton to shame, as a child I spent many mornings singing and praying with my grandmothers and 5 in the morning when they would visit on holiday from Nigeria. I have been Baptised, had a Holy Communion, Confirmed; the whole shabang! but I really do have my doubts about religion.

This post is designed to help think about the key issues in the comparison. I will highlight a few and score each side hopefully helping me discover which side I lean towards because right now i am just sitting on the fence.

GENESIS vs KABOOM!

Understanding how the World came to be is hard as it simply cannot be proven. It depends on the individual and what makes more sense to them. The thought of a sudden BANG! resulting in the creation of the universe seems very far fetched to me. Things do not just happen all of a sudden, there is a process to every occurrence on this planet. My friends Matt and Gabriel highlighted this point to me with the analogy  of the box. A box does not just move on its on. Some sort of force or some sort of action goes into moving it otherwise nothing happens. This would suggest that there would be some sort of higher power responsible for the big bang (If it happened). Here, I think the story of GENESIS wins!
1-0 GOD

The BIBLE vs The TEXTBOOK

The main problem I have with the bible is that it is supposed to come directly from God but the stories and lessons within it come from man. I would be so much happier if the story of the bible is that it just appeared in the holy land under the spotlight of the North Star or some sort of magical occurrence. As things stand its origins are not clear, and for all we know we have fallen victim to the worlds greatest game of CHINESE WHISPERS!

For thousands of years the Bible has been used as a tool to control the masses. Since ancient times the bible doubled up as not only religious testament but also the constitution for many nations. The bible set out the rules that governed entire empires! It was therefore inevitable that rulers and dictators started manipulating the sacred book to control the people. This is why I believe that there are so many different forms of Christianity today. The fact that a lot of original differences in Christianity had geographical origins is NO COINCIDENCE.

At the same time the theory behind the BIG BANG is also human based. The Big Bang theory comes from research and experiment. Humans have researched and experimented on many phenomenon on this planet and got it wrong. For centuries we were made to believe that the World was flat!!! A lot of human discoveries have been altered and changed over time because of human error, Who is to say we have not got it wrong again! This is a very tough one to decide but personally I am going to give the score to God because the fundamentals of the bible are morally correct and seemingly have holy origins, as supposed to human ones. This is the benefit of faith. It is easier to live by the laws of a higher power than that of a mere human. What gives fellow man the right to dictate how we should live our lives!  

God takes an early 2-0 lead

ANCIENT vs MODERN

Many argue that religion and the bible was designed for ancient times and have little relevance in today's society. Atheists will tell you that the way they live their lives is morally correct and appropriate for society today. To an extent I agree. Atheists do not have direct rules and restrictions like the ones religion imposes on the rest of us. They know the difference between right and wrong and do not need direct laws to govern their lives.

Many religious laws are outdated and simply do not apply to society in 2011. It does not make sense that our society today share the same laws and rules with medieval society. With all the progress man has made and human advancement  it is ridiculous to suggest that the same laws apply. My favourite example here is the idea of sex before marriage! Sex before marriage was an extremely easy law to adhere to in biblical times as the average age for marriage was 14/15!! If you were having sex before that age then you really were a "tainted woman" Things are very different today. The average age of marriage in the UK is 29. I believe it is ridiculous to expect anyone to hold out for that long, especially in a generation dominated by sex! Just the other day I was told a story about a woman who refused to partake in sex before marriage. However this did not stop her and her partner exploring other sexual avenues! How can you avoid sex before marriage in order to be pure and then perform acts far more "impure". For this reason the score here has to go to the Atheists!
2-1 to God


MIRACLES vs ANOMALIES

Do miracles exist? Does God hear our prayers and answer them? or do things happen that we just simply cannot explain? I do not believe that God works with us humans on a personal level. He does not hear the prayers of every single person on this planet and decides whose prayers he will and won't answer. For a while I flirted with the idea that when we died those that made it to heaven became Gods little helpers and listened to all our prayers like a call centre but I grew out of that one quickly! .In explaining instances of extreme healing or recovery, I simply believe that the human body has the capacity to do amazing things, after all we do only use a small percentage of our brains. However in the midst of adversity many people turn to religion and it is their faith that gives them the ability to create their own miracles! For that reason I am giving this one to religion as miracles might not happen directly at the hands of God but faith and religion spur us on to create our own miracles.

