Religion promotes abstinence because it tries to be the opiate of the masses

[Mathilda]

So we all know about religion's control of sexuality, but I'm thinking it goes further than that. I think the whole idea of drugs being bad is a part of the same thing.

I'm not talking about addictive hard drugs like heroin or crystal meth which can lead to an addiction that harms the rest of society.

Religious practice will be manipulating the same neural mechanisms as other drugs will be exploiting. It's much harder for a religious leader to convince people that the high you're experiencing is direct from God if you can recreate something similar at home using chemicals.

What's more, brains seek balance. So if you keep every day experience mundane and ordinary, then your audience will be far more receptive to the high that you are offering them. This would explain the idea that sex must be for procreation only. But because procreation is necessary for creating the next generation of adherents, and the reproductive urge is impossible to suppress, religious leaders need to at least make sure to minimise the joy when people do have sex. Hence sexual repression and promoting the idea that sex is dirty.

Not that religious leaders will have necessarily explicitly realised this, but religions that embrace these ideas will be more successful than those that do not. Religions evolve and out compete less successful ones.

The problem is that these beliefs then permeate society, hence the failed war on drugs . For example why should cannabis be illegal while alcohol and tobacco be acceptable?

A friend of mine once came up with the idea that problems happen in society when the level of reward you receive does not match the necessary work to obtain it. But go to an evangelical church for example and you'll see the worshippers expecting to receive a high before the service even starts. It's just as much a short cut to producing certain neuromodulators in the brain as taking drugs. So it's not that drugs are easier to exploit on a regular basis because Christians will also become addicted to their drug of religion and devote their entire every day life to obtaining another high.  What's more, many try to get everyone else hooked as well.

I think this is yet another reason that religion is losing its grip on the population. Because there are so many other ways to get the feel good factor and other businesses are starting to exploit this more effectively.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

The Christian clergy seems to be determined that nobody will enjoy themselves in the sack.  >

[abaris]

Since the Marx quote has been so often shortened it has been deprived of it's real meaning. Marx saw pretty clearly what religion does and how it is able to make use of the people.

Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Since the Marx quote has been so often shortened it has been deprived of it's real meaning. Marx saw pretty clearly what religion does and how it is able to make use of the people.

Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people

That just seems unnecessarily verbose. My opinion.

[abaris]

That just seems unnecessarily verbose. My opinion.

He wrote that as a critic on Hegel in 1843. It's pretty well observed I would say.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

That just seems unnecessarily verbose. My opinion.

He wrote that as a critic on Hegel in 1843. It's pretty well observed I would say.

Not a fan of pounding.

[Yonadav]

Since the Marx quote has been so often shortened it has been deprived of it's real meaning. Marx saw pretty clearly what religion does and how it is able to make use of the people.

Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people

I don't quite agree with you, but I do agree that people are misrepresenting Marx when they take the quote so far out of context.  For Marx, the common people are treated like draft animals that are exploited for their labor-- aside from the fact that draft animals are generally better cared for than common human laborers in early industrialized societies.  So for Marx, the reality that people lived in was one in which they were less than human, but religion allowed them to indulge in delusions that made them something greater.  Religion gave them a false respite from their grim reality.  If Marx were alive today, he would probably have a longer list of things that are being used as opiates for the masses.

As for sex and religion? Meh.  Not all religions have a problem with sex.  Jews are generally not so hung up on sex.  In its correct time and place, it is mandatory, the man's enjoyment is not so important, but if the woman's world isn't rocked by the experience then the man didn't do his duty.  I'm paraphrasing some Jewish law there, but it is the law.  I studied for a few years with a Rabbi who was in his nineties.  One day, he told me a story about when he was in Yeshiva, studying to become a Rabbi.  He told me that there were a bunch of Catholic girls near the yeshiva.  He told me that they were always wearing crosses. He then told me with a blissful look on his face that if they were able to get those girls to take their crosses off, then they were allowed to have sex with them.  I almost fell out of my chair, laughing.

I am probably a horrible person for telling that story.

[Sunflower]

So we all know about religion's control of sexuality, but I'm thinking it goes further than that. I think the whole idea of drugs being bad is a part of the same thing.

I'm not talking about addictive hard drugs like heroin or crystal meth which can lead to an addiction that harms the rest of society.

Religious practice will be manipulating the same neural mechanisms as other drugs will be exploiting. It's much harder for a religious leader to convince people that the high you're experiencing is direct from God if you can recreate something similar at home using chemicals.

What's more, brains seek balance. So if you keep every day experience mundane and ordinary, then your audience will be far more receptive to the high that you are offering them. This would explain the idea that sex must be for procreation only. But because procreation is necessary for creating the next generation of adherents, and the reproductive urge is impossible to suppress, religious leaders need to at least make sure to minimise the joy when people do have sex. Hence sexual repression and promoting the idea that sex is dirty.

Not that religious leaders will have necessarily explicitly realised this, but religions that embrace these ideas will be more successful than those that do not. Religions evolve and out compete less successful ones.

The problem is that these beliefs then permeate society, hence the failed war on drugs . For example why should cannabis be illegal while alcohol and tobacco be acceptable?

A friend of mine once came up with the idea that problems happen in society when the level of reward you receive does not match the necessary work to obtain it. But go to an evangelical church for example and you'll see the worshippers expecting to receive a high before the service even starts. It's just as much a short cut to producing certain neuromodulators in the brain as taking drugs. So it's not that drugs are easier to exploit on a regular basis because Christians will also become addicted to their drug of religion and devote their entire every day life to obtaining another high.  What's more, many try to get everyone else hooked as well.

I think this is yet another reason that religion is losing its grip on the population. Because there are so many other ways to get the feel good factor and other businesses are starting to exploit this more effectively.

Well a great deal of many religions is the idea of self denial and that to deny one's self of things like sex or intoxicating substances and living a strict, disciplined life is the foundation of an upright person.  Whether religion wants to establish itself as the sole intoxicant of the masses is unclear.  Drugs have been allowed and prohibited throughout history based upon social fashion, displeasure of the powers that be, racial and ethnic segregation, and some from religion.

Certainly there are lots of religions who recruit - either by evangelism or by the point of a sword.  But as religion tends to be a projection of one's own attitudes and traditions upon others, the real problem goes a little deeper into our tribal nature as human beings.  Its a need to congregate with like minded people and to distrust and fear - even hate and destroy - others who don't conform to our molds and lifestyles.  If religion was not a thing, it would be something else like social status, money, etc.