I have no money. Sell something that costs nothing.
People ponder this universe. Tell them how it got here.
I don't know that. Make something up that no one can prove wrong.
People will not believe. Give them wondrous reasons to believe.
People will not believe. Give them a punishment for not believing.
People do not want to die. Sell them eternal life.
I cannot provide eternal life. People will die to find you out.
People will doubt. Tell them you have authority.
They have authority. But your authority trumps theirs.
People want to matter. Sell them meaning and purpose.
They can decide that. But you have authority.
They have authority. But yours is a higher authority.
People want to be good. Sell them goodness.
They can do that themselves. Tell them they are fallen; they cannot.
People will know better. Override them with your authority.
People want to belong. Give them a community.
They can do that themselves. Your community is better.
People want acceptance. Your community will accept them; if.
People want power. You have an in with a higher power.
Decision is the only power. Sell people an in with a magician.
Life is tough and scary. Give people a super human parent.
They can parent themselves. They are children to the super human parent.
Life is difficult, complex. Make it simple and easier.
People have siblings. Join the community of siblings.
People have companions. Join the community of companions.
People want to be special. Join the community held special by the super parent.
People want to be right. Join the righteous and virtuous community.
People like to be superior. Join the community of same and right belief.
People like superiority. The community excludes and diminishes those who differ.
People want guidelines. Sell them ethics, morality, justice.
They can build those. Yours are pre-assembled.
People want predictability. Community members are predictable.
People want knowledge. Give them belief. It's easier and has value.
Belief is not knowledge. Faith in belief is a virtue. Belief equals knowledge.
Decision needs knowledge. Make decisions for them.
People want knowledge. Give them reason not to look.
I have some ideas. I will tell people that a super human being created this universe and them. I will tell them that the super human is eternal and they can join him to live a glorious eternal life replete with luxury and ease. I will tell people that they are lesser beings, children, and they must meet criteria to be accepted by their super parent in eternity.
I will present the super human parent as a supreme being, holy, divine, perfect, above all other beings. I will present a book and claim that it was inspired or even dictated by the surpreme being. In this book, the supreme being will have magical powers and mysterious ways of doing things. The supreme being will have an enemy that also works in mysterious ways and has magic powers too. Good versus evil in constant struggle.
I will tell people that they are, by nature, on the evil side. They must be wary of their nature and use my book as a guide that returns them to favor with the super parent. I will tell people that the book is my authority to speak for the super parent. The book and its author will be the source of ethics, morality, justice, righteousness and all human values.
People will always sense that decision is the only power and that all values, good and evil, result from decisions made and executed. They will know that every experience is preceded by decisions that cause it or allow it to happen. They will know that knowledge is required to build ethics and guide behavior used to execute decisions. They will know that morality and justice and immorality and injustice are the results of decisions made and executed. They will always know that they are responsible to make decisions and to parent themselves and to parent their children to become able to make decisions and accept responsibility. They will alays know that decision is the only power, the only way to fend for themselves.
But I can override all of that. Once a person believes that a mysterious and magical super human parent exists. Once they look to me as having authority to speak for their parent, once they believe that a mysterious and magical enemy of the parent exists, I can tell people just about anything and use that to manipulate them. I can give them answers. I can give them pre-made decisions. I can give them community. I can use just about anything a person wants as a way to manipulate them. I can use just about anything a person wants to believe as a way to manipulate them. I can use desire and fear to manage this whole operation.
I can use beliefs I prescribe and decisions I make for them to relieve them of the always pressing sense of responsibility and ease the pains and griefs of life. I can even give them forgiveness when responsibility surfaces. I can keep people focused on the wonderful rewards of the next life and get them to let go of this one. In this life, rewards only come with right decisions and rightfull labor. Some people do take short cuts like scam and sham to avoid some labor but I can use them as examples of devil work and prove its existence. This is all too easy. There has to be a vulnerability somewhere.
Knowledge. That's it. Damn the knowledge. Teach people to use belief instead. Explain the virtue of using faith in belief instead of looking for knowledge. Set belief and confidence in the super human parent as the principle value, the way to acceptance in the community of believers and acceptance by the parent in wonderful, luxurious eternal life. Set your speaking and writing and your interpretations of the holy book as the most important knowledge of all and sufficient for a child of the super parent. I can even make the seeking of knowledge appear to be wrongful and a threat to acceptance and rewards, now and later.
Wow. I still cannot believe how easy this holy confidence scheme can be. It is too easy for comfort so I will sure it up. Since I have hope of gaining many followers and establishing an aristocracy, governments will be able to leverage my scam to help them control their own populations and the wealthy can leverage my scam to protect their holdings. I have to be wary of such allies but we can cover each other pretty well and mutual benefit might keep us all in line. I think I will carefully encourage this alliance.
Money. How do we monetize this scheme? We are working for the super human parent and fighting against the parent's enemy. Free will donations might be incentivized by thoughts of contributing to the cause. If we ask for donations in public, people might feel shame in not giving and they might even try to out give each other to feel superior. A person might be helped to feel that they are securing their acceptance in our community and reserving their place of luxury in the arms of their super parent. We can sell all kinds of symbols and bobbles and what nots themed in our brand and our ideals. We can sell all manner of art and we can use the arts to keep hammering the beliefs and virtues and decisions we dictate. We can establish traditions that draw many participants and the revenue that comes with them. We can buy up real estate and erect stunning buildings that hammer our themes and represent our authority and incentivize donations that pay for these assets. We can build schools that earn revenue and make children available to us for indoctrination and inculcation and manipulation. Incentives are already in place for donations to pay for the real estate. We can build hospitals and clinics that earn revenue and put our recruiters in touch with people at vulnerable moments in their lives. We can operate all kinds of charities that provide social and human services. These, too, will put our recruiters in front of people in their vulnerable moments. Charitable gifts will pay for the real estate required and support those operations. Philanthropists from within and beyond our community can be drawn to such charities and they will have incentives of their own. Working with government allies, we can even get exemptions and other incentives for all contributors (and ourselves).
Wow again. What a business plan. A little pretense and we get rich and powerful.
But, all someone has do do is challenge our authority and we are finished.
Many people will be seduced by our false promises or fearful of our fake punishments. Many people will be drawn to our community by its own, real life, values. Many people will be seduced by all the fake feel goods we provide. We can provide false and real incentives for recruiters and make it a duty for community members to recruit more members. Members will even have there own incentives to seduce new members. Given an adequate number of members, we can manipulate them to police themselves and stand against nonmembers. We can also set rules of marriage to demand conversion before being allowed to marry someone outside our community. Our allies in government and wealth will help keep the scam going. The manipulations and maneuvers and conspiracies available seem endless. Once we get this thing up to speed, members will be held as children and they will bring in their children and we can build whole populations of non-critical, under developed members and help governments keep their populations from developing critical thinkers. The simplicity and less responsible, more predictable life we provide and wondrous rewards will keep many members for us and be a lure to many more.
All we need is a pre-critical, not yet developed person to start with. A lot are available and we can even get some experience by indoctrinating our own children.
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An in depth look at: What Makes A Religion Evil.
A different look at: The Religion Of Atheism.
To return to the entrance of: Religion Of One.