I have had a few conversations with atheists, Nigerians and non-Nigerians alike and I’ve also read their social media rants a few times. I believe that atheists, especially the Nigerian ones need to be schooled on what I call Atheism 101. If you want to do something, wouldn’t it be worth it that you do it so excellently?

When you practice atheism and then attack every move by Christians, you shouldn’t claim atheism; anti-religion or anti-Christianity would be a better word to describe what you claim. That you do not believe in the existence of a thing implies that you shouldn’t bother yourself about that thing at all regardless of the hype and vibe that it receives from people.

The ongoing Hallelujah challenge organised by Nathaniel Bassey is an Instagram live [and just recently, Facebook live] event where believers gather online at midnight in their various locations to sing and pray throughout the month of June. It’s one that has gained so much attention both locally and internationally and things were going on well until yesterday when some atheists took to Facebook to express their displeasure over the matter. Their argument was that Christians have been brainwashed into believing the whole idea behind the Hallelujah Challenge and instead of focusing on moving to action on national issues, we have resorted to prayer and praise. They also claimed that all the testimonies were made up, hence, they should not be believed. In a few minutes, many of them came up with several detailed posts and threads to back up their point of view.

A few questions we should ask; If these people call themselves atheists, then why are they angry about the Hallelujah challenge? To what end does the anger go? Why are they trying to lose their peace over what should be a non -existent matter to them? We didn’t block a major road to do this, We didn’t shout aloud from our churches to disturb the neighbourhood, We didn’t use your data to stream the live broadcast, why then are you angry? Or is there something behind your anger that we don’t know about?

We have had several challenges and campaigns within and outside Nigeria like the Ice bucket challenge, No bra day, black and white challenge, Halloween day and some others that particularly has nothing to do with the Nigerian audience and no one of these raised a comment. Somehow, a divinely inspired idea of the Hallelujah Challenge comes up and they out-of-the-blues remember their solidarity to Nigeria by claiming we shouldn’t be praying and praising but working hard, that we should deploy that massive audience into raising campaigns for the nation and blah and blah.

The last time I checked, we all had the freedom to do whatever seems right within the confines of the law, so this shouldn’t be a problem. If a large percentage of people have chosen to stay up till midnight in praise to God for the next few weeks, then so be it. And if they aren’t convenient with it, then we can well start the national reform project and hope that people take part in it. Stay committed to your atheism as we stay committed to the cause that we have chosen.

See you at 12AM. ??

Editor