Ever notice how every single culture that has ever been deemed semi advanced for it's era has had some sort of religious figurehead? The mayans and the aztecs both had multiple gods, a god for pretty much anything you can think of. European and North American religions (catholocism, prodestant, moron, amish, menoknight, etc.) all pray to one single god, who is the supposed creator of everything. So here you are, a religious person, your view of god contradicts that of most other religions, that's why it's a different religion. Somehow, in some way, at this moment in history, is your faith the correct one? Have all the previous religions now nonexistant been wrong, only yours now is right? Are all the other religions around today, wrong, and only yours is right? Chances are, a number of you from different religions will say "yes". hmm
Ever notice how the rules of every god of every culture (up until the seperation of church and state) came from the mouths of the ruling class? Ever notice how the rules of god always seemed to benefit the ruling class in one way or another. "Do what we say, follow our rules, or the almighty god, who is not us but some entity who only we have a connection to, will strike you down". Funny little coincidence. The irish catholic religion has the poor prolitariat working in almost slave conditions, but they are all supposed to "be happy with what they've got"; essentially don't fight the powers that control you, work harder for them. Then there's confession, another brilliant idea which allows people to not feel bad about breaking the occasional rule of god, which in other religions is unacceptable. This keeps the people happy, and therefore ever productive for the ruling class. No one is being torn apart inside for going against their religion, distracting them from their work. Then there's heaven and hell, some non existant future that keeps you in line in the present. Work hard and be good, and you will be rewarded in the afterlife - translation: be a slave for your entire life producing the most for your ruling class, thinking you'll go somewhere fantastic that cannot be proved to exist or not exist. Keep slaving away, one day you'll be rewarded i bet.
Ever notice how in primitive times where science was not able to explain anything, God was always the answer? Some higher being did it all, and they only did it since humans were around, the earth wasn't old and didn't have other species before man, we didn't evolve, we're not animals we're special. So all these people whom god spoke to, god was just lying to them for kicks? There was adam and eve, the earth was young, oh wait all our genetics can be traced back to one mother in africa and the earth is billions of years old. shit. There's those easy answers that kept people from questioning anything gone; with science it's no wonder that atheism is running more and more rampant, it simply proves that religion was out and out lying to people for thousands of years. If the prolitariate is kept in order through these lies, there is less revolt against the rulers, who can manipulate and control their slaves much easier.
Now here's where my God steps in, i call him logic. Each human is born with a genetic coding, DNA. this determines how things taste, feel, look, sound, and smell to the person. When you are just created you have no experiences, so it is up to all these genetic filters to determine what you "like" (which tastes, touches, smells, etc. agree with your DNA) and what you don't like (what doesn't agree). All your decisions from then on are determined now by your genetics, but also your past experiences which you remember (essentially how it reacted with your genetics before). This is why animals with memory can be operatively conditioned, they will remember how their genetics associate with a certain experience, and be draw towards or away from that experience based upon the previous reactions. So every decision you make is essentially the decision that agrees with your genetic coding, like a complex calculator. Every event is weighed against the rules or coding of your body, and then governed by the laws of physics, something your "free will" can't chose to ignore. Essentially free will is non existant, you're just one big chemical reaction playing itself out. So you posses the illusion of free will, maybe a calculator thinks it's willfully making 2 and 2 = 4, because that's what agrees with it's programming. You're going to make all your actions no matter what, because it would go against yourself to make a decision the opposite way. Free will would be contradicting your own wants and needs, which no one does. So you say, hey, what about when i sacrafice my wants and needs for someone else, isn't that free will? No, your wants and needs become what you think someone else wants. Your want is for the other person to get what they want, you DON'T want them to not get their way, or you wouldn't let them get their way in the first place. Free Will, nonexistant. Therefore, how can god pass judgement when our morals don't agree with the ones he set out, and send us to hell. If he created people, he created DNA, the specific rules that govern all your decisions, and he created the laws of physics, which lay out the limitations of what we can and can't do. So if he didn't give us free will, why would he expect us to try to get to heaven or stay away from hell when it's already predetermined how morally bankrupt (or morally rich) each one of us is? Hey, maybe it's other people programming our minds through experience to think that we should act in such a way to be more productive for those people who told us to act that way in the first place. Go figure.
Religion a control method, what?
Edit: Needless to say, religion has it's place. Some people can't face up to the fact that they're just another animal, of no importance to anything in the long run, spinning around in a huge area called the universe, something which we onlt understand the smallest fraction of. Sometimes it keeps people who would have bad morals good, by programming them to think that they need to be good. In today's age though, you shouldn't need some fake preacher whos taking your money to tell you to not be a bad person, you should just not be a bad person.
I feel badly for all the children who are programmed at such an early age that they cannot escape their religion once they are old enough to logically determine god's nonexistance. Hook them early, own them forever, and the ruling class does a damn good job of it. But then again, "I have found you can find happiness in slavery", a truer statement has never been made.
[This message has been edited by d4v3 (edited 08-12-2003).]
|
Linear Mode
