Here is an excerpt from a book called "Fresh Wisdom-Breakthrough to Enlightenment" that really hits the point:
The Con of Religion
Religions and cults are man-made inventions designed to allow an elitist priesthood to con value out of those that follow them.
We know that this will upset some, so let us first clear up a few definitions.
Spirituality
Whether gained through life experience, revelation (religious or otherwise) or self-discovery, spirituality is transcendental in nature (meaning beyond the realm and reach of the five senses).
It involves insight and a sense of connection within the self, to others, nature, the Universe or a higher power.
Religion
Religion, in the sense used throughout this manual, is an organized set of beliefs and a way of understanding the Universe and yourself as part of the Universe.
Religion defines (some more strictly than others) how a person's beliefs are expressed and often acts as a guide in terms of how a person expresses his or her spirituality. It aims to provide guidance, perspective, community and support for the individual in his or her solitary practice. By its very definition, religion influences an individual’s beliefs.
Throughout this manual we will be discussing religion as defined as an organized set of beliefs. We are specifically excluding spirituality from this discussion.
Throughout this manual, the point of reference will be Christianity in all of its many forms. This religion has been singled out purely because it is likely to be the one with which the reader is most familiar. This is the only reason.
However, the comments in this section apply to the vast majority of religions and cults, and any one could have been selected as a point of reference. It is not our intention to embark upon a long and tedious comparison of various religions, because to us, they are all essentially the same; that is, systems designed by one group of people to extract life values from other people. They have little or nothing whatsoever to do with God, or whoever you choose to worship.
We have used the word ‘church’ to mean any building where any religious ceremonies take place. We have used the word ‘God’ to mean any Supreme Being, by whatever name you prefer to refer to him or her. We have used the word ‘priest’ to refer to any religious leader, from any denomination. These terms have purely been chosen for simplicity and ease of reference – no other reason.
So, what is ‘religion’, understood from the Fresh Wisdom point of view?
A religion is a system invented by an elite priesthood who desire to extricate value from their followers.
The priests claim that their mandate comes from a dead, discarnate or supernatural being, and that they are the chosen channels for this power. Having gathered together a flock, the priests then proceed to con values out of the flock under false pretences. In the past, the values were money (in vast quantities) and power.
Although this is still true, more often the values today are respect, kudos, loyalty and power. The priests also enjoy a smug sense of ‘doing good’.
Fresh Thinkers choose to see all this for what it is, and quite simply refuse to play. One cannot be religious in the typical sense of the word, and still have power over your own life. The two are completely incompatible.
Religion and Sacrifice
Religion comes in many disguises, but all have a common thread. The message varies from cult to cult, but it is basically a message of sacrifice. Sacrifice your life’s pleasures now, so that you might enjoy everlasting life, dwelling with the angels, sitting next to God for all eternity. The words and language might vary, but the message is basically the same.
Throughout history, serious crimes against the people have been committed using the illusion of religion.[1] Millions upon millions of people have been forced to live drab, boring, unfulfilled and painful lives because they have been stifled by religious guilt and fear. It is still going on today. Religion is the single biggest force for evil at large in the world. It causes untold misery and anguish.
Like most of the best illusions, this insidious one exploits several basically good human emotions, e.g. the natural sense of wonder, awe and amazement which any thinking person cannot help but feel when confronted with the great, mysterious Universe. Most thinking people have a deep (if uncultivated) sense of mystery, and cannot help but question their place in the cosmic scheme of things. It is to this pure and wonderful human emotion that the cancer of religion attaches itself. It then proceeds to weave a thick web of deceit, lies and illusion which destroys the victim's natural sense of wonder, and replaces it with misery, anguish and hypocrisy.
One cannot become fully empowered and subscribe to any man-made religion. Why?
Because one cannot become a free and enlightened human being and subscribe to a complete fantasy.
If you are religious in any conventional sense, then it will hinder your personal growth until such time as you are strong enough to see through the illusion of religion. If you are religious, then you are extremely likely to dismiss this whole section anyway. However, you will be unable to cross the barrier to personal freedom for as long as you refuse to face up to reality and truth.
We know this is tough. Did you not find it very difficult to accept when you discovered that Santa Claus was not real? That is part of the growing process. Few would disagree that it would be a great handicap to an adult if he were to continue to believe in Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny. However, the blind following of a man-made religion is a far more dangerous and cancerous fairy-tale.
This is because most people who join religious groups do so because of feelings of fear, guilt and insecurity, and almost never from a position of spontaneous joy of life and desire for knowledge or truth, even though people often delude themselves that they are coming from this position.
