Ezra Olubi has always portrayed himself to be one who believes that people should be free to find solace and meaning wherever they can.
The Paystack co-founder has since chosen to let go of inherited doctrines in the form of religion and the existence of a supreme being, and has taken solace in favour of personal inquiry and humanism instead.
Sitting in an episode of the Unbranded Conversations Series, Ezra Olubi explained why he stopped believing in God and the moments that led to it.
Olubi grew up in a deeply Christian home; his father was a pastor in Deeper Life Bible Church which is arguably one of the strictest expressions of Christianity in Nigeria. For Olubi, Christianity was “deeper,” as it shaped their entire life as family. 
There was no point questioning it as a child, because it was all he knew.
However, that began to change in secondary school. He had unique conversations with friends, and then one particular moment after church planted seeds of doubt that eventually grew into a complete shift in how I saw the world.
“It was a combination of multiple things but they all happened within the same time, especially when I was in secondary school. Starting with the fact that I had a friend that was an atheist; that introduced me to the idea that you can exist and think that God does not exist. I had a Muslim friend as well. So there was myself, a Muslim and an atheist guy,” Olubi narrated as his inverted crucifix pendant moved on his chest.
Being friends with them exposed him to different perspectives he had never seriously considered.
Olubi noted that they began to realise that they didn’t know somethings to be true in any objective sense.
“It’s like we don’t know the truth; we just know what we’ve been told and what we’ve been told to accept as truth.”
According to him, the atheist friend introduced him to the radical idea that it was possible to live a meaningful life without believing in the existence of God at all. That possibility cracked open my mind.
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The Moment That Changed Everything for Ezra Olubi
The tipping point came on their way back home after a church service as a family.
His dad made a derogatory remark against Muslims that made him “start questioning things.”
For Olubi, it was deeper than just the statement. It was the casual certainty behind it.
“…like we feel the way we feel right now because that is what we know. It’s not like I’ve read the Quran or know everything about Islam to the point that I can say objectively that the religion I was practising was the right one. So, it just made me more inquisitive,” Olubi explained.
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That moment and the conversations with his atheist friend let to openness and a gradual rejection of the Christian faith overtime.
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