And so it was said... the malestrom would burn with the war of religions... and from this would be born new religions

As the titans were overthrown by the Gods according to ancient greek mythology, so do modern day Titans of the mind become overthrown by new Gods of the mind.

What in the hell am I talking about? Laugh

What are some traits of religions?

Here are a few off the top of my head:

• The answer to the mysteries of existence.
• Guides for how people should act.
• Guides for how people should think.
• Usually have some conversion mechanism for getting new followers of the religion in them.
• Usually have some defense mechanism for silencing, countering, killing those that would challenge the religion.
• A sense of righteousness.
• Sometimes exceptions to its own teachings as long as the target of violations is perceived as an enemy.
• Trigger large amounts of cognitive dissonance when challenged.

There is a lot of talk about the rise of Atheism, and the attack on religions. There are also some religions that are actively being protected (Islam) in many parts of the world that previously were not, while it is okay to attack other religions, and even applauded.

Yet. If you have spent considerable time studying religions (I have). Then there are traits and aspects you have seen throughout history. If you pay attention you see those things occurring in many other places. It is almost like there is some maelstrom where these new religions are being birthed, they are crawling forth, and in some cases they are merging to become bigger entities.

Do you see them?

Science. Nope that isn't one of them. Though that word has been hijacked enough by many things that are not scientific and used as a label to lend them authority. Some of those things indeed are aspects of new religions. Yet before I proceed with indentifying a few I see out there. Science simply is the models we currently have that best predict and explain our observations. We use the tool of the scientific method to discover these things. True scientists do not stop questioning, even their own ideas. Questions are some of the most important things in science. To restrict questioning is not science. Nor is consensus truly a factor in science. How many people believe a thing to be true has no bearing in science. As the single person who asked the right question and found new conclusions can then open the door to a new model that better explains the observations.

So is science a religion. No.

Yet there are those that claim to be practicing science that do turn it into one. When they believe they have the right to silence questions, challenges, etc. They are no longer practicing science. They are protecting their own beliefs. At that point they have a religion. Some may call it a cult. Yet as far as I am concerned cults and religions are the same thing. It is just at some point they gain enough followers that people stop calling it a cult. Most major religions at one point were considered cults. So rather than using cult as a derogatory term. To me the only difference between a cult and a religion is the number of followers. If it makes you more comfortable feel free to substitute either term anywhere you see me use them.

We have modern religions being born. I even had myself coming up with a dystopian future idea earlier today that was part of the seed for what motivated me to write this post.

I envision a future where the religions as we know them today are gone. Yet we still have religion. The priests that dictate how we should act, what we can believe, what we can say, and who enforce persecution of those committing heresy will simply be different, wear different attire, and preach from different locations. They may even have their own holy day where they demand people come to hear them preach or be fined, imprisoned, executed, etc.

Climate Change. Most people called deniers (aka heretics, blasphemers, infidels) these days don't disbelieve in climate change. The climate has been constantly changing throughout time. They don't even necessarily think that humanity has zero impact on climate change. They simply have the audacity to question the findings and methodology used by some of the priests of climate change. They have the audacity to be heretics by doing perhaps the most important step in the scientific method. Asking questions. Challenging. A true scientist realizes that surviving challenges with facts and evidence only makes the strength and support for a model stronger. Yet this is not permitted with the topic of climate change. Some deniers/heretics/blasphemers may simply realize that carbon taxation is not a solution to the problem. It is a power grab. The more you look at it, I see Climate Change as a modern day religion. Do not question climate change... Do not challenge climate change... Trust the priests. Buy into the argument from authority, and argument from popularity fallacies. If you do not... we are working towards being able to burn you at the stake.

Vaccines. Do not question vaccines. You will then be considered an anti-vaxxer. You'll receive much the same treatment as the deniers above. The key. Don't question. Don't challenge. Don't point out that many vaccines are more deadly than the thing they are vaccinating if you look at their own statistics on death. Don't mention that you are for vaccines, you just think making those that manufacture them unaccountable and unable to be sued a law. They thus have no need to reduce negative side effects. If they don't have to change anything and they can force people to take them by law then they become very lucrative cash cows. Yet it is heresy to ask questions.