This does not mean that we are insensitive to the wonder and mystery of the Universe. We realize that the wonders of the Universe, and the mystery of creation are far greater than the teachings of any man-made religion.
The authors have deliberately avoided the catch-22 of describing our own religious background. This would be a lose-lose scenario. If we told you we were ex-Christians, then you can smile smugly and say: “Ah yes, they obviously had a bad experience, but they do not understand the TRUE message of Jesus”. On the other hand, if we tell you that we have never been in a church in our lives, and have zero interest in religion, then you can nod sagely and say: “Ah yes, they do not know what they are talking about due to their lack of experience. I will pray that one day they will discover the love of Christ.” Either way, you get a great chance to pigeon-hole us and dismiss the vital message contained in this section. You can then nod-off to sleep again, secure in the knowledge that our message is invalid.
Never forget that religion is an invention of man, not God. Religions are founded by men who claim that God spoke directly to them. They then ask the rest of us to believe it. Furthermore, never forget that religion is a prime illusion used to control the masses by those who seek power - and this means today, now.
Classes of Religious Con Artists
The religious con-artists are not all the same, of course. They seek different levels of power according to their vision. They can be divided into groups as follows (in order of the level of damage they cause to other people's happiness):
- Evil megalomaniacs who deliberately and calculatingly stir up religious fever and hatred in the masses in order to get them to fight a holy war on their behalf.
- Power-hungry individuals who divert the masses from thinking about real issues by getting them to expend their energies in religious hatred of another sect. (e.g. Germany 1939, Klu Klux Klan, etc). In these cases, religious hatred is often indistinguishable from race hatred.
- Clever politicians who exploit religious ill-feeling.
- Wealthy religious institutions who wish to retain their power, wealth and influence.
- Fairly wealthy and powerful individuals who, although not evil, wish to retain their power, wealth and influence. e.g. Popes, Bishops, Cardinals, etc.
- People who are making a good living from religion and also enjoy the prestige which comes from being considered more spiritual than others. e.g. priests, ministers, vicars etc.
- Well-meaning, but basically powerless, weak and confused religious zealots who seek to acquire a thimble-full of power by converting others.
- The mass of mindless sheep who unquestioningly support the people in categories 1-7 above.
Scales of Justice
We should refuse to sacrifice our life-energies for such a wasteful and pointless cause as religion, recognizing that if one were to weigh the good against the bad effects of any religion over the last few thousand years, then the scales would come crashing heavily down on the bad side. It would be rather like a one thousand ton weight representing the evil of religion, and a pebble representing the good.
The whole concept of religion represents the exact opposite views of Fresh Wisdom.
This is because organized religion is life-debilitating, depressive and looks towards death. We relish life, excitement and joy. We know we will die someday, but we live our life like a warrior until that moment.
Almost all the things which are supposed to bring joy, wonder and excitement to human beings are ruined by the poison of religious thought.
Religion demands that you sacrifice your life's values (money, time, effort) to other people (usually priests) under the disguise of sacrificing them to God.
Religion is, almost by definition, inharmonious due to its divisive nature. You are expected to join one particular group or sect (the only true sect, of course), which then automatically polarizes you against the rest of humanity. Us and them. The rest of humanity are labeled as wrong, evil, sinful, or just misguided, and can only be saved by being converted by you or your group.
Fear is probably the major weapon used by religious con-artists over the centuries. Religious fear is used to ruthlessly cajole the mass of believers into conforming. Fear of damnation, fear of going to hell, fear of judgment day, fear of disapproval by the church, fear of being found out for your sins, fear of the devil, fear of asking questions, fear of the answers, fear of facing your own true thoughts and feelings on a daily basis.
Fresh Thinkers, however, are completely free from fear because we are never immobilized in the present moment. Instead, we live in the present, enjoying each wonderful, spontaneous moment as it unfolds.
Deeply religious people are deeply, soundly asleep. They are not amenable to rational argument. They are not open to logic. They are not prepared to examine the possibility that they are wrong. This is because they are terrified of having their beliefs exposed as beliefs based on man-made rules and regulations.
They have a deep and powerful vested interest in believing their simple fairy tales. The pay-off is comfort and security. Instead of taking refuge in a fairy-tale, we realize there is no one who will make everything alright, and that things never will be alright. This belief empowers us with the knowledge that we have a finite time to live. The result is a happy and guilt-free life, unencumbered by the dead weight of religion.
