See? So this is why Ghana may never go into the production of cars. Because other countries produce cars at a lower comparative cost and therefore we would have to concentrate on the production of goods that we have comparative advantage in. All I am trying to say is this, to the layman, the government of Ghana must attempt producing cars and assist private companies like Katanka. But this seemingly intelligent suggestion doesn’t make economic sense. Therefore, what seems logical to the layman isn’t logical in the field of Economics.

When it comes to religion – Christianity to be specific – people do not understand this simple idea. People do not understand the fact that what is completely logical in Christianity may come across as nonsense to them because they aren’t Christians. It is simple, just know that once you are not a Christian, certain things Christians do will never make sense to you so you just have to respect that and move on. I am saying this in connection with the recent frenzy about what men of God say. I think nowadays, too many journalists go to church for the wrong reasons (to fish for catchy headlines). Archbishop Duncan-Williams prayed a few months ago, commanding the cedi to rise! Well, I don’t particularly know what inspired him to do that but I was shocked when he became a laughing stock after that. Wait, shouldn’t we be laughing at the people who were trained in school to fix the problem and are in the position to do so but are fumbling badly like they were being electrocuted?  He is a man of God, what do you expect him to do? Pass a bill? Implement government’s policies? Clearly, he did what he was supposed to do and maybe if we all did same this country would be a million miles away from where we are. It isn’t as if he declared a fast and required everybody to stop working and pray? He just said a simple prayer and this prayer, when its answer materializes, will be beneficial to all of us. So what’s up with all the demeaning comments? For some mysterious reason, people believe prayer is a cheap getaway for lazy people and being prayerful simply means inactivity. Really? It is the bible that stated that faith without works is dead.

Let’s discuss the merits of that command the Archbishop uttered. He said ‘I command the cedi to rise’. This is a statement of authority which can only come from someone with spiritual oversight and jurisdiction over a particular area. What is wrong with this? Oh yeh, I get it, he was speaking to an inanimate entity and expected it to obey his voice. Excuse me, have you heard about Jesus Christ? Jesus was out there speaking and commanding invisible things like the wind. He cursed a fig tree. He healed an epileptic boy, not by casting out epilepsy, but by casting out a demon. I am not saying that every single physical occurrence has its roots in the spiritual world, but a lot of them do. I am more concerned about the fact that some Christians came out to openly deride the man of God. My question to them is this, is the bible a fable to you? Jesus said he who has faith can command a mountain to be uprooted and be thrown into the sea and it will happen. Well, maybe you are right when you assume He was speaking metaphorically. If He was, then it is only right for the man of God to command a mountainous economic situation. Remember what I said earlier, logic isn’t absolute; it varies from field to field. So what is logical in a particular worldview may be irrational in another.

As I stated earlier, people tend to assume that prayer gives prayerful people the impression that things are happening for them supernaturally hence they can fold their arms and look into the skies and manna would pour down. This isn’t correct. What prayer does sometimes is it sets physical processes in motion. The tree that Jesus cursed started withering from the roots gradually. Let’s look at the creation story for example; it is recorded in two different chapters in Genesis: these are Genesis one and two. Chapter 1 contains all the commands: the ‘let there be’s’ and the ‘calling forths’. But chapter two contains an account of the physical processes that were underway for the commands to materialize. Let’s take for example the creation of plants or the calling forth of vegetation. In verse 11 of chapter1, we see God command the earth to sprout vegetation. Nevertheless, in verse 5-7 of chapter 2, the bible says because there was no rain, plants couldn’t grow. So God caused a mist to hover on the earth thereby watering the earth which created an enabling environment for plants to grow. This is what the creation story in chapter2 of Genesis gives us: a detailed account of what transpired after God commanded. This goes to support my earlier point that commanding things spiritually(Prayer) comes to begin or even quicken physical processes. What if the Archbishop’s prayer was actually meant to give ideas to the economic team at the Central Bank of Ghana? What if it was going to quicken the process? A command is a command but there are things that work in the background to make it materialize. And this is seen vividly in the creation story.

On the other hand, we have seen many things happen in the church that don’t even make logical sense in Christianity. It seems the church is the last place to think. The truth is, you need to know the bible for yourself and weigh what you hear in church by it. As the bible itself said, in the last days there will be an eruption of false teachers and prophets. Therefore there is the need to be guarded with the truth of the word of God. Believers must think. Thinkers must believe. Nowadays, people seem to be drawn by miracles and signs and wonders more than the unadulterated word of God. On TV these days, we see so many churches airing deliverance sessions and it is an awful sight mostly. This is what a friend of mine, Abotsi, calls ‘prophetic journalism’ or ‘spiritual journalism’. These prophets seem to enjoy interviewing demons that are manifesting through people. I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t like to be in a church where I would hear the voice of a demon more than the voice of God through my pastor. They spend countless minutes having discourses with demons meanwhile Jesus and Paul didn’t waste time on demons at all. They cast them out immediately; Paul and Silas cast out a demon from a girl who was even speaking the truth about them. The truth is you can’t trust the words of a demon. So to prevent confusion, shut them up and cast them out. I believe that a deliverance-centered ministration won’t waste precious time on one case but would want to deal with one quickly and totally before moving on to another. A lot of these things, I believe are just for showmanship.

