Why or how do people follow lies or unbelievable stories?
All around the world, we hear masses of people supporting unverified theories. Without surprise, the most powerful examples are found in religions. Before going any further, lets be clear, Secular Nations is not against the idea of God and Religion if we use facts and logic. That being said, religion by definition can only exist if it’s flawless. After all, if it’s God himself who supports it, shouldn’t it be without any lie? It should be logic and on scientific grounds.
To this, many answer that man is imperfect. Yes, that statement is more than true, men are imperfect, but is it men’s religion or GOD’s religion? If it’s God’s religion, then shouldn’t it be perfect?
Now that we have established (hopefully) that if religion is true, it must be flawless, let's revisit just two simple belief that billions of people follow blindly and never question themselves on.
HELL:
This concept is maybe the biggest fraud in history yet we find the main idea of punishment with torture in all religions. Let’s try and understand what (or where) is hell.
The concept of hell in the ancient Egyptian religion is very similar to those of our modern religions. Those who were judged unfavorably faced a very similar fate to our modern concept of hell, and perhaps even more specifically to the more Middle Age concept of it as a specific region beneath the earth. For the damned, the entire, uncontrollable rage of the deity was directed against those who were condemned through their evils. They were tortured in every imaginable way and "destroyed", thus being consigned to nonexistence.
The Christians followed by the end of the 2nd century with their own version of damnation which resembles very close to the Egyptian (pagan) concept. It has come from the Jewish gehenna which was the garbage dump behind the walls of Jerusalem and was always on fire. To add to the confusion, the jewish religion would order to throw all the dead criminals into the gehenna, as they were refused a correct burial. From there, religious leaders liked the idea to scare and control the population. Just a note that Hell was never mentioned in the original bible, although some modern copies have replaced with no valid reason the word ‘Grave’ by ‘Hell’. Important to note that nowhere in the bible is there a clear mention nor description of hell.Naraka (Sanskrit: नरक), also called Yamalok, is the Hindu equivalent of Hell, where sinners are tormented after death. It is also the abode of Dharamraj Yama, the god of Death. It is described as located in the south of the universe and beneath the earth.
In Buddhism, there is no concept of punishment or reward and there is no divine being who decides who goes to hell or heaven. There is merely the illusory results of our thought, words and deeds, which we call karma. Karma itself is what someone gets for their good or bad actions and can be carried out in reincarnation. Therefor, one should abstain to help any other as you would be cancelling their punishment for their previous deeds. This knowledge is not very followed in practicle, but does explain why many buddhist abstain helping others.
The Muslim concept was again copied from the Catholics and they had the good idea to add gory details, this time clearly inserted in the Quran. "...Enough is Hell for a burning fire. Those who reject Our Signs, We shall soon cast into the Fire. As often as their skins are roasted through, We shall change them for fresh skins, that they may taste the penalty. For Allah is Exalted in Power, Wise" (4:55-56). Here at least it’s clear… We understand better why they refuse to be cremated!What should we answer to this?
First, let’s think in a scientific way: How long would a flesh body survive in fire? Where would be hell?
We can then think about the logic:
- What comes to mind is: Why would a loving God ever even imagine such a place? If our kids would deliberately break something of ours, would we punish them by breaking everything in their room? How long would we punish them? A day? A week? Eternally?
- If God is going to roast Hittler for example… Why didn’t God start before he invaded Poland?
- Not everyone’s sins are of the same wickedness, but they all get same tortures…
- Why throughout history, hell has improved in tortures technics?
It seems the more religious we become, the more we find violence and less we find compassion and love.
Paradise and Heaven:
All religions believe in a realm away from our beautiful blue planet. It is very interesting to think of this in a scientific mindset. We must be realistic that space exploration has been very unfriendly to mankind. With the lack of everything necessary for man’s survival outside of earth, we don’t really understand how we will appreciate our life once in the mystical place we are promised to go by our religious leaders. Basically, we are told it will be so good that we can’t understand today. My favorite is once again in the Quran:
- Paradise is free from all the impurities of this world. Eating and drinking in this life results in the need for excretion and its associated unpleasant odors. If a person drinks wine in this world, he loses his mind. Women in this world menstruate and give birth, which are sources of pain and hurt. Paradise is free from all of these discomforts: its people will not urinate, defecate, spit or suffer from catarrh (*sic). The wine of Paradise, as described by its Creator, is:
- “Crystal-white, delicious to those who drink (thereof), free from intoxication, nor will they suffer intoxication therefrom” (Quran 37:46-47)
Isn’t that wonderful, wine that would not get you drunk. Why would God change his own laws?
It’s very odd to think there will be trees and rivers when paradise won’t be on earth. Also, if paradise isn’t on earth, why did Adam and Eve live in paradise ON EARTH? Good to mention though that living in the heavens is not biblical (at least not with rivers and trees).These are only a couple examples of fat lies that are carried across the world with no reasonable base. Why do people believe in such illogic teachings?
How can we get out of it? Just think with logic, you shouldn't let others think for you nor let commonly accept legends fool you. Think and analyse by checking from what you believe before you try to change others belief. Remember we all have been lied to, so we should first dig up our belief and check with sound logic if it doesn’t go against reason and science.
Answer is very simple. We want to believe. We need hope and we need a happy future. The problem with that is politicians know how to manipulate people’s hope the same way our religious leaders do. By creating fear and false hopes, some rulers were democratically elected. The desire to change and hoping for a better world can cloud our judgement and will make us swallow unbelievable stories.
