The Basis of Religion: Magic, Control, Ritual and Comfort

The Basis of Religion: Magic, Control, Ritual and Comfort
by
Robin Hall


I was just thinking I really want to see magic. Not illusion. Magic.

My brain wrangled with that a bit and I came up with this note.

Its my view that religion is completely fabricated, usually by men, not women, and that it is based on these 4 things: Magic, Control, Ritual and Comfort. We want these four things to explain life and help us live it.

1. Magic. Two simple examples: the popularity of magic shows throughout the ages and today, Transcendental Meditation, TM. In the mid to late 1970s Maharishi began to promote the siddhis, the eight occult yogic powers, though he seemed to focus on levitation but google siddhis and you can read all you want.

He might have been coerced into this. Osho®, aka Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, had his Sheela, so who really knows? Getting laid is a powerful form of almost magic and maybe its the closest we ever get.

Anyway, I think we want magic for some reason and many people exploit this, especially the religious.

The Prestige film has a good explanation of the three parts of illusions or "magic." The setup, the turn in which an ordinary object does something extraordinary, such as disappear and the prestige when the ordinary object is restored through extraordinary means.

What does this mean for us? We WANT the prestige to be real to be magic. We really want there to be things we cannot explain at our level of development and magic fills the bill but its mostly illusion so don't take the bait.

And how many of you EVER saw one of the siddhis? There was supposed to be one, walking through walls. Yes, that one.

One TM instructor STATED that their center at Lake Lucerne had skylights that opened so the Siddhas could levitate over Lake Lucerne. Hmm. Show me that one too.

2. Control. Many want to control others AND many others want give up some parts of themselves to others, like a vacation from responsibility, hence the popularity of in the catholic church for confession, forgiveness and the like, so control is important in these manmade religions.

Don't forget sadism and masochism either. Some want to control, some want to give up control but in doing so, actually control others. YIKES, isn't that complicated?

3. Ritual. I have written about this before. Just read that, but more importantly, think for yourself about all of this.

There is a very powerful longing to be connected to others in an ongoing way. Rituals become important, then twisted and "sanctified", then perverted and we are left today with football, churches and The Survivor.

4. Comfort. We like to be comfortable. Its often comforting to visit a church, sing songs, listen to someone else tell us how to live, eat ice cream with other believers, have picnics with them and get revived from time to time in a tent.

I would rather have a nice reclining chair, turn up the AC in summer and have beer. That is comfort too. There is karaoke for the singing part even in a small town. I can watch the news, shopping or travel channels to find someone to tell me how to live. I don't own a tent but I can visit them at WalMart.

Picnics and icecream? In the South, these are no-brainers.

I think a religious experience is just around the corner.

Isn't this fun?

And another part of this religious bull shit. Ask yourself one question. There are many TO ask but just this one should do.

IF there is such a thing as an over being, a god, many gods etc., and forget ALL your counters to this question for once in your life, that is free will and whatever else comes to mind. Just ask this one question of YOURSELF. How can you pray for forgiveness, justice etc. from some over being which allows child abuse?

The range of this abuse is immense. Children in madrassas grow up and become suicide bombers. Children molested sexually who grow up and molest.

Just this one question. How can some all powerful being allow child abuse? How do you expect YOUR prayers to be answered?