Religion, Racism and Superstitionsby Derek Cantrell

(Draft I)

Religion is a concept that originated long ago. It could be argued that religion was humanity’s original attempts to explain the unknown. In time previous to scientific method, and little knowledge of the way our minds function, religion was the best construct to offer explanations for things such as post-death existence, plagues, etc.

Polytheism (the belief in multiple deities) is believed to be the first religions, which led to the monotheism (the belief in one deity), that represents the major religions in modern times. While religions have offered comfort to a time in humanity when we were ignorant to many experiences, science and scientific method has shown us a clearer path to follow, when contemplating various unknowns. We also begin to realize the hindrance religion has inflicted upon humanity.

When we acknowledge beliefs and actions of religions past and present, we begin to see religious belief, ceremony and action, as a construct akin to superstition and racism. While this statement may seem radical or bold, it can be explained in a rationally and accurately.

Religion, racism and superstition have all been used to emotionally comfort by allowing the user to claim knowledge of the unknown. Many superstitions are based on past religions and others on distortion of common sense, or inaccurate correlations. While avoiding black cats, throwing salt over one’s shoulder and knocking on wood, may bring comfort to the believer by allowing the believer

to think there’s control over unexplained happenings; there’s no science or scientific method that allows us to acknowledge such ceremonies and practices or acts, as anything of validity.

Racism falls feebly before scientific and logical principles. Racism is found in the major religions of the world including Judaism, Christianity and Muslim beliefs. Racism is nothing more than inaccurate correlation, or complete fabrication, propagated to give a particular group an advantage, or blame an adverse group for particular failures. When exposed to scientific method, racism feebly falls to a device used to form an imaginary line between two or more groups, based on their origins or skin pigmentation.

    While there is absolutely no scientific proof of any god, miracle or divinely written rules, religion continues to have a strong foothold in the human experience. Religion is man's attempt to explain the unknown, but often results in the projection of blame on others through segregation and has frequently attempted to spread its control through death and destruction. Theism has quenched insecure men’s thirst for dominance from the beginning of its existence to modern day. Throughout history, man has judged, ruled and killed indiscriminately as a result of a moral standard set by deities whose character has been developed anthropomorphically. Not only are these moral standards often skewed to meet the demands and wishes of the followers, but many of the standards have been proven to be inaccurate. For example: There is no evidence to prove the inferiority of women, nor the acceptance of slavery. These beliefs do not promote our species.

Indoctrination is an important aspect of any belief system, and often these belief systems incorporate ritual and personal contributions by the believer. These contributions serve to strengthen

the hold of the indoctrination, as psychological science has found that we form particular bonds through adversity. If you run a marathon and win a trophy, you will cherish it. If you buy a very similar looking trophy from the pawn shop, you will not cherish it. The trophy you won, symbolizes the adversity, strain and effort of running the marathon. Superstitious beliefs have the weakest hold of indoctrination. They require very little action on the behalf of the believer in order to for them to be indoctrinated, and they are most often self-indoctrinated based on coincidences in personal experience. An example of a self-indoctrinated superstition would be the fact that Boxing's Welterweight champion of the World, Manny Pacquiao will not leave the Philippine Islands without a quick stop at the gym he trains at. He believes that omitting the visit could cause him to lose his ranking as the best. Manny Pacquiao has self-indoctrinated himself through unproven correlation by relating his stop at the gym to victory in the ring. Although most superstitions may be quickly adopted, they lack the strength and power of conviction of racism and religion.

Racism is a much more formidable force to reckon with. It's usually instilled through both classical and operant conditioning and usually passed on and reinforced through trusted family members and peers. Racism encourages moderate ritual and contribution, which may include thoughts, jokes, or gatherings with peers. There is sometimes extreme conditioning, from the indoctrination of one's own offspring to rape, torture and death of those of a different race.

Religion also typically utilizes classical and operant conditioning for indoctrination. Religion requires moderate to extreme ritual and contribution and encourages--or requires--dedication in thought and action and strict adherence to rules and regulations which are requirements of the specific belief or religion.

Last we'll compare the inhumane acts affiliated with the three topics. This is where superstitions seem to bow out. Although there are documented cases of "witches" being tortured and killed by the superstitious; a closer look reveals that at least one rendition of religion always accompanies their sentencing. While superstition may be quick to latch on to one's psyche, it lacks the conviction needed to compete with the other two topics.

