Religion For Sale

Organized religion is all about marketing.

It's all about advertising. Selling the message of God to anyone who will listen has been going on since the first known organization of beliefs, Hinduism, identified in Egypt around 4,000 BC. Then, as with now, religious leaders organized their flock and filled them with knowledge and rhetoric befitting their beliefs. People followed because it was a message of hope, or because they were under threat to do so. Either way, people followed. Religious leaders got the word out any way they could, mostly by word of mouth, and people followed. It was all in how they sold it.

Today is no different. It doesn't matter what you believe, whether you're Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Sheikh, Shinto, Buddhist, or Pastafarian (Yup, it's real, it's the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. They are basically coming out against organized religion, but they managed to become one!)

It doesn't matter. Anything you believe, unless, like the leader of weird cults who invented their own message, has been passed down and picked up by sheeple. Thousands of years ago this was achieved through the use of church elders talking to people in groups or as individuals, and convincing them that they should follow. In many case these elders, prophets, leaders, or whatever they wanted to call themselves, were persecuted for their beliefs. Many were killed just for not towing the party line as it were. Christians were persecuted for hundreds of years all across the known world, until Constantine the Great made Christianity the religion of Rome. Even then, it didn't stop. They were killed and are being killed all around the world because their belief was different. Jews have been persecuted from time in memoriam, exiled, killed or forced to convert, by Christian, Muslims, and more. The Crusades of 800 years ago had the intention of driving the Muslims out of the Holy Land and capture Jerusalem. Muslim armies invaded Spain and sacked Hindu provinces in India, Ottomans invaded Turkey, Jews invaded Palestine, and it goes on and on. To this day it's happening. ISIS has invaded Syria and Iraq with the intention of creating a new Caliphate. Marketing by the sword.

There are some obvious exceptions to this list of forced conversions. Buddhists really didn't piss anyone off, but even they had their moments.

All of this fighting came from religious leaders' beliefs that they had the better message. Bolster the ranks of the believers, bolster the ranks of the military, make their religion number one. It's all about numbers. They believed, as we do today, that only OUR religion matters. Only OUR religion will give you nicer teeth, a better car, a healthier diet, better lawyers, and a place in the afterlife. Only OUR religion can give you a better life, and you'd better get the message or you're dead.

Today, for the most part, religion is about communicating a message.

How that is done is up to the church leaders imagination. Social media is all the rage today, but before it's advent, television, radio, door to door, leaflets, word or mouth, newspaper, or just an open door was enough to pull in the masses. Now, our computers have replaced most of this. Unfortunately, it's not peaceful.

People still kill in the name of God. People still believe that the only religion is theirs, the rest must be eliminated because their believers are infidels. Most wars in history were started in the name of God, and NOBODY HAS THAT RIGHT.

Today, ISIS is spreading their message of hate to the world through marketing avenues never imagined possible just a few short years ago. Unfortunately, it's working.

Converts are flocking to their cause around the world, forcing their ideology of singularity on millions of people who don't want to hear their message. We have our own thanks, we've already got a marketing company. Many of these people being indoctrinated and brainwashed don't even have to travel to their strongholds to cause havoc. Their intention of spreading the message of brutal Sharia law is spreading like a plague around the world because of new communications methods. 

Case in point, Anjem Choudary. This asshole (sorry, can't find a better word), is totally committed to bringing Sharia law to England, through any means necessary. He is a Brit, a former lawyer, who is presently living off the the public purse (and proud of it), in London, England. He has had his passport taken away, been arrested numerous times and is presently in jail waiting trial. He has formed or has been a member of several banned muslim organizations in the UK. Every time the government bans his groups, he simply forms a new one! 

Great marketing.

This moron is the most dangerous man in England. He organizes street marches, organizes Muslim patrols with the intention of forcing Sharia on unsuspecting people, teaches Jihad and Sharia in his meetings, supports ISIS, and has openly said that he won't be happy until all women in England "are covered from head to toe". He's a danger to society, and yet the government won't do anything about him spreading his hatred except taking away his passport and fining him for minor offences. He's already said he'd gladly go to Syria to be with ISIS, but he has no passport. GIVE IT BACK TO HIM THEN! Let him go.

This guy is not the only one. There are thousands more like this whack-a-doodle all over the world. People who preach intolerance and hatred against "non-believers". 

They must be stopped. 

Religion has a very important place in society. I bonds communities, gives people hope, creates aspirations to greater meanings and more. It also ruins us. What's happening today in the world is proof of that. We're seeing religion tear the world apart, again. Religion must be tolerant, or we're doomed. The message of hatred is spreading faster now than ever because people in power have got better tools at their disposal to spread the word. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, and modern media outlets like online newspapers and broadcasters are giving these idiots the voice they need to spread doom. It's a juggernaut that cannot be stopped. 

Not even the competing message of moderate peace loving faiths can stop it. Hate mongers do it better. Just as religious organizations spread fear over the course of human history, hate mongers spread fear today. Nothing has changed except how it's marketed. The old saying goes even bad press is still press.

Pray for peace.