Not That Anyone Asked But.....

I believe the ultimate explanation for the common belief that there exists 1 absolutely true religion or ideology is to create a system whereby everybody can be judged and evaluated by the same standard. In this way, it is more or less fair.

When people in Western societies hear of women getting stoned for committing adultery or men being executed for making innocuous comments regarding the Koran, this seems unfair and particularly cruel. But if everybody was judged by this standard, much as many of us might not like it, at least it would be fair in that all are judged by this standard*.

So unconscious as it may be to us all, I think we as human beings ultimately aspire to implement 1 absolute standard, however arbitrary it may actually be. But when it comes to what is conscious to most, there is what might be referred to as a proximate explanation. The proximate explanation for the belief that there exists 1 absolutely true religion is that it is literally believed there is only 1 absolutely true religion or ideology. 

But why would so many of those who believe there is 1 absolutely true religion not come to the same conclusion? Why are so many beliefs in opposition to one another? Why would a God worth following not make things perfectly clear for all of us? Free-will? Don't even get me started on this frivolous argument! (see "The Problem Of Free Will" http://kurtsthoughtemporium.blogspot.com/2009/08/problem-of-free-will.html) 

I propose the reason all this confusion exists is that people are reluctant to become conscious of the fact that the primary reason for (THEIR) religion/ideology is, like I said, to get humanity to adopt 1 absolute standard in which to evaluate behavior. If they become conscious of this, it would be readily obvious that any belief system, including theirs, is merely arbitrary. Arbitrary in the sense that it matters little what belief system is adopted, so long as everybody accepts and/or follows whatever standard is chosen. 

I think the ego in each of us compels us to be absolutely right (or at least tries to be so) and in this sense, it could be supposed that the reason we do not want to believe something is arbitrary is because it does not make us absolutely right. However, if we believe we are absolutely right, it gives the ego something to feed on. 

The divergent nature of dogma spanning different religions and even within similar religions could probably be explained by competing egos “wanting” to believe something different merely for the sake of believing something different (which would likely cater to mavericks) or perhaps because they think it to be an improvement over the original ideology (aka refined ideology). Or possibly, disenfranchisement for one reason or another led to the splitting off of different religions or sects of similar religions. 

Bottom line, any original ideology and all its associated spin-offs ultimately seem to be arbitrary. Why might this be so? Perhaps because nobody wants to become conscious of and ultimately admit that it matters little what is believed so long as everybody believes and more importantly follows the same standard in order that behavior can be measured objectively and hence fairly. 

If this is the case, it is unconscious so it would be futile to deny this outright. This would nicely explain why governments aspire to “control” populations by restricting or manipulating knowledge and truth. In this way thought, and therefore ideology, can be controlled in order to stave off insurgency by effectively keeping everybody indoctrinated with the same “truth”.

*If everybody had followed this harsh standard since time immemorial, would it really be bad? What other standard would there be to compare it to? Think about it. Fifty years from now, perhaps far sooner, much of what society does today will likely be seen as evil. For instance, “abusing” our children by pumping them full of drugs for this or that “problem”. Brainwashing the impressionable (which includes us all) with subliminal messages ten trillion times a day just to promote a product we don't need and/or can't afford. Of course we don't see the evil in these things because there is currently no other standard for dealing with these “problems”. Mark my words: there will be!