9 Reasons Religion is So Powerful

9 Reasons Religion is So Powerful

Thanks to ChanceDeLaShy for the idea!

Why is religion so damn powerful when it's also so damn wrong?

1) Religion has answers for everything.

It doesn't have the *right* answers for everything, but it has answers, and for many people, that's enough.

2) Religion uses guilt to prevent you from leaving.

Religion compels you to live up to certain ideals whether or not they make sense...

And disobeying them, or even questioning them, means you're not really faithful.

3. Religion makes you feel special.

Doesn't everyone want to be one of God's Chosen People?
Don't you want to believe God created you personally and watches over you?

The whole concept of a Guardian Angel is silly, but it's the same principal: You're a special little snowflake. And so the billions of other people just like you.

There's value to believing that when you're a child. But at some point, you have to realize that if all of us are special, none of us are special.

4. Religion capitalizes on division

Religion loves to stoke the Us vs. Them mentality. We're okay; they're not. We're going to Heaven; they're not. God loves us; not them.

It's human nature to want to be accepted. We all want to be part of a welcoming group.

The problem is that it's that very mindset that causes so many problems. Because so many people believe that everyone who's not in your group needs to be converted or killed.

5. Religion makes morality really simple.

We all want to be good people. But not everyone agrees what it takes to be good.

Religion makes that simple. Follow our rules, and you're good! It requires no further intellectual thought. It's that easy.

6. Religion claims ownership of spiritual bliss.

Sure, a lot of things can make you happy now. But what's going to happen with your soul? Don't you want to be okay in the afterlife?

Religion steps in and says it'll make us happy in the one place we have zero control over: the afterlife. It's hard not to sign on to that deal.

7. Religion gets us while we're young.

There's a reason most people don't switch from one religion to another later in life.
You're taught to believe this stuff before you're old enough to question it.

8. Religion makes you think you can control the uncontrollable.

Life is unpredictable. Shit happens. But isn't it nice to think that your prayers might change the course of things?

9. Money.

Churches convince you to give them 10% of your income. They don't have to pay taxes because they're considered non-profits.

If you took the money we spent perpetuating religious lies and put it almost anywhere else, we could get pretty far in solving a lot of the world's problems.

In fact, it'd be way more effective than the prayers offered by people in churches.

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[Markus]

"We don't get our morality from religion, religion gets its morality from us." - Hemant Mehta

[trevagraham]

Most humans are easily led by fear, and that is the number one reason why Religion is so powerful.

[georgem]

Dear Religion:

You have no (and I mean zero) powers

You cannot make me hate:

Someone who is not part of your church,
Who doesn't want to kneel and bow to a 2000 ghost nailed to a couple of sticks,
Women who are not virgins,
Women who want to think for themselves,
Women,
Gays and lesbians,
Science,
Rational thinkers,
Modern science,
And anything else that obviously contradicts your bronze age fairy tales.

And I won't even hate religion. Logic tells me that I can't hate something that doesn't exist.

[ajh.]

Religion is like the Matrix. Your mind makes it real.

[rossf]

Religion has the perfect business model
1 / Sell an invisible product
2 / Nobody can come back for a refund
3 / It`s all tax free !

[leopardgeckotalk]

there was a story from Ireland where a hospital refused to abort a child because it still had a slight heart beat... shortly afterwards the mother died of septicaemia :/

[jessisater]

this video has helped me so much. I recently became an atheist and I keep having that "fear" of God and anxiety about becoming an athiest. it's like I have to completely restructur my brain. This video just helped me with alot of those anxieties. thank you.

[ilikemyrealname]

'Paid to be confident not right' so powerful!

[BossAtheism]

I sincerely believe and hope others agree with me. That religion is in a scientific sense holding back the world. Discussions and debates need to happen for that reason alone. Human beings should *evolve* if you will hehe, from the superstitious, to the scientific minded. Humanity will serve greater purposes that way.

[vorpalthefox]

**Long story about a christian kid trying to convert me**
one day at school before i graduated, i was one of the well known atheists at school, a very christian kid walked up to me during lunch to try and convert me, i explained to him how it wouldn't succeed, and when he started to try and tell me about god and stuff, i was replying with nonsense remarks, just very random responses, later i heard that he was bragging to his friends that he had converted me, and that i wasn't very bright, so that afternoon i made something i called the dragon's egg, something very simple you can see people have been doing for a long time online with tacks, i brought it to school, showed it to the christian kid and tried convincing him it was from a real dragon, he said how much nonsense it was, and tried to walk away from me, i had the idea to tell all the atheists at school about my plan, and showed them how to make a dragon's egg, slowly more and more people started showing up with these eggs, and when the kid asked me what was going on, i told him my pet dragon was laying eggs, and everyone can have one, and after 6 months they'd hatch to a real dragon, he tried pointing out the flaws in it, so i said "i have proof of my dragon's existence, these are her eggs, whats your proof of god?" he said dragons don't exist, and i said "you just have to have faith, you can't see them because you don't believe in it", he tried getting smart and acted like he was seeing dragons over head, getting really loud, attracting a lot of attention, later that day people were talking about how i converted him to believing in dragons XD (not exactly a converting thing IMO) randomly people would walk up to him, pointing at the sky, making Skyrim jokes, and talking about dragons, i heard he dropped out, though i doubt it's related to this
TL;DR - failed conversion led me to making up dragons, and convincing him to believe in it

[JohnCrawley]

It takes a lot of strength  to shed religion ...you are so right. I respect anyone that does that .
Great video!

[mikkj]

Religion absolves your guilt for truly bad things you've done. Molested children? You're forgiven, god loves you. Murder and rape? God forgives you, you will be loved for eternity in heaven. Oddly, there's nothing in these religious books about making reparations or paying for your crimes here on Earth. Nope, do whatever you want, repent, and it's all good.

[titomister]

"Honesty over comfort. Reality over mythology". 

[Lavos]

I love how he praised people raised in religion for shedding their faith. I was raised Christian, and I remember how hard it was to overcome my fear of things like death, hell, divine punishment, splitting my family, and losing my friends. I still struggle with accepting that this world will never be perfect like Christianity promises in the future. I have to give Christianity a bit of credit for being able to so effectively prey on my sense of sympathy and desire for justice and fairness so that I wouldn't question it.

[otherworldlygirl]

I converted from a Christian to an atheist when I was 9. I will never go back to believing in an imaginary deity in the sky who is watching me.

[thelibyanatheist]

Probably the best Atheist video ever made on YouTube, or ever made.

[mattalley]

In a way, I am thankful for being bullied when I was a young kid in church. I was so busy watching my back that I simply couldnt pay attention to what the Sunday School teacher (who turned a blind eye to the bullying) was saying.

[OrangeHand]

My views on religion are similar to South Park: it may be silly, it may not be true, but if it makes people happy and helps people, I'm not going to try and take that away from them. I will step in if you're causing harm to others, however.

[ArthurBrinkman-cz]

It didn't take much for me to give up on religion. I was 13 years old when I realized that I was different than the other boys. They liked girls, I was attracted to the other boys. After figuring this out I went to my room and I prayed and prayed to God to not let me be gay. Then I prayed and prayed some more. I learned 2 things.
1st I'm gay
And 2nd there is no god!
So at 13 years old god wanted me to hate myself for who I was. I couldn't accept that. I am GAY and nothing written in a book of fiction was going to change that.

[PaleozoicProductions]

"If all of us are super, then no one is"
-Syndrome 2004