African Religion has no founder like Christianity, Islam of other Religions. It is a fundamental Religion that evolved from within the community right from the onset of human life.
The uniqueness and concept of God in African Religion is supported by three nonnegotiable pillars. The union of the three pillars distinguishes the religion from other religions in the lead Christianity and Islam remarkably. These three pillars are: (a) Genderless Supreme Force (b) Absence of original sin (c) Absence of Paradise and Hell.
Genderless Supreme Force
The African Religion’s concept is that, God is the Supreme Power which made the earth, the heavens, the sea, the sky or the universe, animals, birds, insects, man and all that is and all that shall be. In other words, God is an invisible Universal Force. Some people have called that force, Supreme Spirit. That is, the Universe itself and all that there is a unified Force, or God. Everything in that Universe, big, small, molecule, living or non-living is part of that Force. That Force, like magnetic force, is neither male nor female. Notwithstanding, any male or neuter element in the composition of God does not explain away the female element. It is crazy, therefore, to address that Force as Father or Mother.
African languages do not have separate words for both HE and SHE. If the missionaries who translated the Bible for Africans had acknowledged that genderless African perception of God, perhaps, they would have used the neuter IT instead HIM, in reference to God. Their translation sold God to native Africans as a Male Supreme Being.
Absence of Original Sin
In African Religion human beings are born as innocent beings and without any baggage of sin, such as is presented in Christian and in Islam Religions, commonly referred to as “original sign.” The original sin is derived from the biblical story of Adam and Eve who are presented as God’s first human creation. The narrative has is that, that original sin was caused by the disobedience of Adam and Eve in having eaten a fruit from a tree forbidden by God. Their disobedience to God earned them a curse from God and that curse runs throughout all their generations. Everybody, therefore, is born bearing the baggage of that curse.
Absence of Paradise and Hell
African Religion has neither hell nor paradise. In Christianity and Islam, which are sister religions, there is a place called Hell and another one called Paradise out there, away from where human beings live. In order for a person to qualify to his or her place out there, one day the world will come to an end as we know it today. Upon the arrival of that final day, God will physically take a seat as a judge and examine the right-and-wrongs of every individual from the trillions-and-trillions of human population since God’s creation of the first human being. In that judgment God will separate sinners from the non-sinners, after which God will destroy sinners by sentencing them to total destruction. And will credit non-sinners by taking them to live within him an everlasting life of absolute joy in Paradise.
In African Religion there is not that last judgment at all. In that Religion every individual person lives his or her life according to the ideal spirit and regulation of life as dictated to human life by God. African Religion believes in continuation of life after death. However, whatever happens to the individual after death remains the prerogative of God to privately decide upon. It is only God alone who knows why and where you came from. Therefore, it should be God alone who should know when and where you go after death and nobody can influence God to take a certain decision.
In African Religion there was never a spiritual vacuum at any stage of life and time that, one day, would have forced God to appoint a spiritual messenger, reformer or redeemer as in Christianity and in Islam. In African Religion God and creation are one at the same time and space. Consequently they are inseparable. In other words, God is an insider but not an outsider.
Science and African Religion
African Religion is based on natural forces. It does not negate science at any stage. Rather, science is a tool of expression in African Religion.