Thoughts On Organized Religion

A letter from Fineberg to the Babelonians

The notion of religion is different for many people.  For thousands of years, mankind has attempted to understand the meaning behind everyday life, but more importantly mankind has yearned to understand the why.  Some argue that religion was founded solely on the basis of death and afterlife.  While others could argue that religion was founded on the idea of conquering and converting.  Either way for centuries organized religion, i.e. Islam, Christianity, Judaism, etc., has made long lasting  impressions upon our planet.

My thought on organized religion is that mankind would be better off without it.  Besides the countless wars that have been waged between the differing ideologies, the entire notion of organized religion is to simply control the masses by fear.  However, instead of hearing my rant on this subject, I have asked the other five Babelers what their thoughts on organized religion are.

Jason Morgan

In order to truly unwind the Gordian Knot that is “Organized Religion,” the topic must be broken down into different historical periods. Throughout humanity’s history, religion has not always played the same role. Some things about religion haven’t really changed, but some have drastically.

Prior to agriculture and the development of settlements and cities, religion is postulated to have been mostly driven by nature. Humans worshiped ethereal beings that they used to explain the various phenomena that were observed in nature. At this point in our history, religion was used mostly as an explanatory tool. Something to help us understand the world we live in.

With the transition from a nomadic, hunter-gather society to an agricultural, settled society, humans now began to see other purposes for religion. Rising discontent arose from a lack of fulfillment with one’s life once the food was locked up by agriculture, and religion was able to provide inspiration and hope. It was at this time that religion also took on a new role, one that would turn out to be the most important role all the way up to present day: governance.

Once people realized the ultimate power that comes from controlling the spiritual influence in a population, it was not long that religion began to be developed with the intent of laying down rules and guidelines for a society. An excellent example of this is the Old Testament from Judaism. Close inspection of many of the guiding principles from the Old Testament are meant to help people live harmoniously and for food safety.

Perhaps the greatest, and most blatant, acknowledgment that Religion morphed into a governing force was the Roman Empire. Constantine made the decision to change the official religion of the Roman Empire from NOTHING to Christianity. The Romans were a free people, who understood in their imperial days that acceptance and inclusion of a conquered people’s religion(s) into their own society, and tolerance for those religions, was paramount to the successful integration of a conquered territory. When the empire was crumbling and facing eradication from within and without, Constantine played the religion card to unite the empire under something more powerful than citizenship: religion.

Religion as an inspiration, as hope, and as altruistic assistance for a society is a wonderful thing. Religion as a means to forcefully govern a society is inherently evil, with the enforcers intentions merely being that of obtaining and maintaining power over others. It is that side of religion that is dangerous, and has led to millions of deaths throughout centuries of war and persecution.

Jack Gamble

What exactly is organized religion?  Is this meant to imply that there is such a thing as unorganized religion?  People roaming the streets randomly worshiping street signs, automobiles, and passers by?  What would the clerics of an unorganized religion look like?  I would assume unorganized clergy wear wrinkled shirts, non-matching shoes, and are behind in paying their bills.  The holy text of the unorganized religion would be equally convoluted, jumping back and forth like a Tarrantino film with a broken time line and piecemeal character development.

Or is your question aimed at religion in general? Does this mean you don’t like religion at all?  While,I will be the first to admit that ‘organized’ religion has been an excuse to commit atrocities all over the world, I am not about to cast judgment on all religions in all places.

I personally do not practice any one religion although I was raised Roman Catholic.  I am however, thoroughly pissed off and disgusted by people who are so foolish as to say that all religion should be abolished and anyone who follows some particular faith is a naive fool.  These fascist agnostics are equal in guilt to the tyrant who declares all religion that is not his own are evil and those who follow them are infidels.  These idiots who advocate atheism on an absolute scale are no better than those they claim to fight.

My personal favorite is the a-hole at the party who finds out you are a person of faith and then proceeds to publicly mock you and pick out stories from scripture citing the scientific irregularities as if this will somehow negate the entire faith.  I like to point out to these douche bags that if they have no god, then there is no almighty force preventing me from breaking their self-righteous necks.  I then kindly refer them to the Constitution of the United States, particularly the Bill of Rights which luckily protects all of us from exactly this type of stupidity should this half-witted human paraquat ever get elected into office.

Greg Molyneux

Blue is definitely my favorite color; cool and emotive it has been a rock since my non toxic Crayola days. As for my favorite number, seven all the way. Age old rumor has it that on the seventh day he rested. Weird.

Andrew Blanco “The Spanish”

Organized religion is an invention, a technology. Its purpose is to invoke feelings of spirituality through ritual, and to develop a strong sense of group identity through a system of beliefs about the world.

As with any technology, organized religion must always compromise its lofty aims with the animal truths of human nature. In trying to spread spirituality and beliefs to unknowing others, good intentions quickly turn into violence and warfare. The original priority of teaching humans to experience spiritual feelings slowly evolves into a rigid agenda that stops at nothing to defend and spread beliefs that happen to be different than the beliefs of others. The common humanity that allowed spiritual feelings to emerge in the first place is forgotten due to cultural pride, collective ego, and an unrealistic sense of superiority.

Thus we find ourselves in a world whose end will most likely be at the hand of devout followers of organized religions. When this happens we will all be privy to a nice dose of irony: God will have killed the world because of humanity’s inability to reconcile their culturally diverse views on this ancient idea we call God.

Jeff Ruemeli

“Organized religion only justifies violence.” ~Bill Maher

I will keep this short and break it into two parts. One story and one quote.

As a young catholic child I would go to church every Sunday. As I made my progression through my sacraments I gained more and more responsibility. So much so that after my confirmation, my mother thought it would be OK for me to go to church on my own. I would ride my bike to church. This was the age when my mind was in the process of asking questions. The church I was supposed to attend was located on the edge of the woods with a trail extending back to a stream. Instead of going into the church I would ride my bike down the trail to the stream and I would sit upon a rock. I would sit and think…

If God is so great, powerful and knowing why question him? He is the creator, the creator of all we see in nature. This earth is his masterpiece. My question as I sat upon that rock was this…

Why destroy God’s beautiful earth to build a church where people go to worship God’s creations? Seems like an oxymoron.

Next Up

What say you Captain Morgan?

Images Used in this Post

The Berlin Cathedral and the Notre Dame Cathedral image courtesy of extranoise published under the CC license.