Religion actively discourages awareness, critical debate or free thought. Any questions which seem a little too searching are met with the response that you must ‘have faith’ (that is, blind unquestioning belief in something which cannot be proved, and appears to be complete nonsense).
There is even a school of religious thought which states that the more patently ridiculous a fantasy is, then the more faith you are showing by believing it. The implication is that the more faith you have (i.e. blind belief in a patent absurdity), then the better a believer you are.
Censorship
Until relatively recently, the flock were not permitted access to written materials concerning their own religion. After all, the con-artists would not like the sheep to actually start studying their religion, or, God forbid, actually questioning the priesthood. The whole point of being a priest is that you control the knowledge, and only dole it out in small handfuls according to your perception of how the sheep will react to this knowledge. The last thing you want is for the sheep to question you, or start thinking for themselves.
Why?
Because the veils which the priests draw across the inner sanctum are exceedingly thin. Too close an inspection might reveal that the altar is bare.[2]
The priests used to be able to rely on the total ignorance and stupidity of the masses. Nowadays they have to rely solely on the latter. Remember that most people were totally illiterate and were incapable of reading the Bible. It is only recently that Catholics (for example) were permitted to read the Bible. Services were, and still are in many places, conducted in Latin - a language completely unknown to the common people. Historically, the church has ruthlessly, repeatedly and deliberately lied to the mass of believers.
They have done this either to blatantly gain advantage for themselves (money, power etc.) or worse, in the belief that these lies were in the best interests of the flock who were considered too vulgar and ignorant to be provided with more accurate information. They considered it best to keep the masses in ignorance.
Organized religion revels in misinformation, illogical thought and downright lies. The vast majority of sheep have absolutely no interest in any aspect of their own religion. They rarely ask questions or enter into debate. Their knowledge of the facts concerning their own religion is virtually nil. In fact they know less about this subject than almost any other subject with which they have had a passing acquaintance. Of course, the reason they do not know is because they do not want to know. They realize, on some level, that their beliefs will not withstand the most cursory examination or questioning and so they adopt a head in the sand attitude and stay that way until they die.
Do Religious Teachers Believe Their Teachings?
It is also a strange fact that many (if not most) priests do not believe more than a small percentage of the ‘facts’ which they trot out for consumption by the sheep. They continue to support these fabrications for many reasons:
- Habit. Even the most arrant nonsense, repeated often enough, will start to sound true. Joseph Goebbels, Stalin, Mao Tse Tung all knew this well.
- It is a living. All senior members of the church are making a very comfortable living out of being professional liars. Most of them have a job for life with no threat of redundancy regardless of ability. The con is that the priests are not up-front about their motives, even to themselves. They pretend that making a good living from religion is purely incidental and they are fundamentally interested in helping people. The ranks of the priesthood would rapidly become deserted if the salary was reduced to the level of Social Security, and all possessions were forbidden.
- Fear. They fear the consequences of their own questions, and have been trained and conditioned for years to believe that inquisitive thoughts are the devil's work.
- Simplicity. They think that the flock would not really understand anything more complex. It is best to repeat a fairy-tale to which their simple minds can relate.
- Power. Imagine the power of being a priest. The wonderful feelings of having the masses revere you and fear you. Having people come to you for advice, having them confide their innermost secret thoughts to you. Controlling the lives of the flock. Standing up and lecturing them. The con is that they are not up-front about enjoying this power. Instead they pretend to themselves that this aspect does not interest them and that their only motive is pure self-sacrifice.
- Superiority. The priest secretly believes that he is superior to the common herd, and closer to God than they. He fights against this thought, of course, knowing it is wicked and the devil's work - but still he thinks and believes it. He enjoys the masses looking up to him and holding him in great esteem, even awe. He feels a smug sense of goodness, and knows that he will be one of the first in line for a huge, personal thank you from God. He does not like to admit this to himself, of course, and struggles against such wicked, sinful pride, but nevertheless, he feels it. The con is that he pretends (even to himself) not to enjoy the elitist aspect of the job, but to be filled with humility, only performing God's bidding and striving to become the perfect servant of the Lord.
Fresh Thinkers see through all of these things and use them to our advantage. We do not waste life-energy by becoming involved with religion, neither do we seek to convert religious people to our way of thinking. Such a conversion process (if possible) would require an enormous amount of energy.
We are guilt-free in this, because we do not lull people to sleep by poisoning their minds with religious thought - we simply refuse to be lulled ourselves. Neither is it our mission to wake people from their dreams. We are not on any kind of crusade to arouse the masses from their religious slumber.
