The questions whether God exists and even if so, if religion is a good, useful thing, have always seemed to be the exclusive property of European and North American writers. Now, Ojowuro brings an authentic African voice and African point of view to the debate.'' Professor Michel Clasquin-Johnson, Dept of Religious Studies, University of South Africa.HE, who hath ears to hear, let him hear. In spite of all threats, the rational property of truth can never be shattered or suppressed. Instead, its realistic vanguard will continue to advance in progressive dynamism to help heal the delusion of the world. At the front-line of a new worldview radiates the luminous hope of rationality to free souls held in bondage by imprudence of faith-based unreason.The terrible error in the course of human civilization is undoubtedly the defective judgment that allowed religious authorities usurp the foundation of societal morality, in which all collective ethics of humankind must take a cause. This appalling blunder is comparable only to assigning the leper exclusive franchise to run beauty clinics in the society; this can only lead to cycles upon cycles of common infection syndrome.No one can deny the fact that religion is, indeed, the most horrible infection ever to infest the rational mentality of humankind. Undeniably, discordant religious doctrines have prevented the priceless values of common humanism from blooming forth amongst the entire human race. The evidence of how religious practices have terribly Balkanized our world into troubled and conflict-ridden communities today disturbs and irritates our individual knowledge. We are all baffled observers to outrageous bigotry in the name of God. Each and every one of us is a perplexed eyewitness to unthinkable, disgusting intolerant conditions where diverse religious sects cannot live at peace with one another. Unto this day, religion still remains a potent force for enmity, violent behaviour, hostility, and hate in all human communities as it was, indeed, from the beginning of recorded time.It is common knowledge that dogmatic believers do not only despise the infidels, they by the same token, extend extreme hatreds to each other. Pentecostals have refused to worship in the temples of Catholics; and the Sunni Muslims abhor the worship of Allah in the mosques erected with the monies of Shiite Muslims. Devotees of these religious sects forbid one another with passion, and horribly despise each other's faith with abysmal fervour. Between Muslims and Christians, the terrible history has been that of unrelenting conflict. It has been brutal war amongst Islamist Arabs and the Jews. Recurrent clashes and bigotry endure between Orthodox Christians and Protestants, Muslims and Hindus, Buddhists and Hindus, etc.Many indications clearly show that extremists of these religious sects are becoming more and more dangerous in the society. Ugly memories of the 9/11 terror attacks still worry Americans to this present day. More recently, Nigerians can no longer sleep with their two eyes closed, because jihadist suicide bombs are increasingly being detonated in their country by Islamist terrorists group known as 'Boko Haram'.For humanity to uphold its own inviolability, we indeed must expose the false certainty of religion and remove the spirit of worship from our communities. Religion demands worship'the very thing that man should give to no being, human or divine. Robert G. Ingersoll gave humanity this argument in his work, entitled, The Enemy of Individuality:To worship another is to degrade yourself'It is the spirit of worship that elevates the one and degrades the many; that builds palaces for (liars), erects monuments to crime, and forges manacles even for its own hands. The spirit of worship is the spirit of tyranny'We should all remember that the intellect has no knees, and that whatever the attitude of the body may be,the brave soul is always found erect.The resonant chord with uttermost echoes of commonsensical validity, in any admirable society, is the stern ethics that upholds the sacredness of humanity in taking a stand on reason. In this way we make every effort to build a rational alternative to faith-based unreason by erecting our ethics and moral outlook on humanity rather than imaginary gods of organized religion.Comprehensive usage is the only condition attached to nature's gift of reason. The use of reason and sceptical enquiry appends no senseless creed and unreasoning obedience to its ethical values; rather, it bequeaths upright consistency to those who genuinely search for natural truth. Therefore, people should not hesitate to resourcefully make use of this free gift of nature at all times, for our society to be free from the scourge of complacent imbecility that imposed malignant retardation upon the progress of human civilization for millennia of years.Echoes of Common Sense brings the library of rationality and reason'the matter-of-fact reflection'with every engine of logic to stimulate the minds of the populace to the probity of right belief and the path of natural truth. As Baron d'Holbach has rightly held, 'The Atheist is a man who destroys the chimeras that afflict the human race, and so leads men back to nature, to experience and to reason.'I leave the variety of opinions and propositions articulated in this book, which are genuinely conceived in liberty of rational thoughts, to rest in the mind of the reader. Certain as Gloria Steinem has very truthfully observed, 'The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.''Ojowuro, author of The Crisis of Religion lives in Pretoria, South AfricaColloquium For Olorunyomi @ 50... Organisers Extend DeadlineThe deadline for submission of abstracts for Rethinking African Popular Culture and Performance: A Colloquium in Honour of Sola Olorunyomi at 50 RAPCAP 2011 ' has been extended to October 23, 2011, accordin to one of teh conveners, Olwfirp Ewenla. He disclosed that the shift is to 'enable us to accommodate intending participants who could not make the previous deadline for pertinent reasons'. He, however, warned that the 'new deadline is final', while advising that the valid e-mail address for submissions is lorunyomiat50@yahoo.com.The conference will hold on December 8, 2011 at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan, Nigeria, with keynote by the poet and former President of Association of Nigerian Authors, ANA, Odia Ofeimun.Stated Ewenla, himself a performing artiste and researcher on popular culture, 'In spotlighting the contributions of Sola Olorunyomi 'author of the seminal work, Afrobeat: Fela and the Imagined Continent and other influential texts ' to literary and cultural studies, this colloquium intends to incite a debate around the ferment that Olorunyomi has generated as an idea, a scholar, a teacher within and outside the classroom, a performer, a social activist and a 50-year-long insurrectionary event.Ewenla continues: 'Popular culture and performance in Africa, more intently, are isolated as the hub around which the colloquium's sub-themes will revolve. We also want to look, beyond the normative cultural forms, at para-artistic sites such as television reality, telephony, virtual interaction (Facebook, Twitter, etc.), open-market hawking, etc. The colloquium's immediate objective is to update critical engagements with popular modes of culture, taking into consideration the recent emergence of new forms such as hip-hop, on the one hand, and the transformation of other forms such as home video culture as exemplified by Nollywood, on the other.'Scholars are free to account for the itineraries of borrowed forms and explore the implications of such practices on indigenous cultural modes in relation to the global political economy of culture, as well as the double layers of local and Western cultural hegemony. In this regard, highlighting the role of virtual communication and cyberculture as rallying points of counterhegemonic sentiments in the mass revolutions recently witnessed on the continent will be pertinent, given Olorunyomi's credentials as a site of transformative action.'While presentations are not restricted to any themes or art forms, we expect participants to adequately problematize existing debates on key issues of the theory of African popular arts, the question of aesthetics, ideology, reception, as well as the place/role of technology and the media in the ongoing reconfiguration of the field. In their investigations, intending participants are encouraged to explore any national, regional or virtual community model relevant to the colloquium's focus.We therefore seek panel and individual presentations from scholars and practitioners that address issues relating, but not limited, to the following:' Performance (Music, Drama, Disc Jockeying, etc.)' Virtual Communication/ Cyberculture' Reality Television' Telephony' Advertising' Stand-up Comedy' Slogans' Home Video' Football Fandom' Body Art' FashionEwenla hinted further, 'The colloquium will hold at the University of Ibadan on December 8, 2011. A festschrift of presented papers will be published afterwards."All enquiries to lorunyomiat50@yahoo.com. Alternatively, contact Senayon Olaoluwa (PhD Wits), Department of Languages and Linguistics, Osun State University or Tunji Azeez (PhD Ibadan), Department of Theatre Arts and Music, Lagos State University.
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