R.L. Culpeper made a valid point in his comment on my post, Opiate of Fear and Ignorance and I feel it deserves more attention.
He commented (in part):
“…I believe religion will never release its hold on humanity, but I believe we train it to be more tolerant and semi-openminded…”
I agree with him, up to a point.
While we may well be training religion to be more tolerant and semi open-minded, I can’t help but see it as just another nail in religion’s own coffin. First comes tolerance, necessitating the relaxing of standards and demands of religion; eventually comes the complete disintegration of standards and demands, then comes total abandonment.
Major changes, particularly on a global scale, always hasten slowly. It’s difficult to imagine such an enormous change as the death of all religion, occurring overnight.
Please note that I refer only to ‘religion’ per se, not spirituality. (To view my perceptions on the difference between the two, please refer to this post, You Don’t Need Religion To Be Spiritual).
That religion has enjoyed a very tight hold (read ‘stranglehold’) on humanity for centuries, there’s absolutely no doubt.
That there has never before in history been such free and ready access to information, research, studies, science, and archaeological information on the origins of religion, there is also absolutely no doubt.
Children and teens worldwide (mostly) now have access to the internet, whether religion likes it or not. Tomorrow’s young adults, not already infected with religious diseases, will join tomorrow’s youth and together build a world free of religious tyranny.
It may not happen in our lifetime, but I believe it will happen. It seems inevitable, to me. Religion’s had it’s heyday of terror, growing fat off the toil of ‘slaves’ and prostituting itself in bed with politics, like the cheap whore it’s always been (no offence meant to the honourable profession of prostitution, either!).
It’s precisely because of the openly available plethora of information and research, thanks to the internet (I love you, Google!) expanding and growing in leaps and bounds every year, that the final death knell for all religion will be heard.
To be sure, religion won’t willingly loose its hold on humanity, but as with the dark days when it persecuted and burned billions of innocent lives in it’s push for supreme domination, so, too, will it meet it’s own ugly and timely end.
Already they flounder and scramble to recoup a respectability lost that was never earned. Already their flocks scatter and leave in droves. And the questions of how they’ve gotten away with dominance and tyranny for so long, just keep mounting – with growing discontent, if not malcontent.
Global religious abandonment will eventually follow in the shadow of trained tolerance and, at the risk of sounding poetic, it’s the youth of our world – today’s and tomorrow’s – that will bring in a new dawn.
At least, that’s my compass, my hope, my vision, and my personal belief.
There is nothing man has made, that cannot be unmade.
MyHeathenHeart
I agree with you in many ways. I was raised “heathen” and I don’t think you can teach old dogs new tricks. I went to church with my husband for years, but I just couldn’t make myself buy it. I’m from America, the South specifically, and you literally cannot go one block without tripping over a church. There are billboards that say “God is Alive” and it’s no big thing. Schools hand out fliers with the stuff on it. It’s unreal. You really can’t have a social life without a church involved. Granted, there are some very good people at some of these churches. And then there are some that wouldn’t know morality if it slapped them in the face. And of course, the entire system – well, let’s just say I am not one for organized religion. My husband still goes, but I don’t, and he doesn’t pressure me. It is possible to be spiritual without religion, and occasionally I have great moments – the birth of my kids, for instance, that transcend time. And I honestly don’t know what, if anything is out there. I just live my life as well as I can. If that sends me to hell, well, so be it.
Hi aliceatwonderland!
It’s so refreshing to hear of someone who was raised a ‘heathen’ and it’s great that your hubby doesn’t dump it on you, too. What a shame more aren’t like him.
I can tell you this: there’s no such thing as hell and if there is, then we’re living in it. It still amazes and dumbfounds me that adults in their right minds can still believe such an obvious and obnoxious means of control through fear. They might as well believe the moon is made of cheese…
Peace
Pingback: RE: A Terse Explanation for the Finite Nature of Religion « R. L. Culpeper
I’m assuming you’re in the States so you’re view of religious influence is greatly distorted to what’s actually going on in the rest of the world. In Australia religion has absolutely no influence. We even have an atheist PM. I was raised and schooled in catholic institutions but never did i have religion shoved down my throat. It’s passive in Australia, as it is in Europe and Asia. It’s also kept to yourself. South America is more religious, but even here in Brazil (a highly religious country) we have an atheist President. I was amazed that this “shock to the system” didn’t even make a bleep on the radar during the last elections. It wasn’t even raised as an issue, which is great! What’s happening in America (in the south) is a circus completely alien to most of the world, excluding places like Yemen, Ethiopia, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Hi John,
Yes, I’m in Australia, but must beg to differ. Not sure what part of Aus you’re in that god-bothering hasn’t ever been shoved down your throat or affected your life in any way, but mine was in Vic and the NT (many, many moons ago), and was a childhood smothered under the oppression of the JWit cult in both states.
And then there’s the assorted ‘Hallelujah Brigades’ here, who are always in bed with what whatever political party happens to be in power and rather obnoxiously ‘tell’ their ‘flock’ exactly who to vote for. How do I know this? Because I was sick enough to see if they were any better than any other cult. They aren’t. One is as disgusting as the rest. You’re welcome to check my post “Cults & Religion: The Red Pill or the Blue?” for my experiences with that lot.
My point, though, is about religion globally, not just our secluded, out-of-the-way little arse-end of the planet lump of heat and dust. I do care about what humanity has suffered, and those who continue to suffer under religious tyranny and deception, despite the fact that these days, it dresses itself up as a tart (talk about making a silk purse out of a sow’s ear!) seducing a gullible public in desperate attempts to avoid drowning in its own cesspit of lies and deception.
It still goes on, John, even if one has never been unfortunate enough to experience it for oneself.
Apologies, i stand corrected. Sorry, thought you were american. I was raised in Qld, studied in the ACT, lived in NSW. LOVE northern Vic, though. Ah, so you were touched by the wacky JW’s. My upbringing was simple catholic. Couple of school masses a year was about all it amounted to. I’ve been in Brazil for the last 10 years and i’ve heard the Clappy’s are getting louder back home in Oz. Same thing here in Brazil. Catholicism is being pushed aside by these crazy evangelical youth groups. It’s sad to see.
You lucky sod, you! And yes, Northern Vic is lovely. NSW has some greenery, too – a forgotten colour in dust-bowl SA (ugh!).
Mannum is nice, up in the hills. My all time favourite spot though is Kununurra, the Kimberly’s. That place is another world altogether.
My dad loved Kununurra; definitely another world
Instead of answering your post with another rapid comment, I wrote a brief post. I think we’re on the same side, we just have different perspectives.
lol No worries, and thank you for having read it.
Pingback: A Terse Explanation for the Enduring Nature of Religion « R. L. Culpeper