Anyway, let’s just respect the fact that the activities of people who hold a different worldview may never make sense to us if we are not believers of that worldview. Also, the best way to judge if someone is doing what his worldview dictates, is to look at the originator. In Christianity, Jesus is the originator. So if Jesus didn’t interrogate demons, then it isn’t biblical to do so. But if Jesus spoke to inanimate objects, we SHOULD do same.

TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK.

An elimination of origin is tantamount to an omission of destination.

Nevertheless, some philosophers and scientists who are atheists have managed to move us a step back by prompting the posing of the question of whether or not God exists instead of who He is. I must say that, philosophically ‘God is dead’ is rather a weak statement which goes on to betray the intentions of those who say it. If He is dead, then it means He once lived. And if He once lived, then He was probably everything He said He was, which includes: eternal, all powerful and omniscient. Therefore if you claim He is dead, you just halfheartedly accepted his existence (or at least, that He once existed). Anyway, that’s rather on a lighter note.

How do we face facts as humans? When I go to the beach and see ‘Elikplim Sabblah, kindly meet me behind the rocks on the far end of the beach’ written boldly in the sand, it instantly triggers this question in my head – ‘who wrote this?’. It is only normal for us to pin a human being or a personality to anything which expresses a certain level of intelligence. Nobody in their right senses would ask ‘how did this happen?’ when they see their full name written in the sand. Which would mean the writing in the sand appeared just like that – without an agent. Funnily enough, this is the line of thought that some of the smartest brains of our time hold: that the universe with all its splendor and majesty appeared on the scene and created everything else. Philosophically it doesn’t even make baby sense. It’s only normal to allude the expression of intelligence to a personality but some scientist choose to allude it to an event. So all through history, many set out to prove a mechanism while vehemently refuting the existence of an agent manning it. The argument they put up is that, one’s full name scribbled in the sand at the sea shore could have been written by the waves that hit the sand at the shore and not a person.

Imagine two people seated in the back seat of a Ford car, driven by Henry Ford himself. One claims that the fact that the car moves on four wheels and has the ability to stop, it must have created itself, because there couldn’t possibly be a being who could invent such a machine. The other says, since the driver of the car is called ‘FORD’ as well as the car, then the rumors are probably true: he could be the one who invented the car, especially because he is the sole-distributor of that brand of cars. The first man is an atheist and the second, a believer. The issue isn’t about the fact that believers merely allude everything to God to save them from the cumbersome ordeal of thinking. NO. Rather, the universe appears too systematically arranged and purposefully designed to have come to being by a random unguided process. Hence as a rebuttal, atheist-scientist often retort, ‘If you say God created the universe then who created God?’. Isn’t it ironic that they believe the universe created itself? So then we pose the same question to them: ‘if the universe created itself and everything else, then who created the universe?’

The presence of pain, suffering and evil in the world is seen as one of the greatest arguments against the existence of an all-powerful, all-knowing and ever-present God. For if God knows everything and He wields all power why would He sit back and watch the world drowning in misery and do nothing about it? There is evil in this world because God created human beings and not robots. God created beings that reason; beings that have a WILL because He prefers the worship of a being who does so because he loves HIM (God) and not because he has been hardwired to do only that. Your sense of worth as a spouse may diminish when you realize you got married because your partner didn’t have an option. Same way, God gave man a will to choose to either serve him or not so that those who do serve Him, do so out of total reverence for him and not because they are robots that have no other function or option.

There is pain in the world because we live in a fallen world. The world God intended for man, sin made us disqualified for it. Eden was a place of eternal bliss, joy and peace. Yet our sin which largely communicated reverence to another being other than God, made us fall short of it. But the good news is, Calvary has made us eligible occupants of such a place – God has worked everything out to get us back to that sort of environment. Many also ask why God will place the human race in a world filled with dark forces and evil. This is neither here nor there, because when you think about it procreation sort of puts man in God’s position, so far as creation is concerned. So if you claim God is evil for placing human beings in a world filled with diseases, terrorism and evil, then guess what, you are equally evil for having babies. We all know there is a certain level of evil in the world, yet some of us have kids and others intend to have some. Even we who cannot vouch for the safety of our offspring are willing to bring them to life in a world like this, how much more he who holds the world in his hands?

Sometimes I just wish God would reveal himself to all mankind and just save us – his children – from having to defend his honor to people who doubt his existence. That would save the day, won’t it? Ha! If your 24 year old son walks up to you demanding a paternity test, regardless of the striking resemblance and character-traits both of you share, it will take a certain level of insecurity to make you actually take that test. I am saying if your child demands enough reason to be convinced you are his father, it will take insecurity on your part to actually want to prove it to him. Especially if there is enough proof already. I believe strongly that this is God’s position on the matter; he doesn’t have to show up to show that He is. Just as Henry Ford needn’t interrupt the argument going on in the car he invented because he knows who he is and what he did. God’s not dead, He is alive and today, I joined nature to scream it out loud.