Another God Bites the Dust

... and exposes the God-addict's true colors

 (this article has been truncated to strictly keep it within its subject matter, namely conversion)

The classic, damning and most telling example showing that religions are merely primitive and medieval cultures is the common phenomenon of conversion. It exposes the artful dodgers' true colors and the willful contempt and disregard for their own so-called belief that it is a God-given truth worth defending with their lives.

The whimsical and perfidious convert's erstwhile god, guru and the holy book go out the window as the "true believer" capriciously changes his mind in favor of a new superstition which strikes his fancy, soothes his troubled mind, or proves beneficial to him.

It doesn't seem to matter that he is openly showing contempt for what is supposed to be the "one true religion" -- and the religion of one's parents, forefathers and one's childhood. What's more it's admitting that one's own religion is worthless, exchangeable and expendable.

Reasons galore
The reasons could be: winning wars and battles; religious-type hallucinations or illusions (seeing a burning cross in the sky); marrying a woman belonging to another religion; a protest against racial discrimination and the caste system; indulging in polygamy ("three for the road"); marriage to a nubile 13-year-old virgin beauty; business benefits and advantages; higher status from the religion of the victor and even changing one's name in the process -- in fact anything and everything but the veracity of the "one true religion" itself.

Changing horses
Changing religions is worse than changing horses in midstream. You are, in effect, allowing your time-honored "sacred" beliefs and your way of life to be swept away by the current of an opportunistic religion. Talk about honoring the religion of your forebears and sacrificing your life for your religion!


Even gurus do it ...
But then, even gurus do it! They trash the religions of their parents, forefathers and of their own childhood after they fabricate and set up new religions later on in life. The gurus are thus truly traitors, infidels, heretics and apostates.

To put it another way, their own parents and ancestors were unbelievers in the guru's "true religion." So will they all  go to Hell?

... and their ancestors, too!
It gets weirder and weirder. We find the guru's own forefathers also indulging in such a treacherous behavior. History tells us that man has always been offering flowers and  incense to thousands of different donkeys, as Zarathustra would put it, since the beginning of the human race. And it's a certainty that he would continue to do so indefinitely into the future.

Just think of the thousands of once-proud living religions unceremoniously dumped into the garbage bin of history called mythology. And undoubtedly that's where today's religions will also end up, given the whimsical nature of man. 

A vicious cycle
Conversions also show that people like to swap one superstition with another instead of giving up the falsehood altogether. Why? Because religion is an addiction acquired early in life and nearly impossible to get away from it. It's like being hooked on narcotic drugs, smoking or eating meat even when your knowledge, ethics, and rational mind tell you these habits are wrong and bad for you.


***

Conversion:  Garbage in, garbage out -- a lose-lose situation! (Me)

The guru is an apostate who does not believe in the religion of his parents, forefathers and his own childhood. (Me)

Addicts of desert religions believe in a godless, or atheistic, god. Atheists point out that a "godless god" is an oxymoron! (Me)


Men will wrangle for religion
Write for it,
Fight for it
Die for it
Anything but -- live it
-- Charles Caleb Colton (1780–1832) English cleric, writer - Lacon

Religion is the spiritual grog of the people -- easy to get habituated and hard to give up. (Me)

Today's mythology was yesterday's religion, and today's religion will surely become tomorrow's mythology. (Me)

RELIGION'S ARTFUL DODGERS

... or how to have your cake and eat it too!

It's an old trick: If you can't make it, fake it! If you can't fake it, well, how about a little self-deception for half-measures?

Self-deception
Self-deception is the use of a variety of tricks to fool yourself so that you think you believe what you really don't. Self-deception is a self-imposed blindness. With self-deception a person can be an artful dodger so that he can have his cake and eat it too.

The reasons people resort to self-deception are many, but there are three main reasons behind it: an addiction to the culture that one was born into, the fear of societal wrath and other complications, and the loss of ties to a group that provides them with companionship, help and support.

1. A good excuse: He says: "We live in a society and we should follow its culture and customs if we want to belong to it." In other words, he's implying that truth doesn't really matter and conformity is the only way to being part of your particular society -- the hypocritical "do as Romans do" way.

He ignores the fact that his ancestors had not always followed the pack and that they had swung like monkeys from one religion to another since the dawn of humanity. And that's what his descendants will also do long after he's gone.