Seeking The Truth
An interesting example of religious hypocrisy (of which there are countless thousands) is that the majority of believers would state that they are ‘seeking the truth’. This is self-deception on their part. They are doing the exact opposite. They would deeply resent the truth if it were presented to them. They would get angry and hot under the collar if the truth were told to them.
The religious masses almost never ask any questions at all about their chosen religion. They certainly do not seek logical answers to reasonable questions. In fact their minds are usually completely closed to new ideas or input. This is the very reason why they joined the group. They want to be controlled and spoon-fed a half-baked version of reality which they can swallow without question. This is comforting for them. The pay-off is security. We, on the other hand, never seek illusory comfort.
Religion offers a pardon for the consequences of your actions as long as you are a good compliant believer. In contrast, we take full responsibility for our every action, and do not seek external beings to take the weight from our shoulders.
Religious Wealth
It is interesting to note that the average so-called Christian in the Western world retains large reserves of wealth while those around him starve to death. An appeal to the sense of fairness offers the religious person absolution for their guilt at this situation. Thus, if they write a $50 check for (say) famine relief, they can feel really good and holy about it for weeks, and not worry too much about the $200,000 of total wealth they have retained for themselves.
Ask any Christian this direct question: “You claim to be a Christian. One of Christ’s central teachings is that you have to give up your riches to the poor, and follow Him. While I might accept that this does not mean that you have to walk around in rags and sleep in a ditch, I wonder how you reconcile your alleged Christian beliefs with the fact that your total wealth exceeds $200,000?"
We have never met a Christian who has given up everything and followed Christ. Let us say that again. In a supposedly Christian country, we have never met one single person who has followed Christ's main teaching which was to give up all of your worldly goods, and follow him. Have you ever met such a person?
The best excuse we have heard: “Although I agree that my assets exceed $200,000, I do not really consider that I own them. I long ago gave them to Christ, and I am just waiting for him to tell me what he wants me to do with them all. Meanwhile I consider myself to be merely their guardian.” Hmmm…
Are we cold, unfeeling, careless of the starving millions? No. We feel as much as the next person - except that our feelings are genuine because we do not spring from a need for approval, or guilt, or worry, or fear. In fact it might be worth at this point stating our feelings on a particular issue, e.g. the starving millions. Our thoughts are likely to be as follows:
There are hundreds of thousands of causes clamoring for our attention. Everything from wheelchairs for the disabled table tennis team, to the Maori legal fighting fund. The list is almost endless. If we were to start naming these charities at top speed, it would take over four months just to get through the list of names - by which time a hundred new ones will have been formed. Note we are saying nothing whatsoever about the worthiness of these charities.
Our time and funds are limited. If we gave one penny to each of them we would be bankrupt.
It therefore follows that we must strictly limit any charitable giving - preferably to zero.
We are not able to be manipulated by the latest media story, or the church making us feel guilty, or any of the con-artists using any of their weapons.
We are totally guilt-free, and would not feel guilty even if we never gave a penny to any of them - which we rarely do.
We recognize that most charities are limitless sinks of funds and effort. Almost regardless of how many billions are poured in, the problems remain. In fact aid very often causes far more problems than it solves. This is an unpleasant truth to those who seek to absolve their guilt by limited charity.
Finally and vitally: if you and us decide that we will focus our considerable personal power on a (usually very local) charity, then we move into the task with tremendous power, and things really start to happen. We are not talking about a $50 conscience check.
However, we have a policy of non-interference in the lives of others and that means that we rarely become involved in conventional charitable works. The reason is that one can rarely predict the consequences of a so-called good act, and good intentions are simply not enough of an excuse for wholesale interference.
Harmful Charity
Here is just one example of pointless charity - of which there are many thousands. You are probably aware of frequent stories of crop failure, or drought in countries around the world, usually Africa. People are facing starvation almost constantly.
The reason they are starving is because they are struggling to survive on unworkable, worn-out land. A situation which will not improve, only deteriorate. Massive aid has been flown into these desert-like locations, at various points in time. Millions of gallons of drinking water are trucked in. Each operation is paid for by millions of little $50 conscience checks from nice, affluent, middle-class people. Of course, lives are saved in the short-term, but these aid centers act like magnets to hundreds of thousands of people living in outlying districts.
