Why more women than men get religious

The Shakahola horror story is something akin to a sneak preview from a horror movie or a story that would provide fodder for the horror novelist Stephen King.

In a remote 800-acre property in Kilifi County in neighbouring Kenya, the government is combing through the bushes, exhuming hundreds of dead bodies from shallow graves – bodies of men, women, and children.  Over 600 people are said to be missing. People are said to have been indoctrinated to fast to death to meet "Jesus". Here in Tanzania, there have been isolated cases of people following stupid fallacies and doing outlandish things peddled by self-proclaimed "prophets" and "apostles," such as buying water, oil, and any other things.

A philosophical friend once said that human beings hang their brains out when they enter places of worship. Apparently, this is true, but you will find that most of these victims are women. These cults capitalise on the ever-increasing problems, including poverty, illnesses, marital problems, and little education. The leaders of such big churches live in filthy opulence while the faithful are filthy poor. If the faithful don’t go to these churches, they will cling to the village witch-doctors, who in turn prey on their little resources, leading to mental crises that manifest themselves in the form of deep beliefs in petty religiosity.

The serious question is, should we subject matters of faith to scrutiny? Yes. One Prof Mbithi on the issues of African religious philosophy said that "Africans are notoriously religious. I agree with him wholesome. Someone said that if Africans had more industries than churches, we would be a very rich continent. These fake preachers know that women are most gullible and will be always believe in anything that mentions "Jesus" or "God" without well-reasoned analysis. Like it or not "God" is a very abstract figure. I am saying this because God can neither be measured empirically nor is there a way to ascertain that he does exist. In my view, God is merely a concept and perhaps a figment of human imagination (no pun intended). In as long as we create some bearded old fellow sitting on the clouds, we will always be misled by such thugs who take the place of God. Please have a holy but reasoned weekend.