Religion is an instrument of the system. It is difficult to imagine religion as an independent, even in the ideological sense, system.
It's more like a tool of the political regime. And the more primitive the majority of the electorate in terms of their level of intellectual development, the more effective this structure is. I don't think that if the majority of people in society were sane enough, then religion as an ideological tool would have any influence.
From a position of influence through fear, religion is ideal. It can be imagined as a plant that develops on the soil of human denseness. Have you noticed that when talking to the so-called believers,Opens in a new windowyou always hear phrases that you need to read some books that they themselves have not even read. That is, it is always a kind of reference to some authority. Naturally, for such a layman, this is a metaphysical being, because there is no evidence in favor of its existence.
In general, I never studied the origin of religions, I was only enough for a few lines of the main textbook for believers called the Bible. Is it necessary to study anything at all on this topic in order to understand its insanity? This religion as such is not interesting to me, because such an interest is unnatural for me. I believe that in order to judge her, one does not need to study her myths. Judgments about it are like a reaction from the standpoint of common sense. Common sense is the only thing involved in such judgments. How to choose a professionOpens in a new window- here.
About religion! Why is religion attractive?
The study of religion
The study of religion turns into a kind of ideological flirting with it. After all, what can cause the need for study has, at least, objective manifestations. But what about the metaphysical being who, as they say in religious tales, created everything around. Apparently, this same being created and will present the firs of the system that use the idea of its existence.
In general, where does the idea that someone created something come from? This story smacks of obvious authoritarianism: well, if someone created everything, then it’s okay to try to comprehend the world order on your own - we will say that everything was created by a creature that no one has ever seen, but it controls everything and everyone . Only there are those who rebel against this being, but this is because this being created everyone free. If we take this tale on faith, then it turns out that everything is predetermined, and a person will only have to put up with everything that happens, referring to a certain god.
Is it appropriate to study at all if this religious tale is initially delusional. That is, it turns out that we, as it were, doubt the validity of our doubts about the delusional nature of this tale and decide to read something else from it. Then, proceeding from such logic, a person who does not know anything about this fairy tale, by default, becomes its ideological opponent. In this example, we see that any view or even the absence of a view becomes an opponent of the ideologues of religion and its supporters.
Psychological Reasons for the Need for the Idea of God
A person can find in the idea of God some illusion of the meaningfulness of his being.Opens in a new window, in the event that he, for some reason, cannot find himself in any other areas of his life. Needless to say, the idea of God itself is inherently authoritarian. Consequently, often the bearer of the so-called faith is a person in need of external authoritarianismOpens in a new windowin relation to yourself.
In this case, we can still talk about the fact that a person relieves himself of any responsibility for his behavior, referring to some religious definitions. From that moment on, his actions are determined by these definitions, but not by his own norms. Here I wrote about atheismOpens in a new window.
Addendum 12/23/2019
So, a person can justify any of his actions: "after all, he is obedient and does only what religious rules allow him." For example, I am surprised that religions talk about some kind of tolerance, but seeing how believers communicate, one can conclude the opposite.
The main sign of a believer is extreme intolerance towards the opinion of another person. This is the inability, in principle, to accept the position of another person. There are two categories of citizens with whom dialogue is not possible: they are believersOpens in a new windowand patriotsOpens in a new window.
Addendum 12/24/2019
Religion is an instrument of the system because there is a majority that submits to this manipulation. Because they need someone to decide for them what to do and what to think about. Therefore, in Russia, religion has such an influence, or rather, it is skillfully used by the leaders of an abstract formation called "country", people.