"Religious people are more red pill than atheists"
09-09-2013, 08:10 PM
It would be useful to remind ourselves here of the purpose of religion. Nothing is to be gained by squabbling about theological absurdities. One can always find examples of religious clowns, fools, and bigots. Pointing them out does not advance our understanding. What is more important is to understand the purpose and place of religion.
No society can rest its moral code on inducements to honesty, altruism, or noble ideals. The masses would not listen, and would not be inclined to obey. Individuals are not naturally sociable, and will not willingly subordinate his personal interests to those of the group on his own accord. There needs to be something to frighten him into submission, frankly. There should be some invisible watchman, and religion performs this task admirably. As the ancient geographer Strabo said:
In dealing with a crowd of women, at least, or with any promiscuous mob, a philosopher cannot influence them by reason or exhort them to reverence, piety, or faith...there is need of religious fear also, and this cannot be aroused without myths and marvels. For thunderbolts, aegis, trident, torches, snakes, etc., are myths, and so is the entire ancient theology. But the founders of states gave their sanction to these things as bugbears wherewith to scare the simple-minded....Philosophy, however, is for the few..."
Strabo, Geography, I.2-8
Civilization is created and sustained by the few. The basic masses of humanity hardly change from epoch to epoch. And this is why religion is universal. It is necessary. I know some reading this are going to say, "Oh no, not me, I don't need anything to keep me in check, I'm so noble and wonderful and superior". Really? I think not. I say to him who says this: on this Forum, a microcosm of society, you are only as good and generous as your prudence and fear allow you to be. You know that if you step out of line, the suspended sword of Tuthmosis or Roosh will fall directly on your neck. So, you think about that.
Everyone's conduct is driven by fear, to some extent. We should not think we are morally superior to people from other ages and epochs. Yes, medieval man was a "God intoxicated" being. But what about us? I think we could argue that instead of worshipping God, we have just substituted worship of the state and science.
Fear is the first mother of the gods, as Lucretius says. Above all, fear of death. For primitive man, death was all around him. Fear created totemism in primitive man, the fixation on totems and taboos. He needed something to keep the fear of death at bay, some belief system that gave his life meaning. In anthropology, nearly every object has at one point been the object of worship: sun, moon, animals, plants, etc.
Religion props up morality by using myth and taboos. Magic and even sorcery were developed to provide cohesion to the social group, bind it together with shared rituals, and to some measure inspire terror for correct conduct in human relations. Is it any accident that the greatest number of primitive taboos were attached to women? Was there not a reason for this? Women, under most primitive taboos, were unclean, untouchable at certain times, and these beliefs found their way into religions like Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The Macusi people of British Guiana forbade their women from bathing in the water at certain times out of fear of poisoning the waters.
As societies become more advanced, however, knowledge and science grow. New ideas begin to clash uncomfortably with the old theologies, which change ever so slowly. Eventually, in advanced stages of civilizations, the educated classes begin to abandon religion completely, and this we see happening in Western Europe, Japan, and many sectors of the US. It is inevitable. But then, as the old moral supports wither away, human conduct becomes more and more degenerate. Life becomes a senseless pursuit of pleasures without end. And then the society begins to collapse, ever so slowly. A civilization and its religion tend to fall together.
And then, after many generations of chaos and turbulence, a new religion arises.
QC