Reply #41: You don't know what they believe. [View All]

To understand religion it is not about understanding the text, their traditions, or the organizations. You have to understand the cause and effect of such a prescribed view of the world.

The irrational fear comes from a structured social framework that does not accommodate but to help support personal beliefs. The higher order of your own beliefs the closer you are to your particular God. So socially it is unacceptable to find fault in anything that directly or indirectly supports that social belief. There is direct evidence of this outside of theological social groups as well.

Take any conspiracy that has either been proven or not. Simply mentioning that you have taken interest in any conspiratorial story automatically discredits you. Even with your closest friends, parents, or siblings. This is because over time we rely on social acceptance to guide not only what we believe but also what we know. The frightening thing is that if you understand the cause affect of being shunned socially it can be used to control different aspects of individual behavior.

So these "true" believers may have to hold beliefs that to the non-believer seem as utter contradictions. The only way to get people to believe in contradictions is to withhold information then make them afraid of knowing it. Bingo the formula for social control, make them afraid of knowing the truth.

This is not just a symptom of religion, but they are the most obvious example of control by fear.