You’ve likely heard of the abbreviation MOAB before. From a military perspective, this stands for “Massive Ordnance Air Blast”. The other nickname for this 11-ton weapon is the “Mother of all Bombs”. The MOAB of the U.S. military has nothing on the MOAB of religion: the new meaning I’d like to attribute to this acronym proves more powerful than its weaponized counterpart. From this time forward, MOAB should stand for “Mother of all Beliefs”
Believing in a God is the “Mother of all Beliefs”.
At this point you’re probably asking, “Why is believing in a God the Mother of all Beliefs?” Believing in a God comes with an incredible amount of baggage which affects nearly every believer for his or her entire life. It’s far worse than the bomb. A belief in God affects:
- How you view yourself
- How you view your family
- How you view your friends
- How you view your actions
- How you vote
- Whom you love
- Whom you hate
- What you do with your thoughts
- How you feel about your thoughts
- How you feel about your actions
- How you interact with others
- How you view science
- What direction you pray and how often
- Whether or not you believe in the supernatural
- What you believe about science
- What you keep
- What you throw out
- Your position of social issues
- Your position on ethical issues
- Whether to seek medical attention
- If and when you pray
- Whom you date
- Whom you marry
- How you raise your kids
- How you view sex
- How much you enjoy sex
- How often you have sex
- What positions you have sex
- If you can masturbate without guilt
- What you read
- The words you use to speak
- How you interact with others
- What you do with your money
- The type of people you hang out with
- What you do with your time
- How much guilt you carry with you during the day
- How much guilt you carry with you into your dreams
- How you’re judged by others
- You’re view on Reality
I know of no other belief which required this much “Brain Time”: it’s all encompassing. All other beliefs you may have pale by comparison and are almost always viewed through your God-lens and belief. Think about it. Belief in a God is infectious and truly deserving of the label “Mother of all Beliefs”.
What other belief affects people as much as the belief in a God? I bring this up because I don’t view it as a good thing. Sure, many good deeds are done on behalf of God and these can clearly be a positive addition to society. However, most are done with all praise and glory to be given to a deity instead of the people doing the hard work. Is it worth it? Sadly, the damage done by a belief in a God far exceeds the good done in his/her/its name. A belief in a God monopolizes people’s minds and forces strict compliance. It blurs the boundaries between religion and politics. A belief in a God greatly affects the resultant propensity shown by religious people all over the world to ignore evidence of reality. To me, the negative downsides to religion and the belief in a God clearly outweigh all benefits religion may provide toward the positive.
Here’s a quick chart I put together to illustrate my point
As my chart clearly indicates, belief in a God appears to be far more devastating to people and the world than even the largest non-nuclear bomb ever dropped to date.
If I had done a comparison to the nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I know the number of people killed would be higher. And yet, on balance, a belief in a God is still worse than these bombs in terms of its long term devastating effects on the world. Belief in a God (and how we should consider organized religions and their adherents) remains a greater threat both to our democracy and to our sanity.