How can religion take over the world?

Answer 1

Not all religions can. As John Morley put it, "all religions die of one disease, that of being found out." Most religions have been "found out" already. Of the 2500+ gods believed in by men only a few hundred remain, and they might one day be replaced by new gods, and eventually by none at all. Religions gain their power over us through psychology. "The idea of God was not a lie but a device of the unconscious which needed to be decoded by psychology. A personal god was nothing more than an exalted father-figure: desire for such a deity sprang from infantile yearnings for a powerful, protective father, for justice and fairness and for life to go on forever. God is simply a projection of these desires, feared and worshipped by human beings out of an abiding sense of helplessness. Religion belonged to the infancy of the human race; it had been a necessary stage in the transition from childhood to maturity. It had promoted ethical values which were essential to society. Now that humanity had come of age, however, it should be left behind." - Sigmund Freud "The rest of our enquiry is made easy because this God-Creator is openly called Father. Psycho-analysis concludes that he really is the father, clothed in the grandeur in which he once appeared to the small child." - Sigmund Freud "Religion is an illusion ... it derives its strength from the fact that it falls in with our intellectual desires." - Sigmund Freud “I cannot believe in the immortality of the soul.... No, all this talk of an existence for us, as individuals, beyond the grave is wrong. It is born of our tenacity of life -- our desire to go on living -- our dread of coming to an end.” - Thomas Edison "I cannot conceive of a God who rewards and punishes his creatures, or has a will of the type of which we are conscious in ourselves. An individual who should survive his physical death is also beyond my comprehension, such notions are for the fears or absurd egoism of feeble souls." - Albert Einstein Religions gain their power because they give us selfish comforts. Eternal life, protection from hell, justice so we don't have to worry as much about what goes on in the world, since it will all be leveled eventually anyway. The power of prayer is an immense comfort, it makes people feel that even in a helpless situation they can effect change just by projecting their emotions and wants. Who wouldn't want to believe such things? Unfortunately that does not make them true. But it does give these notions power over us. Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong. -- Thomas Jefferson, considering three different explanations for why sea shells would be found at higher elevations than one should reasonably expect an ocean to have existed, in Notes on the State of Virginia †† We want to be masters of our own destiny. We need no gods or emperors. We do not believe in the existence of any saviour. We want to be masters of the world and not instruments used by autocrats to carry out their wild ambitions. We want a modern lifestyle and democracy for the people. Freedom and happiness are our sole objectives in accomplishing modernisation. -- Wei Jingsheng, essay "The Fifth Modernisation: Democracy and Other Issues" †† Today, almost half a century after the publication of the Encyclical [of Pius IX], new knowledge has led to the recognition in the theory of evolution of more than a hypothesis. It is indeed remarkable that this theory has been progressively accepted by researchers, following a series of discoveries in various fields of knowledge. The convergence, neither sought nor fabricated, of the results of work that was conducted independently is in itself a significant argument in favor of this theory. -- Pope John Paul II, revising Pius IX's Encyclical and substantially updating the Church's position on the teaching of evolution in an Address to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences (October 28, 1986), quoted from Victor J Stenger, Has Science Found God? (2001) All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit. -- Thomas Paine, (1737-1809), The Age of Reason, pt. 1, "The Author's Profession of Faith" (1794), quoted from The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations Of all the tyrannies that afflict mankind, tyranny in religion is the worst. Every other species of tyranny is limited to the world we live in, but this attempts a stride beyond the grave and seeks to pursue us into eternity. -- Thomas Paine, as quoted by Joseph Lewis in Inspiration and Wisdom from the Writings of Thomas Paine (no pagination or references) The story of the redemption will not stand examination. That man should redeem himself from the sin of eating an apple by committing a murder on Jesus Christ, is the strangest system of religion ever set up. -- Thomas Paine, as quoted by Joseph Lewis in Inspiration and Wisdom from the Writings of Thomas Paine (no pagination or references) The most detestable wickedness, the most horrid cruelties, and the greatest miseries that have afflicted the human race have had their origin in this thing called revelation, or revealed religion. -- Thomas Paine, as quoted by Joseph Lewis in Inspiration and Wisdom from the Writings of Thomas Paine (no pagination or references) Like it or not, Christianity will one day take over the world. God says so in is non-fiction best seller. The bible has never even been in amazon.com's top 100 list, it is not a best seller. It is the most duplicated going back 1800 years, before the printing press. The ikea catologue is printed more times a year than tha bible. Also, you do know this non-fiction book has a talking snake, talking donkey, talking bush, a magical tree of knowledge and a magical tree of immortality, right? Not to mention angels, demons, behemoths, cherubs and a host of other mythological creatures. The KJV even refers to unicorns nine times. how many faithful Ikea catologue readers there were 100 yrs ago? 50 yrs ago? 25 yrs ago? Once again, Christianity will take over eventually. Every knee will bow !
==By that logic==
By that logic, the Torah is older than the new testament so it is more likely to be correct, so you should be jewish. Age nor popularity make something more likely to be correct. People worshipped christ when people worshipped Zeus and Thor.