Wednesday, April 16, 2008

You Poor Fuckers

It never ceases to amaze me what a fabulous con religion is. Here you've got something that you never have to prove and you can makeup the rules as you go along, and even change them at will. And all you've really gotta do is kill some people to prove how serious you are about it and you're in.

I just keep thinking how lost and lonely these people have to be to buy into this shit for so many centuries. What is it you poor fuckers are looking for? I get it to a degree though. Your kid is about to die and you feel like you need to DO something. So not being a doctor, you pray. At least you're out of the way, right? But people don't like to be helpless. Your wife dies, you have to believe that she went to a better place. Nobody wants to think that we're here and we just die and that's it. Perhaps we wouldn't take up so much room with cemetaries if we could come to grips with the fact that we're all just glorified mulch.

So you buy into the bullshit because the cost is too expensive not to. That and you were raised with it and pretty much anything you're raised with is what you're going to stick with. It takes a special kind of thinker to turn their back on something so ingrained as religion. I've had some classes on child abuse (hey, I might as well learn to do it right) and some of the worst atrosities known to man have been committed on children. Kids have been set on fire, beaten, tortured, chained up, molested, ridiculed, and even dismembered by their own parents. And do you know what something like 8 out of 10 of these kids wishes for when asked? They wish they could spend time with their parents. Is that fucked up or what? But if that doesn't tell you something about human nature nothing will.

Religion is abuse... nothing more, nothing less. It hinders everything that is productive in society. And being recently (within the past few yrs) unsaved, I can tell you that the more I go through life now, and the more I read, the more I actually feel like I was abused all these years. I'm actually angry that I was put through all that bullshit for so long. We tend to make fun of people who fall into cults. Cults are evil, cults do nothing but rip you off, cults brainwash you. Hmm, sounds kinda like mainstream religion to me. At this moment I really can't find any real differences between a cult and mainstream religion. There are a couple minor differences in how they deal with their members' families, but that's about it. So as far as I'm concerned, all religions are nothing but a cult of abuse and deceit.

But that's the first step to actual recovery, isn't it? You've got to actually put a name to the offense that was committed against you. And mine is abuse. Religion is abuse and there's no way around it. It's like Stockholm syndrome. They kidnap your senses, your logic, and your freedom of will and get you to thank them for it and even defend them. It's like when they say that children who've been abused grow up with no real sense of fairness. Religion does that to everyone it touches. How else can grown people commit the atrocities that they do and consider it right, and fair? It's all done in the name of religion. So right now I'm coining the term Religious Stockholm Syndrome because that's what we all have whether we admit it or not.

It's a sweet gig if you get get it though. To have that kind of control over that many people has got to just be the bomb. You can decree anything you like, and even fuck anyone you like and as long as you do it in the name of the lord it's all good.
But just think about the whole earthly riches thing. The church actually has people believing that they'll be rewarded in heaven and all they've got to do is give up everything they own now. Give it to the church. So the church can get fat, and the guys who run the church can get fat, but it's better if you suffer. What about them? Wouldn't they want their reward in heaven too? Why do they want theirs now instead of in heaven? Could it possibly be that they know that it's all bullshit and they'd better get theirs now? You can't really blame those poor fuckers though. They've got to believe that their situation is better than it is. Take slaves for example. Why is it that with all the shit that's been heaped on slaves that they're more religious than anyone else? Why is it that the poorest, most starving fuckers on the planet are always the most religious? Because in both cases, they've got nothing else to live for. They've got to believe that they'll come into theirs. It's the rich man's way of making you nothing but poorer and poorer and making sure you're happy about it. Because when you've got the kind of poverty we've had in the world throughout history, you've got to do something to keep them in line. They have to be happy about their situation or you're going to lose your wealth fast. And creating a powerful church with promises of a rich afterlife is just the ticket.

I mean, pretty much any half-decent priest on the planet can piss in their mouths and convince them it's Kool-Aid.

2 comments:

Faithinate said...

I don't think you can call religion abuse across the board. The emotional test: Would you choose to outlaw the teaching of religion? Well okay, you might, but I think you're pretty extreme on the subject (a definite 7 on Dawkins' scale).

Realigion isn't purely bad, purely evil. There's a range, just like in all things. There are the truly evil fuckers, les mechants...the kid fuckers, brainwashers, murderers, cult leaders, gay bashers. The kinda bad: guiltmongers, swindlers, those who push ignorance HARD. Then there are those who are okay, like our friends in KS and GA. I still don't agree with their religion, and I don't think they should teach their kids some of these ridiculous principles. I think they'd be better off without Christianity, which does several disservices to even the mildest of its followers. Christianity tends to teach muddled thinking, intolerance, inequality, self-degradation, and disregard for civil liberties (for anyone but them).

I'd be willing to bet there are more than a few really GOOD religious folk, too. High profile cases like the Dalai Lama, Mother Theresa, and lots of others we rarely hear about. People who devote their entire lives to helping others.

I'm not arguing that religion is good, that I'm in suppot. I'm not. But it's not abuse per se. It's like what Bill Cosby said about cocaine: "It enhances your personality." "Yes, but what if you are an asshole?"

praiseNull said...

faithenate, I'm having second thoughts about Mother Teresa and the Dalai Lama. The book "God Is Not Great" shows a different side of them. I'm not ready to throw them in the "evil" category, but sainthood may not be called for with either of them.

I like the community and shared morals aspect of religion, but you don't need religion for either. Why is it so hard to have a community and share morals without religion trying to butt in, dictate and attribute everything that happens to god?

Surfer Jesus, I think the difference between mainstream religions and cults is PR. Take a look at the Mormons: The Church of blah blah LDS is based on some modern incredibly suspect material from Joseph Smith (Angel Moroni? please) but is a strong and growing mainstream church.