My Dear Senior OgaProf A.A,
You know how much I hold my ideas about religion and its performances close to my vest. Prophecy is not about "seeing" but "speaking"! The prophet is NOT as much a seer of the future or hidden events as the mouthpiece of deity. In Nigeria, however, the religious entrepreneurial spirit of Pentecostalism has reformulated prophecy as seeing hidden or yet-to-happen events. Speaking the mind of God or deity does not necessary means revealing hidden truths or foretelling future events. In turning prophecy from speaking the words of deity to foretelling events, prophecy has evolved to become a substitute to the truth, certainty. Humans have the capacity to arrive at the truth without the assistance of deities. You are correct that considering the level of unpreparedness of our soldiers, it was quite easy for a rational conclusion that such a disaster was only waiting in the wings to befall the hapless men and women in uniform. But in our post-truth, postreason era, Nigerians would more easily believe a prophet making such claims than you arriving at the same conclusion by taking inventory of our official laziness in preparing for any and everything.
On a different point, some religions do not have supreme deities, gods, or God, and so do not have prophets and hence, no prophecies. Some religions also do not have a belief in the existence of 'souls', which makes a minimalist view of religion as the "care for the soul" a little problematic. What religions share in common is "sacrifice", a violent practice of destroying something of value for the sake of being in good relationship with some other-worldly metasocial entities. But this minimalist view may be amenable to producing "good citizens" willing to invest in the common good but it is still a problem deciding what or who is a "good Christian/Muslim", etc. because, both Christianity and Islam, for example, are heterogeneous, making it more empirically nuanced to talk about Islams and Christianities, with diverse but coherent views of the world and what constitutes the 'good life'.
Our prophets make many of us intellectually lazy to think thoughts for ourselves and work to make decisions based on reasoned conclusions. Like CAO would frame it, is it not the case that Africans' notoriety or incurable religiosity (apologies to Mbiti and Parrinder), not a disservice to the continent today?
asonzeh
On Mon, Nov 26, 2018 at 11:16 AM 'Adeshina Afolayan' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> wrote:
--Oga Asonzeh,Thank you for weighing in. The first point i have in mind to make is what you ended with. I presumed that Oga Chidi's comment arose from his assumption that God lies at the heart of religion, without knowing that there are so many religions without the concept of God or any other Supreme Being. Even the idea of God is different from Islam to Christianity. It is from this perspective that he arrived at his expectation that the pastors ought to have "seen" the calamity.However, I like your take about religion and its performances. If prophecy, as you argued, should be seen as something that was established by the realities of postcoloniality as an entrepreneurial necessity, then that automatically undermines the basis of genuine prophecy. Thus, there could have been a "seeing" but it would not really be a seeing. Or, it would only have been a politically correct seeing. In fact, I could have predicted or "prophesy" the disaster myself, based on evidence of ill-preparedness.On the other hand, we can take a minimalist view of all religions as being concerned with the "care of the soul." This minimalist view has nothing to do with seeing or foreseeing of any sort. And it does not make religion less significant in human or national affairs. In fact, such a minimalist view makes for the possible emergence of good citizens out of the docile and spiritualized bodies of good Christians, Muslims, etc.Adeshina Afolayan, PhD
Department of Philosophy
University of Ibadan
+23480-3928-8429On Monday, November 26, 2018, 10:35:34 AM GMT+1, Xena Iris <xeniris@gmail.com> wrote:While it may be the case that "The essence of religion, especially in its Pentecostal manifestation, is not 'foreseeing'", in Nigeria there has emerged a market for prophecy, especially in the period of elections. The existence of this market for prophecy is made possible by entrepreneurs of prophecy who produce, distribute and market their prophecies to a hungry market in search of divine intention for themselves as well for the community. CAO's query is an important one: why and how is it that Nigerian Pentecostal prophets fail to foresee and positively intervene at critical moments in the nation's life such as the death of so many ordinary soldiers? Pentecostal prophets are in the main political prophets very much interested in foreseeing the outcome of elections and the political futures of election contestants but not in the difficult and often avoidable problems of ordinary people. The popularity of Pentecostal prophets and their products indicate that we cannot identify the "essence" of religion; in fact, it has no essence outside of how people perform and consume religion.asonzeh--On Mon, Nov 26, 2018 at 9:46 AM Segun Ogungbemi <seguno2013@gmail.com> wrote:The power to foresee the future or the power to make religious predictions depends on God willingness to use those who worship him.--In the case of Nigeria, it appears God has given up on the country. It becomes compelling for the people to turn away from their sin and forsake their evil doings, if they want him to heal their land.The power to prophesy lies with God because he knows who he wants to send and when/where the person should go.Segun Ogungbemi.Sent from my iPhone
On Nov 25, 2018, at 7:47 AM, 'Adeshina Afolayan' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> wrote:The essence of religion, especially in its Pentecostal manifestation, is not "foreseeing". So, why should prophesying the death of the soldiers be another criticism of religions in Nigeria?Adeshina Afolayan, PhD
Department of Philosophy
University of Ibadan
+23480-3928-8429--On Sunday, November 25, 2018, 12:02:18 PM GMT+1, Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM <chidi.opara@gmail.com> wrote:Why didn't our men/women of God foresee the recent loss of Nigerian soldiers!CAO.
--Chidi Anthony Opara is a "Life Time Achievement"Awardee Of Maritime Watch Newspaper(Nigeria), Registered Freight Forwarder, Professional Fellow Of Institute Of Information Managerment, Africa, Poet and Publisher of PublicInformationProjects
--
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