Atheism Is Not Your Rebellion It's only Nigerians who can somehow turn atheism into a form of rebellion. 😂 Bro, atheism is not a lifestyle. It is not a fashion statement. It is not an excuse to misbehave. It is not "my parents are too religious, therefore I am now an atheist." And it is certainly not a passport to become everything your conservative upbringing told you not to become. Atheism, in the simplest sense, is the absence of belief in gods. Finish. You can be an atheist and still be conservative. You can be an atheist and be disciplined. You can be an atheist and never drink alcohol. You can be an atheist and remain faithful to one partner. You can be an atheist and respect your parents. You can even be boring. There is no Atheist Headquarters issuing igbo, tattoos, and piercings upon deconversion. But Nigerians have a special talent for turning ideas into something else. We did something similar with feminism. A serious political and social philosophy about women's equality enters Nigeria, and before long, some people reduce the entire thing to "I don't cook for men." Meanwhile, feminism is considerably bigger than who washed the plates. Now atheism too has entered Nigerian hands. Somebody quarrels with his pastor, discovers Christopher Hitchens on YouTube on Tuesday, changes his X bio to "Freethinker" on Wednesday, starts insulting everybody's religion on Thursday, and by Friday he has somehow concluded that atheism requires him to become a public nuisance. Calm down. 😂 You may simply be irreligious. You may be agnostic. You may be questioning your faith. You may be angry with organized religion. You may simply hate your church. You may even just be going through your own personal rebellion. All these things are legitimate experiences, but please don't package all of them and write ATHEISM on the package. Because atheism doesn't automatically make anybody intelligent, rational, moral or sophisticated. An atheist can still be stupid. An atheist can still believe nonsense. An atheist can still be tribalistic, corrupt, misogynistic, fraudulent and superstitious. Removing God from an irrational mind doesn't automatically produce a rational human being. And this is particularly funny in Nigeria because some of our newly minted atheists haven't even completely evicted Jesus from the building. Small NEPA transformer explosion: "JESUS!!!" Plane enters turbulence: "Blood of Jesus!" Danfo nearly hits them: "Jesu Christi!" My sis in disbelief, who exactly are you calling? 😂 Of course, these expressions can simply be cultural reflexes. That is precisely the point. Leaving religion intellectually is different from disentangling yourself from a lifetime of religious culture. So take your time. Read. Think. Question. Learn philosophy. Learn science. Understand skepticism. Understand the difference between atheism, agnosticism, secularism, humanism and simply being pissed off with religion. And most importantly, develop your own moral compass. Don't escape one form of dogmatism only to join another. Your personal crisis does not have to become the public face of atheism. Some of us are just here quietly not believing. Leave atheists out of your rebellion. 😂