Religion: Control Until the Bitter End

Unfortunately, the guys don't get treated the same way as the girls.
Of course, religions are created by MEN, so no surprise.

I keep thinking about how humans are "hard wired" and how most of us simply follow the script given to us at birth. Most people never question their culture — they just faithfully play their role until they croak.

Religions are an interesting quirk of our evolution. They have safety mechanisms built in to protect themselves. One of these mechanisms is to stifle any form of questioning. If you are born into a Hindu, Muslim, or Christian home you will likely just take the movie script you are handed and play your role throughout life. If you question your script, you will be shunned at the very least and executed at the worst.

At least Christians look at the murder, mayhem, and perversion of the Old Testament and say, "Oh, that was then. We don't do that anymore." But Muslims and Hindus are still brazen enough to enforce antiquated and inhumane traditions. With Muslims, Sharia laws are evil and disgusting, and are an affront to women and humanity as a whole. They should be eliminated at once. And for Hindus, the caste system is pathetic and should be dismantled immediately.

As for Christians, well, that's a sensitive issue because they insist that they are the "right" religion. Indeed, Christianity is more mature now and the Great Crusades and Spanish Inquisition are behind us. But we still have religious leaders telling people not to wear condoms and extremists trying to ban stem cell research.

Though not as overtly violent, Christianity remains an insidious, destructive force on our Planet. The greatest damage Christianity does is give people an "out." Whatever happens in the world around them, Christians don't have to take responsibility or action. Rather, they can just say, "It's all a part of God's plan." Christianity has done some good and a lot of bad, and the worst "bad" it has done is make millions of people indifferent to the environmental and social ills around them. Hell, they don't even have to take responsibility for their own actions, since Christ died for their sins. That is the power of "grace," and all you have to do is "accept" that, and have faith, and up to heaven you go. Hurray!

And as the religious followers play their self-consuming roles, the world around them continues to go to hell. But, again, they don't care because they are going to heaven.

"Experience has taught me that most people are driven by emotion, and then may use logic to justify whatever they find emotionally most comfortable."

— Brooke, a colleague

"Unfortunately, I suspect that we have selected for a predisposition for religious beliefs. In a tribal society such beliefs tend to foster group cohesion."

– Fred, a colleague

"… Here, evolution had hit on the sweetest of solutions. Such perceptions were guaranteed to produce a faith-dependent species that believed itself to be thoroughly separate from the rest of the animal kingdom, but followed its genetic instructions to the letter—and left more offspring as a consequence. Here was a gene-driven animal just like any other, yet one that believed itself to be under special guidance—guidance that was not merely ‘spiritual’, but in most instances ‘divine’. Here was a wonderfully practical insanity, an invincible, hereditary madness that eventually enabled this under-endowed ‘paragon of animals’ to devour the planet like a ripe fruit. "

— Rex Morrison, author of The Spirit in the Gene