FINAL TOTAL: The BIG MAN UPSTAIRS  3 - 1 The BIG BANG THEORY

You could discuss these topics for days. This is just a brief post to get us thinking about where we really stand  on the subject instead of just sitting on the fence! As you can see I am definitely a believer in God but perhaps not in the conventional Christian way. I believe that God created this universe and everything in it. Where I differ from your average Catholic is that I do not think he answers our prayers on a personal level. He created man with the intelligence and capacity to fend for itself. I do not think we turned out the way he quite expected as our thoughts turned to greed and jealousy and we began to sin. This was why Jesus had to come down and save us. Since then God has seemed to adopt a hands off approach and lets us get on with it!

Obama got Osama! but will that end all the Drama!

OSAMA BIN LADEN IS DEAD! and how about some fruit for Baracks bowl as he approached the podium to break the news to the world. What a hero.

Now don't get me wrong, I am pleased that Osama is dead but the sceptic within me has just placed so many doubts in my mind, there is so much more to this than we have been told! Now let us cast our minds back to the capture of  Saddam Hussein. The Americans went out of their way to embarrass him. I have memories of Saddam Hussein plastered all over our television screens looking like he had spent his days hiding in a crack house. We were bombarded with pictures and live feeds, "Behold, the great might of America! We have Saddam!" Where is all that now, "We shot him and dumped him in the sea."  Are we really expected to believe that. Are the unofficial photos of him dead on the Internet supposed to satisfy our appetite for evidence? Well I am still really hungry!

Conspiracy

Its the rush to bury him that I just don't understand. Conspiracies are spreading around cyberspace like wildfire. Initially, I was of the belief that he was either pumped full of soo many bullets that the U.S dare not show the world, or  my personal favourite that Bin Laden is still alive, but is being held in a bunker somewhere being tortured or chilling with endless supplies of ice cream and family guy box sets. There are those who believe he has been dead since 2001 (hold tight my new Pakistani friend from the other night on that one, claimed his cousin was in the Pakistani army and that it's common knowledge that Bin Laden died in 2001) Some even go as far as to claim that the U.S still do not know where he is! Somehow I don't think they would risk the embarrassment of Osama appearing on Al Jazeera yelling, "I'm alive bitches!"

After doing some research it has come to my attention that it is strict Islamic practice that the body of the deceased has to be buried within 24 hours, something the Americans claim to take very seriously. Finding that out made me feel a little silly for letting my imagination cloud my better judgement, and if you do not bury him at sea:

a) His grave site becomes a place of worship

b) You run the risk of people attempting to dig up his body.

c) What country would be willing to accept the body of the Worlds most wanted man!

We just love a conspiracy don't we. Especially when America is involved. During the Cold War the U.S had to keep things a secret in fear of the Soviet Union gaining an advantage in the arms race, space race etc. However since then the underhand nature of Americas foreign policy seemingly lingers on. I don't know if this is just me? I wonder what David Camerons thoughts are? Do the leaders of this country believe the Americans? do they trust them? or do they just trust in the fact they are our Allys and won't conspire against us? I pray that it is not the later! can you imagine that we sacrifice our brave soldiers for a nation we do not fully trust. This might just be me being small minded and naive, David Cameron probably gets excellent Intel from the U.S and fully trusts them, well, we hope

End of the Drama?

