"Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet." - Napoleon Bonaparte
What was going through the minds of those who designed religion? What were the influences of the authors, founders, creators, pioneers of religion? These are the questions I have often thought about when researching religiosity; assisting me in gathering reasons why the religious believe what they believe. So, I thought I’d do some essential critical thinking and research to structure in this short essay on how the creators of religion were determined to design the world’s most dangerous scheme.
Imaginative Reassurance
Religion is a subjective, delicate and personal matter for those who tenaciously choose to associate with it. When criticised, it almost seems as though one has insulted the appearance of a person – to the religious, “the God of your religion is malevolent” sounds almost like “you have an ugly face” or “there is a bogey on your nostril”. And then the critic of religion gets accused of being vile, loud and offensive. This sensitive reaction stems from the personal feelings one has for their religion. Metaphorically, this religious sensitivity seems genetic and as religion is primarily the subject of transmission via family lineage, it is quite possible that the sensitive emotion originates from those who founded the religious sect. Millennials ago, mythological creation ideas were possibly the only way for people to attempt a grasp of the world as there was a huge lack of empirical resources and intellectual discoveries to understand existence. Religious ideas are merely the work of imagination and mental stimulation, not intelligence or authenticity. That is the solitary aspect of which I can give religion miniscule credit – the imagination of storytelling. However, these were times where gullibility was prominent for a society that could comprehend little and the telling of convincing stories allowed the listeners to believe them remarkably easily. These myths and tales regarding afterlife, divine guidance and exclusive creation gave the listeners a type of subjective meaning to their lives. The lower societal classes (from peasants to slaves) may have either been the ones receiving the religious influence from aristocrats as a form of control – which I will discuss later in this essay – or religious ideals may have been created by the lower classes themselves. Seeking comfort, meaning and reassurance using imaginative tales was clearly one of the main motivators for the founders of religion, especially for the lower classes as there was a consistent work and no-play ethic throughout their daily lives whilst the aristocrats embraced wealth and power. Authority and Control Visibly, without any pondering hesitation, religion operates in an authoritarian, submissive and totalitarian manner. This is evident when studying history, in contemporary theocratic countries and from those who carry a religious personality. In the first section of this writing, I have mentioned the fact that lower classes could have founded the major poison of society –religion. However, there is also the possibility that aristocrats, ancient governments and royalty initiated the idea of organised religion for an obedient purpose; used in a way to control populations of which they govern. The renaissance philosopher, Niccolò Machiavelli – although not a favoured one by many reputable philosophers – emphasised religion having a major impact on politics and societal control. Niccolò, although considered anti-religious, even endorsed the uses of religion as a factor to maintain social order. Religion is one of the most powerful tools for authoritarian politics with the tendency to withdraw people from liberty, individuality, freedom of speech and opinion. Such a tool would have become very important for newly emerging civilisations, empires, kingdoms and this is evident in Egyptian, Mayan and Toltec antiquity (to name a few) where mythological beliefs were the influence in politics. When authoritarianism is used to govern a society, religion would have assisted in maintaining a domineering order over the people; avoiding the possibility of revolution or the idea of democracy. The population would have favoured a theocratic body since if they followed the rules of their superior religion, they would be promised a walkway to a positive afterlife; and if not, they would soon face damnation.
Inspiration from Mythology
Religion not only has its roots in subjective values and the craving for power, but it also stems from ancient religions which are now sometimes labelled “mythology”. Regardless of whether people want to relabel it as mythology or not, it was once still a highly believed religion in antiquity just like many religions are of today. Calling an ancient religion a mythology is a plea for sensitivity on those who still believe in modern religions today. I consider the term ‘mythology’ to mean an ancient belief system that has corroded overtime, and the term ‘religion’ to mean a belief system that a large number of people still follow that will eventually corrode overtime. Plenty of contemporary research has shown that today’s excessively-followed religions contain several replications from ancient mythologies. For example, here is a very intriguing link to a short list of cases where the authors of the Bible have been influenced by external mythology – 10 Ways The Bible Was Influenced By Other Religions. This list provides few examples of plagiarism from Persian religion, Egyptian religion, Canaanite religion and Pagan religions. Not only has the three modern Abrahamic religions copied each other and ancient religions, but it appears that older religions have copied another in a very similar manner including Roman mythology and Greek mythology. Roman culture is somewhat a successor to Greek culture; influenced by Ancient Greece’s political methods, social structure, philosophy, fashion and architecture. Correspondingly religion was also carried among that list. Such an influence was a result of Greek colonial occupation – Greeks polytheistic beliefs were thus adopted by the Romans but altered to represent some of their original traditions. It seems that the founding of a religion needs the influence of another, to be plagiarised and derived, yet they later despise each other merely because they don’t wholly concur with each other. Conclusion The authors of religion, whether it is ancient religion or contemporary religion, are clearly influenced by their own subjective views, ignorance, gullibility and faith. As Peter Boghossian has emphasised in A Manual for Creating Atheists, faith is the primary foundation of all religious belief systems and without faith – pretending to know things that you don’t know – religion would not hold such high tenacity in certain societies. I will also conclude that the founders of religion were lacking rational judgement, evidential means and a vast array of scientific resources that has contemporarily enabled the modern world to discover awe-inspiring solutions to the questions we have been asking for millennia. References
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Daniel C. MeesThe Blog of Sincerity, featuring contrarian, polemical and critical writings on politics, religion, social philosophy, left-right spectrum, books, sociopolitical concerns, secularism and such - by Daniel C. Mees.
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