“Here’s what I think in a single sentence: I think that the real religion is about the understanding that if we can only still our egos for a few seconds, we might have a chance of experiencing something that is divine in nature. But in order to do that, we have to slice away at our egos and try to get them down to a manageable size, and then still work some practiced light meditation. So real religion is about reducing our egos, whereas all the churches are interested in is egotistical activities, like getting as many members and raising as much money and becoming as important and high-profile and influential as possible. All of which are egotistical attitudes. So how can you have an egotistical organization trying to teach a non-egotistical ideal? It makes no sense, unless you regard religion as crowd control. What I think most organized religion—simply crowd control.”
John Cleese, from his interview in The Onion
3 Responses to “Real Religion”
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I’m not sure the Book of Mormon’s requirements for baptism would agree with John Cleese’s characterization. The question is, are we closer to the BoM or to John Cleese?
Too black-and-white for my taste.
Religion serves many purposes other than self-aggrandizement or community-aggrandizement, ranging from welfare to service to instruction to comfort to development.
So long as humans are social animals with hierarchy-related instincts, operating within organizations can certainly foster ego issues, but saying that such issues are the only real effects of organization is foolishness. Organizations surround us, ranging from our own bodies to the ecosystems we depend on for oxygen to the grocery stores we shop at to the banking systems we use to pay for the groceries.
I meant to have said that in posting Cleese’s comment, I simply thought it interesting and that it might stimulate discussion. I agree with you, Greenfrog, that religion serves many purposes, both for individuals and for societies. I suspect that Cleese is using hyperbole to be provocative. Or, maybe he really does believe that religion is only about ego & self-aggrandizement. Ego is sometimes behind religion, but there’s more to it than that.