This is the argument wherein the believer testifies that he/she has seen god, heard god, felt god, smelled god, etc. In other words the believer claims to have directly sensed or seen evidence of god. It is a subjective argument, not open to verification, as there never is objective evidence. The argument is inadmissible on these grounds. Real evidence has the characteristics of being objectively verifiable, measurable, etc. In short, it can be validated.

In the faith argument the believer believes that someone else has seen, heard, felt god or experienced a miracle, etc. Little need be said concerning this argument. Again, it is subjective. And, of course, believing does not make something real.

The Morality argument asserts that there must be a 'God' because of the existence of goodness and morality. It asserts that morality issues form 'God' or religious teachings; that without 'God' there would be no morality. Immorality is seen as disobedience to God.

The argument is immediately circular, subjective and is not an accurate reflection of human behavior. We all know good people who are of sterling character in every sense of the word and, yet, who do not believe in a god. Statistically, atheists have the lowest crime rate. They also appear to exhibit more intellectual integrity than any group. They must be getting their morality from some other source.

There is a natural integrity in humankind, where it is allowed to express itself. However, it flows from the acceptance of reality, from rationality, not a mythical god. It is the behavioral culmination of the acceptance of the necessities of real existence. It can exist only to the degree that the individual understands and accepts reality, the real nature of existence and the nature of the human animal. The objectively rational realize that human organization requires integrity and the recognition of the needs of others. The low level of rationality within religious groups is the reason one finds such high levels of corruption and viciousness within the ranks of religion.

This is not really an argument in support of 'God', as such, but an argument in support of accepting religion as a means of social control. The pragmatic religionist will say that religion is needed as a social control or that it is acceptable because it is something that a lot of people seem to need.

In the use of this argument, the pragmatic religionist, like the believer, does not look too closely at the nature of religion or its true effects. This argument is superficial and falls apart upon a closer examination of religion and its effects upon the believer and the society. The negative effects far outweigh the positive, especially in view of the fact that the few "positive effects" can be found in organizations and individuals devoid of religion.

Often the pragmatic religionist is attempting to maintain, as having some validity, ideas which were accepted during childhood but which can no longer be believed. Like giving up the belief in Santa Claus but not the tradition of having 'Santa' come every Christmas, prayer to start meetings and at official functions, religious ceremonies at weddings and funerals, etc.

This category is divided into four subcategories, all supposedly being 'first premise' or 'self-evident'. They also have been referred to as the 'rational' arguments. As we shall see, they are not so self-evident and fall short of being rational (as an argument which is flawed fails to be rational by definition).

This argument states that there is a necessary cause for everything and, therefore, that cause must be 'God', for only a God could possibly cause all of existence.

It is an statement of ignorance as to how things work. Also, the fundamental irrationality of the God concept applies here. If everything must have a cause and 'God' is the cause, what then caused 'God'?

Approaching existence as motion answers every question, the pieces fitting too perfectly for existence to be otherwise. In light of this, the Cosmological argument becomes meaningless.

Then too, if one is talking about causes for particular manifestations of existence, such as for Homo sapiens, why 'God'? Such an explanation is not only groundless but serves only to distort the picture. To say that "Gawd" did it adds nothing to our knowledge and only serves to distract from examining the particulars, does it not?

The teleological argument asserts that existence must have a purpose, which presupposes a planning intelligence. Therefore, that planning intelligence must be 'God'. Here, again, we must leap from one assumption to another, neither of which have objective validity. Planning does not occur until the emergence of intelligent life and the development of a brain capable of self-awareness. This development is at the upper extreme of the developmental scale. Below the level of neural activity, existence is purely mechanistic, doing what it is. This is as close to a "purpose" that fundamental existence gets. Only with the emergence of intelligent life does thought and planning enter the picture.

