I just came across this quotation on another site, Daniel Dennett:
“If religions are culturally evolved parasites, we can expect them to be insidiously well designed to conceal their true nature from their hosts, since this is an adaptation that would further their own spread.”
This from Robert Oxton Bolt: "A belief is not an idea the mind possesses, but an idea that possesses the mind".
That seems to fit very well with the established religions and new cults as well. As human society evolves the old religions become weaker while new ones evolve to take their place witness the replacement of the Catholic Church with various Protestant cults, the splintering of Islam. Even the death of the old religions points to an evolutionary trick of survival for those religions that fit in to the growth and changes of society. The adaptable grow strong and rich while the "orthodox" and dogmatic succumb to entropy as their members die.
Sure we have examples of the death throes of an old orthodoxy ( Unites States, Rome, for instance) taking over a leader or a country but then quickly burns out. To be replaced with?....
Any thoughts on this? Can we declare Religions to be a parasite sucking the vitality from mankind?
If so what steps should we take to eradicate them from our systems?
(Edited for clarity)
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Religion is absolutely a parasite. It sucks the life out of society and gives back nothing. It extorts huge amounts of money from those who can least afford it (remember the widow's mite?), while also holding back progress. Every product sold by the church, from prayers to relics, is a worthless fake. Clergy cluster around the dead like so many black flies waiting to extract every possible dollar from the bereaved in exchange for their useless prayers and hollow sympathy.
Worst of all, the church feeds on our children. It poisons young minds with babble and claptrap and allows many of its clergy to prey on the bodies of the innocent to satisfy their depraved urges.
Until modern times, the church was the sole route to advancement for talented young people of humble birth, so highly intelligent young men and women wasted their lives on theology and calligraphy instead of science and medicine. We'll never know what advances could have been made centuries earlier.
The cure: a purgative mixture of common sense, logic, rationalism, and truth to drive the worms out of society's guts and down the toilet of history.
Well, when I was a kid, one of my uncles would take me and some friends out in the woods during the Christmas season to use a shotgun to shoot mistletoe out of the trees. For some odd reason, though, I get the feeling most people would balk at using that method to get rid of the primary religious parasites. *scratching head*
The problem with "terminating with extreme prejudice" the pricks that are the drivers behind this nonsense of religious belief is that then, us rational folks, would create a whole new raft of martyrs who "took one for god" "died for their faith" thus increasing the numbers of the deluded and leading to more mercy killings.
I think we have to let them die a natural, slow, and horribly painful death.
Just a thought though, all these religious leaders are in no hurry to get off to 'heaven' or "valhalla" or the 'garden of delights' are they?
They all use their followers money to invest in the very best of health care to prolong their parasitical lives.
Not one ( including the faith healers and the Pope) say " its OK doctors,,,I have thoughts and prayers going for me..that's enough. Pack up your nasty science bags and go home"
@Old Man
Yeah, I totally agree. The whole martyr thing would definitely be a downside. (Dang-it.) And, yeah, I do so love how the leaders of the suicide bomber groups will go out and recruit and talk all kinds of shit about how great it would be for the RECRUITS to blow themselves to bits for their beloved gods, but oddly enough never think it is a good idea to strap on an explosive vest themselves. Hmmmm..... *scratching chin*
Yes, point taken, its not as extreme, but the same principle applies to those "christian" pastors exhorting morality every Sunday but furgling prostitutes on a Thursday at the local sleazy motel.
Or RCC priests extolling "suffer little children" and then making them do just that.
Baptists of every ilk I find are the worst for blatant hypocrisy in daily life of all the protestant varieties of bullshit.
@Old Man Re: "Baptists of every ilk I find are the worst for blatant hypocrisy in daily life of all the protestant varieties of bullshit."
Bwaaaaa-haaaa-haaaaa....! Don't I know it! I was raised in it! You nailed it!