THE POWER OF RELIGI0N

THE POWER OF RELIGION
And what to do about it

As much as the destruction of religious institutions appears to me a desirable goal, the world has been mesmerized by religions into believing they are not the evil force they truly are. Wiping out religion and replacing it with ethical humanism is too formidable a task to accomplish in the next millennium. The more modest goal of separation of church and state throughout the world should be reasonably attainable.
This is a war for the hearts and minds of masses of people. This is a war of education, of propaganda, of enlightenment. At every turn and in every instance where religion is shown up for what it is, a supporter of power structures and an instigator of death by religicide, the course of action to be pointed out must lead to political separation. A constant din must be maintained to alert people to the dangers of religion and religious input and control of the political process.
Atheists, humanistic ethicists, and agnostics have been too reluctant to buck the strong tides of religious oceans. For the most part, they try to keep their heads down. After all, how far can they get in their own lives of work, school, love, family, friends, all of whom have what is called "respect" for religion. This ingrained respect is a huge deterrent to effective action. The first step must be to separate the attack on religion from its association with an attack on belief, humankind's fundamental need. Also, care must be taken to separate the charlatans of religious institutions from the poor deluded good religionists who will defend their institutions to the death. The point of attack must be to convert deluded ethical devout religious leaders to the awareness that they are involved with murderers and panderers of death through religicide.
The second point of attack must be in identifying and exposing the charlatans who have earned the respect of people as leaders of religious institutions. That has to be performed in both delicate and coarse ways. This is a war to be conducted over centuries. I do not suggest nor imply that this is the way to achieve peace in the Middle East in the near term. For now, it is sufficient to identify the mullahs and rabbis who preach death and hold them up for the anti-gods that they are.
A variety of perceptions have colored the reaction to my proposition that religion is evil. They range from, "Not my religion!" to "They are not ALL evil." What I posit is not really related to the nature of religion as a vehicle for worship per se. That is, I do not contest that what religion says it offers is not delivered. But religion has a superior goal to the mere structure in which believers can make obeisance to their gods. My claim is that religion is a creation of power elites to be used as a tool for controlling people; individuals, small groups and huge masses of people. The power elite may be the single witch doctor or Shaman, the chief of a tribe, the king who is himself the representative of god on earth, the combination of the Vatican and Nazi Germany, or the government of the United States with the varied and diverse religious establishments of the country. The need for people to believe in a higher power has made them susceptible to the lure of religion; they are told how to pray, when to pray, and where to pray - and they can do it with others to reinforce the rightness of their need and the righteousness of their belief. The fact that missionaries may have the purest of motives does not detract from the fact that control of their converts passes to the power elites that supported the missionary work in the first place. The fact that various religions and religionists have cultural and historic aspects unrelated to power but only concerned with the true well-being of their adherents does not detract from the fact that all religions enable evil to flourish by their affinity to power elites. All religions without exception are prostituted by power elites. Even the religions that claim "Peace" as an integral part of their very essence - like Judaism - are prostitutes because they sell their wares to pacify, to lure, to inveigle the masses into actions detrimental in cataclysmic ways to their well-being and the well-being of others.
Is there one piece of dirt or rock worth the life of a single individual? Not really! Yet religion religicizes dirt and rocks into holy entities so their believers will die for them. Young men die for god and country. Who benefits? God? Surely not! The martyr? No. The power elite does. The sellers of arms do. The oil companies do. The Sheiks and Shahs and Mullahs do. The country is said to benefit. Who is the country if not those who lay down their lives in the wars that religion and patriotism tout as good and necessary? Religion has religicized love of country and patriotism. Religion is evil incarnate. Religion is the actualization of harm to its believers. As to its murderous affect on non- religionists, non-believers and "other"-believers, no knowledgeable person will deny the religicide the inquisition inflicted on its victims nor the religicide of the Crusades nor the religicide of the poor Irish who need to die their Protestant deaths at the hands of the Catholics and vice-versa.

Rational enlightened self interest is the road out. But people must be willing to take that road.