Another decade is being celebrated at the dawn of 2020, a continuity of the idea promulgated and accepted in the year 2000. Although it has become widely acceptable to those using the Roman calendar, many are still skeptical about the years marking the decade since 2000, and the controversy dated back to the years preceding 2000 that many believe were erroneously miscalculated.

Toward the end of 1999, the actual year ending the millennium became a serious subject of discussion. The controversy was centered on calculation of dates and times according to the Roman calendar which was mainly based on Jesus’ birth period. The argument was about the start of the 21st century and the third millennium after the birth of Jesus Christ.

For those who believed that the year 2000 was the end of the century, it was a time to celebrate. To others who were curious about the authenticity of the date, it wasn’t time to celebrate. They point out that contrary to the belief of many, the 21st century and the new millennium do not begin on January 1, 2000, but on January 1, 2001. Since there was no year 0, the first century ran from year 1 through 100, the second century from 101 through 200, and so forth. Thus it is argued that the 20th century, which began on January 1, 1901, and the second millennium, which began on January 1, 1001, will not end until December 31, 2000.

There is an additional point to consider. According to Awake series that dealt with the issue in the late 1999, our calendar divides time on the basis of being either before or after the birth of Christ. Scholars now recognize that Jesus was born earlier than previously thought, thus making the calendar’s pivotal point inaccurate. Opinions differ as to when Jesus was born, but Bible chronology points to the year 2 B.C.E. By that reckoning, the third millennium after Christ’s birth actually began in the fall of 1999.

At midnight, December 31, 1999, many people around the globe celebrated the start of a new millennium. But while it is “natural for a year with such a round number” to be celebrated, says a statement from the Royal Greenwich Observatory, in Cambridge, England, “accurately speaking, we will be celebrating the 2,000th year, or the last year of the millennium, not the start of the new millennium.” The confusion arises from the transition from B.C.E. to C.E. determined by Bede, a seventh-century historian and theologian, who endeavored to date events according to the birth of Jesus. No zero year was included, so the time between the first day of 1 B.C.E. and the first day of 1 C.E. was only a year. Consequently, the first millennium started with the first day of 1 C.E. and ended with the last day of 1000 C.E. The second millennium then started on January 1, 1001. “It is thus clear that the start of the new millennium will be 1 January 2001,” the researchers said. In any case, the celebrations will be based solely on the Gregorian calendar and not on the actual birth of Jesus, who is now known to have been born some time earlier than believed.

According to scholars, “the millennium actually turned several years ago. Sorry, but we all missed it,” states Newsweek magazine. The reason is because our calendar “rests on an arbitrary division of time,” supposedly based on the birth of Christ. But, the article notes, modern scholars believe that Jesus was actually born several years “before Christ.” According to Newsweek, that “means that we are already well into the third millennium by 1999.” The error was attributed to Dionysius the Short, who, in 525 C.E., was commissioned by Pope John I to develop a standard liturgical calendar. Dionysius decided to use Jesus’ birth as the pivotal point but erred in calculating it. “Historians will never know for sure exactly when Jesus was born,” says Newsweek. “Even the dating of Christmas, which celebrates his birth, is arbitrary. The church selected Dec. 25, scholars believe, to coincide with—and religiously counter—pagan celebrations of the winter solstice.”

However, a controversy was raging over just when the millennium was supposed to dawn. “The trouble started in the nation of Kiribati,” notes U. S. News & World Report. “The international date line used to cut right through the chain of islands: When it was Sunday in eastern Kiribati, it was Monday in western Kiribati.” The nation solved the problem by stating that from January 1, 1995, onward, the date line would go around its easternmost island, Caroline. That would mean Kiribati would be the first landmass to see the start of a new day. However, other nations, such as Tonga and New Zealand, wanted “first” status. According to the Royal Greenwich Observatory, the question is moot. “Since the sun shines on the South Pole from the September equinox to the March equinox, the millennium dawns first on the bottom of the Earth,” states the report. However, adds the Observatory, that will not be until January 1, 2001—not the year 2000

To understand why some claim that the third millennium from Jesus’ birth will dawn on January 1, 2001, consider this illustration. The Awake of November 1999 put it this way: Suppose you are reading a book that is 200 pages long. When you reach the top of page 200, you have finished reading 199 pages, with one more page to read. You will not complete the book until you come to the end of page 200. Similarly, 999 years of the present millennium, as commonly viewed, will have elapsed on December 31, 1999, with one year to go until the end of the millennium. By that reckoning, the third millennium begins on January 1, 2001. That does not mean, however, that on that date exactly 2,000 years will have elapsed from the date of Jesus’ birth.

So the beginning of the decade started from 2001, therefore, another decade should have started in 2021 not 2020. But as the Royal Greenwich Observatory stated, “the world celebrated the 2000th year or the last millennium, not the beginning of the millennium, if we are being accurate.” By omitting the facts and accuracy of times, those following the Roman calendar have consequently chosen to go by the round figures instead of the actual numbers.