The teleological argument is circular and based on the groundless premise that there must be a purpose. Circular arguments are valid only if they can exhibit an external or objective validity, as well as internal consistency. In this case, all evidence indicates that any existence takes its form and function from the nature of the material, itself, and its interrelationship with other material. All of this is physical cause and effect, real happenings for real reasons. This physical relationship exists down through all aspects of a 'thing' to the smallest particles in nature. Here, at the smallest entity we see only geometric necessities which determine the nature of the larger developments, no 'planning' deity. The bottom line to the evidence is that anything assumes the only form and function that it can under its given set of circumstances and its nature at any given moment in existence, becoming what it can as it interacts with its immediate environment.

If you are seven feet, three inches tall and have a wart on the end of your nose, that is the only form you can take, in light of your total genetic and environmental history and circumstances.

For your future, the only variability you have will depend upon your environment, your conscious choices and the choices others will make whose lives impinge upon your own. Your own choices are the only ones you will have direct control over. If you have purpose, it will be generated within these parameters. If you allow yourself to be controlled by society's institutions, they will determine your purpose. If you consciously choose for yourself, then you will determine your purpose. Either way, it will have been your choice, actively or by default. Your life will have no more meaning and purpose than you give it.

The ontological argument states that 'God's' existence is implied by nature. It assumes that everything is a part of 'God' and is a manifestation of 'God'. It is an argument of 'God by Definition'. Everything is defined as being within the concept of 'God'. This argument seems to assume that if you define something then it must exist. Little need be said about this argument. One can define a fire-breathing dragon, but that does not mean that it must exist. This argument has no value as a definition in that there is nothing gained by defining everything as 'God'. It explains nothing. It clarifies nothing. It adds no knowledge. It is superfluous and misleading. The ontological argument is sometimes referred to as the 'Bear Hug' argument.

The entropy argument was, at one time, thought to be the long sought-after infallible argument to prove the existence of 'God', since science itself was saying all systems entropy, lose energy and 'run down'; that, eventually, existence must run out of energy. Therefore, it must be 'God' who is the energizing force behind existence.

However, as is always the case, the more we learn about our physical universe, the more we understand the real mechanisms operating here. Matter does not break down or run down completely. It disintegrates to some level where the components can become part of something else, building up again. Primary motion does not stop. Ultimately, gravity will bring matter together, compressing it until atomic structure collapses and compacts into z-zero particles, neutrons. In this form, increasing matter collects until a point of instability and a giant 'bang' occurs at some level, probably galactic scale being the largest possible.

As indicated in Chapter 4, the recent discovery of the nature of the primary particles shows that the underlying principal of existence is motion. It provides structure for the particles and translates among the particles but never goes away.

Matter does degenerate, but it is drawn together by gravity, apparently being compacted to compounded neutrons, until, ultimately, it reaches critical mass for its particular compounded collection, at which time it becomes a "Bang", a cosmic event wherein there is a blow-off producing a spectrum of particles and atoms. The second law of thermodynamics is not operational within the internal functions of the primary particles. Primary movement, together with gravity, has limitations to compactability, and limitations as to how much matter can be collected together before the mass becomes unstable. This insures that existence is an endless continuum.

We have every reason to believe that religion grew out of the human need for answers were there was an absence of knowledge. As human awareness increased, so did an awareness of vulnerabilities and fear of the unknown. There came to be many questions for which early humans had no answers, generating feelings of insecurity. The Shaman, or Medicine Man, became a powerful member of every tribe. He provided answers devoid of understanding, answers reflecting fear and fantasy. Gods, spirits and demons were the inevitable inventions of our early ancestors and, just as inevitably, were given very human emotions and motives.

The Shaman was sought out to read the signs of the spirits and to arrive at what the individual or the tribe must do to have a successful hunt, have many strong babies, kill one's enemies, etc. He prescribed the incantations and sacrifices which must be made to appease the gods and spirits. He proscribed human behavior.

Since he occupied a unique position within the tribe, as supposedly having access to the spirit world, the shaman was respected and feared by both leaders and followers, alike. He was given protection and more freedom than other members of a tribe. It was the shaman who fostered and shaped the religions.

