A Reason to Avoid Religion

Last Sunday I was watching a documentary called Neurons to Nirvana with friends. In this documentary several prominent psychotherapists and psychologists present the possibilities of using illegal psychedelic drugs like LSD and Ayahuasca in regulated therapeutic settings. While the documentary was interesting and presented an informed viewpoint the conversation that followed is what I’m going to write about. First the conversation, then the commentary:

Following the documentary a friend said: “If I had a chance to try LSD in an environment where it was legal, and there were regulations ensuring the drug’s quality then I would try it once.”

Immediately the serious Christians in the crowd vilified him saying things like, “That is an automatic mortal sin” and “You’re not strong enough to try it once without getting addicted.”

My friend responded saying, “You drink alcohol and have become intoxicated many times. Why would you continue to expose yourself to alcohol if it is a temptation that will lead you to sin? Also, LSD is not physically addictive, why do you think you would become addicted so easily?”

To which they responded in a greater than thou manner, “We never mean to get drunk. We are just too weak as human beings to resist the temptation, which is why we ask God to forgive us afterwards.”

The church praises those who are weak. For example, 2 Corinthians 12:9: “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” Also, Matthew 5: 1-48: “Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying: … ‘Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” Christians think those who are weak are rewarded in an afterlife, which nobody, even Christians, are sure exists.* The sound of my Christian friend’s voice as he told us of his weakness, and requisite dependency on a non-confirmed being’s approval, was disgusting. However, he was proud of his weakness and dependency on an external judge of his behavior. From his point of view his weakness was an asset not a liability. The embrace of weakness creates a following who don’t strive for strength. Christianity, truly is, a poor man’s religion.

Advertisers use many tactics to persuade people to buy their product. Most of the tactics boil down to this: they try to convince a person that they are missing something in their lives. Then once a need has been revealed, or created, the company swoops in to fill the need. Companies often feature success and beauty with their product hoping viewers will associate success and beauty with buying or consuming their product. A person then buys their product over and over again hoping to see the results they cognitively associated with that product. Companies that heavily advertise like this often fail as people begin to realize that their product does not deliver such things at which point the consumers become disenfranchised. Religion ultimately does the same thing, but the great thing about religion is that the consumer continues to buy until death. They have to buy until death because the results can not be realized until the afterlife. Those who evangelize are salesmen who create a need and try to fill it. “Don’t you feel incomplete? … You do? Good, now let me show you a product (my religion) that will heal you.” The Church has grown to massive a size using the sales techniques that 21st century advertisers have explicated for us to see. By using the same tactics advertisers have been using consciously in the 21st century the church has created the greatest franchise that has ever been created.

Let’s explicate a sales pitch for Christianity to a weak crowd: “Do you stumble and fall when trying to complete goals? … Oh you do? Doesnt that make you feel weak? … Oh, it does? … Well my product promises that those who are weak will inherit the earth when you die. There is no need to try to make yourself strong anymore. No need to try to improve yourself Jesus loves you as you are, improvement or no.” Everybody knows the idiom: “If it sounds too good to be true it probably is.”

*side note: Believing or having faith that something exists is not confirmation of it’s existence. I believe and have faith that there is life, intelligent or otherwise, elsewhere in the universe. Just because I believe and have faith does not mean it unequivocally exists.

Men

There is some confusion over my last post. People think that I’m stating the freedoms that woman have in this day are bad. People think I am saying: “women should stay in the kitchen where they belong.” This was neither my intention nor my argument. I am merely stating the fact that Feminism, which is a movement to change gender identity, encourages women to have their own goals. This change is a split from the ways of the past. I do not think that fact is debatable. Fact: for almost all of history women did not, nor did they have the ability to, set the goals that they can today. Whether or not this is a bad or a good development is not something I’m interested in debating; too many emotions and not enough rational arguments are involved. Those emotional arguments have no value as they are judgements not facts. However, I approach this development without emotion and merely address the problems this recent development creates for me. An example would be me not finding a woman who will “be on my team.” Women in this time period have their own goals. They no longer see value in caring and nurturing. Women who don’t see those values are not ones I will care about romantically. This is a problem I have with the shifting gender identity of women. However, my own sex is also going through a gender shift of it’s own.

The men of the the past could not afford to be basement-dwellers like many are now. Many men no longer go out and “hunt.” They are content to sit in a basement, become inundated with various forms of entertainment, add inches around their waists and let cheese puff dust gather in their hair. For all of history men have had to go out and hunt so they could live; nobody would take care of a man nor did he want to be cared for. He wanted to provide for himself. Rarely now do you find a man who wants to be a leader of industry. Small business ownership is at an all time low. Men are not risk-takers anymore. A majority of men no longer have a mission, nor do they believe they need one.

Now, again, you can argue amongst yourselves about whether this is a good or bad development. After all, men now have more freedoms just as women do. Just as men now have the freedom to do relatively nothing with their lives and still survive. Women now have the freedoms to separate from the family unit in pursuit of material wealth. These are merely two different sides of the same “changing gender identity” coin. There are pro’s and con’s to both genders’ changes. It is up to each individual to carve out a space for themselves in this new gender system. I’m just trying to carve out mine.