We still often refer to Mexico as a Catholic country, Egypt as a Moslem country, Brazil as Catholic, etc. They did not get that way because adults were peacefully pursuaded to become Catholic or Moslem. People are forced to conform either by actual force of arms or by pressure. An example: A few years ago I was attending a senior dinner with wife and mother-in-law. Their custom was to open dinner with a prayer. I was requested to give the prayer. See how it works? If I had refused that would have made them suspicious. If I had given a new age or Wiccan prayer, that would have told them something – certainly, had I invoked Allah (peace be upon him) the room would have gotten extremely quiet. As it turned out, I just mumbled a standard Protestant prayer and we went on with the meal.

I have long suspected that the reason that the average Chinese person seems to have above average intelligence is that in order to succeed their ancestors had to learn a highly complex language and social culture. And while China today is not very religious at all, their people are forced into conformance. If the Chinese tyrants decided they needed to have a state religion (call it Maoism) within a few months virtually all Chinese would be devout believers.

Over the centuries the power of religion has often joined with the power of the state to run everything. Scripture has it that: “the love of money is the root of all evil.” What with the greedy capitalists destroying our economy and collapsing economies over the globe, we could well believe it. But I don’t agree that love of money is the root of all evil. Even more fundamental is rather the lust for power. When you have great power you can have everything you want, including loads of money. But still we haven’t encompassed All Evil. The Seven Deadly Sins are a pretty good list of the things that will lead us into evil.

The religious claim that all morality comes from religion. It is not true. Most morality was discovered well before religion. It can easily be argued that most religions adopted most moral prescriptions that were already present in society. But religious people also claim that their moral teachings produce an “afterglow.” That is, even when belief is in decline, as it now demonstrably is, that most people continue to be good because they were raised in religious households, even if now they profess agnostisim or atheism. I don’t buy it.

Only a tiny fraction of convicts admit to being atheists. That may mean that atheists have a lot higher morality than the religious, or it may mean that they don’t dare speak the truth in that dangerous environment. (See my previous comments above). And also, evangelicals in the military are demonstrating my contention that force and threats enforce group cohesion. They are forcing Christianity onto the troops. Worse, some officers go so far as to try to induce an “Onward Christian Soldiers” attitude. Just what we need. An 8th Great Crusade anyone?