Although the superstitions formulated and foisted on the tribe did not reflect reality, they were often effective in bringing about the desired result. This is where the power of belief enters the picture.

Since the subconscious faculties of the brain lack any capacity for determining validity, anything accepted by the believer as true will be acted upon accordingly. The effects of such information upon the body of the believer can affect great changes.

A tribe going into battle believing that they are invincible will act accordingly, increasing their chances for victory. A wounded warrior, believing that his wounds will heal quickly, will experience accelerated metabolism and healing.

Outside events get interpreted as fulfillment of prophesies. The rituals, myths and incantations of the shaman were reinforced and given credence. The absence of factual knowledge functioned to give the shaman a virtual monopoly on explanations.

As human societies proliferated and increased in complexity, religion became more organized and 'a power unto itself'. People could be made to labor on behalf of religion, making it a means of accumulating great wealth and power. Its' influence grew to reach beyond tribal boundaries. Its priests grew to rival the power of kings. Religion generated, and necessitated, the institutionalization of untruth. It was, and is, the greatest teacher of falsehood and distorted reasoning in human societies.

Through trade, warfare or any kind of cultural mixing, there is a gradual diffusion of cultural materials among peoples. The religions of cultures gradually change by diffusion, becoming admixtures of the religions involved. All of the religions of the middle east have many common elements.

Most religions change quite slowly. Christianity is an exception. It was born out of a splinter cult of Jewish ascetics which, in turn, represented a culmination of influences from the various ancient religions of the middle east. Christianity was fabricated quickly, exhibiting significant changes from main stream Judaism.

It represented a marked departure from Judaism in that it was a religion for the hopeless. It taught denial of the self in exchange for reward in the afterlife. Virtually all of its tenets have the effect of reducing the self-determination of the individual, enhancing the possibility of manipulation and making the individual more vulnerable to exploitation.

When the Roman Empire had passed its far-flung zenith and was experiencing its inevitable decline, the immediate predecessor of Christianity was, apparently, a minor Jewish religious sect called the Essenes. That group had a member who incurred the wrath of Rome, in the person of a colonial governor, and was crucified for his trouble. The Christ myth was built upon the 'martyrdom' of this person, long after the event. Here, amidst the conflict and turmoil of a degenerating empire, a new religion was fabricated almost overnight. In contrast to the religions out of which it was fashioned, the basic fabric of Christianity was stitched into place within a few years, largely at the hands of one man, it appears, the biblical Paul.

Altruistic and promising a forgiveness of sins and eternal life in paradise after death, the new departure from traditional Judaism spread quickly among oppressed peoples, thriving among the poor and the enslaved, spreading false hope among the hopeless, as it does today.

The dysfunctional aspects of Christianity and Judaism have diverse origins. Mythra and Zoroastrianism are the sources of the concepts of 'evil of the flesh' and of the material world, the omnipotence of the god and its oppressive authoritarianism. Altruism was practiced by the Essenes and provides the conceptual basis for collectivism, communism and other systems of self-denial. Very unhealthy stuff. Clement of Alexandria, c. 200 AD, is responsible for the integration of Greek idealism and Aristotelian logic into Christianity, formulating a tautologistic scenario that appealed to the intelligencia.

Christianity also draws from the ancient religions of pre-civilization such as with ritual cannibalism practiced in the last supper, the bread and wine ritual, Holy Communion and the ideas embodied in the Holy Eucharist, Roman Catholicism's version of the ritual.

Under what appears to be the primary influence of the biblical Paul, accelerated modification of the Essene religion was begun and subsequently was shaped into a form that would be recognizable as Christianity as it is practiced today, although it has continued to change down through the years. Paul was written in as one of the twelve apostles, although he never met the person the Christ character was modeled after, nor was he involved with the Essenes. The religion has ever been tainted with frauds and forgeries, such as the Jocephus account of an historical Christ and the Shroud of Turin, of which the material contains pigments of a type used in the middle ages, showing an image that seems to become increasingly well defined over the years and which has now been proven to be of too recent an origin to have been a death shroud for Christ.

