{"id":6496,"date":"2012-11-21T18:48:25","date_gmt":"2012-11-21T17:48:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=6496"},"modified":"2012-11-21T18:48:25","modified_gmt":"2012-11-21T17:48:25","slug":"shall-we-ban-religion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/articles-opinions\/shall-we-ban-religion\/","title":{"rendered":"Shall We Ban Religion?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Michael Egbejumi-David<\/strong><\/h3>\n

<\/strong>I got the first phone call just before 1:00pm, UK time.\u00a0 This was Tuesday 13th<\/sup> November 2012.\u00a0 It was from my sister in Lagos.\u00a0 She was frantic.\u00a0 Our younger brother\u2019s wife was bleeding, losing a lot of blood, laid out on a bed at the National Hospital, Abuja.\u00a0 She had just delivered a baby, their second in just over two years.\u00a0 My sister informed me that despite serious pleas from everyone in the family, from clinical staff at the hospital, and from concerned strangers, my brother refused to give his consent for his wife to have blood transfusion.<\/p>\n

Why?\u00a0 Unfortunately for his wife, my brother is a Jehovah\u2019s Witness.<\/p>\n

I called my brother and spoke to him.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t budge.\u00a0 He said his faith; his religion forbids its members from accepting blood under any circumstance.\u00a0 Though I couldn\u2019t believe what I was hearing, I said that it was ok.\u00a0 I told him that he could refuse blood transfusion when he is the patient, but since it was his young wife at death\u2019s door, he should give consent for the treatment for her.\u00a0 I added that after his wife has been saved, he could go ahead and ask for forgiveness from the anti-transfusion god, and once again reconcile himself to his faith.<\/p>\n

He declined.<\/p>\n

I then went into the medical aspect of what was happening.\u00a0 I informed my brother that the average male has only about 5.5 litres of blood in their body.\u00a0 The average female has even less. \u00a0I told him that if the body loses too much of that, there wouldn\u2019t be enough for the heart to pump, and the heart would stop beating.\u00a0 The patient will die.\u00a0 He still didn\u2019t budge.\u00a0 In fact, he promptly hung up on me.\u00a0 I called him back a few more times but the young man refused to answer his phone.<\/p>\n

I called back my sister in Lagos and reported my failure.<\/p>\n

The second call came at exactly 2:00pm.\u00a0 This time my sister was crying.\u00a0 The young lady has died.<\/p>\n

I immediately called my brother again.\u00a0 I wanted to tell him to take and bow and to clap for himself.\u00a0 But he was still refusing to take my calls.<\/p>\n

I spent the rest of the afternoon thinking about religion.\u00a0 I know that religion has its many benefits, but I am beginning to wonder whether these are outweighed by its negative aspects.\u00a0 Most people appear to check their intelligence at the door when it comes to their religion and practicing their faith.\u00a0 Unfortunately, my brother is one of them.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t believe that an educated man (he has a Master\u2019s degree from the University of Ibadan) would sit around and watch his wife die when he could have very easily prevented her death by signing a piece of paper.\u00a0 What has religion done to us?<\/p>\n

I called my other sister in Abuja to get more details.\u00a0 I wish I hadn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

She informed me that she spent more than an hour on her knees begging our brother to give his consent for his wife to be given blood, but he refused.\u00a0 He refused her, and he refused all pleadings from the medical staff, some of whom were begging him with tears in their eyes.\u00a0 He was told repeatedly that without blood transfusion, his wife would die.\u00a0 He wasn\u2019t moved.\u00a0 He informed them all that if his wife died from bleeding and never got blood transfusion, she would go straight to Heaven.\u00a0 This is a novel idea.\u00a0 If only Hitler, Saddam Hussein, Idi Amin, Abacha and the rest of them knew this nice little secret.\u00a0 All they needed to do was slit their own wrists and the express lift to Heaven would have come for them.<\/p>\n

Then it got worse.\u00a0 I was informed that the young lady\u2019s mother was present throughout at the hospital.\u00a0 The doctors went to her to give consent for her daughter to be given blood to save her life, but the mother also refused!<\/p>\n

She too is a Jehovah\u2019s witness.\u00a0 She maintained throughout that only the husband can give consent, she would not.<\/p>\n

