The God Virus: How Religion Infects Our Lives and Culture by Darrel Ray Page A
Authors: Darrel Ray
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god?”
• Sexual fidelity, “Have I taught my children how important fidelity is to god?”
• Viral flooding, “Am I keeping my children busy with religious activities to ensure other religions or secularism can’t influence them?”
• Viral isolation, “Am I doing all I can to keep my children heavily involved with other children at religious school, church camp, Sunday School, Wednesday prayer meeting, Thursday Bible study, youth choir, scripture memorization,” etc.
In a pluralistic society, it is difficult to isolate children from other religions. Until complete infection is achieved, there is a constant danger of attack and infection by another religion, or worse, the idea of no religion. Infection is much more difficult in a pluralistic society than in a more monolithic culture like a village in Afghanistan. When a religion is completely bound to the culture, the culture is brought into the service of the virus with more powerful effect. Since there are no competing religions in the environment,isolation has already been achieved. This makes infection efficient. It also makes it easier to impose heavy sanctions on wayward children.
Control of Sexuality and Reproduction
Uncontrolled sexuality prevents efficient propagation and risks wasting viral resources. The primary way to control sexuality is to create an environment of prohibition and sanction. All of the major western religions and many of the eastern ones have learned to harness the power of the sex drive in service of the god. This is probably the single biggest factor in the evolutionary success of the major religions today: They learned how to harness the power of the sex drive for viral propagation through the use of guilt, suppression of women’s sexuality, indoctrination of the youth in the virtues of having sex only inside of marriage and other techniques.
“Of the delights of this world, man cares most for sexual intercourse, yet he has left it out of his heaven.”
-Mark Twain
Within this context, the religion takes over the mating and reproductive parts of the brain and directs specific behavior. This behavior is NOT what humans are inclined to do and may, in fact, be dramatically different. It may not even be in the best interest of the individual, but it is in the best interest of the god virus. Religion is not concerned with the pleasure aspect of sex. The concern is propagation. This leads to a sex-negative environment that is friendly to the virus.
Sexual Suicide
The power of the virus is so great that it can induce sexual suicide. For example, Catholic priests and nuns are required to stop all sexual activity, including masturbation. Normal, biological drives are redirected or eliminated to allow the vector to focus all its energy on viral reproduction. The process creates huge psychological and emotional issues for priests and nuns, leading many to pathological behaviors.
While Islam does not make such unnatural requirements as celibacy, young suicide bombers in Islam in fact commit sexual suicide by giving up their reproductive capacity in the service of the virus. Virtually all suicide bombers in recent years have been young and clearly of reproductive age.
Living in a Sex-Negative Environment
If you are a non-religious person you can no more avoid the influence of the sex-negative environment than a fish can avoid pollution in its stream. From access to the Plan B drug or abortion, to the fundamentalist pharmacist refusing to sell birth control, to public funding for abstinence programs, you are affected by religious control efforts all around you.
“The basic religious idea of all patriarchal religions is the negation of sexual need.”
-Wilhelm Reich
As a psychologist, I see a good deal of sexual dysfunction directly related to religious guilt. When parents are afraid to have sex while the children are in the house, they are displaying specific viral behaviors. I have worked with many women who simply cannot
• Sexual fidelity, “Have I taught my children how important fidelity is to god?”
• Viral flooding, “Am I keeping my children busy with religious activities to ensure other religions or secularism can’t influence them?”
• Viral isolation, “Am I doing all I can to keep my children heavily involved with other children at religious school, church camp, Sunday School, Wednesday prayer meeting, Thursday Bible study, youth choir, scripture memorization,” etc.
In a pluralistic society, it is difficult to isolate children from other religions. Until complete infection is achieved, there is a constant danger of attack and infection by another religion, or worse, the idea of no religion. Infection is much more difficult in a pluralistic society than in a more monolithic culture like a village in Afghanistan. When a religion is completely bound to the culture, the culture is brought into the service of the virus with more powerful effect. Since there are no competing religions in the environment,isolation has already been achieved. This makes infection efficient. It also makes it easier to impose heavy sanctions on wayward children.
Control of Sexuality and Reproduction
Uncontrolled sexuality prevents efficient propagation and risks wasting viral resources. The primary way to control sexuality is to create an environment of prohibition and sanction. All of the major western religions and many of the eastern ones have learned to harness the power of the sex drive in service of the god. This is probably the single biggest factor in the evolutionary success of the major religions today: They learned how to harness the power of the sex drive for viral propagation through the use of guilt, suppression of women’s sexuality, indoctrination of the youth in the virtues of having sex only inside of marriage and other techniques.
“Of the delights of this world, man cares most for sexual intercourse, yet he has left it out of his heaven.”
-Mark Twain
Within this context, the religion takes over the mating and reproductive parts of the brain and directs specific behavior. This behavior is NOT what humans are inclined to do and may, in fact, be dramatically different. It may not even be in the best interest of the individual, but it is in the best interest of the god virus. Religion is not concerned with the pleasure aspect of sex. The concern is propagation. This leads to a sex-negative environment that is friendly to the virus.
Sexual Suicide
The power of the virus is so great that it can induce sexual suicide. For example, Catholic priests and nuns are required to stop all sexual activity, including masturbation. Normal, biological drives are redirected or eliminated to allow the vector to focus all its energy on viral reproduction. The process creates huge psychological and emotional issues for priests and nuns, leading many to pathological behaviors.
While Islam does not make such unnatural requirements as celibacy, young suicide bombers in Islam in fact commit sexual suicide by giving up their reproductive capacity in the service of the virus. Virtually all suicide bombers in recent years have been young and clearly of reproductive age.
Living in a Sex-Negative Environment
If you are a non-religious person you can no more avoid the influence of the sex-negative environment than a fish can avoid pollution in its stream. From access to the Plan B drug or abortion, to the fundamentalist pharmacist refusing to sell birth control, to public funding for abstinence programs, you are affected by religious control efforts all around you.
“The basic religious idea of all patriarchal religions is the negation of sexual need.”
-Wilhelm Reich
As a psychologist, I see a good deal of sexual dysfunction directly related to religious guilt. When parents are afraid to have sex while the children are in the house, they are displaying specific viral behaviors. I have worked with many women who simply cannot
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