Religion should be mocked, and this mocking would bring it back down from its authoritarian position in society. It forces believers to check and re-check the institutions they buy into on the advice of parents, friends and lovers.
Religion is one of humanity’s worst creations. It is imposed on the masses by those who want control and its nature blinds its followers from understanding the seriousness of their captivity. The only way to help humanity free itself from the shackles of organized religion is to mock it.
One of the biggest assets that religion uses to control people is mysticism. In the past, religion relied on illiteracy and financial dependence to insist that religious leaders should have autonomy over the lives of the people who followed them.
Under the guise of mysticism, religious leaders have been able to hijack not only their followers’ religious beliefs but their cultural and political beliefs as well. One only needs to look at the hundreds of years of Catholic rule to see how negative this can be for society.
There is one important caveat of mocking and scorning religions – every religion must be mocked equally. There are few religions that are more ridiculous than any others around them. Even those religions such as Transcendental Meditation are based on grounds that are not any less believable that mortals who descend into the heavens or half-mortals who perform miracles.
Beyond this, there is great danger inherent in not mocking all religions equally. If you do not mock each and every religion equally, you run the risk of inadvertently promoting a religion that is left out. Even if you do not explicitly promote a religion, you are providing material for others to use to do so.
Mocking religion is about more than just equal opportunity satire. It is important that all religions be mocked equally because it prevents any one religion from being elevated above the rest.
But Mocking Religion Should Not Be for Lazy Comedy
An intellectual or engaged debate is an important part of mocking religion. This can make it a valuable tool for dealing with religion. However, mocking religion cannot be for the purpose of creating lazy comedy. Making comments about something that billions of people take very seriously to get laughs rather than thoughts is not going to get anyone to see the light. At best, they will laugh it off and move on. At worst, they will shoot up your office building.
Mocking religion is not about offending religious believers. It is about making them think about the things that they whole-heartedly believe just because another person told them so. Mocking religion is also not about assaulting someone’s beliefs. You cannot achieve this with lazy or offensive comedy but with provoking statements that encourage discussion. Bad jokes are quickly forgotten but thoughtfulness can bring down religion.
Religion Is At the Heart of Some of Today’s Biggest Human Rights Abuses
Politicians and religious leaders have consistently used “religion” as a methodology and means of repressing their own people. They consistently warp, manipulate and cherry-pick religious ideas for their own use.
However, even supposedly secular states still play by religious rules. In America, public officers are still sworn in using the Bible. The national anthem includes reference to Christianity. Some states even have laws that prevent atheists from taking public office; however, they are not enforceable because these laws are undermined by the U.S. Constitution.
It is completely legal that Christians, Jews and Muslims may take public office while holding their own personal moral and religious beliefs. However, it is when a group of religious elected officials use their personal faith to justify national or even regional legislation that this becomes wrong.
By mocking religion intelligently, people can help spread ideas and enlightenment that may even filter through the heavy censorship in these countries.
So, if mocking religion is not about mocking the belief in a divine spiritual power or powers, what is it about? It is about separating the religious traditions, figures and institutions from fact based evidence.
At the end of the day, the original traditions that are extolled by most religions are written by man and then deified posthumously. As a result, the constructs within them are also created by man. Anything created by another man can be justifiable mocked; especially if it was created to enslave people.
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