On the beautiful Christmas morning of 25^th of December 2019, Mohamed Salah, a world renowned football player and a Muslim from Egypt, along with his hijab-clad wife and cute daughter took a family photograph in front of a well-decorated Christmas tree. Afterwards, Salah shared the photograph on his verified Instagram page.

The backlash he got from some of his millions of Instagram followers became the motivation behind this write-up. I write this to all those people and everyone like them.

I singled out the particular comments from two of his followers among quite a number of self-righteous irrational religious critics.

A man with Instagram username, Mbizzofficial, wrote –

@mosalah, are you aware that you are celebrating the claim that Allah the one, the sustainer & controller had a son who was given birth on this day? Have you lost your mind?

Another man, a Turkish, with Instagram username, senol.usta.05, wrote –

We watched Salah, who was proud of his Islamism takip The man is throwing pine for Christmas. I will not follow you again!!! You’re not a man, Salah.

What could be wrong in a stunningly beautiful tree decoration that signifies love, generosity and good tidings just because it is termed Christmas tree? What exactly could possibly be wrong with that?

Only religion can stir up hatred and intolerance for a thing of such goodness.

These two comments perhaps reveals clearly enough for any discerning mind the kind of deadly mental disease religion has created in the thinking faculty of millions of people all over the world.

Religion has a clever way of killing the humanity in us all. It has a way of giving evil a righteous appearance. It has a way of making people throw common sense away for the ridiculous to hold sway.

The presiding pastor over a popular Nigerian church said Christmas is unbiblical and that it was not recorded in the bible that Jesus was born on December 25. He claimed that December is a date originally set aside by the ancient Romans for the Mars festival by the worshippers of the sun. It is for these reasons that himself and the hundreds of thousands of members of his church do not participate in Christmas celebrations.

I do not know if Jesus was born on December 25 or if this is the original date when ancient Romans celebrates Mars festival. What I know for certain is this – Christmas day is a distinctive day in the year when the display of love and charity by people is most pronounced. I see people giving out of their resources to other people, smiles and laughter on display like no other day in the year, people eating different assortment of delicious food – in fact, it is the only time in the year when lots of poor people who can hardly afford two meals a day get to eat to their satisfaction.

That is enough reason for me to celebrate Christmas even if I do not believe Jesus was born on December 25. Even if I do not believe that a man called Jesus was born at all.

The world is full of so much suffering, poverty, sorrow and selfishness. We should have 365 days of Christmas.

How can any mentally balanced human being be against such a day just because it is also the day that the birth of Jesus is being celebrated? Only religion can inspire such irrationality. Only religion can make people see something wrong in a beautiful, positive energy-provoking Christmas tree.

There are Christians who finds it abominable to mention the word ‘Allah’. Allah is simply an Arabic language used to describe the creator of the universe just like ‘God’ is an English word used to describe the Supreme Being.

Allah Akbar means ‘God is greater’ in Arabic language. Most non-Muslims will not be caught dead mentioning those words.

I had my primary education in a Muslim-owned school. During many of our morning prayers on the assembly ground, we would say the popular Muslim prayer starting with the first line – Bismillahi Rahmanir Raheem which means ”in the name of Allah (God), most gracious, most merciful”. Now, that’s a beautiful prayer.

I love participating in that prayer back then and I don’t have any reservations joining Muslims to pray that prayer now. It is a beautiful prayer exalting the name of God in an Arabic language. It is the same thing as praying to God in English, French, Spanish, Chinese, Yoruba, Hausa and so on.

Religion has a way making what is harmless looks dangerous. It creates hatred and intolerance for people who worship God in a way or language that is different from the one we know and accept.

Religion has turned men into beasts willing to kill harmless, defenseless, innocent people for their religious sect beliefs. A 42 year-old mother of seven, Mrs Eunice Elisha, the wife of a Redeemed Church Pastor was murdered in cold blood in the early hour of Saturday 9^th of July 2016 by suspected Muslim fanatics while evangelizing around an area in Kubwa, a satellite town in Abuja, Nigeria.

Religion has turned nations into a community of people who celebrates mediocrity. It has caused nations to abandon weightier matters in need of urgent attention for issues that does little or nothing to advance the well-being and development of their country.

This is why most nations in Africa are underdeveloped.

In fact, every single nation in the world that puts religion at the forefront of public affairs are among the least developed countries of the world – plagued with hunger, poverty, poor infrastructures, corruption, human rights violation and the likes.

The Government of Zamfara state in Northwest Nigeria lauds as its achievement the building of 140 mosques in 2 years between 2017 and 2018. This is a state with massive human and capital underdevelopment. Only religion can engender such terribly misplaced priorities.

