Religious Faith Fails its Followers
Observations Made From Outside Christianity
It can be observed that the three Abrahamic God-based religious faiths, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, at the most basic level each acts as a rallying point, binding people into distinct power groups. Historically, firstly it was all about rallying the Jewish tribes and later, other tribes and whole regions of the Middle East around a book and having them declare faith in the teachings found therein; deriving strength from unity.
A whole population being all of one mind, united, results in a powerful force against common enemies – and those elite who direct and control this power, for bad or for good, also benefit by becoming powerful, too: the priest class.
Why these three religions first formed and how they evolved as a result of the needs of the time would be an interesting story. (Ref: ‘The Gods of Eden ’ by William Bramley and ‘The 12th Planet’ by Z. Sitchin)
CHRISTIANITY BECOMES POWERFUL
What we do know is that a unified, rationalized Christianity was absorbed, institutionalized and used to unify and strengthen the power of the Roman Empire after Constantine’s Council of Nicaea and the creation of the ‘Universal Religion’ in 325CE.
The order was given for all the army to convert; they could all fight as Christians under the Chi-Rho sign and the battle-cry was “Deus Summus Salvator!” – God, the Highest Saviour! – as they battled and butchered the less united, less organized pagans.
Christians were looking for a powerful Saviour, a king of men and Constantine although a pagan himself, fitted that description.
The next few centuries saw the remaining pagans in the Roman Empire converted under duress or butchered, as of course, the book gives the instruction to kill: “Believe and Baptize or be Damned!” was the demonic cry.
Temples were destroyed and inoffensive pagan priests and supporters were killed in the thousands all round the Mediterranean Sea . Christian churches were built over pagan temples thus wiping them off the face of the earth. Pagan festival days were conscripted by the early church and made into Christian ones. All those who did not accept the rulings of Nicaea , The Universal Church were declared heretical. Notable examples such as the Albigensians and the ancient sect of Christian Gnostics, who did not accept the new religion from Nicaea nor believed in the divinity of Jesus, were killed. Today the last vestiges of the Gnostics are being killed off in Iraq .
THE ARABS
Arab pagans, living outside the borders of the Empire, were vulnerable to slave-capturing raids and heretic hunts. They had endured slave raids from the earliest days of the Empire but the Christianizing or killing of Arab heretics was a public affront. They needed a similar religion to unite all Arabs in self defense. After about 300 years, by the time the Empire had been fully converted to Christianity – and its power was being projected into the neighbouring countries, Mohammed had all his visions, sighting, miracles and voices from the Angel Gabriel explaining all that was needed to form a true religion of peace.
THE NEW ISLAM
The new religion was formed and Arabs, re-invented as Muslims, now had a cohesive religion. They could rally around a central figure, the supreme Imam and take directions to fight for their own interests. They saw the success of the Empire where power and its fruits had come from unity.
This new religion was so successful that, as the Empire weakened and fell, they were able to conquer the whole of North Africa and eventually, even drive up into the heart of France in the west and march into the East of Slovakia and Hungary in the east and take possession until finally being driven out years later but keeping Turkey and Greece – the old Ottoman Empire.
Their fighting fanaticism was even greater than the Christians until Christianity was challenged right in its heartlands! That was the Muslim response to the provocations of Christians and their Bible!
The three religions and their unity – their fascism – should be studied carefully to get an understanding of their real nature and how they operate at the level of the individual setting the confines of his outlook, his way of thinking and even the laws to which he is subject.
COMMENT:
These religions are about conformity – conforming to the set of rules as given in ‘the book’ on pain of punishment for default thereof. The book is the word of God. It states the will of God. To transgress these rules is a sin against God and invites his wrath. In the notorious “Dark Ages” this came in the form of your fellow countrymen led by priests. Modern times see only variations on these themes but for different issues.
Punishment of others, sinners, is central to Christian conformity and control. It is all about imposing control over people – conform to the Book or be condemned for being a sinner, one who is wicked and so someone to be vilified and punished.
(Together with this goes the need for the population to be under informed, or deceived by false information. The Internet and Current Affairs news and analysis must worry Cardinals, Archbishops and Imams everywhere!)
