A Comment Regarding The Use Of Formalized Religions In Social Control Over The Earth's Human Population

"If god didn't exist, it would be necessary to invent him"
-- Voltaire

From the Website AboveTopSecret.com:

posted by Budski on 9-4-2007 @ 11:06 AM

Religion is Social Control

"Much has been made of the role that religion plays in the modern world. The 'War On Terror,' with both sides espousing how god is on their side, yet with both sides going against the teachings of their religions.

I would argue that religion started merely as a form of social control, at a time when there was very little in the way of law and order - as voltaire said 'If god didn't exist, it would be necessary to invent him'.

It also gave elitists and elitist organizations the excuse of 'divine right' to rule, in which people were considered superior merely by an accident of birth, the earliest example of which is that of Hammurabi of Sumer.

In early western civilization, priests and rulers both held enormous power, and were, in some respects almost interchangeable, given that they both wanted the same thing: a respectful, law-abiding populace, dedicated through a system of belief to maintaining the status quo - in short, the privileged used a combination of religion and politics (though to a lesser extent) to retain their status.

When looking through the worlds major religions, many examples of attempts at social control can be seen - in Christianity, the ten commandments and the teachings of jesus can be viewed as attempts to control through fear i.e. fear of divine retribution should an individual err into 'godlessness.' In Islam, al'quran provides a framework and rules for daily living, and how an individual should behave, in almost every respect.

Speaking as a christian who is opposed to organized religion (due to the massive hypocrisy for one thing), I find it strange that more people do not question their beliefs, or indeed their own spirituality, given the nature of the origins of the belief systems prevalent throughout the world.

Major religions and organizations are not the cause of all the world's troubles, but perhaps they don't always help matters either........

*A footnote to this is the thread posted about a child in a U.S. school that was made to remove a magnetic religious symbol from her desk.

More disturbing is that they would not allow her to be photographed (for a class photo) because she was wearing a religious t-shirt.

I may have a problem with organized religion, but I still believe in freedom of speech."