2. An automaton: You pay lip service and go through the motions and consider yourself a believer. Neat! It's not faking it outright -- just a kind of unconscious self-deception and hypocrisy. This vacuous behavior is the most prevalent form of self-deception in modern times. We resort to a make-believe behavior to get along in the make-believe world of religion.

3. Compartmentalization: You can't live with or without religion? Don't agonize over it. There's a convenient way out, and everybody's using it.

It's called compartmentalization which simply means keeping your superstition in one mental compartment, marked Private, while flashing your modern, scientific view in the other, marked Public. A kind of doublethink. And as long as you can keep them separate and reconciled, you avoid the problem of cognitive dissonance -- a crisis of faith..

This atrocious form of self-deception is also highly prevalent in modern times, especially among the educated. They'll give you umpteen untenable reasons why science and religion are not incompatible -- using newspeak words such as material and spiritual -- so you can hang on to your favorite superstition without a feeling of guilt while accepting modern, scientific ideas.

Governments do it too!
Compartmentalization is also seen on a massive scale in the practical and serious matters of life.

Religion, despite its claim to know everything, is confined to cultural, ritual, ceremonial and personal roles while completely sidelined in all other crucial matters of life, such as the administration of a country; in science, health, medicine and technology; in poverty and disaster mitigation, wars, crime detection, and everything else to boot.

4. Art of lying: try Goebbels and Hitler
To reinforce their ludicrous superstitions, religions require you to repeat lies, in the form of mantras and other rituals, to yourself several times a day in your own home -- a kind of auto-suggestion.

This is in addition to lies and fairy tales told at the weekly sessions at the "House of God," and at religious celebrations and commemorations. This reinforcement method is commonly encouraged or foisted upon people by parents, priests and society.

As we all know, the use of repetitive lies has been the method of choice in Hitler and Goebbels' successful propaganda machine.

"The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly - it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over."
— Joseph Goebbels

“Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it”
--  Adolf Hitler

This method also applies to lying to yourself so often that you start believing in it. Maybe Hitler and Goebbels did just that!

5. God is bullet-proof, religion is reason-proof:  Yes, the artful dodgers play deaf and dumb by putting on blinkers, plugging their ears and noses and ignoring reality staring them in their face.

Pointing out the ludicrous nature of their beliefs and practices are a futile exercise and a provocation. Talking sense to them is like talking to the wall, or talking past one another. That's why true atheists shun discussions and debates with spook addicts.

6. The closet people: All this is not to ignore the closet atheist who may emerge from it when it's safe or unnecessary to keep it hidden any longer. This secretive behavior helps to avoid stirring up the hornet's nest as well as to realize one's soaring ambitions -- to become a president, a prime minister, or gain a high position elsewhere.

7. Agnostics seek middle ground. They are reluctant atheists and artful dodgers who fool themselves that there is a middle ground between atheism and religion. They refuse to look at the yawning gap between the two. And they are practically atheists in real life -- just like the rest of the so-called believers.

8. Phoney atheists: They are just fooling themselves and think they are atheists, but they are actually rebelling against an imaginary creature because their prayers went "unanswered." Naturally!

You can't be angry with God and not believe in him at the same time.
-- Sara B. Cooper, House, Damned If You Do, 2004

Examples of religion's dodgy "you can have your cake and eat it too" sayings

Plug and pray!

Pray as if everything depended upon God and work as if everything depended upon man.
-- Francis Cardinal Spellman (1889 - 1967)

Call on God, but row away from the rocks.
-- Indian proverb

Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition!
-- US chaplain Lieutenant Howell M. Forgy

Trust in God but tie your camel
-- An Arab saying

These are just a few examples of how the superstitious maneuver to hang on to their superstitions while at the same time applying modern and practical solutions to life's problems. Yes, they're having it both ways.

***

He is a fool who argues with a fool. (Source of verbatim quote uncertain)

We are all atheists when it comes to the serious business of living. Why pretend otherwise? (Me)

Conversion is embracing a new god while the old one bites the dust. (Me)

With religion, what you say is not what you believe, or do. (Me)

The guru is an apostate who does not believe in the religion of his parents, forefathers and his own childhood. (Me)

Science and religion don't mix no matter how you look at it. To think otherwise is an act of hypocrisy and self-deception. (Me)