Mandatory worship

May 28th, 2024

“The liberty of man is not safe in the hands of any church. Wherever the Bible and sword are in partnership, man is a slave.
All laws for the purpose of making man worship God, are born of the same spirit that kindled the fires of the auto da fe, and lovingly built the dungeons of the Inquisition. All laws defining and punishing blasphemy — making it a crime to give your honest ideas about the Bible, or to laugh at the ignorance of the ancient Jews, or to enjoy yourself on the Sabbath, or to give your opinion of Jehovah, were passed by impudent bigots, and should be at once repealed by honest men. An infinite God ought to be able to protect himself, without going in partnership with State Legislatures. Certainly he ought not so to act that laws become necessary to keep him from being laughed at. No one thinks of protecting Shakespeare from ridicule, by the threat of fine and imprisonment. It strikes me that God might write a book that would not necessarily excite the laughter of his children. In fact, I think it would be safe to say that a real God could produce a work that would excite the admiration of mankind.”
― Robert G. Ingersoll, Some Mistakes of Moses

Again, those words were written 150 years ago, and they can be applied to most social and political situations today without any need to change anything. That is sad and rather terrifying. And I am not talking about countries that by design are religious fundamentalist countries today — that can be applied to many of the most developed countries in the world (USA — I am looking right at you…). The mob — religious or any other kind — is stupid and weak and cowardly in all its individuals, only in numbers can it feel safe and strong and secure. But it is the mob that is courted by the leaders, and the mob can so easily be incited to do the most terrifying deeds by a simple mixture of religion and nationalism. It is the lowest common denomination that is being catered for. And mandating a particular kind of worship, or the recipient of that said worship by law will always end up in tragedy — immediate for those deemed to be in the wrong in their beliefs (or lack thereof) and long-term for those stupid to use those laws for their benefit.