In desperation, the doctors called the young lady\u2019s younger brother who is a junior doctor in Jos.\u00a0 The deceased worked at the National Assembly and was the main breadwinner in her birth family.\u00a0 She paid for the education of all of her siblings, including that of this junior doctor.\u00a0 As the doctors in Abuja pleaded with him on the phone to give consent for his sister to receive blood to save her life, this junior doctor demurred.\u00a0 He directed that she be given some coagulants and blood clotting agents.\u00a0 He was informed that all of that has been tried but the patient was still losing blood.\u00a0 In the end, he refused to give consent.\u00a0 He claimed that it was the duty of his sister\u2019s husband, not his, and terminated the call.<\/p>\n

He too is a Jehovah\u2019s witness.\u00a0 A doctor!\u00a0 What has religion done to us?<\/p>\n

Before this, I have never imagined that any mother could sit on a chair, fold her arms and watch her child die and not do something about it.\u00a0 This was a child she gave birth to and nurtured, and who in turn, had been taking care of her in her old age.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know whether I\u2019m the one losing my mind.\u00a0 What has religion done to us?<\/p>\n

Anyway, the mother and my brother were finally called to go to the lady\u2019s bedside as it became obvious that she was struggling through her last breaths.\u00a0 Mama ran in the opposite direction shouting, \u201cJehovah o!\u00a0 Jehovah is life!\u00a0 Life is Jehovah!\u201d<\/p>\n

My brother took his place by his wife\u2019s bedside and watched life ebb out of her.\u00a0 He stood there and watched her die.\u00a0 What kind of boldness is that?\u00a0 What kind of cold-heartedness is that?\u00a0 When asked why he did what he did, he responded that when he dies, he would marry his dead wife again in Heaven!\u00a0 Is this logical?\u00a0 I have to confess that I am not the most religious person in the world, but are there marriages in Heaven?\u00a0 Are we going to continue having more children in Heaven?<\/p>\n

More importantly, would God be pleased with a person who had the power to save one of his children, one of his creations, but deliberately refused to do so?\u00a0 It is one thing to watch helplessly and only give comfort as someone lies dying on a motorway, but to deliberately and actively withhold life-saving consent?\u00a0 Especially to your own wife?\u00a0 Your own child?\u00a0 Your own sister?<\/p>\n

My brother has become a latter-day Abraham.\u00a0 He even went further by sacrificing his wife on the altar of religious principles.\u00a0 But why are some religious people like this?\u00a0 Is it the fear of going against the grain of their faith\u2019s community?\u00a0 Is it the fear of being seen or being thought as not faithful enough by their fellow religious comrades?\u00a0 Is it the shame of being considered weak by one\u2019s religious peers?\u00a0 And if this is the case, are these feelings not trumped by love for another human being?\u00a0 Personally, I think that it has got to be illiteracy of the mind.<\/p>\n

Once upon a time, the Earth was thought to be the centre of the Universe.\u00a0 That was the Church\u2019s established view.\u00a0 It was widely accepted that the Sun and all heavenly bodies revolved around an unmoving Earth.\u00a0 Furthermore, it was thought that if the Earth moved, why are we not flung off its surface?\u00a0 As Copernicus and science began to intrude, the Church was compelled to re-assert that the idea that the Sun stood still and that the Earth moved were “false” and “altogether contrary to Holy Scripture.” \u00a0Well, Galileo later published a book, \u2018Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems\u2019 <\/em>in which he argued and proved that the Earth is not the centre of the Universe, and that the Earth does move.\u00a0 The Church and its head, Pope Urban VIII (who was actually Galileo\u2019s friend) were enraged.\u00a0 In 1633, Galileo was arrested and found guilty of Heresy.\u00a0 His book was banned, he was forced to recant, and was placed under house arrest until he died.<\/p>\n

But all of that took place in the 16th<\/sup> and 17th<\/sup> centuries.\u00a0 Why are people today still favouring antiquated religious policies over love for one another \u2013 especially after the advent of Jesus Christ?\u00a0 It cuts across all strata!\u00a0 I don\u2019t get it!<\/p>\n

The entire belief system of Jehovah’s Witnesses is founded on the basis of its teachings about the second coming of Christ.\u00a0 They are so fixated on the end of the world that they sit there, petrified, unable to move forward.\u00a0 From year dot, they have been making loud predictions about this.\u00a0 Some examples:<\/p>\n