Editorial: WORK AND PRAY

That many a student of the University of Ibadan is religious to a fault is a truism that is as clear as crystal. Evidence of religiosity abounds in every corner of the University Campus as the two imported religions conspicuously occupy various spaces in the University community to uphold their adherents lest they stumble in their spiritual strivings. It is quite uncommon to hear of adherents of African Traditional religions. Apart from students belonging to one fellowship or the other on campus, almost all departments and faculties also have forums where students of the same religious sentiment meet. As it is for the Christian students so it is for Muslim students.

Being religious in itself is not a vice. Or are there no such particular subjects of interest in our individual lives that transform from obsession to religion? Even, among the confessed atheists are found objects of worship ranging from concrete entities like human beings, animals, plants, the moon, the sun etc. to abstraction. It is not surprising therefore that Paul, the Apostle, dissuades bachelor and spinsters alike from marriage as that would make them worship their God devotedly. No wonder Auguste Comte, a nineteenth century French philosopher and a prominent hater of religion, in his bid to destroy religion created Religion of Humanity. Therefore, he ironically recreated what he attempted to destroy. That instance only foregrounds the integral position of religion in a human society. A society that destroys its religion is bound to be chaotic until the void is filled up by something else. Many an international observer has opined that what is largely responsible for France being the target of terrorist attacks of recent is the country’s rigid stance that it has dropped religion for good.

This editorial does not in any way set out to offend religious sentiment of any person or group. What it sets out to do is to admonish us to reduplicate the commitment we put in religion to our academic and intellectual strivings. Truth be told, some who are leaders in their religious circles are also the ones blazing the trail in their various departments. But these are just a fragment of the large population of deeply religious fellows we have on campus. Two examples will be advanced to illustrate the foregoing.

The recently held programme under the auspices of one of the two umbrella religious bodies on campus is a testimony to the fact that religion is a major crowd puller in our society and the academia inclusive. That the event might be postponed due to the extremely large turn-out of people is instructive. An aside from the event shows the irrationality that comes with extreme religiosity. Someone was certain that Israel Timileyin Adeyoju should just be taken away from the hospital where he was receiving treatment and be brought to the religious event in order to be miraculously healed. How ridiculous!

 

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