In a vibrant and prosperous world, do we still need religion?

Mondo Culture Updated on 2024-02-25

February** Dynamic Incentive Program

In any vigorous age, religion is not desirable.

In the process of the development of human civilization, religion was derived as a part of human civilization.

In the earliest human tribal civilization, human beings had a natural reverence for nature, and this awe spread with the development of human civilization, from nature to monarchs, to fathers, heroes, and even a certain part of animals.

With the rapid spread of the richness of human emotions, the original awe, coupled with the cognition of some human sages about the world, gradually formed a special system, the system of ghosts and gods.

The system of ghosts and gods includes folklore and some naïve philosophical theories such as cause and effect, development and contradiction, etc., coupled with the simplest human understanding of nature, so that the words of ghosts and gods have a wide audience not only among the people, but also have a part of the believers base in the upper class.

The emergence of religious civilization often exists in troubled times, and religion uses the suffering people as fertile ground to form a large number of believers and believers, thus exerting a huge impact on society.

For example, Chinese Taoism appeared in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, and the turmoil of the Eastern Han Dynasty regime plunged the people of the world into a harsh government, and the general public was struggling at the bottom of the society, and they needed a kind of spiritual solace and hope to continue to struggle to live.

The emergence of Taoism has given the general public another way of thinking, that is, good will be rewarded with good and evil will be rewarded, which makes the general public who are unable to extricate themselves from hardship have an expectation of living and looking forward to the "cause" of their own peace and self-control, and can bring themselves the "fruit" of a bright world. ”

This kind of thinking is a spiritual medicine for the suffering general public, allowing them to continue to survive in the originally desperate suffering world, so the turbulent times in the late Eastern Han Dynasty quickly formed a fertile ground for the development of believers in Taoism and other religions.

Buddhism was introduced to China from the period of Emperor Ming of the Han Dynasty, and the theory of Buddhism "reincarnation of cause and effect" in the troubled times at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, especially in the Yellow Turban Uprising, Buddhism was really introduced from the upper court to the toiling masses at the bottom, and was widely spread in China.

In the Western world, the rise of ** religion was immediately after the collapse of the Roman Empire, with the collapse of the Roman Empire, the original feudal order turned into a pile of ruins, and countless warlords and tribes began to fight for hegemony on this pile of ruins.

In frequent wars, a large number of subsistence resources were consumed, and the ruling class intensified the exploitation of the people at the bottom for its own ambitions, and the peasants at the bottom lived in hardship for many years.

The doctrine of teaching the suffering of this life and obtaining the blessings of heaven has been greatly welcomed by the people at the bottom, and the religion caters to the indignation of the people at the bottom of the society under oppression, and gives a justifiable and justifiable reason for the suffering of the present with the bitterness and joy of "the next life".

The war spread rapidly under the urging of the ambitions of the monarchs, and the ** religion spread like an appendage of suffering on the Western land at a terrible speed, and even the influence of the ** religion finally surpassed the influence of secular power on the lower people who made up the majority of the population, thus opening the theocratic era of the Western world.

Therefore, the greatest significance of religion to the whole society often lies in the fact that the ordinary people who are struggling in troubled times can calm the desperate and restless hearts and stabilize the social order.

However, while calming people's hearts, religion has an unavoidable negative impact, which is mainly reflected in the erosion and reduction of the will of the people at the bottom to resist and accept the brutal reactionary rule.

Of course, peasant uprisings in the name of religion abound in history, the most famous is the Yellow Turban Rebellion in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, Zhang Jiao preached the world with Taiping Dao, and after more than ten years of accumulation, the number of followers of Taiping Dao reached hundreds of thousands.

Zhang Jiao proclaimed himself the "General of Tiangong", and the rebel army wrapped the Yellow Turban on its head, and launched the Yellow Turban Uprising all over the country at the same time, attacking the colossal and corrupt regime of the Eastern Han Dynasty.

Apparently this was a peasant uprising with long-term preparation and a well-established organizational structure, and religion was only a nominal façade, a means of communication between the rebel armies.

Similarly, the Taiping Rebellion at the end of the Qing Dynasty was essentially just a realization of personal political ideals by the leadership, and only with the help of the influence of religion itself, but in fact the development of religious culture itself was not perfected or further developed.

In addition, the core idea of religion is the worship of gods, which is the common denominator of all religions, and this worship is the core content of the realization and spread of religion, which is supreme in religion, and the existence of theocracy always has a constraint on the influence of secular power.

This situation can be seen in the history of Western countries, where the emancipation of the mind and freedom of thought were achieved by breaking free from the shackles of theocracy.

Therefore, religion cannot constitute a strict, just, and free political organization in essence, and the existence of religion is fundamentally incapable of promoting scientific and technological progress and the strength of the country for a vigorous regime.

In today's society, the economy and culture are extremely prosperous, the whole society is in a state of accumulation, anyone can change the society and change life through their own efforts, in today's social conditions, as long as a person is willing, no one can hinder his progress.

The core of religion is to teach people to be kind, contented and happy, and to meditate and cultivate oneself, the spread of this kind of thinking is not only not conducive to the development of society in the competition, but also brings out a part of the "lying flat youth", the good youth does not bring any value to the society, but also spends a lot of good years, waiting for the old age, but also immersed in the delusion of cultivating immortals, ridiculous, sad and sad!

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