Darkover
Angelic
- Jul 29, 2021
- 4,107
Many people believe they are immune to scams. They think only those of lesser intelligence would fall for them. The vast majority of those people, however, are victims of a scam that has taken the entire world. That scam is religion. This may come as a surprise to some, but after reading this article, I hope you can see just how much of a scam religion is. There's no evidence any religion is true except for personal anecdotes and hearsay, neither of which is evidence for anything. There's no absolute truth, so anything claiming to be the absolute truth is lying by default.
The biggest sign that something is a scam is the offer is too good to be true. The idea of living in a place of eternal joy with no pain, worry, or sadness for all eternity after you die when all you have to do is follow some instructions sounds amazing. That doesn't make it true. You likely have seen ads of impressive products that go beyond the bounds of modern technology with a very low price tag, but you likely can see that those are scams. An eternity of joy and peace is too good to be true. There's no reason to believe such a place is even possible, much less, probable.
In contrast, scammers will often threaten you if you don't comply. One example is when the scammer will call you pretending to be from the IRS and tell you that you need to pay a fine because you filed your taxes incorrectly. They will threaten to arrest you for tax fraud if you refuse. Although the threats are empty, many people fall for them. Nevertheless, many more people fall for the scam of eternal damnation. If you don't comply and follow a specific doctrine, you'll suffer for all eternity. Not only is there the promise of paradise, there's also the threat of a fate worse than death. The threat of Hell is greater than the threat of any other scam, but it's just as empty.
The third sign of a scam is a strong sense of urgency. If you don't act now, you may never get the offer again. If you don't accept Jesus now or start following Allah now, you may never get the chance again. What you do in your short, limited life determines your fate for all eternity, so you better act now before it's too late. This sense of urgency is the reason why people who fall for the scam of religion introduce it to their children. They don't want their children to go to Hell, so they will try to get them to accept their deity. This scam tactic is the hardest to detect because there are times when an offer is limited. However, in those circumstances, there are no consequences of not acting quick enough except that you don't get the product. With religion, if you don't act quick enough, you could end up suffering for all eternity. Just like how you won't get arrested for not paying the fine within 24 hours, you won't go to Hell for not accepting Jesus in your short lifetime.
Even signs that seem too obvious to hoodwink anyone exist in religion. One of those signs is not having any evidence the product exists outside of what the seller claims. Imagine you came across an ad of a robot that promises to do all your chores from picking up trash to washing, drying, and putting up the dishes, and it only costs $99.99. Obviously, that sounds too good to be true, so you research it and find out that such a robot doesn't exist. Surely, if it was legitimate, someone would have made a video about it or mentioned it somewhere, but nevertheless, you can't find anything. The only place you hear about this product is from the seller and maybe some reviews that have no evidence of being legitimate. Similarly, there's no evidence of paradise after death except from the Bible or Quran and from the claims of people who follow those religions.
Billions of people aren't even immune to the greatest sign something is a scam. That sign is that it's from a shady source. When you have no reason to trust that the seller is legitimate except from claims on their own website, it's pretty obvious you're dealing with a scammer. Religion is no different. Believers of various religions will claim their holy texts don't mean what they say and that you have to read it a certain way or do something to truly understand it as if you already believe it, but this requires you to assume the source of the claim is true without any reason to believe it is. Naturally, if you convince yourself something is true, it's going to sound believable, no matter what it is. That's how lucky charms work. Every holy text gets so many things wrong that we can't use it as a valid source, even if it gets some things right.
These are only the major red flags of religion. Even with all these red flags, billions of people fall for it. When you're surrounded by religion your entire life, it's easy to believe it. Maybe you were introduced to it by someone who never lies, or maybe religion helped you in some way. That doesn't mean the claims of religion are true in any sense, and you should not devote your life or give your money to something that has so many red flags. If these red flags were present for anything except religion, virtually no one would fall for it. So, why is religion the exception?
The biggest sign that something is a scam is the offer is too good to be true. The idea of living in a place of eternal joy with no pain, worry, or sadness for all eternity after you die when all you have to do is follow some instructions sounds amazing. That doesn't make it true. You likely have seen ads of impressive products that go beyond the bounds of modern technology with a very low price tag, but you likely can see that those are scams. An eternity of joy and peace is too good to be true. There's no reason to believe such a place is even possible, much less, probable.
In contrast, scammers will often threaten you if you don't comply. One example is when the scammer will call you pretending to be from the IRS and tell you that you need to pay a fine because you filed your taxes incorrectly. They will threaten to arrest you for tax fraud if you refuse. Although the threats are empty, many people fall for them. Nevertheless, many more people fall for the scam of eternal damnation. If you don't comply and follow a specific doctrine, you'll suffer for all eternity. Not only is there the promise of paradise, there's also the threat of a fate worse than death. The threat of Hell is greater than the threat of any other scam, but it's just as empty.
The third sign of a scam is a strong sense of urgency. If you don't act now, you may never get the offer again. If you don't accept Jesus now or start following Allah now, you may never get the chance again. What you do in your short, limited life determines your fate for all eternity, so you better act now before it's too late. This sense of urgency is the reason why people who fall for the scam of religion introduce it to their children. They don't want their children to go to Hell, so they will try to get them to accept their deity. This scam tactic is the hardest to detect because there are times when an offer is limited. However, in those circumstances, there are no consequences of not acting quick enough except that you don't get the product. With religion, if you don't act quick enough, you could end up suffering for all eternity. Just like how you won't get arrested for not paying the fine within 24 hours, you won't go to Hell for not accepting Jesus in your short lifetime.
Even signs that seem too obvious to hoodwink anyone exist in religion. One of those signs is not having any evidence the product exists outside of what the seller claims. Imagine you came across an ad of a robot that promises to do all your chores from picking up trash to washing, drying, and putting up the dishes, and it only costs $99.99. Obviously, that sounds too good to be true, so you research it and find out that such a robot doesn't exist. Surely, if it was legitimate, someone would have made a video about it or mentioned it somewhere, but nevertheless, you can't find anything. The only place you hear about this product is from the seller and maybe some reviews that have no evidence of being legitimate. Similarly, there's no evidence of paradise after death except from the Bible or Quran and from the claims of people who follow those religions.
Billions of people aren't even immune to the greatest sign something is a scam. That sign is that it's from a shady source. When you have no reason to trust that the seller is legitimate except from claims on their own website, it's pretty obvious you're dealing with a scammer. Religion is no different. Believers of various religions will claim their holy texts don't mean what they say and that you have to read it a certain way or do something to truly understand it as if you already believe it, but this requires you to assume the source of the claim is true without any reason to believe it is. Naturally, if you convince yourself something is true, it's going to sound believable, no matter what it is. That's how lucky charms work. Every holy text gets so many things wrong that we can't use it as a valid source, even if it gets some things right.
These are only the major red flags of religion. Even with all these red flags, billions of people fall for it. When you're surrounded by religion your entire life, it's easy to believe it. Maybe you were introduced to it by someone who never lies, or maybe religion helped you in some way. That doesn't mean the claims of religion are true in any sense, and you should not devote your life or give your money to something that has so many red flags. If these red flags were present for anything except religion, virtually no one would fall for it. So, why is religion the exception?
