How To Create A Religion

[Geezer]

How To Create A Religion

 

1. Create a mythical deity and claim this deity is everywhere at the same time, is all powerful & all knowing, and even able to read the minds of humans. And then tell them this deity is invisible and resides somewhere up in the sky. Make it impossible to prove or disprove the deity’s existence.

2. Proclaim belief in this invisible deity will be rewarded, but not believing will be punished.

3. The reward for belief is eternal life in paradise. The reward must be something that cannot be proven or disproven.

4. Create a punishment that will be terrifying. Being burned alive forever will be the punishment. Again, the punishment must be something that cannot be proven or disproven.

5. Create laws, rules, and commands but tell the people the deity created them. And inform the people that anyone breaking any of the deity’s laws, rules, or commands will be burned alive for all eternity.

6. Write these laws, rules, and commands down in a book and tell the people the deity wrote them and tell them the book is sacred.   

7. Tell the people that breaking any of the laws, rules, or commands written in the book will be punished by the offender being burned alive forever.

8. Tell the people if they even question the existence of the deity or the authority of the sacred writings that will be defined as sin. And committing any sin will be punished by being burned alive forever.

9. Tell the people that the deity loves them and as proof the deity will become flesh and dwell among the people. Then tell them the deity will even offer its own life as atonement for their sins, so they can claim their reward of eternal life in paradise & avoid being burned alive forever.

10. Offer them a way to atone for their sins, so they can claim their reward and avoid punishment, but make the instructions ambiguous, confusing, and contradictory so that the people can never know for sure whether they will receive a reward or punishment when they die.

11. And tell them they must give the deity a minimum of 10% of their income as a condition for receiving their reward, but then advise them that their offering doesn’t guarantee they won’t be burned alive forever.

And then tell them they must believe all of that on faith, and then remind them that asking for proof is a sin and the punishment for sin is being burned alive forever.

And then sit back and laugh your ass off and rake in the money the suckers give in hopes of living in an invisible paradise forever after they die with an invisible deity.

And who in the world would believe a story like that? Apparently several billion people.

 

 

[TABA]

... and absolutely, positively make sure you teach all the above to your children from the earliest age.

[Geezer]

It seems to me that a key ingredient in all religions is the supernatural element. We humans seemed wired to believe there is more to existence than what our senses can detect. That makes us vulnerable to believing there is such a thing as a supernatural realm where the laws of science, physics, and math simply do not apply. This supposed supernatural realms operates under differ rules that are unknown to us, and that makes the impossible possible in that realm.

 

A former friend from the Church of Christ asked me why I left the "The Church"? I gave him a short summary of my reasons. He agreed that many of the beliefs and traditions in the Church of Christ were hard to believe, but then added, "I just can't take the change that they're wrong." Many Christians are Christians for exactly that same reason. They fear they can't take the chance that God really does exist and Hell is a real place.

 

Even here on this site I see many newer posters expressing a continuing fear of Hell and that makes them uncertain that they made the right decision to leave their faith. That fear comes from the strong indoctrination they have been subjected to and that has been proven to be very difficult to overcome.

[MOHO]

Your list pretty much sums it up, @Geezer.

 

And I have pointed a few of those out to fundies and they react with the intellectual equivalent of sticking their heads in the ground.

 

Yes. Fear is powerful and the initiators, as well as the modifiers and exploiters of, the religion knew/know their craft well!