I am impressed by your ability to touch on such powerful and profound issues that have existed in Social Culture for thousands of years!

Control through Indoctrination & Dogma. What comes to mind, even though fiction is The Di Vince Code”. The willingness to go to extra ordinary measures to protect/control power (information) and the social fallout that potentially exists should such information become public.

Love the reference to Karl Marx-”Opiate of the Masses”! This is a profound statement that exists is every religion organized by Man. I have read in journals of medical science, studies regarding the chemical effects on the brain regarding what a person is willing to do in the “Name of God”. What comes to mind is the willingness to so easily take another life, due to strong deep religious conviction, when God in almost every written doctrine teaches compassion and love. I think the intolerance and control is put in place by Man and has nothing to do w/ God or what he or she would want done in his name.

I like how you close touching on science vs religion. This is a current issue today regarding the use of human stem cells and cloning. Where do we draw the line and who should be able to be the decider?

Nice Job!

J

It is well known that throughout human experience religion, in its various shapes and forms, has been a tremendous and influencing factor on societal development and control. Not only that, but it served as a “pseudo-science” before there was developed a rational, truly scientific means to explain natural phenomena.

What interests me is that in modern times so many people, even with rational scientific explanation of said phenomena, still choose to submit to religious indoctrination in spite of all evidence contradicting religious theory. This conscious denial of fact almost seems to me to be mass, organized (in the case of organized religious groups) psychosis – which is defined by Webster-Merriam as “defective or lost contact with reality”.

In my personal view religious belief should be treated as a potentially dangerous mental illness.

You think too much about things, you self-righteous little twit.

Anonymous, would you mean to imply non-thinking is a virtue?

i’m wondering if you are speaking about religion in terms of church or God/higher power. because they are two VERY different things. by nature, God can’t be controlling the masses (and if he wanted to, he absolutely could) because he’s given us free will. church, on the other hand, does (sometimes). so try not to put God into your accusations since it’s people who’ve messed up his plan, not himself.

anyway, i think we’ve talked before. i like the premise of your blog, i hope you don’t mind if i check back.

The thought of using Religion to control societies behavior has long been a thought of mine, but consider the fact that the differences in Religion often creates dispute, dispute creates chaos, and chaos creates destruction. The Romans tried to force everyone into the same religion, if they would have succeeded they would have ultimately been able to control society through force and religion. Was religion made up to control people? Is threatening people with a higher judge really the way to control ones inner self?

Here is an interesting thought, what if religion is used individually by people to control themselves? Individually we know our behavior includes self-control, and in society we even accept that one can have a differing level or ability of self-control. You could say the job of a marketing and advertising is to arrest one’s self-control long enough to gain a dollar from it. But what can be more powerful than handing that responsibility to someone higher than you (real or imaginary). All the sudden you are on a diet that you don’t control and your adherence has consequences that extend to your afterlife.

This is an interesting discussion, I’m excited for the next topic

Here is a thought. What if everything, the world and life as we know it, is all part of a spider’s dream and when he wakes up…we die. WWWHHHHHHOOOOOOAAAAAAAA! It blows the mind.