REDUCING STRESSI

t is hard for us to keep on believing, day after day, despite being jostled by new scientific revelations that keep challenging our world view. The devout  must find it hard to hang on to their faith against the growing mountain of evidence that keeps challenging the foundations of that faith. One would have to condition oneself to either reject this new information outright by denouncing the messenger or work hard at finding ways of reinterpreting that information so that it no longer conflicts with one's beliefs. And with the ongoing, almost exponential growth of scientific knowledge that modern computers make possible, this must require a constant vigilance on the part of the faithful. One would have to keep repeating affirmations over and over again  insisting that there" is a god, oh yes, there is a god," whenever doubt crosses the mind.

 No wonder religious leaders spend such prodigious amounts of money and energy in their drive to keep the Lie alive. There are over 1700 religious broadcasting outlets in the United States alone, most of them affiliated with the Christian National Religious Broadcasters Association.  There are also some three dozen religious networks operating on the AM and FM bands, including the Eternal Word - Global Catholic Network, Praise Broadcasting, American Family Radio and Trinity Broadcasting.  In addition, religious media outlets such as Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network stream content to commercial distributors.  Religious stations also operate widely on the short-wave band, and like many radio-television outlets, distribute their content on the internet. A Canadian-based company known as Galcom International has been manufacturing special radios which are pre-tuned to evangelical radio station frequencies.  The company also provides transmitters used by missionary groups in remote areas to spread their proselytizing messages.  The radios cost about $20 each, and over 375,000 have been manufactured and shipped to evangelical groups in 101 countries where they are distributed. Add to that all the TV programs and the thousands of newsletters and pamphlets and all the sermons emanating from a surfeit of churches that exhort you to believe  and you can see how desperately they try to keep the Lie alive!

 No one runs around trying to convince us that the world is round anymore, but even after thousands of years , religious leaders are still frantically trying to convince us that they can interpret some deity’s will to our advantage.. Why. why  this need to  keep trying to sell the same thing over and over again?  Why keep putting all this effort into trying to believe in something which requires such ceaseless, never ending effort? Why not just relax and enjoy life?

  Well, for the same reason that tobacco companies will  risk the hostility of the public and expensive lawsuits to sell their lethal product - because it brings in money and, most importantly, that money brings in power. People do not give that up easily.   So for this same reason religious leaders keep selling their product, a scam-- and a particularly  scurrilous scam at that --  that offers you safe passage into another life after this one. A scam that brings in bundles and costs nothing to say, albeit it must be said with great gusto, with plenty of confident affirmations -- as one should expect from any experienced scam artist.

 But is this scam really  necessary? Probably few today actually buy the concept of a life after  death and they still stick with their church--or at least to their religion. Fact is, churches have progressed a long way from their role as God's enforcer. Most denominations support charities, they sponsor clinics to help the poor, the homeless, and many even have psychologists who can help people and families in trouble. And our western world  is in need, because of so many cut backs in the social services, all the help it can get.  No longer is their advice to just say ten Hail Mary's and go home and repent. They are just as contemporary as  most other modern institutions. They will, in my opinion, survive very well-  at least the good ones- when they drop their supernatural claims.

 The benefits, in my opinion are enormous. No need to desperately seek consensus because you cannot supply material evidence, which encourages hostility and often war between different cultures. And once we free ourselves from the debilitating effect of believing in things not proven by material evidence, rumors will no longer turn us against each other and the human race can move on, using a rational approach to all problems and finding the best pragmatic solutions to the challenges we face in life. and I'm sure there will be a lot of religious leaders who will welcome not having to spread what they must know are lies. After all, they do read the Bible

agm  Andy Mulcahy