Wycliffe gave his life to translate the scriptures into English so men could read for themselves the rules God had set down. Martin Luther tried to right the wrongs he could see which were perpetrated by greed among the clergy of the Catholic church, but he did it in the name of God. The idea of God and Jesus Christ by that time had grown so strong very few people could think beyond it. Those who tried to bring logic and rational thinking to the minds of men were shut up, burned at the stake, or hanged, dragged and quartered. Fear reigned everywhere, even among the elite. One never knew when an enemy would point a finger at him and cry traitor, heretic, atheist.
My study was only about the Christian world. Similar dramas were taking place world-wide in other religions, In 1982 I visited the Orient. At a Buddha shrine I saw many small boys running around. The tour director told us that in the Buddha religion the belief is that the first born son belongs to the family but the second born son belongs to the church. When the second son reaches four years of age he is given to the monastery for them to educate and care for him. The parents are allowed to see their son once a month. At the age of 18 years the boy is given a choice of returning to the outside world or remaining a monk. After 18 years of brainwashing it is doubtful that many are inclined to face reality and a life in the real world.
Is the faith of that Oriental mother of lesser quality than the faith of the Christian woman who is following the teachings of her church? They are both doing what they have been taught since birth, to obey without debate. Most every organized religion asks for devotion by faith, acceptance, obedience.
Our VCR travels take us through the times of John Knox, the vital force of British Protestantism against Catholicism. John Calvin, Wesley, the Huguenots, the Albeginsians, the Moors. Oceans of blood shed in the name of God and for God. The blood of the Catholics shed when the Protestants gained the power. The blood of the Protestants shed when the Catholics gained power. All of them claiming to be the bastions of morality, carrying out God's wishes.
To have to accept a whole world of beliefs forced on us by our environment, without a chance to choose or build our own world of beliefs, would mean a thousand fold frustration even if all that is forced on us were based on painstaking research. But soon we realize that people will lie to us whether they know the facts or have not bothered to determine the validity of them.
Religion makes man a stranger in the universe. It raises a thirst in him that cannot be quenched. It doesn't teach man to be at home in the world and be part of the animal kingdom but rather separate himself from it and make the earth his temporary abode and thus relieve him of any worry or concern as to the earth's final demise. To all theologians the dragon that must be slain is reason. The idea of God has its roots in the opinion that the world and the universe are artifacts and as such have had to have an intelligent designer. The conclusion sounds plausible "Therefore some intelligent being exists by whom natural things are directed---and that being must be God." But that simple explanation is given by those who do not understand the complexities of nature.
Religions are NOT the bastions of morality. Morality is imbedded in societies. Religions' first and greatest immorality is in professing to have perfect knowledge when there is none. Churches and dogmas have value only so far as they assist societies in the building of morality but not at the expense of intellectual development, honesty and truth. Few of them can meet that criteria.
Nature doesn't rule discord. Nature is discord, a survival of the fittest. The struggle for existence is not an evil. It is a reality. There is no hidden plan of God or nature. God forgives. Nature doesn't. You have to adjust, cooperate, or die. In truth the world is neither with us or against us.
This is the conclusion I came to as I studied the times when religions were at their peak, God is a cop-out, The idea of God takes responsibility off the shoulders of man and puts it on some mystical being. The idea of God relieves man of the guilt of his failures because he is offered forgiveness. Sophocles said, "Wonders are many and none is more wonderful than man." The only salvation of man is man.
This isn't a philosophy I whipped up but one I've labored over for many years Every statement I have made here has been substantiated and corroborated by many sources. The wonderful mind of man, that which took him out of the tree tops and flung him into the skies, is the world's most marvelous resource. It makes man the supreme being of the universe. It is the most maligned, the most stifled, the most denied, the most enslaved, and the most misused of all resources.
What is it about man which pulls and holds him to this mostly senseless mysticism? Let's focus our VCR on today and see what happens.
