Here’s the simple truth of the matter, people are afraid of their own religion. People have been terrorized by their own religion and have long forgotten that they have power over their religion. Instead of people having power over what religion they choose, religion has power over people. People do not believe in religion based on what they believe is true, they tailor their truths to match what their religion believes is true. Religion becomes no longer a faith but a given. It is no longer a choice to a way of life, but a way of life in itself. It is no longer a reflection of a chosen faith; it is a snapshot of a dogma that might have once taken the form of faith.
So what good does it benefit someone born in a religion not to have faith? My question is too absurd. Religion instills too much fear in people to even claim that they do not have faith. Certainly to the minds living in denial those things do not exist but to the hearts seeking the truth they do.
Religion teaches man never to be a slave to anything or anyone or any sin and yet man is slave to religion. He is guided by religion into a prison of thought. Questioning is subdued and without questions there can be no answers and without answers there can be no choice. So the same element that preaches free will and choice has been manipulated to confiscate freedom from its followers.
But how can that be? How can religion cause all this? Religion alone cannot but with religion’s help, man can.
At first manipulation was simple, to use any belief no matter what it was to benefit a selfish cause, but now man does not need to enslave and recruit people, people are already born recruited and enslaved. A bit of fine tuning and the machine is ready to go.
Question, why are people sensitive about their religion although it’s their choice?
Answer, it never really was.
People are locked on to religion and are taught to be sensitive about it. After all, how can people be controlled if they have nothing in common? A thousand dogs with a thousand leashes are like a thousand dogs without any leashes. Religion is the leash that makes people belong together but in effect becomes the one thread to controls them.
The truth is an entirely different subject because once reached, the dog becomes a man. Seeking a religion is one thing and being enslaved to one is another.
Religion is like an old road that people took to lead them to Rome, but as time passed the road became obscured and hidden and new renderings of that road appeared. People still followed the road ever so diligently, ever so loyally even though that road never went to Rome anymore. People got fixated on taking that road that they totally forgot that its intention was to lead them to Rome. The road met new roads that spoofed the people into thinking it was the old road. The roads merged and Rome disappeared, even from the hearts of travelers.
Is it the feeling of being lost that gets people to want to destroy others who have taken a different road?
Religion is the opium of the people, well I’m sorry Marx, I have to append something to that. Religion is the coffee of the people because even though it keeps some of their thoughts sedated, it keeps them up, alert and motivated, without it they will just be asleep thinking of the troubles they have with their identity.
6 comments:
I like you wil-e, whoever you are.
I like the way you write and what you have to say.
Yes religion is fear- it has always been so- but is it not also or potentially also so much more than that?
Here's a thought- imagine you took religion away- a world without religion- what would you have? It's the nature of human beings to want to be afraid; to want a world of black and white, master and slave, good and evil (Nietzche- slave morality); to want to belong to something bigger- so you take away religion and it will be replaced by something else- nationalism, patriotism, a million other isms- take your pick.
Humans are blessed/ cursed with a sense of our own mortality. We manage this by searching for something bigger than ourselves- something that will live when we die- we need to belong to an "us" defined in terms of a diametrically opposed "them".
Religion is the package that promises it all- eternal life, absolutes, an "us" to feel a part of and a "them" to hate.
The challenge for humanity is to make religion more than that. Nobody said it was easy.
Hey suspect, first off to do what is civil, let me thank you for your kind words regarding my writing and what I have to say :)
I totally agree with you, religion has another side to it that people have distorted. The truth is that even no faith can be a religion, but it's the rigidity with which we hold on to something that's convenient that I'm fighting against.
But like I said, I agree with you; religion in its true form is faith transformed to a way of life that suits our morality. Religion in its distorted form is dogma. So religion does have loads of potential through real faith whose intention is the truth rather than protecting a way of life.
I may have pointed out some problems with religion, but i can never condone thought like that of Bertrand Russel's for example who does not believe in religion or science and i just bitter about existence :)
In the end, there's just a need to be set free and whether faith is in God or in his absence it shouldn't control your choices for you and should not be inflexible.
"So what good does it benefit someone born in a religion not to have faith? My question is too absurd. Religion instills too much fear in people to even claim that they do not have faith. Certainly to the minds living in denial those things do not exist but to the hearts seeking the truth they do"
"Religion is like an old road that people took to lead them to Rome, but as time passed the road became obscured and hidden and new renderings of that road appeared. People still followed the road ever so diligently, ever so loyally even though that road never went to Rome anymore. People got fixated on taking that road that they totally forgot that its intention was to lead them to Rome. The road met new roads that spoofed the people into thinking it was the old road. The roads merged and Rome disappeared, even from the hearts of travelers"
my thoughts exactly!! it's strange to find someone writing ur thoughts, especially that i barely ever discuss religion :) probably out of fear of being misunderstood and also because i have been warned long ago that u can never speak about either religion or politics without offending someone.. turns out it's not that accurate, u did a gr8 job and no one is offended, or at least i don't think anyone should be..
Inso.. I'm glad I wrote your thoughts, that's all anyone can hope for really, that these same thoughts are shared by someone.
You see I don't believe that subjects that affect our lives so much should not be discussed. Funny how you also mention politics, which is people deciding what to do with our property.. We're taught to treat them with so much sensitivity while they're like any other subject, we're taught to fear them because people's interests are affected if we question them.
I'm glad that no one was offended as yet and even glader that you think no one should be :)
yah, uhmmm.
"...Seeking a religion is one thing and being enslaved to one is another."
Seeking religion almost always means being enslaved BY one, though. It's almost as if it is in the nature of a religion to be enslaved by it. As the literal Arabic translation of slave would mean the who worships the god of Islam, is one example. You can find similar examples from other religions.
As for how talking about religion offends ones who practice that same one, though, that does not only apply to religion. That's a statement that could be made about faith(s) in general. No one wants to see questions close to home, don't you think.
However, with all respect to Marx, and yourself,it is almost surreal a picture to think of numbers of peoples who do not follow a religion, or a school of thought just as organized. I don't think I believe that belonging to one religion/school of though, necessarily imposes your having to destroy the others out there, I think that's pure survival kit and politics combined.
It is, therefore, sensible to say that religion has taken part in that ugly , and yet humane, behavior. It is not quite sensible, though, to say that religion is the cause of it.
(wow, one long comment.)
Hey Cairene, thanks for the comment.. I had to re-read what I wrote in the post after such a long time..
I agree with the second part of your comment.. but the first I have a problem with. People don't want to be enslaved by a religion when they seek it, they want to willingly serve, and there's a difference. You can choose to serve religion if you seek it, but if you're imprisoned by it, then you're its slave.
I think it's like someone saving your life and you say I'm indebted to you forever.. or I'll be your slave for life.. the element of choice here is key, or do you disagree?
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