From: Na@SANuB.com   
      
   A HISTORY OF HEAVEN AND HELL AND ITS SOCIAL OUTCOMES   
   ----------------------------------------------------   
      
   The belief that the established intellectual priesthoods are the   
   stepping-stone to heaven became firmly rooted in their minds when   
   the intellectual era of society moved along. Regardless of whether   
   this belief was good or not, it helped to build and maintain the   
   solidarity of society.   
      
   Although most common people could not understand why, their devotion   
   to these intellectual priests or to the spirituality propagated by   
   the intellectual priesthoods helped them to progress spiritually and   
   to assimilate sublime ideas. It would certainly be inappropriate for   
   people to hold a grudge against the intellectual priests and refuse   
   to recognize this important fact.  But the intellectual priesthoods   
   tried to maintain their dominant position and continue their   
   exploitation by extolling their own greatness.   
      
   In some regions, the undeveloped warrior mentality would worship all   
   those leaders, or "gods", by offering them their (the warriors')   
   favourite foods in order to propitiate them. After those leaders'   
   deaths, all such food would be burnt in a fire, thereby going to   
   waste, for the supposed satisfaction of their souls in heaven. Even   
   in the intellectual age good-quality food and drink was destroyed by   
   offering it to an imaginary god in a sacrificial fire. Moreover, the   
   intellectual priesthoods received a commission for doing this.   
      
   In the same way that the weak were exploited by the strong in   
   warrior societies, the less intelligent were exploited by the more   
   intelligent in intellectual and religious societies - though on   
   paper the intellectual priesthoods do not approve of exploitation.   
   The intellectual priesthoods who formulate social codes contend that   
   even if society takes no action against sinners, they will still   
   suffer the consequences of their sins in hell. Although in such   
   religious and priesthood societies there is no system for   
   eliminating the hunger of the oppressed, intellectual priesthoods   
   say that it is virtuous to feed the hungry. And although in practice   
   they support a system which discriminates against people on the   
   basis of high and low, on paper they accept the idea that human   
   beings are essentially brothers and sisters. So although the   
   religious and priesthood social system is not as strong as that of   
   the warriors, and although in practice it is generally lacking in   
   magnanimity, on paper it is more magnanimous than that of warrior   
   society. Warrior cannot be said to be social parasites, but it is   
   not incorrect to say that intellectual priesthoods are. Although the   
   intellectual priesthoods understand the defects in their social   
   system, they nevertheless use their grandiloquence to try to   
   maintain it; such is the nature of intellectual priesthoods.   
      
   The intellectual priesthoods have invented and are still inventing   
   new ways of exploiting different communities of people in different   
   parts of the world. In some places they have lured people with the   
   prospect of eternal heaven, injecting into them at the same time the   
   fear of eternal hell. By claiming the doctrine of some particular   
   saintly intellectual leader to be the word of God, they have blocked   
   the natural expression of the human intellect and made people   
   intellectually bankrupt.  With the intention of permanently securing   
   for themselves an exalted position in the eyes of the ordinary   
   people, some priestly leaders have declared themselves to be the   
   incarnation or the appointed prophet of God. Through their own so-   
   called scriptures, they have indirectly let the common people know   
   that no one can achieve the same proximity to God as they - so that   
   an inferiority complex will remain forever in the minds of the   
   masses, and due to this inferiority complex the masses will always   
   follow their teachings, either out of fear or out of devotion. That   
   is why even intellectual people have fallen into their trap and have   
   been compelled to say, "The goal is achieved not by reason but by   
   faith" or "There is no room for reason in religion".   
      
   Even today there is a group of intellectual priests who keep   
   shouting about "religious education", or rend the air with their   
   calls for a "religious state", but what they really want is to   
   entangle the minds of children, which are naturally inclined towards   
   rationality, in a net of religious superstition, so that later they   
   will become puppets in the exploitative hands of the priests.   
      
   In some countries more than one woman might be compelled to be   
   married to one man; devious means were employed to bring this about.   
   By creating a fear of hell in the minds of women, by maintaining   
   social strictures through severe punishment, and by crippling women   
   economically, women were made so dependent on men that the very idea   
   that polygamy might be unjust was effaced from their minds.   
      
   At times when the art and literature of the intellectuals failed to   
   convince the common people of their greatness, the intellectuals and   
   priests composed countless fanciful mythological tales, stories   
   about gods and goddesses that satisfied their own standards, and   
   colourful mythological tales, all designed to dazzle people's eyes   
   and confound their intellects. They also warned the masses that if   
   they failed to follow the teachings of these stories, or doubted   
   their veracity, they would most certainly go to the deepest level of   
   hell.   
      
   In some communities intellectual priesthoods claim to have the key   
   to heaven. People even say that for the donation of a sum of money,   
   intellectual priesthoods will sing a constant chanting of the name   
   of God on behalf of the donor to ensure his or her passage to   
   heaven. It is said that if others sing spiritual songs and chanting   
   in the donor's name, the donor will receive the benefit and go to   
   heaven. What a wonderful philosophy for condoning sin!   
      
   Anyway, we can see that intellectual priesthoods never have missed   
   an opportunity to exploit human weaknesses, nor do they miss such   
   opportunities today.   
      
   Intellectual priesthoods with a simple type of philosophy used to   
   say, "Your father deserves to go to heaven, so make sure that we   
   perform his funeral service" or "The soul of your father needs   
   subtle food. Give us ordinary food and we will send it to him in a   
   subtle form."   
      
   Later on the cunning intellectual priests, whom you can call   
   intellectual satans, tried to turn the minds of the people from   
   practical reality towards an imaginary void by preaching contrived   
   philosophies. The essence of their voluminous treatises and verbose   
   annotations to lengthy aphorisms was: the world is an illusion;   
   therefore renounce the world and do not be attracted to its   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)