Just Smoke and Mirrors: Religion, Fear and Superstition in Our Modern World

---

This isn't a new revelation; Roman philosopher Lucretius BCE famously said " fear was the first thing on Earth to make gods " 71 and the 19th century anthropologist Bronishaw Malinowski argued that religion gives us a sense of power over death At the turn of the century William James, devoted to the study of comparative religion and psychology, says that " the ancient saying that the first maker of the Gods was fear receives voluminous corroboration from every age of religious history " Later the astute Albert Einstein wrote " with primitive man it is above all fear that evokes religious notions - fear of Wilson studies the neurobiological basis of human behaviour, and states that the "foremost" religious drive is the one that "hunger[s] for a permanent existence" Aside from theory, modern sociological and psychological research has supported this position.

A review of studies by Soenke et al. The stronger the belief, the less the anxiety about death. For many people, 1 the personal desire to survive death and 2 the personal desire for social justice both conspire to make belief in the afterlife feel right. Some historians say that belief in an afterlife is one of the universal traits of primitive Human culture that led to the founding of our religions 77 , and it continues to fuel the appeal of faith even today, in the 21st century.

Actual beliefs have differed from culture to culture, based mostly on geographic location. Now, many people say their fear of hell is one of the reasons they follow their religion Most spiritual experiences throughout the rest of the world rest on the idea of continual reincarnation rather than on heaven. The concept of an ultimate scheme which redresses the moral imbalances of the world is common to religion both in the West and in the East.

God, or Karma, works to make sure that good people are rewarded, and bad people taught a lesson. It teaches us that we have a powerful social instinct towards justice, and when we don't find it in this life, it is very soothing for us to believe that it is found in the next There is no actual evidence for any kind of afterlife 80 and in many countries where scientific knowledge is high, belief in the afterlife has heavily declined. Karen Armstrong writes that "Human beings have always been mythmakers" We love creating, and telling these stories. Over time they are altered, embellished, made more amazing and told with greater confidence Every culture has a central creation myth Such epic stories are exciting, they give life meaning, and feed our egos by making us think we're the concern of the creator of billions of galaxies.

For some people it goes further; the stories become the basis for ceremonial retellings, ritualistic behaviour and strict dogmatic beliefs. And they find themselves compelling other people to adhere to the same principles in order to respect the great story. Classic sociologists such as Weber and Geertz taught us that religions allow people to deal with existential anxieties " about how to understand the natural and social environment " by developing world-view cosmologies; modern sociologists have not found reason to disagree Although modern science and knowledge have eroded most of the influence of religion in many countries , mythic answers are simpler and make it easier to understand the universe and are easier to tell than the dry and complicated evidence-based stories that come from science.

All that happens is that modern myths and rituals replace the traditional ones, for myths and archetypes are an inherent part of the human psyche. Human beings appear to need a religious underpinning both to their personal and to their social lives. At the personal level, human beings need a mythology within which to frame their identities and the meaning of their lives.

New stories are replacing old ones. Human knowledge is broken up into so many deep specialities that it is no longer possible for anyone to attain an accurate overall picture of reality Least of all is it possible to grasp what it all means for us personally. Psychologist Carl Jung wrote that " man positively needs general ideas and convictions that will give meaning to his life and enable him to find a place for himself in the universe " 90 and many say it provides them a sense of meaning and destiny 91 , 92 , The same psychological factor can be explained from a cynical point of view: This would appear to be a factor both amongst science-denying American Christian fundamentalism, and in Western New Religious Movements epitomized by the New Age which embraces a wide range of zany, and very unlikely, beliefs about reality.

Unfortunately, and we find it hard to admit this to ourselves, many of our beliefs are held because they're comforting and simple The main argument is that if you fiddle with the universal constants of physics such as the strengths of the weak and strong nuclear forces and change their values even by a little bit, then the Universe would be completely unsuitable for life as we know it. Therefore, God created the Universe for life, and in particular, created it for mankind here on Earth.

Some scientists subscribe to this idea, and use it to justify and promote belief in God But there are a number of convincing logical and evidential arguments against this idea. Is the Universe Fine-Tuned for Life? My Experiences of God are Illusions, Derived from Malfunctioning Psychological Processes examines many of the psychological factors that lead people to 'experience' the presence of various Gods, and the summary conclusion lists the main points:.

