There’s something peculiar about religion. Some of the most virtuous and noble human acts of numerous greatest moral reformers and activists in history were inspired by the principles of their religion; And Yet there have also been appalling violence, allegedly carried for the sake of religion. It’s shocking that religion still prevails, despite our major advances in science and technology. Even in secular societies, religion still have significant amount of followings. But what is the real purpose of religion? Is religion merely a way for humans to contemplate purpose and morality or is it a method for authoritarian establishment to use for keeping the public dogmatic & ignorant?
Perhaps belief in God by itself has no purpose. It may just be that we humans are endowed with remarkable mind, that not only allow us to meet our social and physical needs, but also to think abstract thought like our own mortality, higher purposes, and existential questions. So, God might simply be a by-product of our ability to think abstract thoughts.
One could argue that belief in God certainly does have a function, or at least had a function in the communities of our ancestors , by offering support and comfort in harsh times, religion catered to our emotional needs, and that explains our prevailing sensitivity to religious ideas. In prehistoric societies where disease and death were constantly lurking, supernatural explanations for disaster could offer consolation. our ancestors had a need for a stable, peaceful society in which people could trust each other. Belief in an almighty ruler of the cosmos, that sanctioned greed, served as a driving force. Thus, religious societies increased in strength and size, at the expense of societies that did not embrace the concept of God.
Regardless of one’s belief in God, it’s a fact that political and religious institutions has gone hand and hand since the dawn of civilization. So perhaps even more important function of religion is God as Big Brother, making sure people adhere to the norms and rules of society. And under threat of a divine sanction put their own interests aside for the interests of the group. So, autocrats crafted a clever meme, an invisible almighty creator living in the skies, watching your every move of every hour of everyday - quite creepy. And one will be punished in a special place of fire, and anger and torture, for them to suffer and burn until the end of time, if one doesn't obey the commandments of the invisible man - but ironically he still loves you; But if you've been an obedient, unquestioning follower you will be rewarded with life in unity with the almighty in lovely placid and fluffy place, forever and ever, praising and serving him - that sound to me like an eternal slavery. In essence, God is simply a harmful meme by authoritarians, psychological manipulation of the human mind with an aim of keeping humanity ignorant and suppressed.
Authoritarianism — favoring complete obedience or subjection to authority as opposed to individual freedom.
Our world is driven by authoritarians — How the will of a few, is carried out by massive herds of followers who neglect to think critically.
Religion is the most obvious example, but politics, social issues, and even science are now all being driven at some level by the most authoritarian and vocal members of society, harming all of us. What authoritarians seek, more than anything, is conformity within its ranks and across the board. They desire for people to see the world in the same narrow minded way of theirs, or even much more sinister, to keep others ignorant, by using religion that caters to humans fear, and suppress their curiously. Most importantly, for their ego driven authoritarianism to work they rely on their highly authoritarian followers to implement their plan- and religion, new age or old happens to be the best way.
There are two types of religion dogmatic religion & spiritual religion. Dogmatic religion is well dogmatic. But spiritual religion is different. "Spiritual" religion promotes the higher attributes of human nature, like compassion, love, peace, and finding meaning & purpose in this ambiguously arbitrary universe. "Spiritually religious" people don’t feel any animosity to other religious groups; in fact, they’re happy to investigate other belief, they simply yearn to know, and understand themselves and the world around them better. They aren’t evangelical; whereas the purpose of dogmatic religion is to strengthen the ego, through beliefs, labels and group identity, the purpose of spiritual religion is the complete opposite of this: to transcend the ego, through compassion, love and peace.
Dogmatically religious people are those who think that they’re right and everyone else is wrong. By dogmatism I mean unchangeable, unjustified certainty. And I’m certain that is right, beyond a doubt. So that establishes how dogmatic I am (the irony ). For them, religion isn’t about self-development or experiencing the transcendent, but about adhering to a set of rigid beliefs and following the rules laid down by religious authorities.
Dogmatic religion stems from a psychological need for group identity and belonging, with a need for certainty and meaning. There is a strong impulse in human beings to define ourselves, whether it’s as a Christian, a Muslim, a socialist, an American, a Republican, or as a fan of a sport club. This urge is closely connected to the innate nature of human being being social creatures .
Organized religion, especially monotheistic religion, is designed to focus the publics attention and energy on an unchanging, uncompromising and invisible almighty being who allegedly created an inferior human race just for some extra companionship or what ever the reason may be. Then supposedly foisted a set of oppressive and in some cases arbitrary rules on them, which if broken would be met with supposed unimaginable punishment. This keeps the followers in a continuing state of fear and compliance.
They fear to question the intentions of this imaginary being and they even fear expressing their own individuality in many cases. Monotheistic followers are taught that they have virtually no power to do anything except pray, worship and do good deeds.
Surprisingly with all of the best efforts of authoritarians to delude the mass, religious institutions have not been very creative - in many stories the imaginary realms of reality are governed by dominance hierarchies headed by God/s, humans or devils, monotheists talked about the king of kings. In every culture we imagined something like our own political system running the universe and yet few found the similarity suspicious, but most follow dogmatically without even thinking.
It’s a tragedy when one’s capacity of thinking is limited and suppressed by authoritarian infested society, for the sake of conformity. Not only for individual, whom now experience the world through blinkers; but also for our species, because it robs humanity of the chance to have benefited from individual’s unique perspective and more importantly our potential to thrive as species in the universe.
What authority fears, more than anything, is diversity of opinion. And “If you don’t think like us, then you’re not one of us” is often the theme of the rhetoric. Authoritarians seek to avoid this sort of diversity through control: control of information, control of behavior, or control of speech. Or delude the collective consciousness’s using psychological manipulations of human via a harmful meme known as God. The aim of authoritarians is to keep the public dogmatic and suppressed.
Ignorance begets confusion. confusion begets control. Control begets chaos. Take a look at our world of coercive authoritarian control. Our world is infested with ignorance and confusion and this has given birth to worldwide control, leading us into inevitable chaos under an illusion of "order".
It’s quite clear to see why authoritarian followers would be dogmatic. When one hasn’t figured out their beliefs, but instead absorbs them from others and authority figures, one’s in no position to dictate their very own thoughts and actions. Simply put, one doesn’t know why the things they believe are true, it has been decided by somebody else. Especially if one fears to questions their belief system, or is robed out of the very fundamental nature of humanity – curiosity, one has no way of individuation.
This is not to say followers of organized religion are willingly dogmatic, but are robbed out of their innate nature of curiosity and inquisitiveness. And in most cases, especially in the case of religion - in which most inherently learn it from their parents from childhood, individuals are oblivious to question the facts. We all come to a world where we are bound by social contracts, and we are taught to abide or else we are prone to be an outcast. Our conditioning starts with our parents who teach us our belief system, then comes education system and society, in which one learns how to live conforming to the norm and how to think. So by the time one have the cognitive capacity for individuation, in most cases, nurtured knowledge of the self is already our identity. It take one with the courage to question and challenge the norms and belief system to truly find our true self.
In order to stop this dogmatism of ours from spreading, the best thing one can do is avoid being authoritarian yourself. Seek alternative opinions, and allow others to express theirs. Promote and encourage freedom of speech and freedom of expression on all ideologies, concepts and issues, not just the ones that make you feel most comfortable by catering to your emotional needs. Encourage others, especially children to form their own views about the world, and to seek answers to questions on their own. – it would be tragic if the next generation repeatedly believes in our ignorant, deluded view of the world.