Article writing article: God is Repression

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The religions of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece and Rome had all Gods of war, and the ones in the American continent prior to the arrival of Europeans as well as those in Africa had a similar structure. Not only were there Gods of war, but there was also a system that brutally punished those who disobeyed the wishes of the priests.

The monotheistic ones that appeared later, largely stopped worshiping the warring Gods, but the priests continued to threaten those who disagreed with them with punishments of all sorts. The punishments were of two kinds. Those received in this life and those delivered in the next.

On the one hand, there was the constant threat that poverty, disease, and accident would fall over those who did not comply with the commands of the clerics. Since poverty, epidemics and war were a constant throughout the bulk of history, and since people were always committing sins, it seemed as if the threats of the Church would frequently transform into a lash that came directly from the whip of God. The fear that those threats instilled on the ignorant masses was huge and people trembled every time they were professed.

Another form of psycho-terror that religions have repeatedly used and which was to a certain extent more potent than the previous one was the threat of eternal damnation. The men of faith assured that the sufferings in Hell were exponentially more painful than those on Earth and since the ones on Earth were monstrously horrible, the fear they instilled was overwhelming.

However, such a psychological tool was not the only instrument of control that the monotheistic creeds used. They also had armies and police forces, which enforced in a violent way the commands of the clerics.

To this day, most Muslim countries continue to deploy a police apparatus which will go as far as to enforce with prison and even death a very strict code of dressing and a million other senseless things on the population. The other religions are not far behind. Several countries with Hindu, Buddhist and Christian cultures also deploy the full weight of the state to enforce ludicrous laws that have their origin in religion.

It is in the nature of religions to repress. Since they claim to possess the absolute truth, it is inevitable that they demand total compliance and do not accept dissension.

If what religions claim would be true, it would make sense to abide strictly by what they demand. The problem is that they lack all scientific credibility and only science gives credibility to a belief.

History shows that religions have utilized one of the most repressive systems that humanity has ever seen. Most interesting is that they are the ones that have kept it alive for the longest. Repressive political systems such as slavery and feudalism made their apparition after the birth of religion and although they existed for a long time, they eventually expired. Religions however, kept on going.

The reason they have subsisted for so long is because throughout the bulk of history ignorance was prevalent. For millennia, the immense majority of the world population was illiterate and when people are ignorant they easily fall prey to lies. The one thing that people fear the most is death and since the men of faith worked the subject of death so well, their impact was huge.

However, levels of illiteracy have fallen massively in the last two centuries and life expectancy has grown exponentially. For millennia the creeds of the world have held sway over the minds of billions, but fortunately for humanity, their reign of terror is finally coming to an end. Their power has rapidly declined in the past two centuries and the evidence suggests that before the twenty-first century is over, they will have ceased to exist.

About the author of God is Repression

Charles Sabillon did High School in Texas and has undergraduate degrees in Philosophy, Economics and Law as well as a masters and a doctorate in International Relations. After the PhD, he undertook post-doctoral research in the fields of History, Economics, and Ecology. He has taught Economic History at a university in Switzerland and speaks fluently English, Spanish, French and German.

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