The psychological wish for an ever-present loving parent looking over us, combined with our ability for abstract ideas to become the basis for our emotions, especially love, form the concept of God as a subconscious parent-substitute and ideal carer. The childhood memory of our seemingly all-knowing and all-capable parents, whom we continuously miss in adult life, causes some people to desire a parental god to exist. Pride and ego incline us toward god-belief: It is more prideful to think that the creator of the billions of galaxies cares deeply about oneself, and it is a function of the ego that we want such an all-powerful eternal being to be watching and judging us.

That no-one is watching, and no-one keeps measure of our actions, is cold in comparison, so that some peoples' ego's and pride wish for there to be a god. As we can see from the different ways people experience the same event, peoples' expectations influence their reality. Examples of this include, as discussed, sleep apnea: Experienced by some as UFO abductions, and others as attempted demon possession. Of all the experiences and messages given by God, many contradict each other. From this mess of contradictory experiences, combined with the lack of any logical reason why gods would exist, I conclude that there is no God.

There are human beings, our wishes, our projections and our experiences led by our own abstractions and expectations, but there is no objective, real God external to the self. The False and Conflicting Experiences of Mankind: That we can stimulate parts of the brain and induce mystical and spiritual experiences in people means that such experiences are explained by the neurological sciences whether or not there is actually a 'spiritual realm'.

Souls do not Exist: Hallucinations are easily interpreted in religious terms , and, the religious instinct towards fasting and sensory deprivation are both sought after as routes towards gaining 'divine' or 'spiritual' messages - when in reality, it is the starved brain misfiring. Hallucinations, Sensory Deprivation and Fasting: The burden of proof remains firmly with the spiritualists: Experience of these types of mystical events is not proof of the reality of them, therefore different logical or experimental proof needs to be found.

Until such proof arrives, it is not sensible to believe in god. For the full page, see: That religion is ultimately all based on worship of the sun, and of the stars and other visible stellar bodies such as Mercury, Venus and Mars , has been a very common observation. The sun has obvious life-giving properties; its waning during autumn and winter gives rise to natural decay, loss of vegetation and eventually, to human difficulties in obtaining food. But the powers of darkness are eventually defeated, and the sun's power starts to rise on the winter equinox.

The celebration of the solstices, equinoxes and seasons has often been done via the apotheosis of natural forces: As a special instance he mentioned the worship of the Nile by the Egyptians. In the Northern Hemisphere, the spring equinox occurs when the length of the day increases until it is equal with the length of the night, which occurs on the 21st of March each year The sun, growing in power, finally overtakes darkness, and its rebirth is celebrated. This was an especially important event for early human civilisations that relied upon agriculture. This is why so many ancient religions and cultures celebrate renewal and rebirth at and after the spring equinox, and is why Easter is tied up with the ideas of fertility and growth, hence, the symbols of the egg and the rabbit.

Ancient pagans anthropomorphized the forces of nature, and told stories to explain why the sun was resurgent. Adonis, Attis, Dionysus, Osiris and many other Greek and Roman cults incorporated the death and rebirth of their gods at this time, with the principal dying-and-resurrection god returning to Earth for the sake of humankind Disease and fortune come and go: But when things are bad, some will "try" all manner of superstitious, meaningless and misguided practices - including all kinds of alternative therapies.

Social psychologist David Myers agrees: Because we rarely employ controls and statistical analysis in our personal lives, it seems that any attempted solution, from the zany to the insane, has actually worked. This is the cause of untold numbers of superstitions, magical practices, religious beliefs and pseudoscience, and can sometimes lead large numbers of people astray, especially when stories and anecdotes are published by the press.

This is why many cults, religions and pseudo-therapeutic fads prey on the weak, depressed, down-and-outs and those who have recently experienced catastrophe. Such people are more likely to try new religions The solution is to be more cognizant of Human thinking errors. Cause and effect must be analyzed statistically, carefully, and by social scientists who know how to discount confounding factors. Other desperate measures are connected with the frailty of being human. Among the Mossi people of Burkina Faso , for example, "barrenness among non-Muslim women may be treated by the divinatory diagnosis that the would-be children are refusing to be born except as Muslims.

