Slipping In Under The Radar

Why do some of us exploit the young, in brainwashing religious beliefs and indoctrination into them at an age where they can't see it for what it is? By the time they develop the skills to overlay "reality" onto any given story, they've already been used to thinking that it doesn't apply to religion", that somehow religious text is indisputable fact, no matter how silly.

None of us are born with skills or abilities, we need to learn that as we grow up. We gradually learn not to soil our pants, and that being hungry is perfectly natural, as well as how to address it. We learn to apply an overlay onto what we hear, to help us categorize it. As adults we know that cars don't talk, teddy bears don't fly to the moon or that dolls don't dance. We see that and know it's fiction, it's made up. We know that the movie or TV show has actors doing the voices, and that some animation is involved to bring the final output. Imagine a world without that overlay. Everything you see on TV must be real, Tom really is trying to get Jerry, you saw it, it must be true.

It may be obvious, but that overlay is essential to our survival. It's why children's stories have morals in them, to teach basic concepts they will need further in life, sharing is good (although not if you ask the big content producers), lying is bad (unless you plan on going into politics, then it's just part of the job description), stealing is bad (unless you're rich enough to disguise it as a bailout) etc.

When you add religious texts into this area, one more fiction book to the list of fiction books, TV shows, video games etc this is fine. When you separate that out to give it special attention over the others, to push that as real, to someone who hasn't developed the bullshit filter, this is very wrong. It get's worse when there are special events or gatherings organized by adults where the kids are taken to be further told it's real. Those gatherings may be fun and games, but always with a message. This is just adults tricking kids into absorbing the texts as real. This gets even worse when religious schools come into the equation, where kids are supposed to be prepared for adult life, and part of their daily lives is about accepting some fictional book as real.

It's slipping it under the radar before the radar is developed, knowing that the radar would pick it up as bullshit if it were running. In computing terms, it's like infecting a PC with a virus, then helping to develop the antivirus software to not detect your own virus, just other peoples viruses; say for example another religious group with their own fictional book, also full of plot holes and also claiming it to be indisputable fact.

When I read Harry Potter, I know wizards aren't real, but I suspend my belief, I suspend my reality overlay and enjoy the story. This is the point of fiction; it's a trade off bargain between the reader / viewer / listener and the writer "I suspend my belief & you entertain me". To quote Vernon Dursley "motorbikes don't fly". Vernon is a classic case of someone who was at the pie shop the day they handed imaginations out.

Education is a natural enemy of religion. If people are educated to think, they see the plot holes in religious texts, they see the various arguments made as badly written fiction, and treat it as such. They may still believe there's some invisible man in the sky watching them while they pee, they may even revel in the glow as they wash their hands afterwards that they've given the invisible man an Oscar winning performance. Faith is different from religion. Religion is organizations made (mostly) of men and traditions, designed with one thing in mind, control. Control means getting as many people to accept the various texts without question.

I did have two distinct memories of "religion" growing up, both have affected my feelings towards those who preach it. I remember going to Sunday School for about 3 or 4 weeks, and seeing the indoctrination for what it was, even at such a young age, it wasn't disguised very well. I hated every minute of it, I hated the bullying, peer pressure nature of forcing those who clearly didn't want to be there, to take part. The attitude of "no matter what the objections, I take it as my duty to save you".

I also remember the Gideons turned up at my high school, handing out free toilet paper;  which they called Bibles. I remember being of an age where I felt I was capable of deciding on my own which invisible man I'd support if any, and that no organized group should be allowed to compel pupils to attend. Turns out the Gideons didn't agree with my free thinking agenda. We were told to attend a class in the assembly hall to be given a lecture by the Gideons, this was compulsory, attendance was taken. So I went and heard them bleat on about whatever their thang was, only to get the second part of the Gideons "gift".

They were handing out Bibles, not for those who wanted them, this was also compulsory. We got punished if we refused. I remember telling the man in a dress, that I'd only take it because I had to, and that it'd be dumped outside the door. The car part was littered with Bibles that day. Turns out that almost everybody (judging by the paper mountain swirling around in the wind) felt much like me.

When I say "toilet paper" I'm not even sure it would have been suitable as that, the paper was very thin and the ink looked like it'd smear. This kinda relegates it from at least useful for something, to useless.

I have no problem with people believing whatever bullshit they want, my point is that they should not be brainwashed by adults before they can make their own minds up. By intentionally screwing with the child's development you are damaging them further down the line. They have multiple layers of bullshit filter to apply "yes this is totally impossible, implausible and frankly laughable, but it has the word religion attached to it, therefor it must be totally true and accurate". Instead of "this is totally implausible, unless I see proof, I call bullshit".

When you inject barbs of control in before they're detected it leaves them wide open to exploitation too, whether it's the Pedophile Party headquartered in the Vatican or the suicide bomber schools. All of it is organizations where men exploit others with the promise of rewards from the invisible man. Those texts slip in so you believe those rewards to be absolute and true, and the people in charge of the organizations are actually in a position to give them, if you do their bidding.

It's the passing on of beliefs that continue to fuel many of the worlds problems, where people "know" that say "gay people should be killed" but don't know how they came to that conclusion, they just know because they've always known. They know because they've been indoctrinated by religious dogma before they could tell it was dogma. Long standing issues gradually fade out if there is no fuel continually fed onto them. When people are raised to be as hardline as their parents / teachers etc there is never compromise. We stagnate as a species. When generation after generation are taught that some badly written fiction written by people who thought the world was flat is the indisputable truth, and that any actual provable, repeatable science that proves it's false, should be ignored or dismissed, we're going backwards as a species. This is devolution, not evolution.