So let's move on to racism. There are many counts of violence and inhumane acts carried out in the name of a race against another. The thoughts and acts of racism may even predate our earliest civilizations. Historians suspect that prehistoric, traveling nomads fought other groups they encountered over hunting and mating rights. While we can't know the effects of such acts, there are more recent cases of racism that we as Americans are acquainted with. The Atlantic Slave Trade was the act of abducting or buying Africans and shipping them to the United States. They were used to produce goods to sell to the European countries, who were all competing for land and dynasties. Well over twelve million men and women of Africa were forced to come to the United States and work as slaves. The original captives were titled "indentured servants" or "apprentices for life", but when the slaves produced offspring, the children were seen as property of the slaves' master and kept as such. The children were often traded at the market with other goods. Far more than twelve million were abducted or sold from Africa, but many did not make the trip, as the traveling conditions were horrible and those who attempted escape were often killed on sight.

Since we singled out one particular case of slavery we're familiar with, we'll do the same with theism. This will save you from hearing details of rapes, molestations, heinous tortures and gory deaths conducted in the name of hundreds upon hundreds of gods of man's

past, who demanded sacrifice or were used by man to justify these unwarranted acts on innocent victims. Christianity is the most popular here in America, so we'll go with that one. While racism can claim twelve million unwarranted slaughters of the lives of innocent victims, in just one point in man's history, Christianity can also take some of the blame, since the "Christians" between the sixteenth and nineteenth century saw Black men, women and children as heathens that were considered by the Judaic God as more of an animal than a man. The Africans may have been enslaved due to their ethnicity, but the right to beat, rape and kill them was condoned by the Judaic God. As a matter of fact, if a black slave was accused of committing a serious crime; evidence or not, it was the white man's "Christian duty" to beat the fear of God into him.

Let's move on to Martin Luther, the Protestant monk/ priest responsible for having the Latin worded Holy Bible translated to language familiar to Europe, such as English and German. Martin Luther is also a major influence of singing and choirs in churches. In the beginning of his known career, he was a great defender of the Jewish ethnicity, calling them victors of oppression and reaching out to befriend them with his Christian movement. When it became clear that the natives of Jerusalem would have no part in promoting Christianity, Martin Luther used his growing congregation to promote hatred toward them. In a world when the printing press was a new invention, the Bible was being spread across Europe in a multitude of languages and so were malicious printings about the Jews and their beliefs. Martin Luther's congregation continued to grow and branch out, long after his death and continues to thrive in the countries of Europe today. The Lutheran church in Germany was a very powerful ally and contributor to the construction of a group of militant men known as the Third Reich. Most members of the Third Reich

considered themselves members of "Positive Christianity", a rendition of the Holy Bible minus the Jewish elements. They firmly believed this even while casting over six million Jews into ovens to burn to death. This included Men, women, children, infants and even newborns.

The Protestant groups of Christianity have done their share in contributing to genocide. Surely the Catholics aren't known for any such blasphemy to humanity, other than the sixteen thousand children that claim to have been molested and sodomized by the priests. Oh wait... the “Christian Crusades.” Beginning in 1095 Pope Urban II began deeming men worthy to represent Christianity in a conflict with Muslims and people of other religious faiths, over land. A man deemed worthy of being a Crusader wore a cross upon his chest and which also deemed that no interests could be added to his debts, he was free from taxes, he was exempt from many of man's governmental laws and even the violation of many of Christianity's laws were overlooked, as long as he was "fighting the good fight." The Crusades later included Jews as an enemy. Countless artifacts of knowledge and culture was destroyed by the hands of Crusaders and though there is no accurate way of knowing the heinous injustices that went on for those two hundred years, some historians estimate over twenty-three million, five hundred thousand deaths were committed in the name of the father, son and holy ghost.

In all, there are many overlooked psychological explanations for religion, racism and superstition, but no logical excuses for the tragedies committed on their behalf, whether they be minimal or genocidal...unless of course we consider that many atrocities are acted out, in fear or a lack of understanding. Sigmund Freud once said that religion would be around as long as man feared death. It seems a

very "ungodly" paradox that the concepts that were created to help us overcome our fear of death, have promoted so much of it.