Religion legitimizes corruption and immorality.  A great example is the Nigerian state. People steals brazenly from state treasury and go scot-free because of their religious affiliations. Under-aged female children are married off to men old enough to be their grandfather just because religion gives it some kind of legitimacy. Incompetent leaders that can hardly manage their marital homes are handed the governance keys of a whole nation because of their religious affiliations.

I do not blame a nation like China making serious efforts at clamping down on religion. They’ve seen the problems, contentions and setbacks that religion has created for many nations in the world. China is controlled by a Communist Party which is officially atheist. The party disapproves all kinds of religious organizations as they are seen to undermine its grip on power. Authorities in China subject Muslims to an unprecedented amount of surveillance, shut down Christian churches and force monks to pledge allegiance to the state.

This is why speedy trials can be conducted on corrupt state officials in China and they are killed without any section of the country shouting religious persecution.

This is not a tacit way of supporting the human rights violation in China, but they have been arguably better off without the social virus religion injects into the development journey of many nations in the world.

The Creator of the universe cannot be religious. When the rain falls, it falls on every one of us. When the sun shines, it shines on us all. When any one of us plant seeds into the ground, it yields fruits for us all. The air we breathe in without which we would be lifeless is available for everyone. The water we drink taste the same in our mouths and quench the thirst of everyone who drinks it.

The gifts of God for mankind is available for everyone. Those gifts of nature that keeps us alive everyday are not selective. They are available for Muslims, Catholics, Protestants, Buddhists, Taoists, Sango worshippers and every kind of person with any faith system.

Even those who don’t believe that God exists enjoys all the provisions of the universe.

If the God we believe in can tolerate everyone and provide for us all irrespective of our religious sect or faith, then who are we to consider people not aligned with our faith unworthy?

We must all recognize evil, corrupt and immoral people for who they are.

Religion is their perfect decoy for the perpetration of the evil in their hearts and we must not be disillusioned into thinking they are people fighting for the course of God.

Every act that does not promote love, causes resentment and brings pain and suffering to people must be seen as complete evil. Nothing more than that.

The Supreme Being that we hold in utmost reverence is not religious in his acts, none of us has the right to be religious in our actions.

There are so many reasons why one should look into the new year with a lot of hope and optimism. For a fact, the year 2019 has been an interesting year so far and as we count down the hours,minutes and seconds you can take a moment to reflect on what kind of year it has been.

In April , we saw the first picture of the black hole after decades of speculations as to what it might really look like. A ground breaking discovery if you ask me, that would help unravel further some of the long hidden secrets of the universe. Thanks to Kathrine Bouman for playing her part.  She applied emerging computational methods to push the boundaries of imaging technology.Among her contributions is the development of an algorithm which was instrumental in obtaining the image, known as Continuous High-resolution Image Reconstruction using Patch priors(CHIRP).

It was also a year for the underdogs also as we witnessed one of the biggest upsets in boxing history when Andy Ruiz Jr knocked out our very own Anthony Joshua to become the first ever Mexican heavyweight champion of the world beating all the odds stacked up against him

We also saw Liverpool do the unbelievable by  overturning a three goal deficit to eliminate Barcelona in the UCL semi final,  all thanks to a corner brilliantly taken by Trent Alexander Arnold. We also saw the Tiger gets back to the Woods as he (Tiger Woods) won his fifth Masters title finishing at 13-under par after eleven years in obscurity.

In medicine we saw the introduction of smart inhalers .A nice example of how IoT has become a necessity  in virtually all spheres. The first inhaler equipped with sensors that connect to a mobile app via Bluetooth. The sensors in this inhaler register when the instrument is used to keep track of respiratory flow. These data can help guide physicians on treatment options for patients with respiratory illnesses and facilitate more informed physician-patient dialogue.

Then the Wireless brain sensors which works by detecting brain temperature, and intracranial pressure,.They help to monitor neurological fluctuations and enhance cognitive function an important discovery that has helped in the cure of Parkinson’s disease.

It was also a good year for Opay and many other industry players within the country. Looking ahead at personal level individuals have bagged endorsements, additional certifications, mastered new skills, started a business or have become wiser and more aware of their immediate environment which is a skill which is highly important and vital for the survival of individuals and businesses in their ecosystem but is more often than not neglected in acts of sheer ignorance.

Forget the secular chronological cycles marking achievements as seen through calendars pointing to the idea that a new decade is here, the real nature of timelines are cyclic and circular with infinite lines of symmetry(just like a circle).  There are an infinite number of points to start counting beginnings and ends . The end of a calendar year or decade doesn’t necessarily mean that all processes and events longs standing have been rounded up .Some just began, some are half way through, others are almost done .

Perhaps it is important to say that progress is a continuum with infinite start and finish points all stretching across all boundaries both real and imaginary so long as we keep building up. A wonderful reason to look forward to the coming year happily and expectantly knowing it is a gift and rare privilege just being there alive to witness another beautiful day. Happy new year.