"Change and decay in all around I see. O, thou who changes not, abide with me." So the old church hymn goes giving voice to man's continuing search for permanence. Man wants something that is constant, something that he can depend on. Everything around him is in a state of flux. As Shakespeare said, "First we ripe and ripe and then we rot and rot and thereby hangs a tale." We don't like the continual changes. We want the wheels to stop and let us stay where we are. We are egotistical enough to believe we are creatures which are above that constant change and eventual death. This world is not our permanent home. We want to think that this life is only one step in an eternal plan.
To the idea of inevitable death humanity imposes the image of life continuing after death. Therefore the human mind turns toward mysticism to identify and describe the post-death existence and to give comfort as death approaches. Religion is a reaction against this fear. It was not in the first place a belief in deities. That evolved as there was consolidation of the many gods in mysticism into one god. The theorizing minds tend to over-simplification, which becomes the root of all the one-sided dogmatism which gives religion a sense of certainty, puts it down where even the most naive souls can grasp it.
Religion is humiliating for human intelligence., Yet humanity clings to its absurdity and error. It is bewildering that the most crass superstitions have long been regarded as a universal fact. Man is the only creature endowed with reason yet he is also the only creature who pins his devotion and hopes on things unreasonable.
Karl Marx said religion was the opiate of the people. It softens the blow of death of a loved one. It boosts the courage of the dying. It may put regret for his actions in the breast of a dirty, rotten sinner. But then it may not, because that person is given the option of repentence if he believes in god, and therefore he has an out.
Religion often serves as an opiate to those who live under hopeless oppression. By being humble and accepting their lot the oppressed are building up 'browny points' with the celestial score keeper who will pay up--sometime. They are proving themselves strong to themselves as well as to others. "I can take it" a sort of victory to those who have won no victories. This is why women are frequently the backbone of churches. Forced into roles that are often intolerable they live the good life in spite of their burdens. The promise of a better life in the world to come helps them endure what they can not change.
"Teach your children in the way they should go and when they are old they won't depart from it." So says the Bible. But so say all those who wish to indoctrinate others. Hitler said "Give me the child until he is twelve and I will give you the man."
The Bible also says: "Lean not unto thine own understanding." Thus giving the death blow to curiosity and debate, putting the responsibility of ones behavior on the authority, thereby taking ones destiny out of ones own hands and putting it into the hands of someone else. That's a very dangerous thing to do if one values his freedoms. Relgion an opiate? Definitely. But like all opiates it threatens to enslave its user.
My study was only about the Christian world. Similar dramas were taking place world-wide in other religions, In 1982 I visited the Orient. At a Buddha shrine I saw many small boys running around. The tour director told us that in the Buddha religion the belief is that the first born son belongs to the family but the second born son belongs to the church. When the second son reaches four years of age he is given to the monastery for them to educate and care for him. The parents are allowed to see their son once a month. At the age of 18 years the boy is given a choice of returning to the outside world or remaining a monk. After 18 years of brainwashing it is doubtful that many are inclined to face reality and a life in the real world.
Is the faith of that Oriental mother of lesser quality than the faith of the Christian woman who is following the teachings of her church? They are both doing what they have been taught since birth, to obey without debate. Most every organized religion asks for devotion by faith, acceptance, obedience.
Our VCR travels take us through the times of John Knox, the vital force of British Protestantism against Catholicism. John Calvin, Wesley, the Huguenots, the Albeginsians, the Moors. Oceans of blood shed in the name of God and for God. The blood of the Catholics shed when the Protestants gained the power. The blood of the Protestants shed when the Catholics gained power. All of them claiming to be the bastions of morality, carrying out God's wishes.
To have to accept a whole world of beliefs forced on us by our environment, without a chance to choose or build our own world of beliefs, would mean a thousand fold frustration even if all that is forced on us were based on painstaking research. But soon we realize that people will lie to us whether they know the facts or have not bothered to determine the validity of them.
