Brain washing of the masses.

A growing trend, and one that certainly has roots with Dawkins, Hicthens, Harris etc... is a lumping of moderates into the same camp as the fundamentalists of their chosen faith. Why do this?

I obviously can not speak for others. But from my own point of view it's this:

Anyone who believes in an imaginary friend who is watching over them, and can do this while completely disregarding the inaccuracies, the contradictions, cruelty and down right silliness of their religious texts is a bit loopy. They are disconnected and not living in the real world.

I know that a lot of these people are harmless, doing no one harm, and in fact are helping a lot of people along the way. So why is this a problem for me, simply because I know they can do good without believing in a god. And do it in the real world.

Basically the need for religion and religious teaching is in the past. We get our morals from being educated, from being part of a working civilization. We do not harm others because we would not wish this on anyone we love or ourselves. This is what makes us who we are. We can go beyond just our family grouping to help others.

We should celebrate this wonderful instinct that is in most of us, I say most, because there are some genuine nut jobs.

Also I have lived within the confounds of a religious bound mind, completely unaware of the restraints this put on me. After the 27 years it took from when I first questioned the role of religion to when I realised there simply was no god, I still had problems with blasphemy and guilt. Yes, even as an atheist the indoctrination I had received was still at play in my mind. It really is that strong.

Many atheists reports this, I take comfort when I see this. Even though I rejected the claim for a god, and become an Atheist, I still had the brainwashing that went with it, at a guess I would say that took 2 years to clear, and a lot of reading. That being books by Harris, Dawkins and others as well as the bible.

I had to deprogram myself. I know that sounds kind of strange, but the truth is you can program your own mind. Its not actually that hard. Many training courses rely on this ability to get a message across to there trainees.

A few years back I was a forecourt attendant for a major fuel company, I did the night shift, and as such was at risk of being robbed, even worse, being robbed at gunpoint. So we were all sent on a course. On this course the simplest thing we were taught was to over the following 3 weeks say to our selves each day three to five times a day, "I survive armed robberies" and repeat it 15 times over and over.

The reason for this is when we are confronted with a new situation I brains try to find something with in them to guide us. It's an automatic response. So when a person walks into the store and points a gun at you the first thing your mind does is say "it's an armed robbery" and the brains automatic response is to say "I survive armed robberies" thereby putting you at ease right from the start.

To be fair, I never got this put into play. Which actually is a good thing, as I do not know if I would indeed survive an armed robbery. However, there is more.

While armed robberies were not a major for me, leaving the keys in my car was. Many times I would get out of my car and lock it with the keys still in the ignition. This plagued me for years. So with my new found brain programing I said to my self 15 times, 3 to 4 times a day for 3 weeks "when I leave the car I take the keys with me". I did this, It has been 15 years since I left my keys in the ignition. The power of brain programing is real, very, scary real.

So that is were the power of prey comes in. Calculate how many times you said the lord's prayer over the years. No wonder you believe. Sad but true, it really is just brain programing.

So why do I lump moderates in with fundies, actually its the other way round for me, I lump fundies in with the moderates. They are all being conned, a con that was so good, that it is still going on thousands of years after it was set up. So good that those sucked in think they are somehow even more special by making the brain programing even more effective.

Living in the real world is one of the treats of being an atheist. It is pure and wonderful. It is real. and I did not have to repeat this 15 times, 3 -5 times a day for 3 weeks to see the pure world. I just had to deprogram the "My father, who is in heaven, holy be thy name"

Peace V

AK