MAN AND THE UNKNOWN

                                                         

I was watching IAAF indoor games at Brussels, the 100m fastest runner Usain Bolt was about taking off. He performed a small ritual, a cross sign starting from his forehead down to the front of his two shoulders. Funny enough, the world fastest man recognized the power of an unknown. He believed this unknown has the power to increase his speed and maybe retard those of his opponents, anyway he came first. Countless times I have seen footballers celebrating their goals with their foreheads on the turf. Have you ever seen a footballer about to take a penalty moving his mouth in prayer before taking a shot? Shifting away from sports to our citadels of learning especially during exams, the frenzy and flustered become calmed after prayers. A student who failed his exams can be seen asking “God why?” or Allah why?

The big question is this; how important is the knowledge of God, gods and deities in our lives? Why religion? These two questions can only be answered through intense study and removal of biased or generally held ideas for the truth. From time immemorial man understood that apart from him and the animals within his sphere, a higher being existed. Some argue that the concept of God grew from man’s failure to give specific answers to some of nature’s phenomena. In fact down through ages every nation posses series of gods or definite god which they worshiped. Zoolatry, Pyrolatory, Idolatry, astrolatry, heliolatry and many more of such continued to be handed down from one age to another by departing ancestors.

 Imagine the beautiful state of ancient Egypt where civilization first sprung up. Religion was never a pushover for the citizens of ancient Egypt. Akhanaton emerging as pharaoh introduced Aman-ra the sun god as the sole god in whom all blessings and curses of which no mortal can reverse comes from. Mystics and some religious groups claim that Egypt’s Amen-ra  was the first sole god. They argue that Akhanaton was the first to introduce monotheism. Well man has his right to think freely but yet wrong thoughts and assumptions can be disastrous.

The Bible and scientists have been at war because of their divergent views on how man came to be. The truth is that the bible is also a good scientific handbook. If we are to follow biblical accounts we will come to a realization the Egyptians were not the first to introduce the supremacy of one God over all nature. For better clarification we must turn to the Quran which vividly stated that ancient Jews took from the earliest men(Adam included) a form of monotheism. The theory of Amen-ra contributed or gave birth to the widespread religion of the sun.

The Romans never left an inch of this theory as they wholesomely incorporated it into every form in their religion. They dedicated a day for its worship, this was done in reverence to the god Akhanaton instituted. The Romans due to their wide conquest assimilated other gods from conquered lands into the sacredness of their worship system.

The Greeks influenced other nations including Rome to adopt or modify existing religions in order to incorporate Greek ones. The Greek gods were believed by ancient Greeks to interact freely with humans such they even engage in sexual intercourse with their subjects.

Again most Mystics and historians hold Zoaraster of the Persian Empire as the initiator of the religion of good and evil. They believed Zoaraster was the first to put forth the theory that states thus “good and evil are in constant struggle which in the end good will prevail.” But we know that earlier writings such as those found in the bible counters this age old believe. In fact the bible with its account of creation made the above statement a copy cat.

The essence of the above brief history is to show how important God was for man and is still for man. The mystics believe that god is a mere force, that is, he is whatever you want him to be. He is created in the mind and then projected into the cosmos. Science excluded all theories that point to God from their archives of theories but the problem they face is this; can science through its experiments and theories prove the causes of miracles? Miracles as we believe are sets of unnatural phenomena which does not follow laid down Natural laws. Newton recognized the physical law of gravity that pulls all objects towards the center of the earth. Science strongly believes gravity cannot be altered unless with technology (ie. one cannot levitate or fly without the help of technology). Can science give us a scientific reason why someone will chant some unknown words and afterwards levitates?  Or the proven stories of immediate disappearance of one from his environment? Or the nonfictional stories of men, women and children they (doctors) declare dead coming to life before their noses? Have you not seen or heard stories of someone diagnosed of a deadly cancer and doctors gave the fellow few months, then suddenly one morning after prayers, incantations, fetishes and other unscientific ways the fellow became healed?

If you reside in your abode without researching and weighing information and generally held beliefs one can miss the road. We can only explain the above illustrations as super natural phenomena which can only be possible if there are unseen greater beings. This draws us to the conclusion that good and evil exists as expounded by Zoaraster and those before him. If there is good and evil then there must be entities behind them.

FROM THE BOOK ‘YOU AND SATAN (together on a path)’ written by Chisom Nzenwata