Religion as a tool

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So we've all seen the useless and amorphous religious arguments, x versus y, but I don't care to disturb what works for you as an individual. On the bigger scene, as a functional tool to gather and unite or divide, when necessary, societies through demagogues, is it not almost a required unit of control for human progress? Religion is unique to me in that it never attempts to disguise the mysticism of wondering of our fate, it simply disillusions it. I think wonderment and uncertainty is something we don't really wish to rid ourselves of because we're made to conjecture many different possibilities. Some prefer or even need guidance in how to form this answer, but with no answer, and religion does this by telling you what to think and how to reach greater state of being in this life or the next, a state that you create for yourself. My opinion is that when I die, it will be exactly like before I was born. As though I passed through one death, am alive now, and will soon resume death, back into the nothingness that is the all before my first memory. But such a bleak view isn't good for many I suppose.

It's no secret that Religion played a huge role in putting us where we are right now. And though the argument could be made in the favor of any of our great mental achievements, religion is still the most powerful of them all. I come from a southern baptist background so I still wear that lens, it will be seen throughout the rest of this post. To get to the nuts and bolts of it, religion represent being on-board or on the same level. It offers a shared experience in the realm of the spirituality and in actuality. That is, if we stand together behind this one set of beliefs and apply it's cultural constructionism to the world around us, we are in the morale right. This can be driven by true faith or by a much more selfish need to execute societal change to better serve oneself or national philosophy (Western). In the corporate and military worlds I've seen how this manifests itself. In the military it's as though being religious represents being institutionalized, a denial of self and a willingness to cooperate unquestioningly. All symbolic representations of being on the same page, which can help your career. It's not so extensive in a corporate environment, but still evident. In America, in the region I'm from, we have a very clear and detailed vision of our enemy, the sand-eating Muslim. It's a very political enemy though, one that rejects everything about our bourgeois mentality. And of course we reject thier "savage" ways. Of course we have our even more characterized traditional enemy the Socialist. We've thrown that term around so much, anything that doen't increase money is now socialist. Anyways.. the demogogues define our enemies, and our enemies are always seem to be fiscally obstructive. Religion replaces honest altruistic cognizance with a skewed moralism that justifies doing the right thing for others by making it right for us. Right or wrong aside, religion helps motivate acceptance and deliberation toward certain goals. If you are in agreement with such goals, religion puts you on board. In my case it might be, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. The Taliban is a clear enemy of mine. I believe everyone should have the right to and education and moreover the right to choose what they learn and believe. Specifically I think all knowledge is shared, so intellectual ownership is absurd to me, which makes me a socialist. Damnit.

So religion can dramatically influence distant politics, but more directly it can help people. In my home town Memphis the churches have supported a quality health care clinic for anyone uninsured, it's a very busy place and volunteer doctors provide services daily. Without the support of local churches this place would not have been established in '87 and 54,000 people a year would have the difficult task of finding alternative health care provisions. I don't want to speak too much on the very subjective point of how religion helps enrich some peoples lives be it through coping with life and death or what have you. But there does exist far reaching aspect that is probably the most enduring of all traits to religion. To reach out to people as individuals, from one-on-one counsling to community support.

Of course we have the fringe groups out there like the Westboro fags, and there's the Heisenberg Effect that is the End Times accounts, it seems almost to drive people toward the chaos that is their interpretation of vague words. For instance, the Fundamentalist belief that war from all sides against the new Israel will end with great blessings for Israel and all who stand at their side. I don't believe it's desired or actively pursued, but it results in a quiet acceptance and apathy of the Middle-East situation.


Basically I want to see a discussion not about religion as fact or fiction, rather- religion: the right tool for the right job? In this mindset, what is the right religion/philosophy to follow? Is it still something we need?

Please notice, you are not talking about religion or religions, neither the apparently human drive toward a Higher nor the multitudinous sets of theories and practices found through history linked to individual societies or subgroups.

Like most of the modern West, whether "religious" or no, you are assuming "religion" IS the modern Western Christanoid religions.

Any organization can choose to dictate behaviors and thought patterns. Any organization can recruit. Any organization can initiate social programs. It may be, yes, a Western Christianoid religious organization like the Gethsemanite Brethren with their emphasis on the third anointing. But it might also be a political movement like the Neoanarchists, or a social movement like the Society for the Preservation of Metis Culture, or an environmental movement like the Friends of the Pika, an industrial firm like Hamtramck Diversified Pharmaceuticals, or even my Latin Club.

Such organizations do not NECESSARILY do any of that. Nor do the more abstract Religion, Politics, Industry, Environmentalism etc.

If you find those fumctions useful, any type of organization will serve to perform them.

Religious organizations [more loosely generally labelled "religions"] MAY perform these elective functions, but the prime purpose of a religious organization is facilitating Religion, which I will for now LOOSELY , don't get too picky here, define as the process of coming to perceive / understand / approach / relate to "Spirit" and the "Divine".

Pluralism is now the global order-of-the-day, and even it will eventually be found wanting. Hence, the "honest altruistic cognizance" you have mentioned will ultimately need to replace mere religion.

The seething masses are too ignorant, stupid, or just plain busy trying to survive to follow all but the most basic directions. Therefore, "Do it because it's the will of God" is often the easiest way to motivate large numbers of people. Don't understand/agree with the cause? Doesn't matter; it's God's will! Don't think, just do what the leader says God wants! If you don't, you'll go to Hell!

Religion can be used as a tool against others. It can also be a tool one uses to help oneself and others.

As a political tool religion has in fact proven very shifty and unreliable. For everyone who accepts "If I do this I will go to the Godfeast, if I do that I will be eaten by the Faceless One", there is the other who listens more to the spirit voice than to the leader, and the other one who thinks the whole thing is a crock.

"Do this and receive a medal, do that and go to Siberia", while not infallible, is a far better motivator. I can figure I have years to go before Hell and can likely talk my way out. But the knock on the door comes at midnight TONIGHT and nobody listens.

Religion is a tool of dominance, repression and tyranny.

ruveyn

Yes ...

Uh, yeah, uh, uh ... yeah, right.

A Tool of...

Does not mean "only a tool of", "a tool of only", or "the only tool of"

Yea that's the lens I see through because I have a Christian background. But I look at is as an examp[le I can try to convey my thoughts through. I don't intend for me to look as though that's the only viewpoint I see, it's just the view that surrounds me.


I mean to look specifically at religion, but I do believe that it is the strongest organization to mobilize populations- sometimes, though, when used conjunctively with the various examples you present (in their general sense). Also a non-religious state, such as Vietnam, uses it's state belief system as a tool.. though a bit of a stretch at what I'm trying to get at, it's still relative to this conversation.



I simply disagree with this assertion. That's merely the surface of any religion. The deeper you dive into modern Christianity, the less it's about spirituality. It breaks down into two distinct areas. The first is very direct, such as church donations being used within a community (contributions to individuals or charities). The second is very indirect, for example, sermons using passages from the Bible to "teach" people what God intends us to do in the situations we face at the macro-social level. There's a central system to the Southern Baptist Convention that receives donations from most sect churches, it uses those donations daily to enact political change. Furthermore it sets the doctrinaire of the sect, so far as providing complete political sermons to be repeated by preachers. Other sects have central churches that perform a similar function.



Sometimes.



Not many states can enforce such motivators, although the ones that can are massive and it always become very visible (at least I hope). I think for America we have always been on shifty ground for religious influence, and yet it perseveres with great strength. I wonder if John Travolta's son would be alive if Scientology had a different stance on pharmaceuticals.