Religion: The Paradigm of Self-Deception

Furthermore, it is interesting to note the fact that men are eagerly drawn to believing that our very essence is of the paramount creation of a superior creator.  Out of the many hundreds of religions that exist in the world, it should be no mystery as to why there is not a single surviving, widely hailed religion, which claims that an inferior creator(s) created man.  Who would wish to admit or think of himself as a product of an inferior creator?  This would not only make the significance and righteous endowment of our creation (the creation of man) questionable, it would also take away the lustrous perception that the religious man has invented for himself.   It is not that it is a less likely scenario that an inferior creator created man as opposed to a superior creator – rather, it is a less likely scenario that someone is going to ‘want to believe’ that an inferior creator created us as opposed to a superior creator.

In having the above belief, the religious person has flattered himself with the mark of a superior fashioning.  This mark of a superior fashioning by a supreme creator(s) is what boosts the persons feeling of confidence and self worth through the artificial inflation of the ego.  Unfortunately however, as great of a creation man is, he only came packaged with the ability to know that he has a deeper, more mysterious meaning to his existence – he did not come packaged with the ability to actually know what his deep mysterious meaning is.  Fortunately however, God has enabled man to get a little bit more information about these mysteries from the local ‘holy man’… for a small price of course.  The men with fantastic ceilings, flashy garments, and bottomless money baskets will always be more than happy to assist man for more answers to his special mysterious destiny.

One of man’s greatest desires is to know where he came from, what the meaning of life is, etc.  Behold!  Man has ever so conveniently stumbled upon religion!  With religion, all he needs is faith and all of the mysteries of the universe are revealed to him!  Ridiculous!  What business is it of mine to ruin a religious persons escape into unreality?  I do this because I know that in his heart of hearts, man wants to know the answers more than he wants to create a make believe world for himself full of artificial answers.  Does man’s pride truly forbid him from uttering to himself ‘I DO NOT KNOW’?  A healthy dose of skepticism, though unpleasant, will bring man closer to the answer’s he seeks whereas superstitious foreplay will only tranquilize man and derange his badly needed rational processes.

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The Middle East is an especially good example of religion’s effect on people’s behaviors within a society or land mass.  It is a good example because unlike the USA, the people’s behavior (in the Middle East) has stayed virtually the same over the years.  Arguing about whether or not the ‘radical Muslims’ (along with Al-kaida) believe in the ‘correct’ interpretation of the Quran is ambiguous mainly because there are different big shot Muslim leaders who make different claims about the correct interpretation of Islam.  Since religion is based on faith then there is no way to get an objective interpretation, therefore using such words as “extreme, radical, fanatical, or fundamentalist” are ambiguous meaningless adjectives; they are words that are solely based on conventional sociological norms. 

In our culture (the USA) the main difference between the ‘Muslim’ and the ‘extreme fundamentalist Muslim’ is that the ‘Muslim’ does not kill other people and the ‘extreme fundamentalist Muslim’ does.  In other words, the label is not based on a distinction of what the right interpretation of the Quran is, and what is the wrong interpretation – rather, the labeling is based on that which is socially desirable.  We as Americans do not want these loons crashing airplanes into our buildings and so we interpret the Quran in a way that is socially preferable to us (something that is within the scope of our general social values and something that will not disrupt our social equilibrium).  We take our socially preferable interpretation and arrogantly proclaim that it is the most objective interpretation.  We naturally come to the conclusion that the doctrine (the Quran) as a whole is a doctrine that disowns violent acts towards other people.

The interpretation that we have deemed as the ‘true’ interpretation merits the word ‘Muslim’.  The interpretation of the Quran that is out of sync or incompatible with the nations general philosophy gets a special adjective.  We call them ‘fundamentalist’ or ‘extremist’ Muslims.

Many people within our society have labeled Islam as the “religion of peace”.  Here are some of the not so peaceful (to put it lightly) direct quotes out of this supposed religion of peace holy book (the Quran) that people within our culture like to pretend don’t exist …