THE POWER OF RELIGION

THE POWER OF RELIGION
(Part One)

No other force in the history of human development has so entered the minds of the peoples of the earth as belief in a higher power. In the ongoing attempt to segregate “nature” and “nurture” in determining behavior, no single attribute comes closer to nature’s DNA than nurture’s inculcation of belief. The ideological attempt to conquer this phenomenon by communist countries’ pursuit of Marxian dogma has failed to eliminate the almost universal acceptance of god as real and active.

How has this powerful force been created and why has it continued through the ages to a time when communist countries created laws that prohibited observance of the belief in god, and the United States, the country that separated church and state, allows laws on the books of various states mandating the belief in god. Atheism as anathema has spread over the entire globe. How this has happened and continues to happen is easier to explain, easier to find the mechanisms for the expansion of religion, than why it has happened?

The clue to understanding the answer to why the belief in god and religion is propagated with the intensity required to achieve the huge success it enjoys lies in the Tennessee Constitution/Bill of Rights (Article 9, Section 2) which states: No person who denies the being of God, or a future state of rewards and punishments, shall hold any office in the civil department of this state.

This is legalese for, “You’ll eat pie in the sky when you die.”

Here’s the full song:

Long Haired Preachers Come Out Every Night
By Joe Hill (A depression-era union organizer and atheist)

Long-haired preachers come out every night
Try to tell you what's wrong and what's right
But when asked about something to eat
They will answer in voices so sweet

'You will eat, by and by,
In that glorious land above the sky
Work and pray, live on hay -
You'll get pie in the sky when you die' - that's a lie!

And the Starvation Army they play
And they sing and the clap and they pray
Till they get all your coin on the drum
Then they'll tell you when you're on the bum . . .

Holy Rollers and Jumpers come out
And they sing and they clap and they shout
'Give your money to Jesus,' they say,
'He will cure all diseases today . . .

Working folks of all countries, unite
Side by side we for freedom will fight
When the world and it's wealth we have gained
To the grafters we'll sing this refrain:

You will eat, by and by,
When you've learned how to cook and how to fry
Chop some wood, it'll do you good
Then you'll eat in the sweet by and by - that's no lie!

The message is clear; Work hard for the enrichment of others. The wealth you create by your work will never be yours. However, if you believe in god and a hereafter, you will benefit in that future state of punishment and reward. This concept is chillingly similar to the promise of seventy virgins to martyrs of Islaam who kill others as they kill themselves. Perhaps they will also get to eat pie before enjoying their heavenly sexual rewards.