The road to hell….

Abstract

Only a brief perusal of human history is required to note that certain human social structures always occur. It seems they cannot be eliminated. One example is religion. Voltaire once observed that if God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him. Whether God exists or is a human invention is immaterial for the purposes of this paper. What is clear is that religion is a central human institution. Can any of us name a single human society that is devoid of religion? Whilst some central features of religion seem universal, it takes many forms. When attempts are made to suppress religion it either goes underground or adopts another identity. In the former USSR religion was suppressed. Some people took their religion underground; others became members of the new Soviet religion. Adolph Hitler was the high priest of Nazism, which bore all the trademarks of a religion. It was based on belief and faith, not on science. Detractors were dealt with mercilessly, and many scientists published documents supporting Nazi doctrine, including the supremacy of the Aryan race and the notion that Aryan blood was different from all other types. Some did so out of fear. Others found themselves swept up in the heady groundswell of nationalism until they were blinded by it and wrote about the science that proved the superiority of the Aryan race with passion and vigour. Religion cannot be eliminated. It is the enclosed fluid of human society. Press in one place, and it bulges somewhere else. One may choose not to believe in God, but nearly all of us choose to believe in something that gives meaning to our lives. Such belief shapes our paradigms; our mental models, and therefore our view of the world. These beliefs are religious in their nature.