SMALL MATTERS LIKE RELIGION
The most potent force religion has used to cage people is the "Fear of the Unknown" - the fear of death and after-life. It is much more potent than the promise of prosperity. The idea of death is terrifying. Is there another life beyond this earthly life? Or are we going to end up as dust and evaporate into oblivion? Religion attempts to provide a cushioning effect to this terrifying reality of death. Each religion creates beautiful fantasies - different versions of paradises; of sexual orgies with virgins, of exotic wines, of everlasting life, of gold-plated streets and singing hallelujah to some god. Each of these paradises reflects the mindset of the people who created them. And along with these eternal paradises are their corresponding eternal damnation. Of course the religious leaders decide who go to where.
The first step in breaking away from the shackles of religion is overcoming this fear of after-life. It is this fear that had made people commit all manner of atrocities against their fellow humans in the name of god. It is this fear that drove the European Inquisitors and are still driving Islamic suicide bombers all over the world.
It is this fear that drives the man with a cracked megaphone, disturbing public peace with threat of imaginary hell fire. It has made people willingly surrender their thinking faculties to con men and fraudsters who go by the title of "pastors".
Personally, I've ceased to bother. One should be much more concerned about living this life to the fullest and positively touching the lives of people around him than to be bothered by questions he cannot answer. Humanity, first.
That we don't have the answers to certain questions right now is not a reason to be coerced into believing unprovable gibberish propagated by religion. Superstition cannot be used to fill the void left by ignorance.
---Steve Chike
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