Religion Is Merely A Tool Of Convenience

Today as I was reading some online essay on Reducing the Ego (http://www.taoism.net/theway/ego.htm), which was correlating Taoism to the idea of minimizing your own "false self-image" (ego), I had wondered, "Who would be inclined to actually read into Taoism?" Would an egomaniac be inclined to read about destroying their own ego? Would a humble person be inclined to read about boosting the ego? In all honesty, it seems that people with certain tendencies would be naturally swayed towards a familiar philosophy.

Like many religions however, Taoism has also been cherry picked by people with all sorts of tendencies. Some claim it is critical of competitiveness while others have written articles on Taoism supporting a laissez-faire system (free market capitalism). Also, consider how religion has been used in cases of civil rights. The same religion that influenced Martin Luther King Jr. to struggle against defacto, racial segregation in the south also influenced others to support slavery prior to that (http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_slav1.htm).

For these and other examples of contradicting beliefs stemming from single religions, I want to correct my previous claim that Christianity itself "influenced" MLK. Christianity really didn't influence anything for the most part. It was just used (and still is to this day) as a tool of convenience. It's just a toy box of moral scriptures that people dig into to find what ever matches their already preconceived notions of morality. These preconceived notions of morality stem from culture and education.

This leads me to another worrisome observation. It seems that within the atheist trends today, some anti-theists flirt with the idea of ethnocentrism. The thought goes, "Christianity has done plenty to harm LGBT civil rights in western society, but we're still better off than the Muslim nations who embrace Sharia Law to the east." Ethnocentrism isn't exclusive to atheists, but it does unfortunately get thrown in with the criticism of all religions. This is why it is important to recognize that culture creates religion and morality and not the other way around. Both western and eastern cultures have been shaped by domination culture and various political conflicts and colonization (and the limitations that have been put into place by these factors) have been the leading influences on morality.

To conclude all of these observations, I would just like to state that religion is really an illusion in more ways than one... especially in politics. Religion is just a tool people use to rally in supporters. "I believe this and SO DOES GOD!" It's all tied in to the idea that our ideologies and tendencies should dominate and control populations of people. If one is to reject religion, one should also reject its significance.