Written by Steve Pavlina on his site www.stevepavlina.com |
While consciously pursuing your spiritual development is
commendable, joining an established religion such as Christianity,
Islam, or Hinduism is one of the worst ways to go about it. In this
article I’ll share 10 reasons why you must eventually abandon the
baggage of organized religion if you wish to pursue conscious
living in earnest.
1) Spirituality for dummies
If you have the awareness level of a snail, and your thinking is
mired in shame and guilt (with perhaps a twist of drug abuse or
suicidal thinking), then subscribing to a religion can help you climb
to a higher level of awareness. Your mindset, however, still
remains incredibly dysfunctional; you’ve merely swapped one form
of erroneous thinking for another.
For reasonably intelligent people who aren’t suffering from major
issues with low self-esteem, religion is ridiculously consciousness-
lowering. While some religious beliefs can be empowering, on the
whole the decision to formally participate in a religion will merely
burden your mind with a hefty load of false notions.
When you subscribe to a religion, you substitute nebulous group-
think for focused, independent thought. Instead of learning to
discern truth on your own, you’re told what to believe. This doesn’t
accelerate your spiritual growth; on the contrary it puts the brakes
on your continued conscious development. Religion is the off-
switch of the human mind.
Your own intellect is a better instrument of spiritual growth than
any religious teachings.
2) Loss of spiritual depth perception
One of the worst mistakes you can make in life is to attach your
identity to any particular religion or philosophy, such as by saying
“I am a Christian” or “I am a Buddhist.” This forces your mind into
a fixed perspective, robbing you of spiritual depth perception and
savagely curtailing your ability to perceive reality accurately. If
that sounds like a good idea to you, you’ll probably want to gouge
out one of your eyeballs too. Surely you’ll be better off with a
single, fixed perspective instead of having to consider two separate
image streams… unless of course you’ve become attached to stereo
vision.
Religious “truths” are inherently rooted in a fixed perspective, but
real truth is perspective-independent. When you substitute religious
teachings for truth, you mistake shadows for light sources.
Consequently, you doom yourself to stumble around in the dark,
utterly confused. Clarity remains forever elusive, and the best
answer you get is that life is one giant mystery. Religious
mysteries, however, arise not from what is truly unknowable; they
arise from the limitations of trying to understand reality from a
fixed frame of reference.
A more intelligent approach is to consider reality through a variety
of different perspectives without trying to force your perceptions
into an artificial religious framework. If you wish to learn more
3) Engineered obedience training
Religions are authoritarian hierarchies designed to dominate your
free will. They’re power structures that aim to convince you to give
away your power for the benefit of those who enjoy dominating
people. When you subscribe to a religion, you enroll in a mindless
minion training program. Religions don’t market themselves as
such, but this is essentially how they operate.
Religions are very effective at turning human beings into sheep.
They’re among the most powerful instruments of social
conditioning. They operate by eroding your trust in your own
intellect, gradually convincing you to put your trust into some
external entity, such as a deity, prominent figure, or great book. Of
course these instruments are usually controlled by those who
administrate the minion training program, but they don’t have to
be. Simply by convincing you to give your power away to
something outside yourself, religion will condition you to be
weaker, more docile, and easier to control. Religions actively
promote this weakening process as if it were beneficial, commonly
branding it with the word faith. What they’re actually promoting is
submission.
Religions strive to fill your head with so much nonsense that your
only recourse is to bow your head in submission, often quite
literally. Get used to spending a lot of time on your knees because
acts of submission such as bowing and kneeling are frequently
incorporated into religious practice. Canine obedience training uses
similar tactics. Now say, “Yes, Master.”
Have you ever wondered why religious teachings are invariably
mysterious, confusing, and internally incongruent? This is no
accident by the way — it’s quite intentional.
By putting forth confusing and internally conflicting information,
your logical mind (i.e. your neocortex) is overwhelmed. You try in
vain to integrate such contradictory beliefs, but it can’t be done.
The net effect is that your logical mind disengages because it can’t
find a pattern of core truth beneath all the nonsense, so without the
help of your neocortex, you devolve to a more primitive (i.e.
limbic) mode of thinking. You’re taught that this faith-based
approach is a more spiritual and conscious way to live, but in
reality it’s precisely the opposite. Getting you to distrust your own
cerebral cortex actually makes you dumber and easier to
manipulate and control. Karl Marx was right when he said,
“Religion is the opiate of the people.”
