UNILAG Alumnus Renounces Religion, Says ‘I Know I Have Disappointed Many’

Unilag Alumnus Renounces Religion, Says ‘I
Know I Have Disappointed Many’
An alumnus of the University of Lagos (UNILAG),
Taiwo Gold Ayodeji has renounced the religion of
Islam, making a switch to Atheism.
The UNILAG graduate who currently resides in
Germany, made the declaration on his social
media page, stating that hat he did not renounce
the religion because want to sleep with different
girls, or spend all his time in a club or become a
“bad boy”.
Here is what Taiwo Gold Ayodeji shared hours
ago:
I’m now an atheist. There is nothing to hide
anymore. I’ve hid this fact for a very long time
now. Before leaving Nigeria, I had confirmed to
myself that I lack a belief in the gods of any
religion or in the existence of supernatural
entities. This is not a decision I made because
of the “freedoms” of Germany. At first, I was
shocked and scared that I came to this
conclusion. I said to myself: “Ayo, you’ve
memorized a decent portion of the Qur’an, you
can’t do this, you can’t allow the Shaytan(Satan)
to use you now, repent and return to Allah”. I
however quickly realized that there was no
turning back for me.
I have weighed the evidence for the Abrahamic
religions(Judaism, Christianity, Islam) and
realized that they are no different from the
earlier Zoroastrian faith or even Manichaeism.
We are born into this world mostly through our
mothers and from birth, we are labelled with a
religion, tribe and even social class; we never
choose them. I am often amused when people
say to me “I chose my faith, I was not born into
or forced into it”. This, in my opinion, is a highly
dishonest statement. If you chose your religion,
why is it that it’s the same religion of your
parents/guardians? Why is it that it’s the same
religion(s) of your society? Why have we not
seen Nigerian Hindus evangelizing? Or Nigerian
Zoroastrians? The answer is simply that most of
us have not heard of these religions.
I am not an atheist because I want to sleep with
different girls, or spend all my time in a club or
become a “bad boy”. I’m an atheist because I
know with a high level of certainty that no one
knows about the existence of a God; if we knew
about a God, we would all have the same idea of
him/her/it/them. But the reality is different;
everyone believes differently about God. Some
think God is male. Others think God is a giant
Elephant. Some others think God is on a throne
in Paradise. Another set think God has a son and
several children. We even have groups that think
God wields a hammer and lives close to the
North Pole. Which of these ideas is correct?
How do we test or validate them?
My disbelief in God and religion has made the
circumstances very harsh for me. I lost a girl
that I really loved. I lost the friendship of close
friends. I got a few scary and saddening
messages from former friends. I was diagnosed
with depression by the psychiatrists at my
university in Munich. Only few people know this.
I was put on Sertraline Zoloft to curb my anxiety
and panic attacks. For me, it was a painful dawn
that I became an atheist. I’m lucky I could pass
my exams very well in spite of all these.
Out forefathers evolved a belief in God(s) mostly
due to a lack of understanding of natural
processes during their time. The hurricane,
tornado, tsunami came with their full force and
our ancestors thought this was because of their
own misdeeds. They knelt and bowed to the sky
and begged for restraint. They offered each
other as sacrifice to appease the entities that
were “controlling” these disasters. Today we
know how the Coriolis force, tectonic plate
motions and so on drive these disasters. We
know today that earthquakes are not due to
homosexuality or sin but due to converging
tectonic plates.
Some may ask me “now that you don’t believe in
God, how would you be moral or good?”. My
answer is that morality is not based on religion.
If many of us took our morals from religion, we
would stone all fornicators around us. We would
kill those who don’t believe like us. Morality is
evolved; societies that were immoral simply
became weaker and died off. They killed each
other and looted each other’s property and
became weaker ensuring that they weren’t
strong enough to defend themselves from
warring tribes.
Some may also ask me “if you don’t believe in a
God then how did we all get to this world?”. My
answer to this is two-fold. One, I came here
through my mother like most of you. Secondly,
as regards initial existence, I don’t know how it
started but neither do you. The only difference is
that I’m honest with this answer. How can we
know about things that are beyond our
conception? What is wrong with saying “I don’t
know about the origins of life”?
I’ve been threatened with hellfire as a
punishment for my disbelief. What can I say?
Who amongst those who threaten have seen
such a place? Many of us are afraid of hell and
thus stick to religion. Unknown to us, we create
a hell in this world for ourselves and loved ones.
Muslims and Christians threaten each other with
hell but both of them can’t be correct at the
same time. Even within Islam, many think the
Ahmadis and Shi’ites are hell-bound.
I think everyone should be free to believe or
lack belief in a God or Gods. I don’t criticize
others for holding religious beliefs; I only take
offence if those beliefs are harmful to other
people.
I think that life should be lived with positivity
and happiness. Some live longer than others but
it’s not enough reason to not be happy in this
world.
If I ever return to religion, I would return to the
religion of my ancestors. I would worship
Eledumare through Ifa and I would happily recite
the “Odu”(I lack a proper English translation;
someone can help) of Ifa and praise Eledumare.
Our ancestors were at peace with this before the
invasion of the Abrahamic faiths.
I know I have disappointed many, but each
person has an individual course to chart in life. I
hope that I would be accepted by those that I
love in spite of our differences.
Most of all I wish myself a good life ahead!