The obvious remedy is conversion to Islam".

Join Kobo & start eReading today

This abuse is effective - people during desperate times are open to wilder influences. The same author who described the Mossi above provides a similar cultural illustration of this in action:. Did they stop to think: Given that thousands of different religious movements claim thousands of healing events, why should we trust that this one in particular embodies otherworldly truth? The answer is that conversions are based on interpersonal relationships and social factors, rather than on a serious attempt to understand the world. National under-development, low national average intelligence and poor social stability are all correlated with high rates of religious belief.

In other words - as a country gets richer, better educated and more stable, religion declines. The more well developed the country is the less religious it is. For our purposes here, we need to also consider education to be of note. Mass education is one of forces that works to undermine religious thinking. The correlation between low intelligence and religion is discussed elsewhere on this page. Social stability relies on the arms of government such as police, justice and infrastructure management to be in good functional order.

Corruption, poverty and poor governance affect an entire countries health - including mental health. A few countries do not fit this trend, but, there are clear historical reasons for this. All four lower-income countries with low religiosity rates Estonia , Russia , Belarus and Vietnam were all subject to long-lasting restrictions against religion Dr Nigel Barber has analysed many of the same sets of statistics as I have, and his published works are somewhat more methodical than mine and show the same results.

He writes that "the question of why economically developed countries turn to atheism has been batted around by anthropologists for about eighty years. Anthropologist James Fraser proposed that scientific prediction and control of nature supplants religion as a means of controlling uncertainty in our lives. This hunch is supported by data showing that the more educated countries have higher levels of non belief and there are strong correlations between atheism and intelligence " Likewise, researchers Gregory Paul and Phil Zuckerman have approached this from an evolutionary and a sociological stance and both argue that belief in God is correlated with the level of difficulty of life in general - that "in countries where food is plentiful, health care is universal and housing is accessible, people believe less in God than in those countries where their lives are insecure" Sociologist of religion Professor Roderick Main writes that "where the technology and resources to mitigate major sufferings such as poverty and sickness exist, it is understandable that, for some, the appeal of religious consolations should diminish" The link is between development and our understanding of the world.

In other words, the more mysterious and hard to control the world is, the more strongly religion suits people's demands for an ultimate victory over life. The idea of heaven is one of the most attractive features of religion. The ends to which people will go in order to foster the required spiritual brownie points to get to heaven is seemingly endless - from lives spent in prayer, meditation and repentance, to lives wasted in suicide attacks and isolation: The following things make the concept of heaven compelling and mentally addictive:. The idea that friends and family, alive and dead, have found peace and happiness in an afterlife.

The idea that all the wrongs of life are righted because good people go to heaven, and the bad people we've encountered are tortured in hell even if they got away with their wrongful attitudes during our own lives. The worse one's own life in this world, the stronger is the compulsion to believe in a better life after this one.

2. Functionalism

The statistical correlation between social inequality and religion, and, social instability and religion, has been reported on thoroughly by Barber People yearn for, and then believe in, an ultimate and absolute justice that will rectify all the wrongs of this life. There is certainly a strong element of condolence in believing that those who do wrong against us will be punished for each and every deed.

Thus, as Weber This section is extracted from: Taken from " Religion and Intelligence " by Vexen Crabtree General intelligence is negatively correlated with strength of religious belief from national to individual average: The historical battles between religious institutions and science, such as those in physics, astronomy and biology, indicate there is something wrong with the religious approach to the study of reality. The underlying problem extends to negative effects on the individual intelligence of believers, and a related negative effect on educational achievements.

The children of highly religious parents suffer diminished IQ s - averaging 7 to 10 points lower compared to their non-religious counterparts in similar socio-economic groups. As you would expect from these results, multiple studies have also shown that IQ is opposed to the strength of religious belief. The effect extends beyond individual countries and is visible inter-nationally. Countries with a higher rate of belief in God have lower average intelligence.

All countries with high average intelligence have low national levels of belief in God. It is not just intelligence and education that is inversely correlated with religion - it has also been found that the more you know about religion itself, the less likely you are to be religious In The Origins of Psychic Phenomena: Poltergeists, Incubi, Succubi, and the Unconscious Mind Stan Gooch examines many aspects of supernatural experience, and finds that those who experience such things score highly on suggestibility indexes, are better hypnosis subjects, and are more religious and spiritual.

