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Kid Addicts?
By Groff Schroeder
If you tell people you devoutly live your life in a certain way because you are in direct telepathic communication with supernatural beings in the sky who wear flowing robes, sandals, and long beards who grant your telepathic requests with the same supernatural powers they used to create the universe - people often conclude you are religious. But if you tell people you devoutly live your life in a certain way because you are in direct telepathic communication with powerful beings in the sky who have gray skin, big eyes, and three fingers who use high technology to grant your telepathic requests and travel the universe in interstellar space ships – people often conclude you are insane.
As many of us recovering from ancient religious beliefs eventually realize, basically all the beliefs, tenets, practices, and rituals of virtually every religion depends upon countless, apparently scientifically impossible supernatural (aka magical) powers and events. No evidence suggests that extraterrestrial beings exist, that telepathic communication is possible, or that anyone or anything can violate the laws of physics. Yet, of the 8 billion people on earthi, almost 7 billion (~88%) not only share the apparent delusion that supernatural beings exist, but also appear to share what propaganda expert Edward Bernays would call a mass psychosis involving the worship of supernatural beings. Only about 13% of humans do not hold magical religious beliefsii.
Why?
Science, logic, and reason identifies physical reality with such accuracy and precision that in 2014, humans softly landed the spacecraft Philae on the comet Churyumov–Gerasimenko, a moving target about 38 million miles away, 2.5 miles wide, and traveling about 50,000 miles per hour. In contrast, religious beliefs are based upon faith - what Mark Twain colorfully described as “...believing what you know ain’t so.” Furthermore, religion has a well-documented history of sexual abuse, violence, and war that have literally killed, maimed, and wounded countless millions of men, women, and children over thousands of years. Most everyone knows these facts, yet most religious beliefs are held not just personally, but by families, and even entire communities, who for countless generations, pass their supernatural beliefs on to their children.
According to the National Institutes of Health, “Children are especially credulous, especially gullible, especially prone toward acceptance and belief.”iii Catholics have understood and exploited the fact that children are gullible and accepting of magical beliefs since at least the 16th centuryiv.
In addition, the National Institute on drug abuse defines addiction as “...a chronic, relapsing disorder characterized by compulsive drug seeking and use despite adverse consequencesv. It is considered a brain disorder, because it involves functional changes to brain circuitsvi involved in reward, stress, and self-control.vii Addictive agents activate and change the brain in well known, and very specific ways, and recent, high resolution medical brain imaging revealed that religious experiences activate the nucleus accumbens,viii and other addiction-related pleasure circuits in the brain that are activated by heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine. Addiction apparently also arrests psychosocial development, and even genetic evidence links religious experience and addictionix.
Society prohibits even parents from exposing gullible children under 18 who have incompletely developed reasoning skills to addictive agents proven to activate addiction-related brain regions such as cocaine and heroin. Why should society allow underage children to be exposed to religious activities that have been directly demonstrated to activate the same addiction-related brain circuits that are activated by illegal addictive agents such as heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine?
Originally scheduled to be published in the January 2024 edition of the Freethinkers of Colorado Springs Freethought Views column in the Colorado Springs Independent with the quotation below.
“Undoubtedly the public is becoming aware of the methods which are being used to mold its opinions and habits. If the public is better informed about the processes of its life, it will be so much the more receptive to reasonable appeals to its own interests.
Edward Bernays, Propaganda, 1928
ixhttps://www.wired.co.uk/article/mormons-experience-religion-like-drug-ta...
Edited March 9, 2024 - original version appears below
Kid Addicts?
By Groff Schroeder
As many of us recovering from ancient religious beliefs eventually realize, basically all the beliefs, tenets, practices, and rituals of virtually every religion depends upon countless, apparently scientifically impossible supernatural (aka magical) powers and events.
If you tell people you devoutly live your life in a certain way because you are in direct telepathic communication with powerful beings in the sky who have gray skin, big eyes, and three fingers who use high technology to travel the universe in space ships – people often conclude you are insane.
If you tell people you devoutly live your life in a certain way because you are in direct telepathic communication with supernatural beings in the sky who wear flowing robes, sandals, and long beards who grant your telepathic requests with the same supernatural powers they used to create the universe - people often conclude you are religious.
No evidence suggests that extraterrestrial beings exist, that telepathic communication is possible, or that anyone or anything can violate the laws of physics. Yet, of the 8 billion people on earthi, almost 7 billion (~88%) not only share the apparent delusion that supernatural beings exist, but also appear to share what propaganda expert Edward Bernays would call a mass psychosis involving the worship of supernatural beings. Only about 13% of humans do not hold magical religious beliefsii.
Why?
Science, logic, and reason identifies physical reality with such accuracy and precision that in 2014, humans softly landed the spacecraft Philae on the comet Churyumov–Gerasimenko, a moving target about 38 million miles away, 2.5 miles wide, and traveling about 50,000 miles per hour. In contrast, religious beliefs are based upon faith - what Mark Twain colorfully described as “...believing what you know ain’t so.” Furthermore, religion has a well-documented history of sexual abuse, violence, and war that have literally killed, maimed, and wounded countless millions of men, women, and children over thousands of years. Most everyone knows these facts, yet most religious beliefs are held not just personally, but by families, and even entire communities, who for countless generations, pass their supernatural beliefs on to their children.
According to the National Institutes of Health, “Children are especially credulous, especially gullible, especially prone toward acceptance and belief.”iii Catholics have understood and exploited the fact that children are gullible and accepting of magical beliefs since at least the 16th centuryiv.
In addition, the National Institute on drug abuse defines addiction as “...a chronic, relapsing disorder characterized by compulsive drug seeking and use despite adverse consequencesv. It is considered a brain disorder, because it involves functional changes to brain circuitsvi involved in reward, stress, and self-control.vii Addictive agents activate and change the brain in well known, and very specific ways, and recent, high resolution medical brain imaging revealed that religious experiences activate the nucleus accumbens,viii and other addiction-related pleasure circuits in the brain that are activated by heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine. Addiction apparently also arrests psychosocial development, and even genetic evidence links religious experience and addictionix.
Society prohibits even parents from exposing gullible children under 18 who have incompletely developed reasoning skills to addictive agents proven to activate addiction-related brain regions such as cocaine and heroin. Why should society allow underage children to be exposed to religious activities that have been directly demonstrated to activate the same addiction-related brain circuits that are activated by illegal addictive agents such as heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine?
Originally scheduled to be published in the November 1-7, 2023 edition of the Freethinkers of Colorado Springs Freethought Views column in the Colorado Springs Independent with the quotation below.
“Undoubtedly the public is becoming aware of the methods which are being used to mold its opinions and habits. If the public is better informed about the processes of its life, it will be so much the more receptive to reasonable appeals to its own interests.
Edward Bernays, Propaganda, 1928
