You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
The Legend of Lilith: The Origins of Evil and the Fall of Man<br />
Even today, the people that I have met that are most steadfast in their faith in our rulers and question least<br />
their religion are the ones that do not bother to read more than what is recommended to them by their religious<br />
leaders. It continues to amaze me that most people who claim to be teachers have not read their<br />
Scriptures at least once from cover to cover, but have no problem dedicating their lives and beliefs and<br />
their votes in accordance to their denomination’s wishes without much deliberation. Religion is and has<br />
been perhaps the most effective tool of the ruling classes. Lactantius claimed that all religion depends on<br />
fear. 22<br />
Italian scholar Arturo Graf wrote in his book The Story of the Devil:<br />
• “The Church made good use of Satan, employed him as a most effective political tool, and gave<br />
him all possible credit; since what men would not do through love of G-d or in a spirit of obedience,<br />
they would do through fear of the Devil.”<br />
The idea is that if one can control the mind, then one can control the choices made by that person or<br />
group of people and the choices made by their common “enemy”. Through fear, religion can control the<br />
minds of its adherents, and unite them against a common evil. As long as clergy declares certain individuals<br />
or groups as evil, and from the devil, they will never learn how to distinguish good and evil and protect<br />
their flocks from true evil. The greatest tool used against Truth is the facades of falsehoods, illusions,<br />
myths, urban legends, deceptions and lies. Religion actually makes one a target for evil and a slave of<br />
evil, in the illusion of doing “good”. Scriptural passages are twisted by bigots and despots to give some<br />
sacred authority to their actions of violence, warfare, and subjugation. This type of usage of Scripture<br />
keeps the virus of religion alive, whether active or dormant, and the possibility of some sort of apocalyptic<br />
terror in the Name of “G-d”.<br />
• “Silent complicity with apocalyptic rhetoric soon becomes collusion with plans for religiously inspired<br />
genocide.”Richard Fenn-Theologian<br />
• “There can be no liberty for a community which lacks the means by which to detect lies.” Walter<br />
Lippman<br />
Religion sells freedom from fear, especially fear of death. Conversion to their particular brand of religion<br />
has obliterated the fear of death, not only for the convert, but also their loved ones. They are taught that<br />
the fear of death can be banished from their life. 23<br />
22 “Nothing is so much to be feared as fear.” Henry David Thoreau 1817-1862<br />
23 “Religion is based, I think primarily and mainly upon fear. It is partly the terror of the unknown and partly, as I<br />
have said, the wish to feel that you have a kind of elder brother who will stand by you in all your troubles and disputes.<br />
Fear is the basis of the whole thing - fear of the mysterious, fear of defeat, fear of death. Fear is the parent of<br />
cruelty, and therefore it is no wonder if cruelty and religion have gone hand in hand. It is because fear is at the basis<br />
of those two things. In this world we can now begin a little to understand things, and a little to master them by<br />
help of science, which has forced its way step by step against the Christian religion, against the churches, and<br />
against the opposition of all the old precepts. Science can help us to get over this craven fear in which mankind has<br />
lived for so many generations. Science can teach us, and I think our own hearts can teach, no longer to invent allies<br />
in the sky, but rather to look to our own efforts here below to make this world a fit place to live in, instead of the sort<br />
of place that the churches in all these centuries have made it. We want to stand upon our own feet and look fair and<br />
square at the world - its good facts, its bad facts, its beauties, and its ugliness; see the world as it is and be not<br />
afraid of it. Conquer the world by intelligence and not merely by being slavishly subdued by the terror that comes<br />
from it. The whole conception of G-d is a conception derived from the ancient Oriental despotisms. It is a conception<br />
quite unworthy of free men. When you hear people in church debasing themselves and saying that they are miserable<br />
sinners, and all the rest of it, it seems contemptible and not worthy of self-respecting human beings. We<br />
ought to stand up and look the world frankly in the face. We ought to make the best we can of the world, and if it is<br />
16