They have some common features and share a number of common pull-factors attract people to new religious movements The simplistic answers they give to life questions often combined with an anti-science stance , Some groups promote pre-industrial or historical moral eras and attract others who think that the modern world is "lost". The loss of magic and fantasy in traditional religions. The rise of individualism and protections for freedom of belief means people are free to pick-and-choose which religion to embrace. Religious groups that arise from a particular cause will attract those interested in that cause.

Two of the most popular amongst NRMs are:. Environmentalism is commonly proclaimed by all kinds of pagan, Celt, pseudo-Native and New-Age groups, and they attract many people who are similarly passionate about protecting the planet. While religious beliefs are mostly the result of parental instruction and geographic incidence, there are many subconscious, psychological, sociological and neurobiological factors that cause religious and superstitious beliefs to prosper.

This includes the idea of functionalism , where traditionalism and rebellion are achieved by adopting religious labels and following or rejecting typical cultural-religious behaviour. Likewise, many activists are drawn to particular religious groups on account of their association with their stance on worldly issues. Culture and religion are also mixed up, so that many times for example in Northern Ireland conversion is a political act; and beliefs are secondary to labels. Religion is mostly caused by social and psychological factors and not by any examining of the evidence or logic behind the beliefs involved.

This is why skeptics often find it so hard to bring their scientific knowledge to productive use in arguments with religionists. Psychologists, sociologists, ethnographers and scientists tend to view religious beliefs as the result of mostly normal psychological systems being applied in the wrong context. A prime example is the way we get angry with cars and computers, and shout insults at them, or the way we tend to see patterns in random behaviour such as brownian motion our 'hyperactive agent detection device'.

Historical investigators such as William James have found that outstanding religious innovators and leaders have frequently been epileptic, psychotic, suffered from strokes and various mental problems and nervous instability and that this often give them more command in areas of spirituality. Experiments on the Human brain have allowed us to discover many of the specific neuronal networks that can misfire to cause us to have 'religious' feelings and experiences.

Childhood fantasies, including an absence of death and the seemingly all-present, ever-caring and all-knowing parental figures who give us comfort, often become the basis for religious beliefs in adults. This hidden wishful-thinking mechanism feeds our ego that "someone" cares about everything we do and gives us consolation from death in the idea of an afterlife. Many strange things we 'experience' are cultural therefore an aspect of upbringing , and once a scientific and critical understanding of them is attained, the beauty of the natural world displaces the appeal of the supernatural.

Religion, when not considered a byproduct of misapplied cognitive psychology and social factors, is self-inflicted delusion, illusion, smoke and mirrors. The NIV is the best translation for accuracy whilst maintaining readability. Multiple authors, a compendium of multiple previously published books. Pro-science magazine published bimonthly. Published by The Economist Group, Ltd. A weekly newspaper in magazine format, famed for its accuracy, wide scope and intelligent content. Quotes taken from edition.

Adler, Margot Drawing Down the Moon: In " Belief Beyond Boundaries: Argyle, Michael The Psychology of Happiness , 2nd edn. Published by Routledge, London, UK. Bainbridge, William Sims Atheism. Barnes-Svarney, Patricia , Ed. Published by The Stonesong Press Inc. Barrett, Clark 'Human cognitive adaptations to predators and prey', doctoral dissertation Santa Barbara: In Boyer 3 ch.

In Boyer 4 ch. In Boyer 5 ch. Bear, Connors and Paradiso Neuroscience. The Amazon link is to a newer version. Bowman, Marion Contemporary Celtic Spirituality. This is chapter 2 pages p of " Belief Beyond Boundaries: Pearson, Joanne , Ed. Wicca, Celtic Spirituality and the New Age. Boyer, Pascal Religion Explained.

Bruce, Steve Religion in the Modern World: From Cathedrals to Cults. Taught philosophy at Sacramento City College from until retirement in Created The Skeptic's Dictionary in Critical Thinking, Skepticism, and Science Exposed! Amazon Kindle digital edition. Published by the James Randi Educational Foundation. The Construction of a Myth.

