I have often wondered what drives people in cults and religion to crazy lengths. For example, the crusades, suicide bombers, hundreds of people drinking "death koolaid" to hitch a ride to the Haileys commet. These types of occurences. The other day I had an enlightening thought, albeit while I was stoned, and I managed to right it down before it left my mind: "Religion uses fear to control people. They are afraid of dying, of death, and religion promises them eternal life. They defend religous values as they would defend their own existence because religion is the promise of their eternal existence." Not sure what to expect, but thought I would share.
What drives them? This can be answered by applying the idea to everybody; what are the reasons for why certain people live certain ways? In order to make sense or to give meaning to a life that very convincingly begs to be seen as pointless and meaningless. People try to live for something and essentially embrace life to achieve a certain height. Fear can also be a response to this observed "life is meaningless" approach; fear of what's beyond and whatnot. This fear causes individuals to grasp to something that holds them in this reality, in the present, you get the gist. Also, who is to say that "the crusades, suicide bombers, and hundreds of people drinking 'death koolaid' to hitch a ride to the Haileys commet" are crazy? For all we know, they're the normal ones and we're the ones living life the wrong way. Everything is up for interpretation and nothing is truly set in stone.
from a college freshmen's view, I think all people long for something to believe in. they need a rallying point for their discontent. and today people are more and more isolated and long for communal experience
Some very deep thoughts in here. I had to +rep you That makes perfect sense and I could feel what you were describing as I read it. Particularly the sentence that I bolded. Well said! Cool, thanks man. It is fulfilling to have the thought validate by another person. Much appreciated