Today’s modern, highly educated society faces great danger from the religious mindset. That is, a mindset which is, in most (if not all) cases, narrow, dark and ignorant. An intensifying battle between various religious factions and systems are harming innocent peoples’ minds increasingly. We find not only adults’ minds being ‘religionetically’ modified, but such factions try to corrupt independent thought and cognitive development in children. A multitude of successes in this regard attest to this. Such feckless depravity ought to be, to my opinion regarded as a crime against human beings. This is one opinion I believe most people will agree on. Religion steals away all means to be happy and prosperous and replaces it with false hope.One of the more dangerous sides of religion lay in the tendency of religious communities to isolate themselves from the society they live in. The esoteric, toxic seed of the ‘understanding,’ that you are different from others, grows to become the epitome of evil, I believe. People lose the ability and desire to get to know each other, to become friends and to understand their affinities. Religion artificially underlines, creates differences and poisons the minds of people. It divides them into the followers of the ‘real’ god, and infidels and sinners. One, who dares question religious authority, or even its purported truths, is condemned to live a life of persecution. Some countries up the ante and legalise such violence.
Religion appears extremely pathetic when it tries to defend the truth and God. If God is almighty, as they claim– “she” is a perfectly fine alternative, but patriarchal society has God overtly referred to by his male sex; a beautiful proof that God is man-made - then why does he need such protection and defence? I do not think for a second that religious fanatics, priests and ‘saints’ are defending their god or the truth. At best, they defend man’s representation of God. A more feasible alternative is that religious fanatics defend their own interests. These include, but are by no means limited to, money, power and status. The infamous Prosperity Gospel arrogantly stipulates the following: King of Kings (God’s, say, authoritative alias) shall bless one with an abundance of gifts, should they choose to financially ‘bless’ a practitioner of God’s will. In short, donations to pastors equate to divine blessings and demonstrations of your faith in God. It is pathetic! What else does it mean, if not cashing-in from poor, deluded and desperate people? Pastors, televangelists, prophets, bishops, apostles and religious teachers (doesn’t it look more like a career?) try to reach as many people as possible.
Masses of people are targeted by enormous marketing and advertising campaigns. Such huge efforts are made, to attract as many as possible to shows of salvation and faith healing. The hard sell of hope and the illusion of God’s blessings and prosperity are supported by preacher’s polished display of their richness and success. The idea of hard work is replaced with the dangerous and digressive belief that only prayers and donations will bring you a better tomorrow.
People unwittingly subscribe to the notion that a good life is reachable only by the prayer and donations. I remember televangelist Benny Hinn’s sinister and outrageous encouragement to donate $1000 (while less, he implied, would not be a proper example of faith)! He said that if the one does not have enough money, they should even use their credit card. This was required, of course, to show your faith to God, and to receive the blessing from God.
So many people have put their hopes and dreams in the delusion of God: to false preaching of shamelessly greedy men and women of God. So many of them have lost their ability to think, evaluate and understand that in order to be prosperous and happy, one needs to work hard. One also needs to have faith not in uncertainties, but simply in themselves. There is nothing wrong in giving hope, but it is a crime, in my opinion, to demand the last dime for it.
Another great product which is being ‘sold’ by preachers is health. Or rather, preachers circulate promises of healing, and the hope that comes with it. Miracle healings are being ‘advertised’ especially loudly, as it is people’s main attraction to so-called ‘faith healers’. These are usually televangelists, apostles, religious teachers, etc, of the same deceptive kind. (The sheer number of preachers in a given city alone should be a red flag for an unsettling situation!). There is no proof, at least in medical circles, of such miracles taking place. It is another way to persuade people to eventually add to the tax-free incomes of men and women of God. The desperation of some church-goers brings enormous wealth to the others. Many lives have been, and will be, destroyed by the utterly wicked belief that God is going to heal them. Huge amounts of money continue to be ‘invested’ by misguided people into hope for miracles which never occur. It is very painful to observe people’s refusal of professional medical attention due to the dogmas of one or another religion. Let them do so if they wish, it is their choice. Nobody can revoke a person’s right to blindly follow and obey the eccentric, ruthless demands of their God’s ambassadors. But one should not dare propagate such nonsensical beliefs to their children. For one is condemning their children to lives of suffering and distorts their ideas of a healthy society, in all its meanings! It is a real tragedy when you know that a staggering number of kids will have to face imminent death due to faith based medical neglect.
I personally know of an individual who refuses to go to opticians to receive glasses for 14 years, just because of her belief that God will restore her vision. Isn’t it sad, a person playing with blindness just because of their fundamentalist belief?
It is very sad that people willingly surrender their free will to the avaricious, power-greedy religious figures, who keep a great number of people in the Dark Ages. It is sad that in the 21st century we still have to be afraid to criticise religion. This sadness is likened to the impossibility of once proving to the multitude of followers of one, or another, religion that the earth is round and not flat. So many believers kill in the name of God and so many of them die in the name of God. Let’s just hope, that one day misled believers turn against their suppressors, and declare their dissatisfaction of being treated like flocks of sheep reared in the fields of ignorance and darkness. Metaphorical sheep, that is, with no prospects for a better, self-conscious life.
