IS THIS WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT?

Over the centuries, organized, deistic religion has become, through the gradual and universal acquisition of knowledge and true enlightenment, an object of scorn and abuse, a crutch, and a source of amusement to everyone who professes any faith in or knowledge of its dogmatic and insuperable concepts.

No matter what one believes individually, all of mankind having any knowledge of the theories, myths, legends and superstitions regarding the present-day paganism known as organized religion have, at one time or another (and usually quite often) taken some satisfaction in the abuse, the deliberate misuse and twisting, the conscious contravention of the objects of their belief. Basically, one enjoys, draws comfort and solace from, and relieves ones frustrations at being a "mere mortal" by shitting all over whatever faith he or she has known because there are times when we all glimpse the futility of that essentially unrealized faith. Maybe that's the point of the philosophy behind religion: to provide a belief we can ignore and abuse, through cursing, lying, stealing, sex and perversion, murder and deliberately false idolization. We humans might do this as a catharsis or as a form of therapy in fumbling our way through (what I believe is) the only life we're naturally allowed. In this way, we relieve some of the frustration and overcome the seeming pointlessness of human existence, of mortality.

A superstitiously mandated relief for the guilt mankind often feels in these acts, however, then leads to the seeking of repentance through the (usually momentary) re-indulgence and semi-immersion in the myths and mysticism of organized "faith"; in the quasi-spirituality that belief in a "supreme being" is professed to instill in us.

Sometimes this re-indulgence is an act of rebellion or petty revenge. The allegedly faithful casually and momentarily indulge themselves in the religious rite and convolution of their upbringing (whatever that might be) for the sole purpose of flaunting a supposed piety and loyalty to that religion in the face of those of different faiths...or as a way of rejecting the logic and reasonableness of skeptics and non-theists. Those who practice this pseudo-faithfulness are often prompted by a misplaced sense of duty and loyalty in demonstrating, once again, the anti-value of religion through misplaced motives and guilt abatement.

Religion is often a crutch used by those who've determined (how, I have no idea) that they cannot depend on their own self-worth and individual intellectual and emotional resources to relieve their grief, guilts and frustrations. They have, apparently, come to the conclusion that they must pay for solace and relief by first abusing, then "re-discovering" the "faith" forced upon them in childhood, thus ensuring themselves that life is more than conscious adherence to simple rules of morality (isn't it?) and that they and their loved ones will go to "heaven" (won't they?) where their only reward for good behavior, as I understand it, is to sit around with their thumbs up their asses as they "adore" the "supreme deity" and its shadowy minions "forever".

Such blind obedience is not always the case since there are now, seemingly, more and more people who, upon reaching the age of reason and with access to myriad competing ideals and ideas that make more sense, religiously and otherwise, are switching religions or, like myself, rejecting deistic religion altogether in its traditional and organized form. Is organized religion, therefore, successful as an indicator of righteousness and good? In its beginnings, perhaps, but in this age of overpopulation and plain human misery (much of it caused directly or indirectly by conflicting religious propaganda)...NO!! So I believe organized religion, though an admirable proposition (or emotional crutch) for mankind thousands of years ago, has outlived its usefulness and is now merely another means of thought control, often driven by motives either corporate or governmental or both. Briefly, modern organized religion is perpetuated through a need for wealth, power, influence, domination and control by a few unscrupulous persons holding intellectual and emotional sway over the masses with threats of "eternal damnation of the soul", "excommunication" (there's a real effective one), or if this "phony-tough" rhetoric fails to keep the faithful in line, the threat of physical harm. Your reward for "keeping the faith" is "heaven" or "martyrdom" or an infinity of "sitting at the right hand of god", in other words, everlasting life and the avoidance of "hell" (note, there is NEVER any mention of the state of ones awareness among all the religious posturing). All this betrays a certain desperate purposelessness that seems rather pathetic when viewed logically and intellectually.

This is, of course, an admittedly and obviously heretical view of the intricacies of organized religion in general, each of which seems to be competing with all the others in subtle ways, each convinced of the rightness of its cause and/or theology, each proclaiming itself the "true faith". The doctrinal diversity of deistic religions is, therefore, very confusing and basically pointless to a fairly intelligent, reasonably well educated, average person such as myself, considering my easy access to information about religion (and everything else) both pro and con, and who considers himself, for the most part, flawed but of decent character.

Organized religion, although appearing to support the family, morality, ethics, righteousness, etc., seems to forget that human infants will have, with the obvious exceptions, loving and devoted parents and families. Your normal, nurturing families, with a natural capacity for righteousness (well adjusted, conscientious morality) will usually, as an instinctual, maturing facet of earthly existence, try as much as possible and within their means, to raise moral, compassionate and loving offspring. Animals, at least of the higher orders, seem to accomplish this just fine with no conception of organized religion. Is the human species so unsure of its capacity for righteousness and love, morality and ethical behavior that it needs organized religion to show it how to be human? I would hope my own Conscience, my own "higher power" would help me find my way to all that through the innate recognition of good and bad learned from good people. This self-knowledge can certainly be gained without the gizmos, icons, miracles, and quasi-sacred (or deliberately secret?) mumbo-jumbo of organized religion. "Rite" does not make right.

Most of the usual religious rite is a confusing, if not incomprehensible murmuring to the ordinary layman...usually ignored or slept through. Therefore, what's the point? Why all the mystery and intricacy to organized religion? Maybe it's to camouflage the fact that these religions don't really have a whole lot to say that makes sense. So, we're supposed to take this entire conglomeration of superstitious rite, threatening propaganda and dictatorial dogma on faith? Not me...show me a "heavenly father" or "god" or "allah" or whatever in the flesh. Give me physical, undeniable proof that organized religion knows what it's talking about and I'll be happy to admit I'm 100% wrong. But I haven't had to admit that yet, nor do I expect I ever will.

Faith seems to be the operative word in organized religion*. But one is supposed to put ones faith in an alleged "supreme being" and here I disagree. As anti-humanist as I often feel, I think the human race should put its faith in each other, in mankind and its capacity to eventually drag itself out of the muck of emotional chaos and into a more intelligible sense of humanism, morality, ethics and righteousness. I believe that faith in humanity is just as rewarding and fulfilling, and as disappointing as faith in a trumped-up "supreme being". At least a human being will acknowledge his or her own existence, therefore justifying ones faith now and then.

To illustrate what I'm getting at here; my father was not a particularly religious man. Though not an atheist by any stretch of the imagination (but possibly an agnostic; I never asked and he never said), he did not bother with religious services to any great extent nor did he have any interest in seeing that my brother or I had any sort of religious instruction; such foolishness he left up to my mother and eventually, my stepmother. When he died, however, my stepmother provided him what I considered at the time a fine epitaph: "Even though your father wasn't a religious man, he was the most christian man I ever knew". I'm sure this was because the man placed his faith in mankind and suffered tangible fools rather than suffer BOTH the tangible and the mystical. While I don't believe in christianity as such, I do understand the morality, decency, goodness, conscience and conscientiousness my father brought into my life and it sure beat the crap out of anything I learned through "going to church".

Seems to me that one can expect the same result, the same fortune, the same purpose from carrying a rabbit's foot or a four leaf clover around with oneself as one can anticipate through a fickle "faith" in myth and superstitious rite.

*See Faith...Lies My "Fathers" Told Me

Page written by: Eric D. Tallberg

October, 1998