Ishola Alolanle Fatai: No, I am not a ‘pagan’ (Confessions of a Nigerian Atheist)

by Ishola Alolanle Fatai

AntiDevilTeeShould an 11 year old kid really be getting told that he worships the devil and he’s going to hell simply because he doesn’t identify as a Christian or a Muslim?

I don’t really have much to say today. Okay that’s another one of those mistakes I tend to make; I always have a lot to say. But i’ll try to be brief.

I am not a pagan. That’s it. That’s all. We’re done.

Or not.

Why aren’t we done, you ask? After all, it’s a simple enough statement, not even one that’s particularly controversial or anything of the sort. Why should I be going on about something like this that’s so easy to grasp? That’s exactly what I wanna know. I ask myself so many times, why I have to repeat that to so many people, time and over.

It’s like this; I tell people I’m an atheist and they automatically take that to mean I am saying “I’m a devil-worshipper and/or a pagan”. Never mind the fact that being a “devil-worshipper” and a pagan are two completely different things. A pagan is a follower of an ancient polytheistic or pantheistic religion – something I most certainly am not. Okay? It’s quite ridiculous that I have to stress this fact to people (almost always Christians, curiously) who are supposed to be educated. And this started long before I admitted to myself I was atheist. It’s been going on since back when I was a God-loving but non-religious lad.

You understand what I’m saying, right? Even when I “believed,” the simple fact of me not subscribing to any religion automatically relegated me to “devil-worshiper” status. Like, really, how the f_ck does that make any sense? On one side you’ve got Christians who more or less believe that Muslims and people of all other religions have a straight ticket to hades (so many of my Christian friends have told me they genuinely believe this; crazy, right?) and on the other hand there are Muslims who believe the same about Christians, but once they find someone who doesn’t want to partake in any of that, but just wants to love and praise and worship God in his own way (even though said ‘someone’ would eventually realise he never really believed in this God, but that’s just by the way) they are able to put their differences aside and band together to go after this person with pitchforks. And I was in JSS 2 the first time I experienced this. JSS 2. Should an 11 year old kid really be getting told that he worships the devil and he’s going to hell simply because he doesn’t identify as a Christian or a Muslim?

I think not.

Of course it only intensified after I came out as atheist. Well, the “devil-worshiper” part, mostly. But all I want to know is, if I don’t believe in God, then why the f_ck would I believe in Satan, much less worship him?

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Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.

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