Many people examine religion. But, they examine the teachings and beliefs of religion. In this short paper, I will be giving an examination of religion itself. The primary focus will be on modern religions which stem from the bible, although the principles are the same throughout most, if not all, religions.
#1: Religions do everything they can to ensure you do not lose faith or change religions.
#2: Religions have their good God's and bad God's. The purpose of the good God is obvious, but what is the real purpose of the bad God? I've come to the conclusion the real purpose is simply to take attention away from the good God. Bad things happen in life, and if people think it's their God's fault, they lose faith. So - create the devil and blame every bad thing on him.
#3: Religions use the technique of talking about things which cannot be proven or disproven, or so they hope. The most brilliant of their ideas is to utilize the mystery of life after death. Since we cannot prove what happens after we die, religions can say anything they want about it and we cannot say they are wrong.
#4: Religions use what I call "Advanced Terrorism". The way they use this is mainly in conjunction with #2. Here is the difference between advanced terrorism and normal terrorism:
Normal terrorists say, "If you do not meet our demands, we will kill you/hostages/etc. If you meet the demands, no one will get hurt."
Advanced - "If you do not meet our demands, we will kill you/hostages/etc. If you meet the demands, no one will get hurt, and we will give you a million dollars."
#5: Blowing things into 'biblical' proportion. They take all their ideas and multiply them by infinity. They say if you turn your back on (our) God, you go to hell. They make their good God a being of pure good and their evil God a being of pure evil. They take life after death and say it lasts for eternity. And instead of threatening to hurt you in this life, they say you will spend all of eternity in either the most extreme pleasure or extreme pain.
If you think about those a little more, you'll see countless examples of them taking place in various religions. Those five are the basic principles behind (successful) religion. And what do they equate to? The most brilliant form of mind-control in the history of our civilization. A book which uses psychological techniques to control millions of people for thousands of years. It's even designed in a way which gives money to the people who spread the word and entrap more minds (priests, nuns etc.). Pure genius, all of it.
That being said, I think religion has been for the best. Any given thing can be used for either good or evil. And, I think, contrary to the belief of some, religion has done more good than harm. The reason I think so is because of the nature of living creatures. Look at how easily we go to war. What if we didn't have religion controlling people's minds, telling people not to kill? Our civilization may not have reached the point it has. But, I think we are approaching the age, if we're not already there, where religion will do more harm than good. The age where we no longer need religious control to stop us from self-destructing.
That is the end of the examination. But, on a side note; None of this means there isn't a God out there. I think it's strange how we're always taught never to repeat history, yet that's exactly what we've been doing with religions/Gods. There was a time when there were God's/religions, and they turned out to be bogus. Why then do we auto-accept (to use a computer term), the idea that any current religious God's are legit? Not all people do, but most of the ones who don't are atheists and others who make the jump, "I don't like this God, so i'll believe in no God.", instead of the jump, "I don't like this God, maybe it isn't a real God.". Remember, there's no reason to lose faith in the possibility a real God exists.
#1: Religions do everything they can to ensure you do not lose faith or change religions.
#2: Religions have their good God's and bad God's. The purpose of the good God is obvious, but what is the real purpose of the bad God? I've come to the conclusion the real purpose is simply to take attention away from the good God. Bad things happen in life, and if people think it's their God's fault, they lose faith. So - create the devil and blame every bad thing on him.
#3: Religions use the technique of talking about things which cannot be proven or disproven, or so they hope. The most brilliant of their ideas is to utilize the mystery of life after death. Since we cannot prove what happens after we die, religions can say anything they want about it and we cannot say they are wrong.
#4: Religions use what I call "Advanced Terrorism". The way they use this is mainly in conjunction with #2. Here is the difference between advanced terrorism and normal terrorism:
Normal terrorists say, "If you do not meet our demands, we will kill you/hostages/etc. If you meet the demands, no one will get hurt."
Advanced - "If you do not meet our demands, we will kill you/hostages/etc. If you meet the demands, no one will get hurt, and we will give you a million dollars."
#5: Blowing things into 'biblical' proportion. They take all their ideas and multiply them by infinity. They say if you turn your back on (our) God, you go to hell. They make their good God a being of pure good and their evil God a being of pure evil. They take life after death and say it lasts for eternity. And instead of threatening to hurt you in this life, they say you will spend all of eternity in either the most extreme pleasure or extreme pain.
If you think about those a little more, you'll see countless examples of them taking place in various religions. Those five are the basic principles behind (successful) religion. And what do they equate to? The most brilliant form of mind-control in the history of our civilization. A book which uses psychological techniques to control millions of people for thousands of years. It's even designed in a way which gives money to the people who spread the word and entrap more minds (priests, nuns etc.). Pure genius, all of it.
That being said, I think religion has been for the best. Any given thing can be used for either good or evil. And, I think, contrary to the belief of some, religion has done more good than harm. The reason I think so is because of the nature of living creatures. Look at how easily we go to war. What if we didn't have religion controlling people's minds, telling people not to kill? Our civilization may not have reached the point it has. But, I think we are approaching the age, if we're not already there, where religion will do more harm than good. The age where we no longer need religious control to stop us from self-destructing.
That is the end of the examination. But, on a side note; None of this means there isn't a God out there. I think it's strange how we're always taught never to repeat history, yet that's exactly what we've been doing with religions/Gods. There was a time when there were God's/religions, and they turned out to be bogus. Why then do we auto-accept (to use a computer term), the idea that any current religious God's are legit? Not all people do, but most of the ones who don't are atheists and others who make the jump, "I don't like this God, so i'll believe in no God.", instead of the jump, "I don't like this God, maybe it isn't a real God.". Remember, there's no reason to lose faith in the possibility a real God exists.