Why does Religion Endure?
[thoughts from ~burning woman~ by Sha'Tara]
This is the age of science. People are educated now. They know what is real, and what is not. They know how to determine what is true from what is false. Everybody is now aware that "If you can't see it, or feel it with your physical senses, it does not exist." People know that life is determinist. There is no free will. There is no real choice, definitely no free choice. There is no soul, no spirit, no actual mind, only a physical brain, and certainly there is no such thing as imagination. Imagination is for children, to be knocked out of them as early as possible so they don't become confused about the nature of their deterministic machine world, universe and cosmos. "Universal" education is designed specially to ensure they understand the machine part they play until they die and their bodies return to re-fuel the perpetual machine.
I just sketched 21st Century man's "brave new world" basically as an increasing number of Earthians want to understand it, and want this concept to be understood and accepted by everyone. It's called evolution.
Funny thing though, no matter how much "education" the purveyors of this brave new world foist on the planet's Earthian population, it appears that people are not buying it. Oh, they buy some of it, sure - especially the parts that benefit them financially, sexually, pleasurably. Science has made a lot of toys available; education has opened gateways of opportunities to many who, a century ago would have have been content to remain within their inherited lot in life. But by and large most people, well, those who actually think about it, reject the deterministic aspect ascribed to their life. They want more than what science is delivering. This brave new world is not making many people truly happy, certainly not all the time. The bigger science gets, the more questions arise as to its ability to deliver on its glowing promises. Also, it becomes increasingly obvious that science - I should properly capitalize it since as it usurps the place of God it becomes its own God - is quickly selling out to the highest bidder.
So in lieu of drugs, sits-coms and special effects, which, after all, cannot as yet promise eternal happiness in the great by and by, people turn and return to religion. Religion has many advantages over science: it can guarantee that its promises are true without having to bother with proof. Proof is annoying because it won't let anyone get away with blatant mis - or disinformation. Every claim must be accompanied by proof that it works, not only sometimes, not whimsically, but every time, and if it does not, it must provide a provable (not only reasonable) why it's not working. No faith, no magic, no hope - just the facts ma'am.
For example, your car won't start. You call your mechanic and what does he ask you? Is there sin in your life? Is Car unhappy with you? Has Car violated some command of the Manufacturer and is being punished for its presumption? Is Car demon-possessed? Are you? Do you have faith in Car? When was the last time you prayed to Manufacturer on behalf of Car?
Just a few of the questions that could arise if this were a religious issue. But of course the mechanic will ask the obvious: Does the engine turn over? Is there gas in the tank? When was the last time you used the car, and how did it perform? Now we can get somewhere and diagnose the problem. Failing that, you can get a tow truck and have your car taken to a garage where it will be diagnosed and fixed. If it cannot be fixed, you have the option of buying another car. So far, the only similarity with the religious fix and the mechanic's fix is that both have a cost. Nothing is free, not even grace. Of note, with the mechanic you at least know where you stand and why that is. You don't have to wait for a miracle to change your current situation, or for death to get an answer as to why your car won't start.
Religion is pure spiritual psychiatry (charlatanism). It can invent diseases (sins) that need no proof of their actual existence, and propose "cures" that need no proof of effectiveness ("God is listening, isn't that enough?). Doesn't get better than that, as long as there is, indeed, a sucker born every minute. Suckers want to be made to feel good. They want guarantees that if they follow a certain "prescription" they'll get their hearts' desires. Suckers don't mind paying for heaven, hence religion's wheels continue to be greased all over this world. Religion is the stairway to heaven - there isn't any other.
There is another reason why religion endures. That reasoning was given to us by the proud, unrepentant trading and bankster sociopathic criminal billionaires in 2008: too big to fail. Religion is a whole lot bigger than Wall Street, or for that matter, the whole capitalist enterprise. It is too big to fail because "God" is too big to fail. Religion is what people go to, to find their God. And people need God because they want more than what life is giving them. They want their pie now and in the sky by and by. People are small-minded and selfish. So selfish they can't allow someone not paying his dues into their religious affiliation to go to heaven: they want those who do not perform within their particular brand of charlatanism to burn in hell for eternity. There are some who would vehemently deny this, but that's the belief and the belief overrides all other considerations.
Any religious person has to be right about what they believe, including the Biblically stated "fact" that anyone not believing as they do will be summarily judged and confined to hell for eternity. There is no wiggle room here: their God can be but the only God (or their pantheon of gods can be but the only right group of gods). Faith, being the evidence of things not seen, the substance of things hoped for, claims this. Earthian ubiquitous religious conflicts and wars bear this out quite plainly.
Note that a growing number of people fallen away from their churches now make the claim to "know" God without participation in religion. These people are deluded, as if they could have a president without a Congress or a prime minister without a House of Commons. Religion and God are inseparable. Any non-aligned "god" is nothing more than an imaginary friend, a feel-good phantom. It is an idol, powerless to do anything except what an individual does and ascribes to his idol.
Religion is the ultimate tool. It allows people to "sin" as much as they want - providing the sin (greed, torture, murder, genocide) is in the propagation of the faith, or within the faith and some pretence is made at atonement. And what does that mean in the end? How many interpretations of that are there? How much spin on sin to win? yeah, How many angels can dance on a pin head?
"Kill them all, God will know those who are his" still echoes in the mountains of southern France, and all over this world. Religion is license, as well as a license to cause mayhem and commit atrocities - in the name of God. Religion is a Power and it will only share that Power under duress. There will never be a time when Religion will accept the reality that anyone has a free choice, unencumbered by lies and threats of eternal torment, on how to express and how to exit life.
Science has a long way to go to beat that: it's not too big to fail.
“Operationally, God is beginning to resemble not a ruler, but the last fading smile of a cosmic Cheshire Cat." (Julian Huxley - 1927)
Realizing that religious organizations play a central role in the trials of homosexuals, supposed infidels, atheists, anti-zealots, women, and peoples of different faiths all around the world is the first step in understanding the evils of the people who seek to glorify it (their religion? - my insert). While the preachers of the globe condone war in the name of god, while great political leaders fear the fairy-tale of an Invisible Sky Wizard, while billions of dollars are wasted in an effort to define the divine and demerit those not within the accepted standards based on 2,000-year-old fallacies, while children starve and disease runs rampant because those with the power to stop it instead cling to ill-earned wealth and meaningless covenants, the world will be a worse place for it—a dying place with no hope of redemption. (Joshua Kelly, from "The Evil Idea that is Religion")
Religion Is Worlds Oldest
Money $ Maker Like Death As Taxe$
Is As SCIENTOLOGY Built Underground
Community New Mexico To Protect
Themselves From (End World)DOOM?
Really They've Made Dug There Own
Graves (Hell Hole)Upon Arrival
1st Be In Satan' Holy Hell!
I Just Cannot Stop Laughing
In There (Your) Face!
TRASK...
We all certainly do not want to become numerical automatons like the fear of artificial intelligence takeover, but we must understand that believing in mythology has held us back as human beings nearly forever.
Ron
Love ya!
Jane