Christianity: The Parasitic Belief

[Guest Iconoclastic1]

Christianity, in many ways, can be likened to a living organism. All living organisms have what is called a genetic imperative, the instinct to reproduce. Christianity also has a genetic imperative of sorts, and it's willing to fabricate, cajole, and blackmail to get the job done.

 

The entire religion is crafted from the ground up to be effective at spreading and infecting new minds. It's so effective, in fact, that many who adopt the religion become enthralled to the point that their existence becomes devoted completely to the purpose of spreading christianity, robotically and at every opportunity. It has a number of useful mechanisms for helping you reach this state.

 

Let's examine some of these component mechanisms more closely:

 

1) You have the disease, I have the cure.

Christianity teaches that by default, we are sinful and degenerate. Not only that, we are also "unsaved" by default. The first step to infecting a new host is to convince them there is a need. Notice the first step to becoming christian is the sinner's prayer, basically an admission of guilt and sinfulness(even if you haven't really done anything wrong). Once you are convinced that you are sinful and degenerate by default, it becomes a simple matter to sell you the cure. Especially susceptible to this manipulation are those of low self esteem, who are easier to convince of their sinful nature. This is one way that Christianity preys on the weak.

 

2) The bait

The fishhook of Christianity is baited with the concept of heaven. Unfortunately it is a completely empty promise, so the worm isn't even real, it's plastic. Consciousness has been proven to be tied to brain function, yet the christian would have you believe that somehow your consciousness may survive bodily death and travel to a place of eternal contentment and bliss. All I will say is that it's a good thing for christianity that the dead cannot come back for a refund.

 

3) The threat

Some people respond better to fear than they do to temptation, so Christianity also has a threat component. Some christians preach fire and brimstone, eternal damnation, lake of fire type stuff and some take a more subtle tack on the issue. Whatever the case, the concept of hell is probably the most repugnant form of psychological terrorism ever devised. To convince someone, especially a young child who has no defense against such horrible notions and imagery, that there is a place of everlasting tortuous pain and torment; and that the majority of the human race is going to go there because they chose not to be True Christians™, is the very definition of terrorism. It is evil by any objective standard, yet the Christian feels justified in this psychological abuse because it helps to infect new minds with Christianity.

 

4) The defense mechanism

Remarkably, Christianity is able to convince many of its infectees that self-delusion is the highest of all virtues. Have faith and you will be rewarded. The dogma, in fact, calls for the faith of a child in order to enter heaven. So what exactly is faith? It's the mechanism by which Christianity defends against outside influences potentially disrupting the stranglehold that the religion has on the mind of its infectee. Is there no evidence for any of the religious hokum you dogmatically believe? Just have faith! Is someone trying to infect you with a rival non-christian religion? Forget that, have faith in your God, not his! Is someone making seemingly valid arguments against your beliefs? Never mind what he/she's saying, just have faith and all will be well.

 

5) Simplicity

The basic Christian message is alluringly simple, so much so that anybody can understand it. If you are the type of person that likes complexity and intricacy and convolution, then christianity can be all those things and more with tomes on theology, scriptural analyses, etc. But that stuff is optional. The basic message is a one-line logical syllogism: "Accept Jesus therefore Go To Heaven". You don't even have to be a good person, really, because God can forgive just about anything as long as you believe the right stuff.

 

6) Appeal to their desire for power

Prayer is one of the perks of being a member of the Christianity club, and it appeals directly to people's desire for power and control. Pray to God, and since he loves you so much he'll do his best to work his mojo and align circumstances in your favor. The human mind is naturally adept as spotting symbols and patterns, and this plays a large part in convincing people that prayer works. Most of the time, however, prayer is explained in such a way that it does not imply a direct causal relationship. There's a lot of hemming and hawing so that if you happen to come to the conclusion on your own that prayer doesn't work, there is wriggle room for God to squirm out of his responsibility to make it work. "It wasn't part of God's plan for you," or somesuch.

 

7) Appeal to their desire to be loved

Everybody wants to be loved. It's a basic human need imprinted directly on the most primitive parts of our brain. It's part and parcel of the strongest instinct we possess, the aforementioned genetic imperative. Christianity palliates this instinctual need by evoking the notion of a loving deity. Not just the normal kind of love, but the extra-spiffy kind of love that only an infinite being of omni-benevolence could possibly muster. By power of suggestion we are able to feel loved by believing there is an all-loving god "somewhere out there". This is yet another way Christianity preys on human frailty.