Michael Wood has produced a video on the origin and building of the great cathedrals. It shows how the cathedrals were built to provide an attraction for the pilgrimages which annually toured the religious shrines of Europe. These were the monied members of societies in a day when religion was all pervasive. Relics, bits and pieces of dead saints, were sold to these touring pilgrims, at great profit. Saints were valuable commodities, especially large saints. The cathedrals are the result of competition among towns for these religious tours. They were built to attract wealthy pilgrims.

An interesting side note to this little drama is that in no town, village or diocese was there enough wealth to finance these great structures. For the money to do so, they went to the money lenders of the day, who were, of course, the Jews!

A close look at the cloistered internal struggles of the largest Christian church down through the ages is instructive as to the fruits of belief. A window to such a view in current history was provided by the book "In the Name of God" by David A. Yallop, Bantam Books, 1984, in which an all-pervasive struggle for power is presented.

It displayed a continuing struggle between the old and the new, between maintaining a strictly male dominated church or upgrading the position of women in the church; against any form of birth control or the acceptance of 'the pill'; between modernizing the church, attempting to some corrections, reducing its parasitical aspects of the church, that of maintaining a crime-infested status quo. It shows the Vatican's bank dealing in bogus securities and laundering drug and other illegal moneys for the Mafia. It shows the murder of Pope John Paul, I , poisoned and immediately cremated. No corpse here to mourn, to lie in state, to bid goodbye with great ritual and public wailing, or to autopsy. This pope was moving to accept modern birth control and bring to an end those nefarious enterprises of the church's bank.

Yallop's book also vividly displays the coverup of that murder and the continued pattern of murder and projected blame crafted to protect continuing illegal activities. In general, it shows a continuation of business as usual which, by no stretch of the imagination, can be classified as the inspired work of a God.

It also gives us insight into the motivations and actions (or inactions) of John Paul, II, the replacement Pope. The most frightening thing it shows, however, is that, although the book was written in 1984, it is all but forgotten. The media almost completely ignored the work from the beginning. No investigative reporting here. This was an untouchable.

What logically should have been pursued in white-heat, the world over, was dropped like a hot potato! What logically would have called for a complete investigation and, if true, a complete overhaul, if not the disbandment of the Roman Catholic Church, world wide, was quickly dismissed and ignored.

Christianity is one of the best documented examples of a quickly fabricated religion. It appears to have never spread among the Jews although it had its origin in Judaism. It had, and has, its greatest acceptance among people of great misery and little hope. It promises 'pie in the sky when you die' and distracts the believer from concern with the problems of living. One might gain some insight here as to why the Catholic and other fundamentalist Christian religions come out so strongly against birth control, abortion, etc.

Christianity thrives best in the midst of privation, ignorance and chaos. The essence of Christianity can be found by studying the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew, Chapters 5, 6 and 7, in which "Jesus" talks to the multitude. Every tenet of that address is directed toward weakening the individual and making him/her more open to manipulation and exploitation.

It was a message designed to enslave and exploit the ignorant and helpless, involving tenets which would cause the believer to willingly cooperate in the process of his or her own exploitation.

Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire and, therefore, throughout Europe. It Ushered in the Dark Ages with its inquisitions and the destruction of non-believers. It caused to be destroyed the bulk of real knowledge that Western man had accumulated.

Anything which did not overtly espouse Christianity was put to the torch. This loss of knowledge was to seriously retard the progress of western man for a thousand years. Only through the redisemination of knowledge, primarily mathematics, which survived in the Islamic countries, and which was reintroduced by such means as the Crusades and the conquest of Spain by the Moors, did European man slowly rebuild the foundations of knowledge and drag himself up, finding some relief from the morass of ancient superstition.

