KKnox Posted November 6, 2009 Share Posted November 6, 2009 The latest issue of Skeptic (Volume 15, Number 2, 2009) has an article titled Why Religions Turn Oppressive: A Perspective from Evolutionary Psychology by Rober T Kurzban and Peter Descioli. They discuss, among other topics, the evolution of conscience and morality in human society. However, there are two great paragraphs near the end that really sum up nicely the religious oppression of both believers and non-believers. ... we think it important to ask why, historically and in the present day, leaders and members of organized religions will oppress people for behavior that is harmless, or even beneficial. One possibility is that religions are like bullies. One feature of bullying is that attacks are often made for no reason aside from the ease of attacking the target. Such attacks can be used to establish dominance, or, at least a reputation as someone to be feared and obeyed; indeed many bullies enjoy favorable reputations among their peers. By forcing obedience in trivial matters—even harmless ones—religious leaders establish a reputation for punishment that allows dominance in more meaningful aspects of life. In this view, the content of rules is relatively arbitrary. What is important is that there be a lot of rules so that there are many opportunities to dominate. This might in part explain the wide diversity of rules. The fact that religions oppress non-members with moral rules is an interesting clue. Perhaps the attention paid to suppressing the freedoms of non-members is a way to signal the will and capacity to use force. Religions can condemn outsiders to remind followers about the social and physical consequences of disobedience while avoiding provoking skirmishes within the group. This might explain why moral bullying often focuses on relatively powerless minorities—such as teenage girls or homosexuals. The ability of marginalized groups to retaliate is limited, so targeting these groups is a relatively cheap way to build a reputation for domination. This fits well with the way that bullies single out the most helpless when they abuse others—physical weakness is a key predictor of peer victimization. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qec Posted November 6, 2009 Share Posted November 6, 2009 That sounds like a helpful analysis but I think on a sociological level it's bound to happen anyway. It's just that religion (sociologically) puts far more consequences on everything than there would have to be otherwise..like if we where all Naturalists and there was only Science. Each scientific discipline would then be like a different denomination. Granted even there you couldn't get rid of bullying, but it would be far less imo anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShallowByThyGame Posted November 6, 2009 Share Posted November 6, 2009 The main danger religion adds to tyranny is that believers learn to love their fear. It is not the bullies fault, it is their fault, and they deserve their suffering and in fact enjoy it because it is redemption. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Franko47 Posted November 8, 2009 Share Posted November 8, 2009 Sometimes people just won't take a religion seriously unless it's all oppressive and everything. I was reading about the battle in early Christianity between Arianism and Catholicism, and a lot of people were drawn to Arianism because it was a little more laid back and humanistic, while the eventual "winner" (via Council of Nicea and Constantine) was more of a brutal "enforce dogma with the sword" type thing. I think we're seeing that in the Muslim world; so many idealistic (mostly men) drawn toward Talibanistic extreme Islam because it's a bit brutal and deals with a lot of control issues. I've known people who left "liberal" Christian churches for more heavy fundamentalist ones for these very reasons. Got to take religion seriously, or it just doesn't have the same effect. I mean, if you can't make people quiver in fear, and grow to hate themselves and humanity, what good is it ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vomit Comet Posted November 8, 2009 Share Posted November 8, 2009 Got to take religion seriously, or it just doesn't have the same effect. I mean, if you can't make people quiver in fear, and grow to hate themselves and humanity, what good is it ? Religion has to demand something of its adherents for it to effectively stick. Of course, it must also promise much in return. ON THE ONE HAND Liberal pastor: "God is love. Love is God. God is just a big cosmic teddy bear that loves us all, Christian, Jew, and Buddhist alike, and he's going to love us forever and ever no matter what our approach to him is, for God is everything to everybody. Now let's hold hands and contemplate how big his love is..." Liberal Christian: "well shit, it sounds like I don't really have to sweat anything. It's all good in the end. I think I'll sleep in next week and watch the game. Maybe I can try to get laid tonight. The free coffee sucks here anyways." ON THE OTHER HAND Fundie preacher: "Listen motherfuckers!!! If you don't accept JAY-ZUS into your life, you gonna go to HAY-YELL!!!!! But if you do accept JAY-ZUS into your life, you gonna spend an eternity in Hebbin, and there'll be a gold-plated motherfuckin' Caddilac parked in the driveway of your custom dee-luxe mansion!!!" Rank-and-file fundie: "oh shit! I was thinking about going off and doing my own thing. Scratch that, I don't wanna go to hell! I wanna go to heaven 'cuz God ain't fucking around!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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