For example, the Old Testament and the New Testament in the
Bible frequently contradict each other with various rules of
conduct, yet both are quoted during mass. You aren’t meant to ever
make sense of them since that would defeat the whole purpose.
If you want to talk to God, then communicate directly instead of
using third-party intermediaries. Surely God has no need of an
interpreter. Don’t fall into the trap of becoming a mindless minion.
It’s a mistake to think that turning off your neocortex and
practicing mindless “faith” will bring you closer to God.
4) Toilet-bowl time management
If you devote serious time to the practice of religion, it’s safe to say
you practice toilet-bowl time management, flushing much of your
precious life down the drain with little or nothing to show for it.
First, you’ll waste a lot of time filling your head with useless
nonsense. This includes reading some of the worst fiction ever
written. Then there are various rules, laws, and practices to learn..
Next, you can expect to waste even more time on repetitive ritual
and ceremony, such as attending mass, learning prayers, and
practicing unproductive meditations.
If I add up the time I attended mass and Sunday school, studied
religion in school as if it were a serious subject, and memorized
various prayers, I count thousands of hours of my life I’d love to
have back. I did, however, learn some important lessons, many of
which are being shared in this article.
5) Waste of money
In addition to being a serious waste of time, religious practice can
also be a huge waste of money.
For starters when you donate to a major religion, you support its
expansion, which means you’re facilitating the enslavement of your
fellow humans. If you feel the urge to donate money, give it to a
real and honorable cause, not a fabricated one. Better yet, go
outside and do something yourself that really helps people. If you
can’t think of anything better, grab a can of paint and clean up
some local graffiti.
Your religious donations fund freeloaders who mooch off society
but who generally provide little or no value in return. Sure there are
some religious people who perform valuable public services, but
for the most part, that isn’t their bailiwick. These freeloaders
typically operate tax-free, meaning they’re effectively subsidized
by taxpayers. That’s a great racket if you’re on the receiving side…
not so great if you’re funding it though.
Would you seriously consider this sort of structure a “good cause”
worthy of your hard-earned cash?
6) Religions create separation
Religions frequently promote inbred social networks. You’re
encouraged to spend more time with people who share the same
belief system while disengaging from those with incompatible
beliefs. Sometimes this is done subtly; other times it’s more
obvious.
If you’re one of the saved, blessed, or otherwise enlightened
individuals who stumbled upon the one true belief system, then
supposedly everyone else remains in the dark. Certain religions are
overtly intolerant of outsiders, but to one degree or another, all
major religions cast non-subscribers in a negative light. This helps
to discourage members from abandoning the religion while still
enabling them to proselytize. The main idea is to maintain social
structures that reward loyalty and punish freedom of thought.
This us-vs-them prejudice is totally incongruent with conscious
living. It’s also downright moronic from a global perspective. But it
remains a favored practice of those who pull the strings. When
you’re taught to distrust other human beings, fear gets a foothold in
your consciousness, and you become much easier to control.
When you join a religion, your fellow mind-slaves will help to keep
you in line, socially rewarding your continued obedience while
punishing your disloyalty. Why do they do this? It’s what they’ve
been conditioned to do. Tell your religious friends that you’re
abandoning their religion because you want to think for yourself for
a while, and watch the sparks fly. Suddenly you’ve gone from best
friend to evil demon. There’s no greater threat to religious people
than to profess your desire to think for yourself.
There are better ways to enjoy a sense of community than joining a
slavery club. Try making friends with conscious, free-thinking
people for a change — people who are willing to connect with you
regardless of how silly your beliefs are. You may find it
intimidating at first, but it’s quite refreshing once you get used to it.
7) Idiocy or hypocrisy – pick one
When you subscribe to an established religion, you have only two
options. You can become an idiot, or you can become a hypocrite.
If you’ve already chosen the former, I’ll explain why, and I’ll use
small words so that you’re sure to understand.
First, there’s the idiocy route. You can willingly swallow all of the
contrived, man-made drivel that’s fed to you. Accept that the earth
is only 10,000 years old. Learn about various deities and such. Put
your trust in someone who thinks they know what they’re talking
about.
You’ll be saved, enlightened, and greeted with tremendous fanfare
when you die… unless of course all the stuff you were taught turns
out not to be true. Nah… if the guy in the robe says it’s true, it must
be true. Ya gotta have faith, right?
Next, we have the hypocrisy option. In this case your neocortex is
strong enough to identify various bits of utter nonsense in the
religious teachings that others are trying to ram down your throat.
You have a working B.S. detector, but it’s slightly damaged.
