The dangers of religious dogma

An article by The Ranting Dream    No Comments

Before I get into my rant, let me explain exactly what it is that I mean by ‘religious dogma’…

Dogma, by definition, is established doctrine (or belief) held by any kind of an organization, ideology, or religion – it is important to note here that ‘belief’ and ‘faith’ are NOT the same thing…

Contrary to popular perception, I am a person of faith - but I don’t believe in ANY dogma – not even the dogma I was born  into…and ‘theism’ (belief in deities, generally referred to as ‘gods’) and ‘atheism’ (absence of the belief in deities) and everything in between are, after you strip off the many layers of fluff, essentially dogmata – just so that is clear as well…

The most important thing to note about dogma is that it is ‘authoritative’ – it can not (and this is non-negotiable) be disputed, doubted, or from which diverged under ANY circumstances…there’s usually a top-dog (or a whole pack of them) who define all the rules, regulations, beliefs, practices, observations, etc. that make up the doctrine; and whose authority is absolute and binding…generally, that position of authority is reserved for an elite few – and the majority of those indoctrinated are expected to remain forever subservient to that elite class – with no permission whatsoever to ever critically examine or question the dogma into which they have been indoctrinated…

Sound familiar?

…for the record: atheism, on the surface, claims to be free from the ‘authoritative’ nature of dogma, and uses that claim to try and distance itself from being grouped with the dogmata out there – but if you dig a bit deeper into the core of that ‘ism‘; you’ll realize that it is no different, in essence, to the dogma of any other ‘ism‘ on this planet - it just happens to be at the other end of the spectrum in its beliefs and is a little more open to scrutiny and critical examination than its ‘theistic‘ opposite – but after all is said and done, it is no different from any other dogma…

The most amount of criticism I get when I rant about ‘the business of organized religion’ is from folks who refuse to view religion as just another application of epistemology within a socio-political context…

…the masses are, unfortunately, misled into believing that the higher concepts of faith and spirituality are intrinsic to the dogma of religion – this is far from the truth - and it is due to this misconception that they take serious offense when someone challenges the premise of the primarily ‘material-profit-seeking’ business of religion that masquerades as being ‘divinely-revealed’ especially for them (lucky duckies!!!) and sent as a blessing just to them (who cares about the rest of the living things on this planet? god has clearly got his favorites – and you lucky ducky you…you happen to be one of them) to save their souls (for a fee, of course - remember: god is absolute, independent, is absolutely beyond mundane material needs or desires, and loves you unconditionally – but he needs your money [and he needs lots of it], craves your attention, demands that you shower him with praise, and commands you to slaughter your neighbor – who, like you, has also been created from the same mold by your god but has fallen out of favor with your god because he chose to worship another deity making your god really jealous and pissed off at the whole situation…and because your almighty, all powerful god is incapable of physically punishing the dude that he created himself, he has chosen you to carry out the punishment on his behalf…but remember: god is absolute and beyond all this mundane material stuff…praise the lord – who is beyond all this materialistic nonsense – but wants you to religiously [no pun intended] praise him nonetheless!)…

It’s sad that we buy this nonsense by the bucketfuls and can’t seem to get enough of it…

This is where religion starts becoming dangerous…when the ignorant masses blindly accept the pronouncements of those in authority from within their religious persuasions under the misguided premise that ‘they’ and ‘they alone’ are special to this universe…everything else is but a bloody waste of time and space…and all the organized businesses of religion operate on the same premise:

that every one of them is the ONLY path that is the ‘right path’,

that every one of them is ‘especially blessed’ by god – who happens to curse all the other persuasions out there as being blasphemous,

that every one of them absolutely requires you to pay (monetarily or otherwise) into the system if you care to be saved from hell-fire,

and that every one of them requires your absolute loyalty and obedience – ask too many questions, and those in authority will quickly kick you out of the only caravan heading to heaven.

We greatly underestimate how dangerous religious dogma really is – and in our daily lives, we choose to convince ourselves that most religious persuasions on our planet are relatively harmless, but think about this for a bit:

“We don’t have to protect the environment, the Second Coming is at hand.” – Ronald Reagan’s Secretary of the Interior, James G. Watt

…hundreds of millions of folks all over this planet are convinced that the second coming of Christ (i.e. the end of this world) is just around the corner – within the next 50 years or so…these millions include critical policy makers and leaders like the one quoted above…what incentive do they have to take an issue like global warming seriously if they are convinced that this planet is going ‘poof‘ anyway within the next 50 years???…think about the impact this has on government policy…note that these deeply religious folks are also, in their capacity as representatives of the people that elected them to government office, responsible for the foreign policy of the nations they represent: given their inherent, hard-line, religious-dogma-inherited prejudices; do you really think we’ll ever have peace on this planet? Do you think they have any desire to develop any long-term, effective solutions for global harmony – especially with those heretic infidel blasphemers across the pond???

…and this is but one tiny example of the influence of religious dogma on our collective existence…there are many more illustrations of the destructive nature of religious dogma from history and in contemporary times – do your research and you’ll see that everything from the stifling of stem cell research (which could potentially help us deal with, amongst the many other medical challenges of our times, cancers and genetic disorders) to the problem of population explosion to the many destructive wars of mankind (and the most destructive, regressive, and atrocious of acts, behaviours, and events in between and beyond) are a direct result of the blind acceptance of, and obedience to, religious dogma…and only those who pull the strings – the politically motivated, material profit seeking, power hungry elite few who control the workings of these religious persuasions, are the ones who benefit from this – monetarily and otherwise…

Our existence depends on dealing with our realities with significant cooperation and foresight…religious dogma is essentially regressive in nature and is a huge impediment, given its inherent superstitious, absolutely authoritative, territorial, and prejudiced foundation; to true cooperation and harmony between people…

I can only hope that we realize how dangerous religious dogma really is before it is too late…or is it too late already???

- RD