Religion is regarded by the common man as true, by the wise man as false, and by rulers as useful. – Seneca the young.
GEN 11:6 And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.
Religion isn’t just moral guidelines and all this other crap “smart” people seem to think it is. It’s been used by rulers to control people before, and it will be used to do the same again. When somebody gets a little too smart and figures out how it all works conflict is created. Religion prevents these critical thought processes which lead to these discoveries by offering explanations for it all and demanding unwavering loyalty.
Yes, the first statement contains five words, the second contains six words. The first statement could be construed by narrow-minded college English majors to allow for the possibility that god exists, but I just don’t believe it (kind of like trickle-down economics.) This is sophomoric. This error is made by people, like myu wife, who say things like, “I don’t believe in ordering things over the Internet.” Well, while she’s busy not believing in it, I’m ordering stuff like crazy. So the sentence is gramatically incorrect – it should be, “I don’t order things over the Internet.” I didn’t swat my children when they were small, either, because I didn’t think it was a good thing to do. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t believe in it. It existed. Still does. And for some people, it brought great results. So how could I “not believe in it”?!
Again, I point to the bottom line: You can perform all kinds of mental self-gratification you want to, but at the end of the day, you and I have a common frame of reference concerning God/gods. That’s because, while you were grumpily insisting that I’m wearing the wrong sign around my neck, you still understood where my world-view begins. And isn’t that really all that matters, that we communicated?