Reward Yourself

In Bowman P Copson, Andrew Secularism politics, religion, and freedom. Accessed Apr Richard The God Delusion. Originally published in Danish, Kjoebenhavns Universitets Festskrift. Translated by Ingeborg Andersen. A collection of Einstein's writings and texts. Eliade, Mircea , Ed. The Encyclopedia of Religion. Entries are alphabetical, so, no page numbers are given in references, just article titles. A look at what 11 sociologists of religion think of "the sacred".

Be warned that Fenn's book contains one chapter on each sociologist of religion but that his own mystical and specific take on 'the sacred' is heavily intermingled with his commentary - see the book review for a proper description. Published by Thorsons, London, UK. Furlong, Monica The C of E: The State It's In. Originally published in UK in by Stoughton. Died May 22 aged Originally published by G. Putnam's Sons as " In the Name of Science ". Current version published by Dover Publications, Inc. Poltergeists, Incubi, Succubi, and the Unconscious Mind. Originally published as " Creatures from Inner Space ".

My references are to the original publication. The edition linked to here is published by Inner Traditions ; information retrieved from Amazon UK on Dec Religion, Culture and Society in the Age of Postmodernity. Hutton, Ronald The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain. International Humanist and Ethical Union. A copy can be found on iheu. Freedom of Thought From the Gifford Lectures delivered at Edinburgh Quotes also obtained from Amazon digital Kindle Xist Publishing edition.

Kahneman, Daniel Thinking, Fast and Slow. Professor of theoretical physics. Kressel, Neil Bad Faith: The Danger of Religious Extremism. Laying is emeritus professor of anthropology at Elmira College. He spent a year conducting ethnographic research among the Caribs on the West Indian island of Dominica. Twiss Comparative Religious Ethics: In Reeder P Ritual Magic in Contemporary England. Published by Picador, Basingstoke, UK. This is chapter 5 pages p of " Belief Beyond Boundaries: The Explosion of Protestantism in Latin America. Wolffe, John , Ed.

Global Religious Movements in Regional Context. This was a religious studies textbook in the AD OU course. This text first appeared in Global Citizens: Mumm, Susan Aspirational Indians: North American indigenous religions and the New Age. This is chapter 3 of " Belief Beyond Boundaries: Myers, David Social Psychology. Current version published by McGraw Hill. Clarke 12 pages Belief in the Age of Science.

Partridge, Christopher , Ed. In this latest book, we will explore this search for wonder, and examine its negative effects on true science and critical thought. Chaos, Creativity, and Cosmic Consciousness. The Reincarnation of Edgar Cayce? Grey Aliens and the Harvesting of Souls. The Varieties of Scientific Experience. Your Brain Is God. Transcending the Speed of Light. On the Edge of Reality. Mysteries of the Universe. Strange encounters from the Beyond beings from other Realities, Dimensions and Multiverses. Exploring the Edge Realms of Consciousness.

The God Within Me. The Secret Influence of the Moon. Did Adam and Eve Have Navels?: UFOs, Chemtrails, and Aliens. The New Science of Psychedelics. The Barriers of Belief. UFOs and the Extraterrestrial Message. Delusions in Science and Spirituality. Dark Night of the Soul. John of the Cross. Ancient Alien Theory Decoded.

Access the Power of Your Higher Self. Lying Wonders of the Red Planet: Exposing the Lie of Ancient Aliens. The Inner World of Dreams. If God Were a Space Alien: A Different Kind of Atheism. Fourteen Lessons in Oriental Occultism. The Summits of God-Life: A Beginner's Guide to Immortality.

John Dee's Five Books of Mystery: Original Sourcebook of Enochian Magic. Conversations on the Edge of the Apocalypse. The Wisdom of Athor Book Two.

• The Clean Water Act 20 Years Later
• Sandosenang Sapatos
• Scared Out of My Shorts: A Collection of Eleven Wicked Tales
• Overshare
• OCAJP 02 Java Associate Exam 1Z0-803 Eclipse IDE Download Compile Run Tutorials SE 7 Programmer I
• Everyone Believes It; Most Will Be Wrong: Motley Thoughts on Investing and the Economy