The gods must be crazy, or maybe we are

Religion as a mind virus

If you were raised religiously and you escaped, congratulations. If you are on the fence, this essay is targeted at you.

Photo by Timothy Eberly on Unsplash

“We despise all reverences and all objects of reverence which are outside the pale of our list of sacred things and yet, with strange inconsistency, we are shocked when other people despise and defile the things which are holy for us.” -Mark Twain

Suppose I told you I had a magic unicorn that could fly to another dimension where a supreme intelligence named Albert resides. Every time I fly to this secret dimension, Albert, who likes to be called Big Al, gives me new instructions about how to lead a better life back here on Earth. Would you take me seriously?

Maybe a few of you would. Most of you would laugh and go about your business. “That guy Pen is really weird,” you’d think to yourself as you shop at the market. Regardless of what you think of me, I keep telling anyone who will listen about Big Al and his perfect, absolutely common sense rules for a meaningful life. By the end of my life, I’ve got a few thousand followers who take my narrative about Big Al seriously. Then I die. My followers keep telling the story of Big Al after my death. They teach their children and anyone who will listen about Big Al and the Magical Perfect Life Recipe Book for the Ages. Decades pass, and new generations are born.

My son Pen, Jr. takes over the magic unicorn rides into Big Al’s dimension and keeps receiving instructions from him. A new recipe for defeating those who disagree with the Magical Perfect Life Recipe Book for the Ages is delivered and added to The Book. By now, the Big Al gang is over a million strong. Following the new recipe, the gang defeats neighboring groups one after the other. Centuries pass, and the Holy Recipes of Big Al are now known and practiced by a third of the world’s population. Other Cookbooks for a Magical Perfect Life are banned in territories controlled by Big Al’s Followers, and The Five Great Cooks, who are all led by people descended directly from Pen and Pen, Jr. No one really thinks Pen was a weird guy anymore. In fact, there are statues of Pen and Pen, Jr. all over the lands where Big Al’s Best Recipes for a Magical Perfect Life have flourished by the sword and the gun and the cultural pressures to only use Big Al’s Recipes.

You get the analogy.

“The word god is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this. For me the Jewish religion like all others is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions.” -Albert Einstein, letter to Gutkind, Jan. 3, 1954

The only common theme religions share universally is that they contain logic loops designed to self-propagate the religion.

“In some cases, individuals are sacrificed in the service of the survival of a religion. This is exemplified by the extreme case of suicide bombers in the Middle East. Suicide in the service of the virus is also seen in the Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka and in the Japanese Kamikaze in WWII. The host is deeply indoctrinated to believe there will be an individual reward in the next life for the ultimate sacrifice on earth and, therefore, complies.”

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“When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called religion.” -Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

All religions come from the human side of the equation. The god(s) side of the equation is always wishful thinking or an attempt to improve the lot of humans. And, yes, it can be both.

“Stemming the Tide With Fundamentalism As a virus spreads, its growth eventually slows, which gives time for other god viruses to create antibodies against it. For example, the Islamic tide was eventually stemmed in India with Hindu antibodies that gave rise to Hindu fundamentalism. Indeed, fundamentalism in most of its forms is the active creation of antibodies to some threatening virus. As long as threatening religions or mutations are present, fundamentalism will churn out antibodies to keep the population under control and prevent mutations from getting out of hand.

²

“A canon is the accepted and authorized religious literature of a given religion. The canon of Christianity was officially established in 393 at the Synod of Hippo under the authority of St. Augustine but for practical purposes was probably well established a hundred years earlier. The Mormon canon was completed with the death of Joseph Smith. The Jewish canon was probably established by 200 BCE, and the Islamic Canon was established within 100 years of Mohammed’s death.”

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I’m reading The God Virus: How Religion Infects Our Lives and Culture. *Not an affiliate link. Expect more essays as I continue to digest the content.

1. The God Virus: How Religion Infects Our Lives and Culture (p. 36). BookMasters. Kindle Edition.

2. The God Virus: How Religion Infects Our Lives and Culture (p. 38). BookMasters. Kindle Edition.

3. The God Virus: How Religion Infects Our Lives and Culture (pp. 38-39). BookMasters. Kindle Edition.