Trump. Don't say anything positive about Trump. Don't challenge anyone that attacks Trump. Trump is the devil. Trump is Hades. Trump is Beelzebub. Trump is the great evil that if we stop him everything else will be golden. The only job... stop Trump. Magically then everything will be good. It's almost as if the world began in 2016 and the solution to all our ills is to stop Trump. Question this and be attacked. Be censored. Attack Trump and Trump supporters and you'll be elevated and given a megaphone. You can also threaten to murder Trump, Trump supporters, etc. without censorship. The great evil for a modern cult like religion.

There are some easy ways to detect the religious, cult like mentality. All you need do is look for their words they use in lieu of Heresy, Heretic, Infidel, Blasphemer, Pagan, etc.

Here are a few:

• Denier
• Truther - I find this one amusing. As opposed to what? Liar?
• Anti-Vaxxer
• Conservative
• Alt-Right
• Liberal - yes it can be religious like in the other direction as well.
• Left
• Conspiracy Theory
• Christian
• Muslim
• Man
• White
• Black
• Cultural Appropriation
• Micro-aggression
• Fascist - in the modern day use.
• Nazi - used by many people who don't even know what Nazi was short for.
• Racist - often used when the topic had ZERO to do with race.
• Capitalist

Ultimately there is a common trait with most of these. It is called a generalization. This is also sometimes known as a stereotype.

It is our animal nature trying to simplify the world. We will take the traits actions of a few, lump them into a larger group, and assume based upon some internal mental probability matrix that everyone in that group is the same. This is where bigotry, racism, and intolerance in general find their roots. Generalizations may include some actual bad actors, but they take a ton of collateral damage with them in lumping the non-guilty in with the guilty.

In truth you could simplify the world down into a war of generalizations. One generalization becomes dominant. As generalizations do it impacts those that were not guilty of the ills attributed to the generalization and over time the stories of their victimization grow. Soon enough mass of these accrues that it becomes popular to challenge how they were treated. When previously it was heresy to challenge this. At that point they will point out people that treated them this way, then they will generalize a group from this and they will repeat the cycle. This can be rapid, but it often happens over large lengths of time in terms of human life spans.

I've tried to illustrate this in the past with statements such as:

You can't defeat racism by using racism.
You can't defeat bigotry by being a bigot.

Though I could tell due to responses that it didn't sink in. A lot of it was simply due to cognitive dissonance I think and people just protecting strongly held beliefs even when presented with such a simple truth.

Here is a more specific way to state it...

Racism will continue and thrive whether the target is black, white, purple, or pink as long as one color is acceptable to treat better or worse.

Most statements of "X people are Y" are generalizations. If X happens to be any skin color black, white, etc then in most cases it is racism.

There are some exceptions that are simply facts. Such as "Black people have more melanin and are less prone to sunburns". That is true. It is not racism.

The truth is we embrace generalizations and often let them rule our thinking and we swing from one generalization to the other triggered by paradigm shifts and emotional turmoil.

These days the reason this is happening so heavily in my observations is due to the clear propaganda tactics of the legacy media, and governing established forces of the world. Divide and conquer.

That is enough for now. I could keep going. Hopefully some of you found this thought provoking.

EDIT: I notice @bloom decided to flag this post. Imagine that. Cognitive dissonance anyone? It is kind of fortuitous to see. It is evidence of the priesthood at work. I seriously doubt they even read it. Simply saw that it challenged their doctrine and at that point they didn't need to read, listen, or reason. Just flag the denier and move on. :P That could be why more and more scientists are coming out as skeptics, though many of the best waited until they were retiring. If your paycheck requires you preach the gospel then preach the gospel they will. Yet be aware that has zero to do with science.