Today, in much of the world, we watch a resurgence of Christianity and other fundamentalist religions, with their focus on otherworldliness. As it spreads among our populations, humanity's ability to function diminishes accordingly.

In the United States, a place of people who began as aggressive achievers, thirsty for knowledge and able to solve problems, we are gaining a populace which flees from knowledge. We watch the gathering darkness of ignorance and superstition, of what could be the coming of a second dark ages, should these forces gain the power to govern.

For any democracy, nothing presents more of a clear and present danger than cumulative abysmal ignorance of the true believers. Even now, religion is effective in insuring that a large part of the population of this nation remains ignorant of the real nature of existence and is predominately responsible for our drift into social chaos.

Religion and Authoritarian Governing precludes an effective public educational system, preventing vital information and connectively from reaching the text books. It prevents the teaching of accurate and critical reasoning processes, necessary for the rejection of the false and the absurd. It allows or mandates procedures which insure the ineffectiveness of teaching practices, exhausting the system with irrational and unattainable objectives.

Christianity, as one of the most destructive religions, blights any area in which it can gain a wide-spread acceptance. In the United States, the peoples most infected with fundamental Christianity are the poor Blacks, although other minority groups also have high levels of religious involvement. Religion is the primary reason this group has one of the highest percentages of criminality and lowest level of literacy, factual knowledge and competency within the society. It is with fundamentalism that one finds a literal belief in the contents of the Bible and the Koran, which infects nearly one hundred percent of the members of these sub-groups. Such beliefs appear to be the primary force which holds these groups in an iron fist of ignorance and dysfunctionality, unable to progress, with high percentages within the group, having to be carried by the productive elements of the society.

Our society will make its collective decision as to which way it will go, whether to regain its respect for knowledge and regain the ability to progress, or to continue its degenerative trek into savage brutality with the destruction of technology and the amenities of living that have been achieved. We will go one way or the other. There is no middle ground. The pressures of a burgeoning Earth populations preclude any condition of stasis.

At the other end of the religious spectrum from liberal churches such as the Unitarian Universalists, we find the 'Cult'. This is a small group, for our purposes, Christian, (although they splinter from every main religion) which dissociates from the parent religion and isolates itself, in order to maintain and pursue its own dogma. Characteristically, at its head is a charismatic leader who demands a strict allegiance to himself and often all the worldly possessions of the membership.

The cult is characterized by withdrawal from the rest of society. The level of its insanity is such that it cannot be maintained if a large amount of interaction with the outside world is allowed. "Jonesville" is the ultimate expression of that insanity, where the whole group committed suicide or were murdered by other members.

Harboring any false belief is done at the expense of the believer's own rationality. In order to maintain belief in the false, the believer must reject the reciprocal truth, distorting reasoning and avoiding any information which would conflict with the faith.

In function, this is largely an automatic process. It is handled through psychological defense mechanisms. Just how religionists respond to true information is interesting in that there are great differences in the amount of cognitive exclusion, depending upon the nature of the religious faith.

As you would expect, the more fundamentalist and literal the belief structure, the less factual knowledge will be tolerated. This is why deep immersion in fundamentalist religion is always accompanied by abysmal levels of ignorance and commensurate dysfunction.

Conversely, the more liberal the religious beliefs, the less the faith will need to distort cognizance and the more factual knowledge will be accepted. In this society, Unitarian Universalists, a religion with no creed, scores highest among the religions on tests reflecting general scientific knowledge (my own poll taken of Christian groups). Atheists consistently scored higher than Unitarians.

If the believer maintains a nebulous belief in 'God' and the belief is maintained as an incidental aspect of one's life, such 'belief' can be maintained with little damage to the mental processes. However, if the 'belief' becomes crucial to the individual's sense of security and well being and becomes a strong focal point in the personality, massive cognitive distortion is insured.

The general level of cognitive damage within this society appears to have passed the critical point beyond which the society is unable to maintain control of the problems which confront it. The general level of irrationality within the USA has reached such magnitudes that it effectively prevents the recognition and/or the addressing of the real problems and, thus, precludes effective solutions.

