Fear...Fear is My Ally

Well I've been slacking again with the posting, so it's time to get back on the horse, at least for one day. So strap in, readers, as this one's bound to offend (hi, religious folk!).

If you recognize my title as a discarded quote from Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace previews, congratulations, you're as sorry as I am. But it seemed an appropriate one for the discussion at hand and a likely secret mantra of religious leaders around the world. Whenever their other methods of controlling you are in doubt, fear is their ace in the hole.

WTF, George? Jar Jar blathers the whole movie, and you cut my bad-ass lines?

As I've quite painlessly shed my belief in religious claims over the past few years, I've wondered more and more how such outlandish and fantastical superstitions have enjoyed such enduring success over the centuries. If they are so unlikely to be true, how can so many people continue to believe them? I think it has to do with a few main reasons: hope, ignorance, laziness, and...wait for it...fear.

Hope is one I can't really fault anyone for. As cynical and misanthropic as I tend to be, I wouldn't want to deprive anyone of all hope. It can keep you going when nothing else can. It can inspire you. It can give you something to shoot for. On its own, it would still make much of religion eye-rollingly silly but largely benign. The only problem comes when you're talking about false hope, which can really crush your spirit when you finally identify it as false after staking so much on it. If you become too dependent on it, and it fails you, you're left with nothing. Gotta watch out for that.

Ignorance is a pretty big one, and while it may be bliss for a time, it can't last forever. In many cases, I think people turn to religious explanations because they understand so little about reality, science, and how the world actually works. There are many things that we as a species still don't know (and probably plenty that we never will), but it staggers me how much we do know that people either ignore or consciously refuse to accept. Knowledge and understanding are good things; they allow you to better deal with reality. The only things threatened by them are institutions predicated on lies. And my biggest problem with ignorance isn't so much the inability to grasp real-life concepts as it is the willfulness of said ignorance.

Okay, George. Probably best that you cut this one.

This goes hand-in-hand with laziness. Many people are just not very intellectually curious. They may not care how things work or why things are the way they are. Or they may not care why something may be right or wrong in a given situation. They prefer to be given simple, pat, unchanging answers and rules that never have to account for context, and religion is more than happy to provide them. I can certainly understand the appeal of simplicity, don't get me wrong. But the world isn't black-and-white. Doing some mental lifting is often necessary, and it really doesn't hurt that much.

And now for the big boy: fear. Fear of the unknown is a real big problem for us humans, especially fear of death. What happens when we die? Religion assuages (see: preys on) that fear by pretending it has the answer. And that answer, be it accurate or (most likely) not, is thoroughly perverse. People come to religion with an uneasy fear of nothingness and leave with a paralyzing fear of eternal torment. Nice.

I gotta ask, how is hell not blackmail? And how is heaven not bribery? Why are so many people perfectly okay with these concepts and the abhorrent lack of morality implied? In all honesty, I suspect they aren't. Because torturing people forever, especially for such absurd affronts as failing to kiss your ass and failing to believe ridiculous claims without evidence, is not the standard operating procedure for a loving being. It's the behavior of an egomaniacal, bloodthirsty sociopath. And if that's the being you're choosing to worship, you either agree with that kind of moral bankruptcy or you're scared shitless of said being. I'm guessing that, by and large, it's the latter.

Kissing Hank's Ass

Who's Hank, and why would I want to kiss his ass?

This is one of my many problems with organized religion. Any system based on fear is not a good one. Any institution that levels threats at you (directly or implied) for disagreeing with it is not a moral one. And anyone trying to sell you something without good evidence for its reliability is a bad salesman. There's nothing to see here, folks. It's all just emotional manipulation.

Alllllll that being said, I'm not trying to yell at anyone here or tell you what to believe. I'm just giving a take on religion and explaining some of my problems with it. If your system works for you, go with it. Just don't try to force it on anyone else (including your kids). If you're only pretending your system works for you, however, don't be afraid to open your mind and explore other possibilities. Other religions, science, philosophy, fiction (plenty of good ideas to be found there, too). Whatever helps you live a better life.

And if you still can't get past this fear of eternal torment business, consider this: the only just way to judge a person is by that person's character and actions. Treat other people (and all other forms of life) well. Be the best person you can be, and measure this by the real, tangible influence you have on other people and the world at large. Put reality first. If there's a just, omnipotent being waiting to judge you for this when you die, you've won. If there isn't, you've still lived a good life, helped others, and won. And if there's an all-powerful narcissist waiting to judge you on how enthusiastically you kissed his ass, why would you want to spend eternity with that prick, anyway?