Religious regimes are an impediment to civilized advancement

[Guest guest]

" To understand why I jumped from the Mormon wagon train requires

an understanding of what Mormons are and how they think. While

Mormons have some quaint, quirky and fanatical ideas, they really

aren't much different from millions of poor, guilt-ridden souls who,

throughout the march of human history, have hitched their hopes to

mass movements of one sort or another. Eric Hoffer, in his brilliant

treatise, " The True Believer, " explains the attraction of joining a

cause: " A rising mass movement attracts and holds a following 'by the

refuge it offers from the anxieties, barrenness and meaninglessness

of an individual existence. It cures the poignantly frustrated by

freeing them from their ineffectual selves--and it does this by

enfolding and absorbing them into a closely knit and exultant

corporate whole'. " Of all the cults and philosophies that competed in

the Graeco-Roman world, Christianity alone developed from its

inception a compact organization. "

 

Once I realized this, it wasn't much of a leap out of religion

altogether once I flew the Mormon coop. I simply wanted to be free

from organizational groupthink. I escaped from the stuffy attic of

religion's " pray, pay and obey " mentality into journalism's open

laboratory of " who, what, where, when and why. " [...]

 

Science discovered long ago that carbon is a source of life. The

ashes of my faith have prepared the ground for the planting of seeds

that have produced new forms of truth, morality and meaning on my own

terms, not according to the dogma laid down by religious ruffians or

a vengeful God. If, as believers claim, the word " gospel " means good

news, then the good news for me is that there is no gospel, other

than what I can define for myself, by observation and conscience. As

a journalist and free-thinking human being, I have come not to favor

and fear religion, but to face and fight it as an impediment to

civilized advancement. "

 

Steve Benson, Editorial Cartoonist