God.  Religion.  And all those poor, witless dupes taken in — these are a few of my favorite things! I’m kidding. While I do despise organized religion, that does not automatically mean I have a problem faith. I make this clarification because people will likely assume I believe faith — along with religion — is useless. When the fact is, such a characterization could not be further from the truth.

Its important to make clear that, I’m not saying anything about faith when I talk about religion. That those are two entirely different things.  And though its somewhere in the really boring middle, that the Bible covers this particular topic.

In fact, I find faith to be a wonderful thing.  Faith has a special distinction from its other philosophical counter parts — it can reasonably survive on its own. What I mean is, most logic is rooted in a kind of required linear causality — where one thing must follow another. Faith on the other hand, requires no such prerequisites, only a belief and a believer. Every single theory known must have begun at some point and been sustained at least initially on some amount of faith. Faith must therefore be understood as something empowering, self-gratifying, silencing, encouraging, and even self-destructive,  among many other things — and, as all of those things, faith can allow for the ability to go well beyond one’s self, as well as beyond the scope of one’s understanding. Let me say that again as that is the very point. Faith can allow you to go well beyond yourself and the scope of your understanding. Faith can drive you well beyond where you belong. Sometimes the direction faith takes us is safe.  And other times faith can drive us over a cliff. Faith is that tether between people as if they were Lemmings instead, that can make them march together unquestioningly. But above all else, over people, faith has powerful influence.

That is precisely why we must scrutinize suppositions forcing us to otherwise have faith. Suppositions like God and the foundation of every aspect of a religious life, deserve deep, tireless scrutiny. If you doubt this need, then you doubt God, belief, and even faith as concepts themselves. Because the very first step to understanding religion logically, is to agree that these things are supposition. That is why we needed faith in the first place! I highlight this important bit of causal, rather linear and logical thought — Religion is a supposition propelled by faith — because it relates to a curious policy of the US government regarding religion. The policy has to do with how the government quells dissent during times of Martial Law. The US government relies on religious groups called Clergy Response Teams, tasked with making the dissenting citizens happy using the word of God.

I thought this was a strange practice for a decidedly religion-neutral (or rather allegedly religion-neutral) country like the US. Howsoever, this practice was used to calm the very rightly agitated citizens of the Gulf Coast region during and in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Obviously dissent grew as things fell apart and then rather quickly once both gun confiscation and re-location were in full force.

These Clergy Response Teams helped Uncle Sam deal with the mess.  The mess being that the US government didn’t plan or correctly prepare for this kind of natural disaster; that the US government didn’t listen to the Army Corp engineers or anyone for that matter; that the US government is happy to as John Lennon once put it: keep you doped with religion, sex and TV.

The Clergy Response Teams for some reason did not think the US government had taken part in any of that neglect apparently. Instead, they must have agreed with all their hearts, as they regularly touted this pile of shit I have blockquoted below.

1.Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. 2.Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. 3.For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you. 4.For he is God’s servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God’s servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. 5.Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also because of conscience. 6.This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing. 7.Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.

Romans 13– and while the idea is not far let me tie-in Rome. Because the United States is a lot like Rome; the civilizations each housed both had ages of explosive life, artistic, sociological, technological and cultural growth, and were leader nations or Superpowers in their time. Both were made up of many diverse cultures that influence one another and gave us rise to new forms of culture. But more relevantly, both the United States and Rome shared a very similar style of government. And this sort of passage is written with reason; the kind of reason any government would understand.

The reason is: The rule over any man or men by another — as a man make mistakes — needs some one or thing to blame from time to time when the reality — that there is no control — rears its ugly head. Some will simply blame their lack of understanding God’s will. And then, when God needs a point of blame to dis-spell any concern or idea that He makes mistakes, the imperfect people are scapegoat.

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Allow me to acquaint you with my response to such circular and self-serving nonsense–

Any religion that claims it shares in the benefits of the good of serving some all-powerful, all-knowing, Universe-creating God, ought to simply ask that all-powerful, all-knowing, Universe-creating God, exactly why they might need a government at all, let alone one run by the very imperfect people needing to be so governed. And why is it that we only have these — what ought to be considered very special servants of God — take an oath and we do not ordain them instead. The honest answer would be that these officials are not ordained because they are by nature politicians and some day views may change. In other words, religion is only a part of the cultural style of the day. Religion is also though somehow an ancient yet still rather effective agent of control. In Rome, Christianity was used a lot like it is now in America; a birthright claimed by those who believe themselves above all other life forms.

All “rulers” implement such constructs for rather simple reasons and on a rather simple basis. The structure makes a great deal of sense from only one standpoint, and it is that of distraction and control as tactics of social exploitation. Boundaries made from frameworks built upon themes of fear, distress, and guilt leading to hope, salvation and happiness. All of it false at very face value when described so succinctly. Yet, such is the orchestra of undoing taking place in America.

In America, perhaps different from Rome, at least for now, anything is possible. So, consider that there are other agents of control which have equally varying influence. And, if religion isn’t (sexy and) scary enough a vehicle by which to control in the interim, there are others. Perhaps its the upgraded, entirely sexy replacement you fancy… you’ve heard of it I’m sure– they call it money. And the influence it brings allows you to do almost anything including create religions.