the political use of religion
Apr. 30th, 2006 04:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
miriam_eIt has become fashionable lately to use mobs of religious folk for political evil... though I guess this has always been the case. It is an obvious ploy when you think about it. Politics generally seeks power in an ends-justifies-the-means fashion. Groups of religious people tend to be easily brainwashed as evidenced by the utterly zany beliefs many of them cling to (virgins waiting in heaven for their eternal fucking, UFOs coming to whisk them away, armageddon is a good thing, ghosts exist, etc). Power comes from controlling people and their money. Easily controlled people are an obvious target for corrupt politicians.
I listened to "Background Briefing" on Radio National this morning investigating the way the dominant political party here in Australia (the right-wing, mis-named "Liberals") have been using a nutty group of fundamentalist christians called the Exclusive Brethren. These poor dupes think they are doing god's work but are instead bankrolling political advertisements for corrupt purposes and being used in the subterfuge to hide it. The list of ways they are being controlled to funnel money and power into shady structures is incredible. All decisions are made by a single person, and all computers, faxes, etc. must be bought from him. What an amazing con! This kind of thing should be illegal.
It never ceases to amaze me how gullible people can be when it comes to their religion. Still I guess I shouldn't be surprised. All religion bases itself upon unquestioning acceptance of certain things as faith. If evil people find ways to manipulate those people through their blind spots then it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone.
There should be ways to punish those who take advantage of religious people. It should be viewed with the same disgust as swindling handicapped people. Unfortunately the swindlers taking advantage of religious people are often those in power -- that is how many of them seem to get their power and keep it. In that case there is not much chance of it being outlawed. And getting religious people to question their unquestioned beliefs is a total impossibility.
I can think of two possible ways to combat this:
[I should note here that I don't mean to imply that all religious people are imbeciles. A lot of religious people are very smart. But all religion does have a core of unquestioned beliefs, so even smart people leave themselves open to exploitation by unscrupulous villains via their religion.]
I listened to "Background Briefing" on Radio National this morning investigating the way the dominant political party here in Australia (the right-wing, mis-named "Liberals") have been using a nutty group of fundamentalist christians called the Exclusive Brethren. These poor dupes think they are doing god's work but are instead bankrolling political advertisements for corrupt purposes and being used in the subterfuge to hide it. The list of ways they are being controlled to funnel money and power into shady structures is incredible. All decisions are made by a single person, and all computers, faxes, etc. must be bought from him. What an amazing con! This kind of thing should be illegal.
It never ceases to amaze me how gullible people can be when it comes to their religion. Still I guess I shouldn't be surprised. All religion bases itself upon unquestioning acceptance of certain things as faith. If evil people find ways to manipulate those people through their blind spots then it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone.
There should be ways to punish those who take advantage of religious people. It should be viewed with the same disgust as swindling handicapped people. Unfortunately the swindlers taking advantage of religious people are often those in power -- that is how many of them seem to get their power and keep it. In that case there is not much chance of it being outlawed. And getting religious people to question their unquestioned beliefs is a total impossibility.
I can think of two possible ways to combat this:
(1) tax all religions. This would help to remove some of the criminals from the churches and would also reign in the relatively unconstrained power of religious organisations. It would also force them to put some of their staggering wealth back into society at large -- they benefit from society, it is only right they should contribute through taxes the way all the rest of us have to.
(2) educate children and adults about the danger of con-artists and politicians preying upon people's inability to question.
[I should note here that I don't mean to imply that all religious people are imbeciles. A lot of religious people are very smart. But all religion does have a core of unquestioned beliefs, so even smart people leave themselves open to exploitation by unscrupulous villains via their religion.]