We could be in serious trouble! Al Qaeda now have something to prove. They will want to prove to the World that they are still strong and united. I am more worried about rogue terrorists and budding Osamas trying to step up into the spotlight and become the new face of terrorism. The Met police definately agree with me, and immanent attack has been forecasted and they are condemning the public for not taking the warnings seriously. What do they expect people to do!? Stay indoors until the threat is over? THERE HAVE BEEN WARNINGS OF IMMANENT ATTACKS SINCE 7/7!  so sorry if I decide to ignore your warnings. The threat will never be over, there will always be terrorists wanting to blow something up. I don't know about you but I refuse to live my life in constant fear of terrorism. There are threats to our lives everyday! However I do believe that we should be vigilant. No one will commend your bravery for getting on a train and sitting next to the man with a backpack on quoting the Quran at the top of his lungs when he goes KABOOOM! and takes you with him.

 

The Return of the Witch Hunt!

HERE WE GO AGAIN! Who remembers what life was like after 9/11 and again after 7/7. If a Muslim man hoped on public transport with a bag, everyone was on edge, some people would leave the top deck and in many instances would actually get off the train! I really hope that people do not start behaving like that again now now that the alarm bells are ringing. It is all well and good me highlighting the discriminative nature of our nation but we all fall victim to it. I went running in my local park the day the news of his death broke. In a corner of the park I saw a group of Muslim men sitting and talking, it does not take a rocket scientist to figure out what my thoughts were as I approached them! I was so disappointed with myself later on for not giving them the benefit of the doubt. They were probably just enjoying the sunshine like everybody else. I even went as far as to consider asking my cousin to write a guest post for me just giving us a Muslim perspective on the death of Osama Bin Laden. What was I thinking! What made me believe that the average Muslim would feel differently to anyone else. Since thinking that I have been taking long hard looks in the mirror. You would expect a young black man who falls victim to stereotypes himself to be a able to give others more of a chance.

It is so easy to approach the subject of terrorism with an, "US vs THEM" mentality. We must remember that the death of Bin Laden was a real victory for humanity. Islam is not responsible for terrorism. Its a minority that choose to interpret their faith in a different way than they should.. Without sounding like I am preaching we really should make the conscious effort not to discriminate against our Muslim neighbours. We really should give people the benefit of the doubt (unless like I said earlier you see someone quoting the Quran at the top of their lungs clutching a backpack)

Googoo Gaga! War Against The Infant sounds of Our Generation

YOUR GENERATION NEEDS YOU! in the fight against today's elementary music. Let us unite against the digitally created nonsense that is forced into our ear drums every single day.

I am not an expert on this subject by any means and i am not involved in the music industry in any way so some might question the validity of my comments. As a young adult I make these comments based on what I hear, see and feel around me.

We are witnessing the dark ages of the music industry. Society today just does not enjoy music the way it once did. I am not in the position to say that the music is not as good or that the artists are not as talented but in my opinion music today just does not influence the masses any more. Last night I randomly found myself at an old school hip hop and R&B club in Camden Town, London, All of us in that club, from my group of friends, to the old man shakin' out by himself in his corner just felt and enjoyed the music so much more than if we were listening to modern commercial music. The joy and excitement that the music brought to the masses in those days just seems to be lost forever.

There was definitely a nostalgic vibe in the room last night. Our love for 80's and 90s music does tend to bring back happy memories and that is perhaps why we enjoy it so much. So many songs from the 90s remind me of my happy days as a child when life was all about the Nigerian family party, the running man and jollof rice. However I have happy memories of my young adult life, but the music just does not bring the same joy. I would like someone to conduct a study on the emotive power of music over the generations. I am pretty sure that music of today would not compare.

I think this fact is evident with the new wave of rebel music that is sweeping the youth. The vulgar lyrics and taboo content of groups like Odd future are becoming increasingly popular. This change could be the beginning of the anti gaga age. Talent is now judged on lyrics again and not the baseline or the catchy hook. People are again concerned with the quality of the music and the lyrical content of the song. Although some of the lyrics are very tongue in cheek, it is refreshing to see young artists rebelling against poor quality auto tuned music.

Todays popular music is terrible in my opinion. It has lost its musicality. Songs and albums are now sold based on controversy and personality rather than actual content and its sad. I wonder whether there is a secret evil corporation that is purposely killing the beauty of music. If this is the case then I am volunteering myself to the bohemians and will commit to the search of the lost instruments and voices.

WHO'S WITH ME!