Religious Mass Psychoses

There was a time in the life-span of the human animal, when there was no astronomy, no physics, no mathematics, and absolutely no understanding of the laws of the universe. It was not too long ago that no human recognized any definition of the laws of gravity, the laws of motion, the laws of thermodynamics, the laws of mass and energy. No human had any concept of the weak force, the strong force, the electromagnetic force and the force of gravity. The concepts of chemical reactions, molecules, atoms, subatomic particles were not yet formed in any mind. These humans didn’t have any of this armamentarium to work with. They had absolutely no understanding of the natural evolution of life from simple to more complex organisms. They had no study of geology, showing an evolution of changes of this planet on which they lived. They didn’t know anything about planets, solar systems and galaxies. They were totally ignorant of how the human body worked. All they knew was that they existed, and seemed to be more inquisitive than any other life form in their world. Natural disasters occurred all around them, and there was always some threat to their lives. There was some controlling force outside of them that was responsible for these external events that shaped their lives at every turn. It was at this time of global ignorance that our current God concepts were born.

We have learned a lot since the first men and women began drawing figure stories on cave walls and throwing various living sacrifices into pits or fires. We have come to understand that this planet on which we live is not the center of the universe. Not only is Earth not the center of the universe, it is an infinitesimally minute part of the universe. We have come to realize that the universe is so vast, the end of it is immeasurable, even in logarithmic light-years. All of our study leads us to the conclusion that the universe runs by the game of chance, without a planned outcome. We see no grand scheme for the human race, and, as a matter of fact, find that we are more like a cancer on this planet, rapidly depleting and polluting our own resources and sustenance. We find that we are outliers in this universe of chance, able to discern physical laws of order only at the fringes of a universe of chaos and disorder. We can detect nowhere any evidence that there is any force that is manipulating events in the universe on our behalf. It is us, against all the forces of the universe.

Yet thousands of millions of humans still cling doggedly to these ancient god concepts, that were born at this time of abject ignorance. They believe that there is some Super-being in the sky, who started this universe, and made it just for us. They believe this Super-being created us humans to look almost exactly like Him or Her. They are convinced that this Super-being is manipulating all events in the universe because He or She has a plan for this universe which is for our benefit. They are sure that this magnificent Super-being is not only all-powerful and all-knowing, but also, all-good. They believe that since their Super-being is all good, there must be some other Super-being that is all bad, in order to account for all the evil that they see in this world, in human terms. To top it all off, they think that they are favored by this Super-being above all other creatures, and will live forever, even after they die, in eternal pleasure.

It is this last and greatest mass psychosis that gets us in trouble the most. The Biblical concept that this Super-being, invented by the human mind, has created this universe, given it to humans, and given us complete command and control of all matter and all life in the universe, leads us to egregious corruption and cruelty. We do not treat other life in our world as companion travelers, and do not treat our planet home as a precious life sustaining resource.  We do not appreciate the cocoon of Earth, situated at the right distance away from a nuclear furnace of the right intensity, with a magnetic shield, atmosphere of oxygen, warm core and plentiful water, without any of which we would not exist.  We treat all other lives that do not share our particular mass psychosis as worthless deviants, who should be murdered or tortured, and who will burn in Hell forever. With the knowledge of the universe that we have at this time, these ancient religious beliefs must all be considered as mass psychoses, and adherence to their tenets as primitive savagery. Shame on us. If we do not shed these mass psychoses soon, and learn to live with each other with compassion, we will not survive as a species.

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