by Imoh David

God is the practical synonym of a dead man! God is not different from the dead man who left his wife a widow on earth

Mrs. Patience Akpan, a middle-aged Nigerian woman in the oil rich state of Akwa Ibom State had her husband snatched coldly by the heartless reaper, DEATH. She never worked in her entire life; her husband was her ultimate provider. To add to her misery, her poor education equally contributed to her inability to envisage the need to plan her life and that of her 2 little kids. The death of her spouse would be assumed to be the worse that had happened to this widow, if this was the case, it would have been a mild grieve and burden to bear.

Like the recurrent ordeal of most widows in developing and illiterate societies, her in-laws came calling for their late son’s little estate. “Your husband owed me 500, 000 Naira ($3,000 in estimate)”, claimed the dead man’s immediate brother. “My son said that he wanted to build me shops on the land he bought at Itu road”, claimed the mother of the deceased. Within a twinkle of an eye the wealth and assets of the dead man vanished into the hands of imposters. The aggrieved widow wept profusely, calling on the spirit of the dead man to avenge those that have extorted her and the 2 kids and exposed them to the ignominy of penury. Like the average embittered illiterate widow of a third world nation, she poured her wish for vengeance and justice on her extortionists and oppressors, expressing so much hope and assurance that the “GHOST” of her late spouse will arise in anger to strike them, or perhaps bend the arms of karma against them.

The more she wished and called on the ghost of her late husband, the more her oppressors prospered on the assets and wealth of the dead man. The dead man’s bother who took over the business of the deceased, had the business transformed from a million Naira business to a multimillion Naira worth of an investment. The more she prayed and rain curses on them, the more they prospered.

On an early Tuesday morning, her body was found lying lifeless on the ground beside a bottle of an unknown substance, which definitely can be termed a poison. Lying invitingly beside the lifeless body was a short note poorly written in a miserly English vocabulary, read:

“I WILL AVENGE ALL OF YOU WHO TOOK THE WEALTH OF MY HUSBAND AND CAUSED MY CHILDREN AND I TO SUFFER. MY SPIRIT WILL HAVE NO REST TILL I HAUNT ALL OF YOU DOWN TO BACK WHAT YOU DID TO US”.

Her kids were taken care of by the mother-law. Till date, the in-laws keep prospering both in material and wealth. I PAY MY REVERENCE TO THE DEAD DESCRIBED IN THIS TRUE LIFE ORDEAL WITH NO INTENTION TO MOCK THEIR DEMISE OR ORDEAL

DEDUCTION: God is the practical synonym of a dead man! God is not different from the dead man who left his wife a widow on earth. The widow is not different from the religious. Like the dead man who never uttered a word or came to defend his name and family, to disprove any false claims made in his absence, the God of religions will never utter one word to defend, disprove, and approve any claim about him. It is always the humans that speak and make claims on his behalf like the relatives of the deceased who laid many claims that the deceased told them this and that and entered into an agreement with them on a certain matter. It could be possible that the relatives weren’t lying or making false claims, and I it could also be possible that the deceased was indebted to his brother as claimed by the later, and it is possible that he (the deceased) might have promised his mother to build her the shops as she claimed. But how can anyone ever know if it is true?

God is like a cadaver which men will always work on as they please. The deceased could not come out to speak for himself and settle the matters in dispute, in the same way; God has never come out to settle religious disputes, arguments and wars. God has never at any recorded time come to clear all doubts, infamy, scandals and claims (whether true or false) about his name. Anyone can wake-up one morning and say God told me this and that, God appeared to me, God sent me with this word and message, etc. it is not a herculean task to perform. When someone is dead, anyone can assign false statements and quotes to him. Anyone can claim to have known him at one time; anyone can assign any experience and adventure they shared with the deceased.

When a person is dead, those he left behind when asked to speak about him, will ascribe adjectives and characteristics to him and those who never knew him will but listen and put imaginations to his persona. But one thing is certain; the deceased will never one day wake up and disclaim or approve anything about him. The dead is defenseless, speechless and emotionless, and the God of religions is no different from this.

No matter what anyone says about God, he will never pop-out from the sky or anywhere to disclaim or defend himself. If anyone says anything against the dead which might be demeaning to his memory or legacy, the relatives, followers, friends, love ones and neighbors of the deceased are the ones to defend him or disprove and approve of any statement or event that is ascribed to him. The dead can never argue or disprove anything about himself. The religious people know this in their sub-consciousness that God doesn’t speak or act, would suddenly throw tantrums at those who question or disagree with their God ideology. Some even proof the demise of their God further, by taking up weapons to fight for God via terrorism and jihadism. If God were alive and could fight for himself, men wouldn’t have no business and desire in fighting or arguing for him.

When a man is dead, his love ones would speak highly of his virtues in paroxysm. As a matter of fact when one is dead, he is perfect, for he is made blameless and saintly on the lips of those who revere him. The same with the God, he is perfect in the lips of the men who revere him. But in the lips of the enemies and men who dislike the dead man, he is evil, treacherous, malicious, guilty and a persona non grata. Such is the predicament of God in the lips of men who do not revere him or acknowledge his existence. It is men who always decide which side of the coin befits God. The dead and God are one and the same essence. Even religions claim that it is in death that men will see God and give their accounts therein. The fact is that if you’re dead, you are one and the same like God; like God, you won’t exist anymore.

The religious man like the widow, calls and whines to the non-existing and impotent. It is not new to see the religious threaten the irreligious or those of unlike faith with his God or retribution from his fantasy. The grievance and uneasiness in the mind of the highly religious when countered with prove and logic against his fantasies is so much so great that they often resort to calling the impotent to deal with the speculated object or person.

Like the woman who retorted that her late husband’s spirit or ghost will haunt them down and revenge on her behalf, the religious, when lost in an argument, tries so hard to clinch to a straw like a drowning man, often resorts to weightless threats and rhetoric: “My God will deal you”, “Repent now before you incur the wrath of my imaginary friend”, “you are playing with fire”, “one day my imaginary friend will pay you a visit”, “you are no different from Herod, be warned”, etc these and many more they resort to when they are held breathless with sound arguments. The religious deep down in his sub-consciousness know too well that his threats and lambaste is vain, but he’ll try so hard to convince his sub-consciousness that it’s true, that there exist some kind of external spirit somewhere to bring his fantasy to the glaring. Some of them, out of the frustration that their God is unresponsive, the deep-seated desire to convince themselves that he indeed exists, they bring upon themselves the task of fighting and promoting a cause on his behalf, hence the birth of jihadism, evangelism and crusades.

————————————

Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.