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Originally Posted by jhkayakr
All these conflicts and hatred between people all throughout history seem to be based on religion and peoples religious beliefs.
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The reason so many people have mentioned that communism, or whate ver it was the ussr was doing, looks like a religions is b/c it appropriates the exact same psychological motivations. Most (if not all) organized religions promise some kind of future betterment through obedience to their principles. Obviously this is entirely general but I think it applies. What communism, or any materialist utopia, does is say, 'Look god tried to make people happy but he has clearly fucked up, so fuck him. He gave us all the wrong tools, but dont worry, we've got it figured out. What we have to do now is have you give us your freedom and in exchange we'll give you bread, and we'll let you sin, and you'll be happy.' (and this you could read in its perfect for in Dostoevsky' The Grand Inquisitor')
Now, it's another question when we try and consider how fanaticism enters the picture and I think unfortunately it's quite a paradoxical questions, chikens and eggs. What we can say though, is that in the course of human history religion and religious belief have become more subserviant to the demands of reason. What was once a pantheon of gods is reduced to God, why, if 1 can do what many did then, well, fucking obviously. Ocham's Razor, or at leat the well known edge of it.
What I'm trying to say is that I think your question is only hinting at another, more fundamental, question. If religion and utopia appropriate and make use of the same energies, and these energies are subject to the demands of reaon, where does the problem arrise. There are, IMO, two things common in persons, an ability to believe, and an ability to reaons. Presently I am of the opinion that the belief is not causing the problems, one does not believe in greed or killing or any of that, one reasons it and follows that course of action through a subjective perception of advantage. Of course, we simply are unable to reaons our advantage, which is why it must be left as a matter of faith. Only when we try that, and this is what organized religion is supposed to be, we always somehow let reason in the back door and it [religion] transforms from a spiritual institution to a social one, the pope becomes caesar (papocaesarism) or caesar the pope (caeasaropapaism).
I think that makes for a conclusion and since I have to leave work now I'll look at this latter and correct it if not.