Why do religions, claiming high ideals, always seem to end by being divisive ? There may perhaps be many reasons. One is the obvious, often noted fact, that every priest and shaman is in competition with every other, for hearts and minds, in a very vicious and highly competitive industry. Yet perhaps, it occurs to me, there could be another reason, which is simply an effect of the religion industries main product.
And what is religions main product ? You may ask. It is hard to see. Which is strange, since most businesses do not make a big mystery of their outputs, you know that the baker makes cakes, the carpenter makes furniture, etc. So what is the main product of religion, and why the mystery ? Well I would suggest to you, that the main product of religion, is one, that it would not openly like to admit to. Because it is basically, the feeding and fostering of narcissism. Religion sets out to tell its followers, that. “You are special. You are given special knowledge not given to others, your existential worries are not selfish and egocentric but important even to the whole universe, you mean something special to the universe, God loves you more than others, and people who do the things we do here, get to be raised up, filled with light and wisdom, etc. etc. .”
And unfortunately where you tell a person that they are special and privileged then by default, you must also be telling them that the rest of humanity are not special, not privileged and not equal, as well as driving all the other egotistic weaknesses and inhumanities that narcissism brings with it.
Does that help to explain the divisiveness of religion do you think ?
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Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.The narcissism isn't an aspect I've considered before, but that makes sense. The believers (in many cases, but not all) are made to believe they are special and they will be rewarded later for the suffering they are doing now. They are made to believe that non-believers are evil and not to be trusted. (I've experienced this myself from believers.)
I would say that the divisiveness is mostly between belief and non-belief currently where I am, though the divisiveness has been between religions in the past, as history shows and present day still in the war torn parts of the world. In both cases, the religions have been weaponized for political purposes.
So, it follows that the believers need to have reason to feel they are special with a "God is on our side" attitude. The churches offer a feeling of a group think, so "we all are on this side or that" of any controversial subject.
Believers want to belong, so they go along with it and don't even need to worry their little heads about it. Acceptance by their peers or authority is more immediate. It's a case of "the Emperor is surely wearing clothes, even if we don't see them." They have to believe stronger in order to see them, so they fake it to fit in.
I agree that the narcissism developed in believers is very useful to those using religious faith to instruct the followers what to believe and how to vote when it comes to social issues that make the powerful more powerful, often at the expense of the believers who are used as pawns in the game.
I do know some believers who are very open minded and very liberal in their views and they realize their style of belief isn't what is being weaponized, but they see it in others.
Even the new age shamans tend to play to the narcissistic tendencies, in whatever oils, books, crystals, etc., they are hawking.
Julie808
Level 8
June 18, 2022
3
Exactly, your thoughts are welcome, especially the last bit, for I did perhaps over play the divisiveness at the beginning, it was the narcissism which really interested me.
Exactly. The rest of humanity is not special and privileged and your group is the only one with the truth. Nice plot background for a movie but I'm finding adults of all ages today who believe it. Some also seem sad that I cannot grasp it, especially with my fundamentalist background.
DenoPenno
Level 9
June 18, 2022
4
Oh I think that they are the ones without the grasp, not you.
Concise, scathing, and undeniably accurate. I feel I should inform you I will be stealing this concept.
ChestRockfield
Level 8
June 18, 2022
4
Please do steal it, my greatest hope when I post something is that someone will take it and run with it, so that it will not just die on this page.
Absolutely, though I don't have much to add. Humans like contrast and dehumanizing others to feel more powerful ourselves has some appeal. Religion reinforces this in two ways, it cements our sense of belonging to a group and it is condoned by authority.
Buttercup
Level 8
June 18, 2022
2
Interesting that you point to authority supporting dehumanizing crimes. My pet definition of the word religion, is that. "Religion is the use of fake authority." In other words a synonym for the common fallacy called, "proof by authority", especially when that authority is a totally false one, like tradition, the so called special vision of prophets, or the word of a non existant god.
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