“There are all sorts of things that would be comforting. I expect an injection of morphine would be comforting... But to say that something is comforting is not to say that it's true.”

Richard Dawkins

Christians are unable to enjoy themselves except through Jesus. Just like any form of addict their entire body's pleasure sense is taken over by the drug.

If I feel happy I feel happy. Not a Christian, he would be full of Christ's love. If I feel euphoric I enjoy the feeling. If I see something beautiful or awe inspiring I enjoy it for what it is. A Christian does not. A beautiful sunset is a gift from God. Anything that gives joy is a gift from God and what is more it is seen as proof of the existence and beneficence of God. There are times that I feel an rush of joy for no obvious reason. I feel no reason to attribute it to anything special, a Christian would be unable to attribute it to anything except Jesus. This is a dangerous linkage that can lead to addiction. Such a person cannot have joy except through Jesus just like a drunk cannot be happy sober and a smoker only feels relaxed when smoking. Have you noticed that lighting a cigarette is a cliche indicating that somebody has just had sex? That's because nicotine addicts feel guilty and disoriented feeling good without their little friend being involved.

If you are a Christian see if you recognize yourself in that thought. So many Christians talk of feeling good in the Holy Spirit when really they are simply attributing every good feeling to God and every bad feeling to guilt, sin or the devil. We are animals, we have moods and feelings of pain, panic, nausea at some times and euphoria and well being at other times. This is natural, not supernatural. Is it any wonder that the idea that God is love is a catchy one when every good feeling a person has is instantly attributed to God. All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small, God made them. If it is good praise God. The bad things are down to the sin of man or the temptations of the devil.

Fundamentalists even say that the nasty habits that animals have of eating each other are actually our fault. Man sinned in the Garden of Eden. The fact that animals eat each other, preying on the weak and often eating their prey alive (and never fully kosher) is actually our fault, because man has sinned. Jesus was a blood sacrifice to atone for that sin. Does that make you feel better? The idea would be laughable if so many people didn't take it seriously. Laughable in the ways dead religions are, like the way various Egyptian, Greek and Aztec gods get chopped up and reincarnated to atone for things or keep the sky from falling or whatever. Now that nobody believes in them we are allowed to laugh at them. If they still had adherents such ideas would have the protection of most constitutions and international treaties, they would still be just as wrong and laughable though.

A Christian attributes every good feeling they have to God. That association in their brain helps them to see Jesus as the best thing in their life. It is self reinforcing. Is it any wonder then that they spend so much energy in telling other people to join in their self hypnosis? Most addicts will encourage others to join in, that is why smokers find it so hard to quit when they have friends who smoke, because they don't want to be alone in their addiction, it also partially explains the taboo on drinking alone. A Christian wants others to join in and worship and feel good alongside him.

Touching yourself in a particular way to give yourself pleasure might be seen as somehow disreputable but mentally stimulating your own pleasure centres, especially if in a group of like-mindless people in their Sunday best is no longer cerebral masturbation, it is worship.

If you are religious I want you to seriously ask yourself whether it is possible for you to feel good without feeling that God is the reason. If you have difficulty with answering that you are acknowledging that you find God and wholesome guilt-free pleasure to be identical. That means your “belief system” is fundamentally selfish and simplistic. You like feeling good. It is nice to feel nice, good to feel good, you love to feel love. Inside you is a feeling that you like, you label it to yourself as God. So far so good, so far so wholesome. But that warm feeling inside also comes with rules, which seems reasonable, nothing good comes for free. Your sole route to pleasure is now a toll road.

The price takes different forms depending on your culture. It may involve sacrifice of material goods, often literally sacrifice of animals. It may require that you adhere to strict, petty and idiosyncratic rules such as having tattoos, genital mutilation, dietary restrictions, dress code, ritual bathing, fasting or abstinence from work, sex or other practices. These minor and trivial distinctions between one set of rules to be happy and another are at the heart of many human conflicts. People then begin to equate morality with observance of the petty rules my daughter is a good veiled Muslim girl or that man is a Church-going Christian man, you can trust him. Observance of petty religious practices then becomes more important than the morality it is supposed to represent. This is similar to the fetishist who obsesses about the high-heeled shoes and ignores the woman inside them.

Religions become obscene caricatures. The ideas of being happy for the universe and being good to each other seem to run through all religions that I am aware of but religious people don't like to stick to this common ground. The religious people do not want to talk to outsiders about the common feelings of humanity, decency, morality and respect for the universe around them. They are obsessed with their own narrow interpretations. “Let's all be nice to each other” is something that is far too simplistic to be the basis of a unified religion, dogma is indispensable. After all the basis of religion is faith not morality and a prescription for a good life. Faith is the key. Morality is an optional extra. All religions are groups of beliefs held with faith and faith in the virtue of faith.

Religion spreads memetically. A simple concept gathers a huge raft of lesser baggage as it is passed on. There is nothing inherent in cannabis that suggests that uses must light incense sticks, have long hair or wear leaf logos on their clothing. Neither is there anything in the Bible about the Trinity, wearing ties in church, Bishops in pointy hats carrying sticks or sacred hearts. Or anything about veils or turbans in the Koran. Cultures surround our religions and our drug habits, they become confused with the central dogma. There is a constant need for somebody to come along and shake things up, to point out what is important and to point out and throw out the trivia and trappings.

Without people speaking out religions will accumulate culture around them like memetic black holes. Religions grow in size and appeal with a richer culture but as the central dogma attracts more and more parasitic memes to it the entire edifice becomes more and more unwieldy and has the prospect of bringing the whole religion into disrepute. Something very similar to this happened in Christianity in the Middle Ages. It grew and grew like a snowball, accumulating layer upon layer of superstition, the Church came to dominate the personal and public lives of every European to a very unhealthy degree. New ideas were stifled. Perhaps today the Islamic world needs a renaissance and a reformation too.

Too much of anything, however good if feels, is bound to bad for you. The drug effects of belief can take over a person and turn them into zombies; memeoids, people for whom the spreading of a particular meme is the only worthwhile part of their existence. Memeoids live only to spread their ideas. They are by definition willing to die for their beliefs, and many of them are commited to ideas that make that tactic seem heroic. All the Abrahamic religions that teach of an all-powerful sky God and an afterlife spawn dangerous groups of fanatic memeoids from time to time. They came to the fore in the Jewish rebellion at Massada, Jim Jones in Guyana and the al Qa'ida organization.

Memeoids have no life at all. You probably know a few memeoids. They can be particularly dangerous when they are charismatic and in groups, but even isolated memeoids can be dangerous. Can you really trust people who are prepared to give up their lives for ideas? All too often you find that they are asking that you do the same.

The causes of religions are known. Their effects are known, and known to be harmful in many respects. Just like drugs religions offer a dangerous mix of promise and threat. We know the harm they can do, we know the pleasure that motivates the addicts and potential addicts. Denying that pleasure, saying that it is all an illusion is no good. We need to accept that there is a pleasure there, but it is one we should not encourage because we know the price that will be demanded for that pleasure, a price that is too high to justify. Both drugs and religions should be freely available to be chosen, we must make the facts known, we should trust our children to make the right choices.

God? Just Say No.

Response: God is an Elixir

Atheism

Politics

Life

Feedback

Forum

Home

Tweet

© 1999 - 2012 by Martin Willett.

mwillett.org: Martin Willett's World