"Religions are a tool to control people"

[perro_sarnoso]

I’ve tried to evangelize to a couple of people, but this is what they told me when I asked their thoughts on Christianity. Any evidence I offer for the reality of Christianity, they find “evidence” to dismiss it. They go back to insisting that “organized religion” is nothing but “mind control” to “keep the masses in line.” How do I respond to this?

Sin is the tool with which we surrender our freedom.

 

[perro_sarnoso]

Religion is the discipline with which we train ourselves to avoid the near occasions of sin.

Sin (not religion) is the tool with which we surrender our freedom.

To reject the discipline is to is to give in to the thing that destroys and depletes God’s grace in our souls.

To deny the existence of our souls is to deny our existence which is an illusion or delusion - openning ourselves up to the wickedness and snares of the devil and the action of the demons.

Anyone can train their body but, to train our soul in order to resist the near occasions of sin…that is a more daunting task. Especially without God’s grace…it is impossible and death ensues.

Is it truly “religion” that we are rejecting ? or is it the teachings of Jesus Christ and the Church He established after His Ascension into heaven?

The tool that controls us is the sin we commit…again and again and again.

 

[Groucho_Marx]

I’ve tried to evangelize to a couple of people, but this is what they told me when I asked their thoughts on Christianity. Any evidence I offer for the reality of Christianity, they find “evidence” to dismiss it. They go back to insisting that “organized religion” is nothing but “mind control” to “keep the masses in line.” How do I respond to this?

:hey_bud: Tell them you could say the same thing about government but that doesn’t mean all government is bad nor does it dispense with the necessity of having it.

 

[AntalKalnoky]

The religions of communism, secularism, hypersexualism, consumerism, etc. are mind control devices, whereas the Catholic religion liberates us from slavery to the devil and our passions. Do not expect the people you are trying to convince from accepting this truth, as they probably enjoy a false contentment living according to the flesh. I would know - I was once like this before the grace of God saved me from my sins. I have a friend who never tried to convince me while I played the prodigal son. He stayed silent and prayed the Rosary for me everyday. I suggest you do the same for these poor sinners, yourself, and for me. May God bless you and give you inner peace in the face of unbelief.

Indeed! And show them how confident, strong, unworried one Becomes in the Home of Our Lord: Christ, His Church. I’ve Returned from all troubles; am trouble free now. It is The Church, Traditional.

 

[fred_conty]

I’ve tried to evangelize to a couple of people, but this is what they told me when I asked their thoughts on Christianity. Any evidence I offer for the reality of Christianity, they find “evidence” to dismiss it. They go back to insisting that “organized religion” is nothing but “mind control” to “keep the masses in line.” How do I respond to this?

Russan communism thought so to and look at the success they had. WOW

 

[PaulGH]

I too have encountered this claim that “religions are a tool to control people,” and I don’t know how to respond to it, because honestly it doesn’t make sense to me.

In a conversation I had some time ago on another message board, I had encountered comments such as the following:

“*My honest opinion . . . is that religion itself is simply a tool that has been used (quite effectively in some cases) to control the behavior of large populations of people.”

“**And this is one of my stumbling blocks to the whole religion thing, because . . . it’s simply a punishment/reward system meant to control the masses.”

"*That doesn’t sound to me like the handiwork of a supreme being, but rather a totalitarian framework instituted by humans who had a desire to control other humans."

I asked the authors of these comments, and others on that board, for clarifications on these claims. Here is part of what I wrote:

So the claim is that either Christianity specifically or religion in general has been used, or even instituted, for the purpose of controlling people.

I do understand that when a religion teaches that our actions have eternal consequences, then someone who takes a cynical or skeptical view of that religion could interpret that teaching as an attempt to control behavior. However, what would be the purpose? What do the people who are supposedly doing the controlling get out of the deal?

If religious leaders taught that their followers must serve the religious leaders as slaves or some such thing, then the accusations I quoted above would certainly ring true. But what worldly benefit is gained by someone enforcing a moral code like the moral code of Christianity? How would a power-hungry bishop, priest, king, or emperor gain anything from convincing people to love God, to love their neighbor, to honor their parents, not to kill, not to lie, not to steal, not to have sex outside of marriage, etc.? A potential benefit would be a more ordered and peaceful society, but that doesn’t seem to be the kind of thing that people who make this claim have in mind – the claim seems to imply a purpose that is more nefarious than that.

Another sticking point for me is this idea that Christianity was actually instituted for the purpose of controlling people. It is hard for me to see how someone could match up that claim with history. If Christianity was instituted for the purpose of controlling people, who did the instituting? Was it Jesus’s apostles? Or the early bishops of the various churches? The problem is that Christianity was not widespread enough in its earliest years for any kind of widespread “control” even to be possible. And by the time it had become the dominant religion of the Roman Empire, its essential teachings had already been established long before.

I did get a few replies, but nothing that really adequately answered my questions. My conclusion from the conversation was that people who throw around comments like the three that I quoted above can’t really back up those comments when people start asking questions. Though I don’t know if people on the other side of the debate saw it that way.

Anyway, when people talk about religions being a tool to control people, you might ask some of the same questions that I asked above. Maybe you will get better answers than I did. Or more likely you will find that the people who make this claim can’t back it up, though I’m not sure if that really helps you with evangelizing them or not.

 

[AlanFromWichita]

Religions are ostensibly tools designed to lead us to God.

They are not substitutes for God, although I think a vast number of believers have unhealthy if not downright idolatrous relationships with the Church, and not only Catholics. They serve the religion rather than the God to which it points.

And yes, in Christianity we are told many times, “if you do this you’ll go to heaven,” and “if you do this you’ll go to hell,” and we focus on sin and punishment all the time. This is OK for the early formation of conscience, but basically it is about threats and bribes. It isn’t about pure love which seeks nothing for itself. We have to move past threats and bribes, and frankly, I think too many of us are fixated in that stage and will be for our entire lives. We can train lab rats with threats and bribes, but humans are called to a higher behavior – the unlocking of the law of love that is written in their hearts, that is made in the image of God – not to mention accessing the Holy Spirit who is IN each of us and doesn’t need to be found – just we have to get out of His way. Every day here on these forums we see scrupulosity that borderlines superstition in some cases, and I see this as one major area the Church needs to improve.

So I can certainly see how “religion” comes across as mind control and manipulation of the masses – to a large degree it is IMO guilty as charged. That isn’t its purpose or intent, though, and I chalk it up to being run by bureaucrats just like every other big organization. I’ve seen many times where priests, even from the pulpit, change their tune about things when money gets tight or other pressures arise in parishes, and once again we forego true spiritual growth and go back to scolding, shaming, threats, and bribes.

Alan