These people are not actually starving, but they are not having too good a time either. So these people from the outlying districts (not the starvation zone) see these aid centers as really great places for a free hand-out to ease their suffering. Unfortunately, this has the effect of displacing large numbers of people from their homes in outlying regions, and attracting them in to an already hopelessly over-populated and worn-out region. This ensures that the death-rate multiplies horribly in successive years when the fuss dies down and the aid workers (and camera crews) leave for the next hot story.
This is an over-simplified example, but the basic message is beware meddling in things about which you know nothing. It is arrogant and dangerous. The motivation is simply one of salving your conscience and justifying the retention of the bulk of your wealth.
Discerning readers do not give possessions or money away to help the poor. However, anyone of any sensitivity must feel something if they are awash with wealth while the rest of the world starves. The difference between a Fresh Thinker and the so-called religious person is that:
We are not out to save the world. We realize that it probably cannot be saved anyway. We also realize that so called good actions often only aggravate the problem. Our primary duty is to be happy, and this reflects on others around us. We also know that there is no end to the number of problems around the world. They are limitless.
The religious person does not question the long-term effects of his giving, because his main motivation is to absolve himself from the guilt-feelings caused by his massive retained wealth. So he gives $50 here and there to causes about which he knows little or nothing. He can then put his conscience to sleep for another few months. He neither asks for, nor expects accountability for the aid money. He is not really interested in how the money is spent. He merely wants to know that two points have been added to his ‘good boy’ total in heaven. He becomes extremely uncomfortable about news stories describing how aid money has been misspent, stolen or squandered. He refuses to listen to these stories. Instead he wants to hear simple little tales of blankets being given to grateful children, or he wants to see a news bite of grinning natives gratefully unloading a few sacks of grain.
Approval
One of the many reasons people follow certain religions is because of approval – an extremely powerful method of influencing the masses.
If the authors feared disapproval, then we would not have included this particular section. It is still very much frowned upon to take such a strong stance against religion. People are very sensitive about their illusions, and they do not like having them exposed.
If you are even a little bit religious, then we are sure you have felt some anger and resentment towards us while reading this section. Not very long ago, we would have been imprisoned, tortured and then murdered in the name of Christ for expressing these thoughts. In those days, the priests held the power of life and death, and they were not squeamish about using those powers.
We consider the comments we have made in this seminar to be fairly mild, just as we consider our comments concerning law and government to be restrained. Why? Because we live in an ultra-repressive society – and it is getting worse. The sheep, of course, believe that they are free and live in a democracy where their vote counts. And enjoy personal power!
If we had confined our comments to certain other religions (which shall remain nameless), then we would have been targeted by fundamentalists, and murdered at the first opportunity. This is not a joke. If we had gone further with our comments concerning government, we would have been listed as dangerous subversives. Our telephones would have a continuous tap on it, mail would be intercepted, bank accounts monitored and possibly we would have been followed to see who we met with.
Many people seek approval through religion. Here are several types of approval:
- Approval from God: Most religious people believe in a God who is watching over their every move and smiling in approval at the good things they do, and frowning in disapproval at the naughty things they do. This simplistic view of life relates to childhood, when Mummy and Daddy did exactly this.
- Approval from the priest: If you doubt this, simply watch the congregation at the end of a church service. You will see a large group of sycophants swarming around the priest in the hope of getting a quick word of approval from him.
- Approval from others: Parading your religion, effectively saying: "Look at me, I'm a really good Christian." Accidentally mentioning the $50 you sent off to Christian Aid last week. Wearing your various badges/poppies/flags which prove what a really caring and wonderful person you are.
- Approval from your fellow believers: Joining in the rituals, knowing the new hymn tunes, going to church meetings, being on the committee, doing your bit etc. When you seek the approval of others, you give them power over you to give, or withhold that approval. If they withhold it, you are hurt. If they give it you are like a grateful little doggie, wagging its tail.
Spirituality
Religion has little or nothing to do with true spirituality. It is a man-made system which latches on to people's natural sense of awe, wonder and amazement, just as it exploits their fear of their own mortality and most people who operate the religious con are doing so because they receive a hidden pay-off (the con-artist always gets a pay-off). They are not, in the main, evil people, they are simply con-artists who seek to extract value from you under false pretences. Your pay-off for believing in their nonsense is an illusory comfort and sense of security. You can also feel smug, self-important, chosen and special.
Let us repeat once again, that it is natural to have a feeling of wonder and awe at the amazing mystery of the Universe. It is also natural to speculate upon the origins and purpose of the Universe, and in the microcosm, human existence. We hope that we have not failed in our task of explaining the vast chasm which lies between these natural and wonderful human feelings, and those who seek to prostitute these feelings for their own ends.