As someone who was never raised to believe, never developed belief, and has never seen the bible as anything other than a collection of ancient aesop's-like fables, I find it fascinating that so many atheists, agnostics, irreligious, and whatever else they like to be called, correctly identify religious texts as nothing more than tools for controlling society, but never stop and think to themselves that maybe having control and order in society is actually important.

The origins of the bible, and countless other holy texts from other religions stretch back over millennia, through ancient egypt, ancient sumer, babylon, and the indus river. These stories have been processed and re-processed by the scholars, philosophers, priests and rulers of countless generations. They have, collectively, seen entire civilizations rise from nothing, shine with greatness, and crumble to ruin, dozens of times over. The stories they wrote in those texts are all written with one single goal: To inculcate in the masses, the patterns of behavior that make civilizations rise, and most importantly, determine who will survive and go on to rebuild when that civilization inevitably dies.

Here's a bit from Leviticus that comes after a lengthy list of sexually degenerate things you shouldn't do - wife stealing, incest, beastiality, sodomy, etc:

“ ‘Keep all my decrees and laws and follow them, so that the land where I am bringing you to live may not vomit you out. You must not live according to the customs of the nations I am going to drive out before you. Because they did all these things, I abhorred them. But I said to you, “You will possess their land; I will give it to you as an inheritance, a land flowing with milk and honey.” I am the Lord your God, who has set you apart from the nations."

I don't believe God exists. I don't believe there's a concious entity 'driving out the nations before you' so that you can take their land and live on it. To me, this passage is simply a guide on how to conquer territory without an army:

-Move into to a foreign nation as an immigrant

-Don't be obnoxious and gross and they won't throw you out

-Live wholesome lives and keep reproducing

-Their degnerate society will crumble around you without you doing anything

-You are now the majority of the population, or a large enough minority to enforce a claim over an area

-Behold, God has given you this land, and driven out the nation before you!

And there it is. Instructions to control a population, for their own long-term benefit, presented in such a way that the priest doesn't have to sit there explaining birth rates and demographics to a bunch of illiterate sheep herders. All he has to tell them is 'God says so'.

That's why we have religion. To keep huge collectives of people who don't have the time or knowledge to think about the long term implications of every little thing from making decisions that will ultimate harm them and countless generations of their descendents.

As someone who was never raised to believe, never developed belief, and has never seen the bible as anything other than a collection of ancient aesop's-like fables, I find it fascinating that so many atheists, agnostics, irreligious, and whatever else they like to be called, correctly identify religious texts as nothing more than tools for controlling society, but never stop and think to themselves that maybe having control and order in society is actually important.

The origins of the bible, and countless other holy texts from other religions stretch back over millennia, through ancient egypt, ancient sumer, babylon, and the indus river. These stories have been processed and re-processed by the scholars, philosophers, priests and rulers of countless generations. They have, collectively, seen entire civilizations rise from nothing, shine with greatness, and crumble to ruin, dozens of times over. The stories they wrote in those texts are all written with one single goal: To inculcate in the masses, the patterns of behavior that make civilizations rise, and most importantly, determine who will survive and go on to rebuild when that civilization inevitably dies.

Here's a bit from Leviticus that comes after a lengthy list of sexually degenerate things you shouldn't do - wife stealing, incest, beastiality, sodomy, etc:

“ ‘Keep all my decrees and laws and follow them, so that the land where I am bringing you to live may not vomit you out. You must not live according to the customs of the nations I am going to drive out before you. Because they did all these things, I abhorred them. But I said to you, “You will possess their land; I will give it to you as an inheritance, a land flowing with milk and honey.” I am the Lord your God, who has set you apart from the nations."

I don't believe God exists. I don't believe there's a concious entity 'driving out the nations before you' so that you can take their land and live on it. To me, this passage is simply a guide on how to conquer territory without an army:

-Move into to a foreign nation as an immigrant -Don't be obnoxious and gross and they won't throw you out -Live wholesome lives and keep reproducing -Their degnerate society will crumble around you without you doing anything -You are now the majority of the population, or a large enough minority to enforce a claim over an area -Behold, God has given you this land, and driven out the nation before you!

And there it is. Instructions to control a population, for their own long-term benefit, presented in such a way that the priest doesn't have to sit there explaining birth rates and demographics to a bunch of illiterate sheep herders. All he has to tell them is 'God says so'.

That's why we have religion. To keep huge collectives of people who don't have the time or knowledge to think about the long term implications of every little thing from making decisions that will ultimate harm them and countless generations of their descendents.