It is good to have an opinion, right? Not only one but several! Tens or hundreds of the most varied opinions on topics, issues, problems, threats, solutions, people, places, animals, environment, celebrities, lifestyle, books, movies, etc... There is no better way to express our individuality than through opinions and views.

Of course, there are several ways to express our individuality. It can be direct, “artistic,” moderate or radical, respectful, or ignorant. The words we choose to express reflect on what we are (civilized people or pigs disguised as humans). No, that is wrong. Pigs are interesting animals because they are more useful than many people whom I had the misfortune to meet. Rather than “pigs disguised as humans,” why not “worms disguised as humans?”

What leads us to take a view on an issue, anyway? To almost everyone, there is a reality in which we operate. It is our social and psychological context, the sum of our experiences, as well as all numerous factors that may be influenced by different forms of knowledge and access to information.

My reality is quite varied. I live in a country where millions believe in talking animals such as snakes and mules. Moreover, there are people who believe faithfully that the position of the stars can actually influence our personality! Others believe that “demons” can take bodies of people, as if human beings were pieces of clothing. There are people who believe in life after death. There are even those who believe that the dead can communicate with the living.

Some believe in an ark that transported animals, in a man that could part the sea, in wine turned into water, in witches able to curse others, and in some deity that created our universe.

Some think that we must be good because there is a place called hell, that the world will end because there is an “Anti-Christ,” that evolution is a farce, that dinosaurs are an invention of the United States, that women are blamed for something that never happened, that homosexuals are the devil’s thing, and that men of a far away past were so wise that they could predict the future.

Finally, there is an entire “magical” universe that is around us. We are motivated by invisible beings so powerful that they make men act in the right or wrong way. Mankind suddenly stops being responsible for its actions and just be controlled by mysterious and hidden forces. Man hides from reality by using a religious pretext. But this, we know, he cannot completely do because this is weakness and cowardice – at least, from a psychological point of view.

But what is the sociological point of view of this? Can religiosity bring any benefit?

Yes, because religion allows the poorest and most ignorant to be controlled more effectively, without the use of violence, and reducing the government costs. Where there is hunger and misery, false opportunistic prophets emerge to take control of people.

This process is quite interesting because it seems very much like “voluntary slavery.” Actually, it is even more perverse because those who surrender to these religious criminals are paying to become stupid.

Is there a system of social control more efficient than that? Few dictatorships would be able to exert moral pressure as powerful as this. It’s brilliant!

Many argue that the poor are happy. We know they are not. The more people need religious “treatment,” the more unfortunate their state has been. This is the ultimate escape from reality. And that state of delirium never lasts very long, so they have to live in denial. Most of these people realize that this is wrong, but they will never admit the truth. Besides being unhealthy, it is a source of inexhaustible suffering.

But there is always a good side to everything, isn’t there? How is it possible for the strongest to control the weakest if it were not through religion? How does an absolute minority control an absolute majority? The fact is that the “weapons” are not as efficient when compared to the gods.

For some reason, even today, many prefer to believe blindly that we were created and not the opposite – that the supposed “Creator” is in fact a human creation.