You’re smart enough to realize that earth is probably a lot older
than 10,000 years and that pre-marital (or non-marital) sex is a lot
of fun, but some B.S. still gets through. You know homosexuality
should not be a criminal offense and that it occurs in nature all the
time. You don’t swallow all the bull, but you still identify yourself
as a follower of a particular religion, most likely because you were
raised in it and never actually chose it to begin with.
To you it’s just a casual pursuit. You’re certainly not a die-hard
fundamentalist, but you figure that if you drink the wine and chew
the wafer now and then, it’s good enough to get you a free ride into
a half-decent afterlife. You belong to the pro-God club.
In this case you become an apologist for your own religion. You
don’t want to be identified with the extreme fanatics, nor do you
want to be associated with the non-believers. You figure you can
straddle both sides. On earth you’ll basically live as a non-
practitioner (or a very sloppy and inconsistent practitioner), but
when you eventually die, you’ve still got the membership card to
show God.
Do you realize how deluded that is?
8) Inherited falsehood
What if you were born into a different culture? Would you have
been conscious enough to find your way back to your current belief
system? Or are your current beliefs merely a product of your
environment and not the result of conscious choice?
Many religious teachers (i.e. priests, rabbis, ministers, etc.) are just
brainwashed slaves themselves. They don’t have any real authority
and aren’t even aware of the agenda being set by their superiors.
This makes them better minions because they actually believe the
B.S. they’re spouting and don’t know the truth behind it. A priest, a
rabbi, and a minister walk into a bar, but that’s as far as they get.
They may interact with the bartender, but they never get to know
the guy who owns the bar. They suffer from inherited falsehood
just like everyone else.
Is your religion based on the inspired word of God? No more than
this article. Just because someone says their text is divinely inspired
doesn’t mean it is. Anyone can claim divine inspiration.
Even the central figures in major religions didn’t follow the
religions that were spawned in their names. If they didn’t swallow
the prevailing “wisdom” about gods and spiritual leaders and such,
why should you? If you want to be more like the people you
worship, then follow their lead by striking out on your own.
9) Compassion in chains
Religious rules and laws invariably hamper the development of
conscience. This causes all sorts of problems like pointless violence
and warfare. Those who preach nonviolence as a rule or law tend to
be the most violent of all.
When you externalize compassion into a set of rules and laws, what
you’re left with isn’t compassion at all. True compassion is a
matter of conscious choice, and that requires the absence of force-
backed rules and laws.
Historically speaking, religious people love to fight each other.
Instead of unconditional love, they practice conditional loyalty. If
you disagree with them, you’re a target… either for conversion or
destruction (both of which are really the same thing).
If you value the ideal of unconditional love, you won’t find it in the
practice of religion. Real compassion doesn’t arise from believing
in God, from practicing various rituals, or from studying the
concept of karma. Compassion can only result from conscious
choice, and this requires the freedom to choose without the threat
of punishment or the promise of reward. If you’re obedient to your
faith, it’s a safe bet that compassion is absent from your life.
10) Faith is fear
Religion is the systematic marketing of fear.
That’s the kind of nonsense religion pushes on people. They train
you to turn your back on courage, strength, and conscious living.
This is stupidity, not divinity.
Religion will teach you to fear being different, to fear standing up
for yourself, and to fear being an independent thinker. It will erode
your self-trust by explaining why you’re unable to successfully
manage life on your own terms: You are unworthy. You’re a
sinner. You’re unclean. You belong to a lesser caste. You are not
enlightened. Of course the solution is always the same — submit to
the will of an external authority. Believe that you’re inadequate.
Give away your power. Follow their rules and procedures. Live in
fear for the rest of your life, and hope it will all turn out okay in the end.
When you practice faith instead of conscious living, you live under
a cloak of fear. Eventually that cloak becomes so habitual you
forget it’s even there. It’s very sad when you reach the point where
you can’t even remember what it feels like to wield creative
freedom over your own life, independent of what you’ve been
conditioned to believe.
Stop trying to comfort yourself by swallowing religious rubbish. If
you really need something to believe in, then believe in your own
potential. Put your trust in your own intellect. Stop giving away
your power.
Dump the safety-in-numbers silliness. Just because a lot of people
believe stupid stuff doesn’t mean it isn’t stupid. It just means that
stupidity is popular on this planet. When people are in a state of
fear, they’ll swallow just about anything to comfort themselves.
Source: Written by Steve Pavlina on his
site www.stevepavlina.com
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