 

8) Appeal to their desire to love

Not only does Christianity come with its own everflowing font of love, it also conveniently provides an outlet for any spare love you might have laying around. Specifically in its tragic messiah figure, Jesus, who gives God a human face of suffering, innocence, and frailty, one which we can empathize with and care for deeply. Naturally we want to do things for those we love, so this is yet another control mechanism that is built directly into the religion. Through your love for Jesus, you may be manipulated into doing things beneficial for Christianity.

[Guest Iconoclastic1]

Make no mistake, this religion has been evolving and becoming more infectious for thousands of years. The particulars of the dogma and theology are largely inconsequential, it's these mechanisms that are utilized to the purpose of snaring minds like a bear trap. Once ensnared, it alters your thinking and causes you to behave in a way that is beneficial to the religion. In this way, the similarities to the rabies virus are rather striking. Once a new host is infected with rabies, the virus travels to the peripheral nervous system, and then the central nervous system, and eventually to the brain. Once the virus reaches this stage it causes encephalitis and myelitis.

 

The virus basically compels the infectee to act in a way that is conducive to spreading itself to new hosts. The host usually becomes agitated, violent, confused, and delirious. At the same time, the virus congregates in the mouth and causes hugely increased saliva production. The result is often that the host, in a violent virally-induced delirium, attacks and bites those in its vicinity which in turn spreads the virus, through the saliva, to a new host.

 

Step 1: infect a new host. Step 2: rewire the host's brain so the individual becomes conducive to, and useful for spreading the virus. Step 3: compel the host to actively seek out and infect new hosts.

 

These are precisely the steps Christianity will use to propogate itself. Let's examine the various ways Christianity will rewire the brain to create a host that is conducive to spreading the infection, these are "Step 2" of the infection scheme:

 

1) Letting go of rational thought/Accepting foreign control

God is in control. Follow God's plan and things are sure to work out in the end. Just place your trust in the Lord. Really, "the Lord" isn't doing one iota to help anybody, but sometimes the power of suggestion is such that any good that does happen to come the infectee's way, it easily reinforces the belief that God is on one's side.

 

2) Freedom from responsibility

God has a plan for you, and all you need to do for a guaranteed moral life is to follow that plan. Even if pain and suffering are the apparent result of your actions, that's all fine if what you're doing is beneficial to christianity.

 

3) A "better" morality

Christians like to believe their God has the patent on morality. Something can only be moral if it is within the context of Christianity. Not only is this incorrect, the opposite tends to be true, christian morality is pseudo-morality. This is because while someone not infected by Christianity might base their morality on what is best for society, the christian infectee bases his morality on what is good for Christianity.

 

Vilification of gays is perfectly acceptable because sodomy is an abomination unto the Lord, eh? Actually, it's because someone who is gay does not contribute to the next generation of christian infectees. A christian who is living a gay lifestyle is not going to raise good little True Christian™ membots to go forth and infect the next generation of hosts.

 

Because of this, christianity would much rather have straight infectees than gay infectees. The solution is christianity takes the terribly immoral stance of vilifying this entire subset of people in an effort to make them change, and live in a way which is contrary to their nature; the straight "Christian" way. Christianity cares absolutely zilch about the side effect of this, the embitterment and trauma inflicted upon an entire minority needlessly. This is just one example of why Christian morality is bad morality.

 

4) Redefining of accepted terms and concepts

God is love. God is power. God is truth. Jesus is love. Jesus is truth. Jesus is life. God is Jesus. The bible is God's holy word. The bible is truth. Sin is death... Anyway, you get the idea. Christianity is capable of redefining concepts in the brains of its infectees to the point where the world makes no sense whatsoever unless it is viewed within the context of christianity.

 

5) Male and female "roles" as part of God's plan

The most ideal family situation for christianity is for two like-minded christians to pair up pop out as many christian babies as possible. Children are programmed by evolution to soak up the culture of their people like a sponge during their formative early years. Because of this, small children have absolutely no defense against the christianity infection. Christianity makes full use of this with the godly imperative of, "Be fruitful and multiply". It's mentioned countless times especially early in the bible, God wants you to reproduce as much as humanly possible.

 

That is why christianity promotes the largely misogynistic notion that a woman's place is in the home, raising her brood of christianlets. It's also a woman's duty to keep popping out kids until 1) death, 2) menopause, or 3) her uterus falls out.

[Celsus]

Bravo, well said and concise!