Yoruba Religion of Southwestern Nigeria
[3:54]
YORUBA! …40 million people worldwide believe in the Yoruba religion, but most reading this will have never heard of it. It is wrong and irrelevant to believers of other faiths, otherwise there would be no labels for other faiths right? Believers of other faiths, are they also aware that their faith is wrong and irrelevant to believers of other than what they believe in too though? How dare they! 🙂
I highlight the Yoruba to show that there are literally thousands of faiths around the world and many we are unaware of. Only the other day I was talking to a fan of TMV who follows the Zoroastrian faith, heard of that? That has an estimated 200,000 followers, mainly from India and some in Iran, originated 3500 years ago.
When talking to people of many faiths whilst researching for my website, all are polite and engage in enjoyable conversation and are so sure their faith is the number one above all others. They cannot grasp that there are others who are offering the same articulate, passionate justifications for their belief, while they reject all others themselves.
My interpretation… Human beings are simply ruled by ego and cognitive biases. There is no wrong or right in that. These believers are not stupid, they are highly intelligent in different ways, however, they are just part of a majority with multiple ideas who cannot truly observe human nature and how the brain creates mind in such weird and wonderful ways.
They cannot observe the circumstances beyond awareness and free will that lay a platform so as they believe what they do and so passionately too. Most faiths are simply direct or a variation of cultural indoctrination and nothing more… Literally an accident, as no person knows what culture they will be born into… Some stray from this indoctrination to form their beliefs, however, subconscious circumstances they are prey to, beyond their comprehension.
It is a little sad though, as I accept at the same time that humanity cannot observe such simple facts… In 2017 to step aside from cultural ego and think critically is still only for a few. So if you are born in South West Nigeria, in the Yoruba zone, you will have little chance of becoming Hindu or Buddhist or Christian Orthodox… and that’s all faith is for most… influenced by the popular vote and respecting / fearing the elders domineering and assumed wisdom.
I remember myself just believing in mum and dad, aunties and uncles as we went to the Greek Orthodox Christian church on Sundays in the UK… never a question in my mind before the age of 15. It was the truth, my mind never in a mode to ask questions of how and why… An emotional connection was made, and ‘I’ was a so called believer, unaware of the ignorance that is indoctrination, as harmless and effortless as the process was.
An accident of geography and era, a person is born into a faith, this accounts for the majority of believers… No one can observe that simplicity though, it would kill all religious faith. That’s the power of ego, following faith blind to contradicting basic facts, the irony of which all devout followers claim to control.
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