My New Book - “The Quest for Power: Religion and Politics” - Samuel Slipp, M.D.

Religion is called a delusion or a poison by militant atheists and blamed for the violence in history. Religion is not the cause, but a motivating force that has been used for political domination but also for freedom. The teachings of Jesus to help the poor and free humanity from oppression were reversed by the Roman Emperor Constantine, who legitimized and used Christianity for military victory and political power. He justified killing his son, since God had killed his son. The divinity of the Roman Emperor continued as the divine right of kings and the church to rule over the poor. The Roman genocide of nonbelievers changed from Christians to Jews, as seen in the Crusades, Inquisition, and the Holocaust. Scientific knowledge and philosophers of the Enlightenment empowered individuals, enabling them to revolt against monarchies to establish democracies, with separation of church and state. Freud stated religious rituals were an obsessional neurosis, but this pathology is in an individual and out of control. When two or groups of individuals voluntarily eat, talk, sing, or move together in synchrony, as in religious rituals, it fosters a bonded relationship. Moral standards not only elevate individual behavior, but they establish trust in the group by making relationships predictable. I present a hypothesis, validated by my experimental evidence in the book, that the original synchrony between mother and infant forms the mental template, via mirror neurons, for adult attachments. This original attachment, which lacks a boundary and differentiation, explains why adult individual identity may be supplanted by that of the group. Religious rituals are found in all cultures, having an evolutionary value for survival. Groups enabled hunting large animals, provided protection against predators, as well as dignifying life stages and offering support for those suffering a loss.