Technological peoples have moved beyond the age of innocence. They can no longer use the excuse of ignorance, nor can they afford the luxury of irrationality. The absurdity and dysfunctionality of our popular delusions become increasingly difficult to tolerate or to maintain.

We have been exposed to the tools of discerning and manipulating environments, and have had to acknowledge the accuracy of these tools and the realities they expose. We are being forced to recognize the material nature of the Cosmos and our problems.

As our functional members forge ahead, those who desperately cling to the cultural myths look on in consternation and grope for ways to deny the realities they see. Implications of total physicality attend every subject of our focus.

For the most part, our new technological knowledge encounters surprisingly little resistance, reactance occurring only where the knowledge is a threat to the individual belief system or to the dogma of the institutions. Technological innovations are accepted with little or no conflict, their implications ignored. Few bother to learn how it's done or how it works. They only learn to push the buttons, thus insulating themselves from knowledge which might bring insight.

If you can get people to believe a particular way, they will act accordingly. As one would expect, the most noise is that generated by competing propaganda. Just how strong an effect propaganda can have on belief and, thus, human behavior, can be seen everywhere. It steers the mass movements and gross stupidities of our societies. However, even though its effects are devastating, the propaganda which pours over us is not completely effective. Regardless of the status of the individual in society, he or she is continually exposed to the reality of physical problems, to the marvels of high technology and, although unable to understand how much of it works, is not totally unaware of the material nature of real productivity and of the real knowledge required to make technological achievement possible. Reality cannot be hidden, only the perception of it manipulated.

Even this has its limitations. Rational individuals always seem to emerge in spite of the greatest efforts of the dementors and delusion peddlers.

Also, anyone with a modicum of education will recognize that we are in possession of much more knowledge than is being put to use; that the only barrier to that usage is resistance from individuals and organizations that see such knowledge as threatening.

In short, we live in an environment where large amounts of reality orientation is required for functionality, yet where we increasingly struggle, both as individuals and as institutions, to dismiss this knowledge in order to maintain our cultural delusions and fantasies.

However, even at the depths of his or her most psychotic irrationalities, the individual must struggle to maintain the falsehoods. An individual's integrity forever tries to surface, struggling against the delusions of the culture. The brain's natural function, never completely repressed, tries to continue its natural quest of accuracy and truth, forever trying to become free. Even in the depths of insanity, that spark of rationality still flickers.

Frank Farrelly, who wrote "Provocative Therapy", describes an encounter with a catatonic schizophrenic at a mental hospital. The catatonic sat rigidly for hours, lost in her own world, communicating with no one. Farrelly went to her and whispered a threatening remark. After some time to let the suggestion work its effect, he reached down and pulled some hair just above her ankle. No response. He moved up a bit and again pulled some hair. "Get your hands off me!", she yelled.

If we have the possibility of survival, it is because of this small voice within, which continues to struggle toward sanity and, in effect, whispers as in words of Shakespear, "This above all: to thine own self be true."

Religion is the great dementor. It functions to deny any rational basis for existence and maintains a created Cosmos without principles, other than the arbitrary will of "God". Once these a priori have been implanted, the individual is rendered incapable of accepting the factual nature of existence, as per the law of Reciprocal Cognitive Exclusion (RCE). In order to maintain the belief, the reciprocal reality must be denied or excluded.

Religion is Authoritarian, providing a foundation and rationale for authoritarian governing. It renders the individual impotent, ignorant of the physical realities and unable to reason critically or accept corrective information. The individual is unable to recognize or resist either the decompensating processes or the parasitical nature of the controlling institutions. The indoctrinated citizen does not grasp the role religion plays in preparing and maintaining populations submissive to authoritarian governing. Authoritarian governing would probably not be possible, were it not for the degenerative effects of religion. Such is the functional relationship and mutual affinity between religion and government.

In the next chapter we will begin to look at the destructive effects of Authoritarian governing.