GOD IS BANNED HERE!

PROTECTING MY ART

GOD IS BANNED HERE!

Atheism, the brilliant art fuelled by science and logical reasoning. Atheists are certainly top of the class thinkers, aiming for the very top. Disproving and defying the Being who claims to be the beginning—-GOD. Must be a feat to get to these heights in the realm of thoughts. It must mean one has racked all the knotty issues of life, cleared them and won like a game of Mario as they now gallop towards the highest prize— the acclaimed source of life and assumedly the source of its problems, to scrap all notions of HIS “fabled” age-long existence.

I’m sitting somewhere in a hall along the Ibadan-Expressway, Lagos, Nigeria and there’s a group of radicals chanting praise of the ONE whom they say is the MOST HIGH. Phew! And they plan to do that for 73hrs. Indeed they’ve been at it for almost twenty hours non-stop. How does one not tire at throwing darts when there’s absolutely not a dart board in sight? Misdirection and lack of priorities the brilliant atheistic souls may say.

Well, atheists have their prerogative and absolutely no one can bar them from their inclinations and rationales. I’m certain not even their target, GOD wishes to be cajoled into suspending their thinking licences…or at least not yet since HE hasn’t done it for generations.

Why am I writing this? Why waste valuable time dwelling on the KNOWN when other humans like me are discovering something new. Well, first, I am no scientist and second, this is about protecting my art and liberties.

Thankfully, I am privileged and glad to know the Nigerian constitution and many other constitutions the world over allow for the rights: Freedom of expression, freedom of association and religion. Writing to me is expression and I am allowed to write about fairies, avatars, time machines and even GOD. None of these rights have been banned just yet and write I shall— whether it’s fact or fiction. It’s my prerogative.

Thus, J.K Rowling writes the famous Harry Potter series and Harry is now real to us. We’ll even wear costumes in the semblance of him. The writer of Peter Pan was fabulous and the claim that “for every time a child says I don’t believe in fairies, a fairy dies” was genius. Thank the heavens for a world like ours for not having jailed him for such make-believe and daring to create indelible impressions of facts which don’t exist in the minds of impressionable children who should never be taught to lie or told a lie for that matter. Thank the heavens the fella was allowed his freedom of expression.

There was once a triangular relationship I had: Atheism, GOD and Self.. I might come to that later. For now, back to the arts.

There’s a temptation to advocate the cause of Christians as “endangered species”, threatened and discriminated against but nope, they won’t agree to such appellations even though they are treated in a way deserving of such. No, they won’t. Their audacity is almost absurd. They feel they are larger than life. They claim to have ONE in them greater than he that is in the world— obviously that “he”in the world is the devil.

But as a lawyer, who like the atheist can only look forward to facts that verifies her claims. I am here pleading my cause in the high halls of literature, in a way logical creatures must understand. So the crux is ….if GOD is a fable and a seemingly “disillusioned” self confessed child of HIS chooses to write about HIM in a way that conveys to his readers that the said being is real and owns all of creation, please, do welcome his meritorious works as in the cases of J.K Rowling, Enid Blyton, Sci-Fi writers, fiction writers and of course, the writer of Peter Pan.

Why in the world must a Christian with a “mere” profession and appellation as an atheist is also entitled to, be snubbed in his writing if he mentions GOD? He enters a competition and he is “disfavorited” on that basis and someone writes about time machines and other things that don’t exist and gets a loud applause. If GOD is a fable, just like fairies, elves and avatars, then don’t get funny like HE is a person you have a grouse with and wouldn’t like to have HIS name mentioned to your hearing. Except if of course the Christians were right and GOD exists and y’all have a score or two to settle with HIM. By the way, who gets irritated by something that doesn’t exist? And if right this moment you are getting all defensive and rationalising that it’s unjustifiable because Christians want everyone to believe their GOD exists. Then get angry with the celebrants of Osun/Ogun for their yearly festivals and indeed the Eleyos in Lagos, Oro proponents of Ota and perhaps lovers of Halloween.

Point is, there shouldn’t be any discrimination in the halls of literature on the grounds of religious inclinations/beliefs. After all, the freedom of expression and religion are not extinct just yet.

If GOD is indeed unreal and we are looking to have HIM banned in the halls of literature, then we have a long list of scratching off to do. Don’t forget fairies, aliens, mermaids, Ogres, cartoons,star wars and all creatures of fiction.

I wrote once, that I l need not denounce my faith in GOD in order to be acknowledged in the high halls of literature. Right now, I demand the right to be heard like the atheist, Buddhist, Muslim or any other human being.

By the way, I am a Christian, an ex-atheist and this GOD, our GOD-JESUS, doesn’t need permission to exist.

Thank you for reading.