ESCAPING THE WORST DISASTER

Growing up as a child in Lagos state sometimes in the late eighties a much respected family member told me that there is a gas in the television that can kill if it ever was released into the atmosphere. As a result I was always cautious around the television set despite my numerous pranks. The interesting part of this story is that I believed this assertion into my adult years and never bothered to examine it. About twenty years after I was a student of engineering in a prestigious citadel of higher learning in Nigeria. I came home on holidays and was helping out with some domestic chores when I slipped right in front of our television set and was about to land on it. Not wanting to break the television set thereby releasing the ‘poisonous’ gas I struggled till I eventually landed on my left shoulder. The almost critical injury I sustained jarred my mind into action. What’s the name of this mysterious gas in the television set? How does this gas contribute to the operation of a television set? Where is the chamber storing this gas? How come it never runs out and the television needs a refill? Before I could go through these questions I realized with amazement that the gas in the television set was an imaginary one. My beloved relative told me that to prevent me from causing real harm to myself via electrocution and other means. After getting over the feeling of stupidity for believing such an audacious fallacy even as an engineering student this incident lead to some deep introspection. I realized the power of our upbringing and environment to influence our belief system. I also realized that we learn subconsciously from our environment and human influence. As such we may never validate our belief system since we are not even aware we have them. Then the next set of questions I want to ask you now hit me like a thunderbolt; • What other assertion have I been subconsciously holding as true that has been influencing my decision and actions? • What if I realize belatedly that major decisions in my life were taken based on untrue and unverified assertions? I realized that the worst disaster that can befall any individual is to realize belatedly that he made major decisions based on untrue assertions. How would you feel if at eighty you realize that you have been living by an untrue assertion for the past sixty years of your life? The dread of the possibility of this eventuality compelled me to thoroughly analyze my belief system with the aim of weeding out any belief I cannot validate. This evaluation process is a continuous one to prevent a re-entry of old thought patterns into my mind or the establishment of new ones. Please allow me to share with you some of the most common and I dare say most dangerous belief system I have encountered since I began the journey. I would be overjoyed if at the end of the day I can motivate you to analyze your thought pattern and weed out the thought patterns you can’t validate. SECULARIZATION OF THE WORLD Secularization as a concept attempts to create inter-faith unity by limiting people’s demonstration of their faith to their personal lives. So in our society today your faith is not something to consider when relating with you outside the sphere of religion. We encourage inter-faith marriage; we consider it inappropriate to consider an individual’s faith when considering him for appointments. HOW WRONG CAN WE BE? To start with, the world was created and is being sustained by powers that exist beyond our physical sphere. Multiple religions also arose from a desperate desire in man to relate with the personality in the realm that produced the one we are living in. From the above it is safe to conclude that an individual’s values are largely dictated by his faith. And we all know that an individual’s values determine his actions. Therefore we can see that an individual’s faith determines his actions. In the light of the above, I ask ‘How can we expect to relegate faith to the background and expect the world to run smoothly’. In conclusion, true unity is when people are able to freely demonstrate their faith without fear of persecution. YOU CAN BE SELF MADE The self made man is another myth many people grew up with and believe to be true. But the reality is that no man can ever make himself. Successful people would tell you that to achieve anything worthy of commendation you need the help of God and a lot of human beings. Even when you read a book, the author is helping you by providing wisdom needed for you to grow. Thomas Edison calls it standing on the shoulders of giants. The people, who encourage you, pray for you, buy/recommend your products and even ones who work with you all constitute the team that worked tirelessly for you to succeed. The danger of this belief is that it fans the flame of pride in human beings. People who think they are self made do not appreciate God’s help let alone give him glory. They also tend to look down on people at the beginning of their journey to success. They find it difficult to call for and receive help when they are in dire need of it. All these work together to make their journey to success a laborious on rather than an enjoyable one. They may eventually achieve success but would have lost irreplaceable things in the process. MONEY IS GOOD/ MONEY IS BAD This discussion has been going on for ages with a lot of wise people on both sides of the divide. But the bible makes a point that creates a new dimension to the discuss. The bible says the wealth of a fool will kill him. This tells me that money is neither good nor bad. Its effect depends on who has it in his possession. Understanding this point would help us realize that not everyone who has money benefits from it. We would then set out to grow ourselves to become the kind of person that benefits from his wealth. Then the world would be a better place to live in. YOUR EDUCATION IS YOUR MEAL TICKET This statement is one of the most popular assertions of my generation. Unfortunately it produced what I call the entitled generation; people who feverishly acquired an education with the expectation of food for life. Only to have their hopes dashed by the recent happenings in the labour market today. They are realizing belatedly that education is rather one of the tools that should be deployed to create your meal ticket. When we see education as a tool, we are better prepared to create things that would contribute to the development of our dear nation. I can’t go through all the unfounded ideologies in the world in one write up. What I intended to do is to challenge you to examine your belief system so you can fish out all ideologies you cannot validate. I also wish that you are flexible in your mind so you do not hold on to beliefs that have been made irrelevant by development.