Over the centuries nations in the west have used the above factors to instill emotional patriotism in their citizens for various purposes. They fought for God and king (The Pope’s appointee!)! Religion has been the root cause of so many European wars.
(Now in Europe , this emotion is channeled into support for football teams.)
Under Christianity and its colonial period these ideas and their associated moralities have been accepted or rather imposed, around the world and continue right up to this present day.
Christian emotion, even in its extremes, is well built into the English language. Express your emotions! The best example is how large headlines on the front of newspapers encourage strong emotions in order to induce the reader to buy the newspaper at the newsstand. Commercialism demands superlatives both positive and negative. E.G.: Hang Him!
HARMFUL CHISTIAN IDEAS:
Viewed from a vantage point outside of this culture some of it can be questioned as quite harmful, such as:
– IGNORANCE:
– to believe the teaching of the Bible there was the need to keep the population ignorant. There was no schooling in the long Dark Ages except for Monks. The Middle Ages saw a minority getting some education. As a result all reading and writing ability was lost. Greek and Roman learning, and medicinal cures etc., were lost and forgotten.
With the Reformation came education for the elite few, e.g. after the 1500s in the UK the rich Catholic Norman elite could attend Eton or Harrow schools, and Oxford or Cambridge universities. There was little or nothing for most people except basic reading and writing.
Things improved only when a handful of King Edward 8th Grammar schools were opened in the UK after WORLD WAR I.
Schooling for all has come to the British only after a long and difficult political emancipation.Universal schooling came mainly only after WW II. (Slow – Eh?? Why?? Buddhism has taught its wisdom to children for 2,500 years.)
– BONDED IN MARRIAGE:
– being bonded for life to one’s spouse in a marriage blessed and sanctified by God is to defy human nature and has been a recipe for great misery for many; now, this matrimonial ceremony is performed just to conform.
Some do prosper, but hundred’s of millions of Europeans have lived life while suffering immensely in this bond.
Pagans would normally simply have a small party celebration, mostly as a form of public advertisement for the newly joined couple.
– COLONIALISM:
– Colonial Christians passed laws and built jails where none had ever existed before. Christians administered the laws and the indigenes, being non-Christian, filled the jails! (ref. Sri Lanka ) Ha! Ha! What a joke!
– CURRENTLY:
– Modern governments make laws: as time goes on, more laws are passed and jails have become full to overflowing. (A report in the Telegraph newspaper recently gave that Toney Blair passed seven new laws for every day of his period as Prime Minister! OK?)
– CHRISTIAN PRUDERY:
– milking mothers cause stress in their sucklings by covering up; unnaturally it seems. Dress correctness and prudery rules but there is a price to pay in the child’s self confidence and long term psychological make-up – insecurity.
– BETTER ALTERNATIVE:
– Buddhism, an old pagan religion, a true religion, teaches a good philosophy: observe the consequences of your own thoughts, words and actions; learn to control them. Everyone is exhorted to find success in overcoming his own defilements, anger, hatred, desire, avoid bad Karma and so, climb up the Noble Path! Everyone is a traveler.
The result is, not by co-incidence, a maximizing of happiness in Buddhist countries, or rather a minimizing of unhappiness – a goal worth striving for. Buddhist countries are noted for smiles – the natural human condition.
USELESS:
So, really the big religions are useless for making this world a better place – just good for coercing you to conform or for punishing you!
A BOOK-DRIVEN MADNESS
These Christian religions are like mental viruses too, infecting people and driving them mad!
– The German thirty-years war (18m. dead); the slave trade (37 m dead); the Huguenots (5M dead); Indians in North and South America (60m dead); the fascist dictators; the Second World War (51m dead): a horrendous litany of wars and death, first in Europe, and then around the world!
There are plenty of examples now, today, of joint insanity and power in the world news!
It is the thought patterns, behaviour, traditions as laid down by their religious culture and its way of thinking that is at fault.
“Religion, the Greatest Curse on Humanity”
Aggadhamma. Sept. 2006