Religions are NOT the bastions of morality. Morality is imbedded in societies. Religions' first and greatest immorality is in professing to have perfect knowledge when there is none. Churches and dogmas have value only so far as they assist societies in the building of morality but not at the expense of intellectual development, honesty and truth. Few of them can meet that criteria.
Nature doesn't rule discord. Nature is discord, a survival of the fittest. The struggle for existence is not an evil. It is a reality. There is no hidden plan of God or nature. God forgives. Nature doesn't. You have to adjust, cooperate, or die. In truth the world is neither with us or against us.
This is the conclusion I came to as I studied the times when religions were at their peak, God is a cop-out, The idea of God takes responsibility off the shoulders of man and puts it on some mystical being. The idea of God relieves man of the guilt of his failures because he is offered forgiveness. Sophocles said, "Wonders are many and none is more wonderful than man." The only salvation of man is man.
This isn't a philosophy I whipped up but one I've labored over for many years Every statement I have made here has been substantiated and corroborated by many sources. The wonderful mind of man, that which took him out of the tree tops and flung him into the skies, is the world's most marvelous resource. It makes man the supreme being of the universe. It is the most maligned, the most stifled, the most denied, the most enslaved, and the most misused of all resources.
What is it about man which pulls and holds him to this mostly senseless mysticism? Let's focus our VCR on today and see what happens.
"Change and decay in all around I see. O, thou who changes not, abide with me." So the old church hymn goes giving voice to man's continuing search for permanence. Man wants something that is constant, something that he can depend on. Everything around him is in a state of flux. As Shakespeare said, "First we ripe and ripe and then we rot and rot and thereby hangs a tale." We don't like the continual changes. We want the wheels to stop and let us stay where we are. We are egotistical enough to believe we are creatures which are above that constant change and eventual death. This world is not our permanent home. We want to think that this life is only one step in an eternal plan.
To the idea of inevitable death humanity imposes the image of life continuing after death. Therefore the human mind turns toward mysticism to identify and describe the post-death existence and to give comfort as death approaches. Religion is a reaction against this fear. It was not in the first place a belief in deities. That evolved as there was consolidation of the many gods in mysticism into one god. The theorizing minds tend to over-simplification, which becomes the root of all the one-sided dogmatism which gives religion a sense of certainty, puts it down where even the most naive souls can grasp it.
Religion is humiliating for human intelligence., Yet humanity clings to its absurdity and error. It is bewildering that the most crass superstitions have long been regarded as a universal fact. Man is the only creature endowed with reason yet he is also the only creature who pins his devotion and hopes on things unreasonable.
Karl Marx said religion was the opiate of the people. It softens the blow of death of a loved one. It boosts the courage of the dying. It may put regret for his actions in the breast of a dirty, rotten sinner. But then it may not, because that person is given the option of repentence if he believes in god, and therefore he has an out.
Religion often serves as an opiate to those who live under hopeless oppression. By being humble and accepting their lot the oppressed are building up 'browny points' with the celestial score keeper who will pay up--sometime. They are proving themselves strong to themselves as well as to others. "I can take it" a sort of victory to those who have won no victories. This is why women are frequently the backbone of churches. Forced into roles that are often intolerable they live the good life in spite of their burdens. The promise of a better life in the world to come helps them endure what they can not change.
"Teach your children in the way they should go and when they are old they won't depart from it." So says the Bible. But so say all those who wish to indoctrinate others. Hitler said "Give me the child until he is twelve and I will give you the man."
The Bible also says: "Lean not unto thine own understanding." Thus giving the death blow to curiosity and debate, putting the responsibility of ones behavior on the authority, thereby taking ones destiny out of ones own hands and putting it into the hands of someone else. That's a very dangerous thing to do if one values his freedoms. Relgion an opiate? Definitely. But like all opiates it threatens to enslave its user.
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