Donald
B. Ardell – November 20, 2011
What
would you say accounts for the fact that religions, evidence-free superstitions
all, continue to attract and hold customers, despite the fact that we live in a
scientific age?
In
the Dark Ages, religions offered answers to life's persistant questions. Little
was known about the natural world. The earth was flat and the sun revolved
around us, the center of the universe and the reason for why everything exists
and was put here by God 6000 years prior - or so everyone was told and had no
evidence to the contrary. Thus, for 99.9 percent of the time of homo sapiens
existence (and the homo strains before us), nearly all humans were cowed into
submission by the high priests. Any god with the keys to a hellish dungeon was
scary, all powerful and savagely vengeful.
However,
for more than a century, mankind has had scientific knowledge about the real
world. With the advent of the scientific method, the educated class has been
encouraged to look for evidence, to demand objective confirmation of claims by
independent third parties via controlled studies. Why would educated adults in
the 21st century believe unsupported assertions alleging revealed wisdom and
other myths of the elaborate crock
on offer from religions? All of it comes free of any evidence whatsoever! Never
in the history of gods ancient or modern has a single fact been discovered
supportive of a claim for any god's existence. Ditto for claims attributed to
said gods. No evidence, either, that prayers, anywhere, anytime were ever
answered by any god prayed to nor of any favors granted for sacrifices offered.
Yet,
billions of humans still to this day line up and bow down in acceptance of and obedience
to iatollahs, priests, rabbis, ministers, preachers and others who claim to
know the mind and wishes of some invisible Ruler of the Universe, Lord of
Lords, Grand Wazoo, Infinite Goodness, etc.
Why?
According
to Al Stefanelli, the answer in a word is fear. in a blog post entitled, "Religious
Belief Is A Fear-Based Lie" (Freethoughtblogs.com, November 7, 2011),
Stefanelli
explained:
"Fear. It’s what drives religion, gives it purpose, keeps a billion or so
believers entrenched in willful ignorance, is responsible for the rampant
denial of science and is the central emotion responsible for the bigotry,
discrimination and hatred that is widespread amongst those who profess their
undying love for their deity. It is the ally of the bully, the friend of the
charlatan and a constant deterrent against self-esteem."
More
than a century earlier, Robert Green Ingersoll said as much. Near the
conclusion of what would be his last speech, an address to the American Free
Religious Association in Boston on June 2, 1899, Colonel Ingersoll (1833-1899),
America's greatest orator then widely known as "The Great Agnostic,"
said that fear was the foundation of all faiths.
http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/robert_ingersoll/what_is_religion.html
"Religions assert that an infinite God created all
things, governs all things and that the creature should be obedient and
thankful to the creator; that the creator demands certain things, and that the
person who complies with these demands is religious."
Fail
to comply and God will send "pestilence, famine, flood and earthquake"
- for starters. When you die, the real punishment kicks in, an eternity without
surcease for even a moment."
Much
has and continues to be made of the harm inflicted on children by predator
priests of the Roman Catholic and other Christian religions. I believe that
sexual child abuse, grotesque as this crime is that outrages our sensibilities,
is less consequential than the mental abuse of religious dogmas, particularly
that of hell-fires in waiting.
In
a speech entitled, "The
Gods," one of his most popular, Ingersoll remarked:
"What, after all, is religion? It is fear. Fear builds
the altar and offers the sacrifice. Fear erects the cathedral and bows the head
of man in worship. Fear bends the knees and utters the prayer."
The
fear of eternal torture for insufficient obedience to religious doctrines
and/or failure to believe or follow a leader's teachings, rules and the like
amount to one hell of a negative sales pitch. Give religions credit of sort
where due - as a way to keep the sheep in line and control the flock, this
hellish idea has been a great success. Again, Ingersoll had words to express
his indignation about the infamy of hell fear - -mongering:
"Heaven's golden gates are shut, and you, with an
infinite curse ringing in your ears, with the brand of infamy upon your brow,
commence your endless wanderings in the lurid gloom of hell -- an immortal vagrant
-- an eternal outcast -- a deathless convict...Is it possible for man to conceive
of anything more perfectly infamous? Can you believe that such directions were
given by any being except an infinite fiend?" (Source: The Gods, 1872.)
Of
course none of it was given by a fiend, or a friend of man, but by the control
agencies called religions.
We
should all consider offering what modest resistance we can manage this infamous
idea of hell and the rest of the anti-science offal that religions invent and
promote. Challenge efforts by theocrats to deface and lower the wall separating
our state from their church. Remember, as Ingersoll noted, that "religions
teach the slave virtues of obedience, humility, self-denial, forgiveness,
non-resistance...the abyss of degradation. Religion does not teach
self-reliance, independence, manliness, courage, self-defence. Religion makes
God a master and man his serf...Religion can never reform mankind because
religion is slavery. It is far better to be free, to leave the forts and
barricades of fear, to stand erect and face the future with a smile."
All
good wishes.