As a person who was raised and belonged to a faith based community, I personally understand the power of the religious experience. I now live outside this community and it’s beliefs. Today I am secular and intellectually agnostic towards any faith ideologies. I have a deep understanding and recall of the faith experience that most of many secular friends can never truly appreciate. Religious faith has a power and vitality that the uninitiated is not aware of and often denies.
When an idea infects a person so completely that it turns into a core belief, that person then looks to align himself with others with a similar disposition. The religious systems today all encourage their followers to express the purity of the idea, and have a set of guidelines to ensure that the person and his beliefs are fed and cultivated. I remember the the power and lure of that time in my life when I followed, worshipped along with my fellow “Religians”. There was no authentic spiritual experience, nothing really cathartic about the experience, as long as fellow believers came together aligned in their beliefs, assured that our place in the world was far better than any of the non-believers. The more devout we became the more you could feel the power. The power led to a culture, a mindset, and a lifestyle that influenced every experience. Like a drug it takes over your entire being.
Ideologies today can be relatively inconsequential to society at large but should never be ignored. I am fortunate to be living in a time and place where secular thinking has more sway than religious ideologies. Yet even in free societies where people value their freedoms I still see the need to be vigilant that ideologies do not gain traction. Once an ideology has gained control of a persons mind it becomes highly unlikely to reverse the course. Regardless of how illogical or unsubstantiated the belief is, the power of the group, believing and behaving in lock step is intoxicating. Try to tell an anti-vaccine advocates that their belief is not based on any real science. Likewise, people who adopt a conspiracy theory as gospel and band together will fight you to the death regardless how unlikely the theory is.
The power I am talking about gives people a purpose for their lives. The group dynamic brings comfort to the individuals. The beliefs of an ideological group are exclusive in nature. The ideology says more about what not to believe, who to shun and why you are better. Once inside, the people care little to debate the merits of their ideas. The idea becomes untouchable, protected by the group ideology. There in lies the danger. As people accept an ideology the behaviors and even atrocities committed to support the ideology become justifiable. The standards which the rest of us use to evaluate our actions are no longer required. Members of the group serve a “higher purpose” so logic and critical thought now take a back seats to the ethics and moralities put forth by the ideology.
Big BrotherBurt writes because he feels a deep compassion for people and the individual freedoms that are constantly under attack by people immersed in the world of ideologies. Our only hope is that integrity will prevail. Ideas need to be debated on their merits not to be turned into fodder for systems of belief. Integrity demands not just honesty, but the ability to look at our core beliefs and question the validity in a objective manner. This is a relatively new concept for humanity. Historically human belief was based on beliefs that people wanted to believe. It gave them hope, answers and comfort. This is the power, only amplified within a community of faith. Unfortunately the original ideas are unsubstantiated and therefore do not live up to the standards of integrity.