I think the greatest conspiracy/hidden regime to ever affect civilization is institutional Christianity. In the early days of the church, faith was invested in small groups campaigning for spiritual and political freedom. Once the Christians came to political power, their fight for spiritual survival became a campaign for spiritual dominance. Aside from a distasteful lack of respect for better-conceived philosophies, the Old Church persecuted the scientists whose views were still in harmony with the idea of God, but offended this or that local bishop's narrowmindedness; the Church opposed the printing press and literacy. In the name of God's peace, the Christian institution has, over the millennia, repeatedly created its own conflicts in order to butcher large numbers of people.
The Salem Witch Trials were about property. Catholic Spaniard missionaries installed "encomienda", a slavery system designed to "rescue" the savage souls of the indigenous populations. In a single generation, through warfare and disease (both accidentally and intentionally transmitted), wiped out 90% of the indigenous American population, and in the United States, an idea called Manifest Destiny finished the job. In the Southern United States, African slaves were denied literacy in the name of God: it seemed that letting them read and learn new ideas might be "upsetting" to their allegedly simple minds.
Christians around the world are ill-represented in the modern day. Turn on any television station and you're likely to hear from the Christians eventually, about some issue or another. And, strangely, it's only the really dumb ones who want to talk on television. The ones who describe how their rights were violated as Christians when the school board didn't make the Jewish kid say the Nicene Creed, ad nauseum. Or the PTL lady who insists that God "gave makeup to the Christian women so they could be prettiest." How about the alleged "cultural" aspect? There's Carmen, who insists that Christians are entitled to only one vision of Jesus Christ. Or the Reverend Falwell, who thinks the First Amendment to the United States Constitution is reserved for Christians. Or Lon Mabon and his OCA, which mounted horrible campaigns against homosexuals ... (two people died for the crime of being gay during that campaign).
Churches are not about faith, they are about dominion. Religious freedom, inside the institution of Christianity, is about being undisturbed in your Christian godliness.
And never once do the good Christians stand up and say anything to their public-nuisance brethren. Not once have I seen a real campaign between Christians to wrest power and representation from the hands of corrupt leaders. As Camus pointed out: Sisyphus must be happy. In the United States, we keep electing dumbasses to public office; this must be our deepest will. And so it is with Christian faith: silence equals complicity. The sins of the church are now a burden for each individual who holds dear that faith to carry.
And each day people reaffirm their faith in God, and go to the voting booths and elect social Conservatives whose platform package looks proper, but whose motives are shite. And what kills me is that when one of these pathetic excuses for a human being--much less, a Christian--gets caught in some ridiculous "sin", the Christian public gets their dander up and rushes to the defense of his virtue.
By some mechanism of politics, rhetoric, and paradox, the entire potential of the Christian promise goes out the window. I think that not only have these institutions of Christ directly interrupted various efforts by other philosophies to progress humankind, the Christians have also made their own power of change forfeit. The hope of the movement has been lost in dogmatic whining and politics. Given the amount of influence Christianity has had on the world in general, I think this failure to realize any sense of Christian potential is its greatest shortcoming. It is the church's greatest crime. And the people who support those churches .... Well, they don't have much of an excuse either.
Thanx,
Tiassa
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"Let us not launch the boat until the ground is wet." (Khaavren of Castlerock)
