Monotheism is the primitive religion which centers human consciousness on Hive Authority. There is One God and His Name is (substitute Hive-Label). If there is only One God then there is no choice, no option, no selection of reality. There is only Submission or Heresy. The word Islam means "submission." The basic posture of Christianity is kneeling. Thy will be done. Monotheism therefore does no harm to hive-oriented terrestrials (Stages 10, 11 and 12) who eagerly seek to lay-off responsibility on some Big Boss. Monotheism does profound mischief to those who are evolving to post-hive stages of reality. Advanced mutants (Stages 13 to 18) do make the discovery that "All is One," as the realization dawns that "My Brain creates all the realities that I experience." The discovery of Self is frightening because the novitiate possessor of the Automobile Body and the Automobile Brain must accept all the power that the hive religions attributed to the jealous Jehovah. The First Commandment of all monotheisms is: I am the Lord, thy God: Thou shalt have no other Gods before me. All monotheisms are vengeful, aggressive, expansionist, intolerant. Stage 10: Islam-Catholicism Stage 11: Protestant Evangelism Stage 12: Communist-Dulles Imperialism It is the duty of a monotheist to destroy any competitive heresy. Concepts such as devil, hell, guilt, eternal damnation, sin, evil are fabrications by the hive to insure loyalty to Hive Central. All these doctrines are precisely designed to intimidate and crush Individualism. The process of mutating into Self-hood plunges the mutant into this cross fire of neurogenetic moral flak. Most of the freak-outs, bad trips and hellish experiences are caused by Monotheistic Morality. Again, it must be emphasized, that Monotheism is a necessary stage. Monotheism is a technology, a tool, to bring pre-civilized tribespeople and caste-segregated primitives into the collectives necessary to develop the post-hive, post-terrestrial technologies. The major evolutionary step is taken when the individual says: "There is only one God who creates the universe. This God is my Brain. As the driver of this Brain I have created a universe in which there are innumerable other Gods of equal post-hive autonomy with whom I seek to interest. And my universe was, itself, created by a Higher Level of Divinity—DNA, whose mysteries and wonders I seek to understand and harmonize with." From The Intelligence Agents by Dr. Timothy Leary, Ph.D.
Stage 10: Islam-Catholicism Stage 11: Protestant Evangelism Stage 12: Communist-Dulles Imperialism
It is the duty of a monotheist to destroy any competitive heresy. Concepts such as devil, hell, guilt, eternal damnation, sin, evil are fabrications by the hive to insure loyalty to Hive Central. All these doctrines are precisely designed to intimidate and crush Individualism. The process of mutating into Self-hood plunges the mutant into this cross fire of neurogenetic moral flak. Most of the freak-outs, bad trips and hellish experiences are caused by Monotheistic Morality. Again, it must be emphasized, that Monotheism is a necessary stage. Monotheism is a technology, a tool, to bring pre-civilized tribespeople and caste-segregated primitives into the collectives necessary to develop the post-hive, post-terrestrial technologies.
The major evolutionary step is taken when the individual says: "There is only one God who creates the universe. This God is my Brain. As the driver of this Brain I have created a universe in which there are innumerable other Gods of equal post-hive autonomy with whom I seek to interest. And my universe was, itself, created by a Higher Level of Divinity—DNA, whose mysteries and wonders I seek to understand and harmonize with."
From The Intelligence Agents by Dr. Timothy Leary, Ph.D.
What are your opinions on this? I think that while religion in general can have its uses, monotheism is detrimental to the individual.
He has taken advantage of sociological biases that some carry, due to a resentment or prejudice towards common faiths (namely, that many people associate what monotheistic religions they are familiar with, with notions of guilt or herd mentality). The bottom line is that there is nothing inherent within the nature of monotheism that necessarily leads to concepts such as guilt, evil, and hive-like thought. The epistemological jumps between these concepts are fairly large, and Leary fails to make a proper connection between them. It is an interesting read, but I cannot help but feel that it is intellectually dishonest (at least from this small snippet).
I think his point is that that belief in one god has led quite a few times to the aforementioned things.
The problem is he doesn't present a reason that we should think that monotheism leads to any of those things.
If anything the mistake he makes is using the term "monotheism," but that doesn't make his point about the major monotheistic religions any less valid IMO.
The mistake is important because it changes the implications of his article. If Leary's points actually had something to do with monotheism, he'd have made a powerful categorical statement. As his points stands, all he's done is point to religions that he doesn't like and over-generalize/ exaggerate things that he doesn't like about them. Even Moridin could do that.
More specifically, I think that it does make his points about monotheistic religions invalid, because it reveals that the foundation for his arguments isn't logical. He hasn't actually provided an argument that establishes that the major monotheistic religions are, by nature, expansionist, aggressive, and vengeful (which explains the many, many manifestations of Islam, Christianity, and Judaism that are none of these things).
I don't think that I've ever read something by Leary that I haven't felt was a complete pile of shit. This isn't much of an exception. I don't really know why Leary has decided to randomly equate all of the things he doesn't like about three monotheistic religions with monotheism, but pretty much every single point he made about monotheism was factually incorrect. One god doesn't mean expansionism, dogma, intolerance, sin, aggression, vengeance, ect. It means one god. Deism is monotheism.
Deism is monotheism.
I think his point is that that belief in one god has led quite a few times to the aforementioned things. That's just how I take it. Mostly because I mean come on we all know Leary is an intelligent dude - it's not like he's the type to be "IT'S THIS WAY OR NO WAY," "ALL MONOTHEISTS ARE SHIT."
Shit, lost the rest of this post somehow when the modem decided it wanted a coffee break. Can't remember what it was now... Probably nothing important anyway.
I see what you're saying but didn't the Quakers and those of the Bahai faith form their beliefs as a reaction to the problems that seemed to be inherent in monotheism? Not saying that changes much but I also don't think Leary's point was exactly that "every monotheistic religion is a piece of shit" but rather that "the form that monotheistic religion tends to take in humans is a piece of shit" haha. Pure speculation though. I mean of course you can't group everyone together but generalizations do serve a purpose.
My main point is that that is not the case with all monotheistic religions. Cases in point: Quakers, The Baha'i Faith. Monotheists who don't want to label themselves with a religion tend to just stick around as spirituals/agnostic theists or to UU if they still want a community... They're generally pretty quiet about it, same as the above. Granted, the majority of monotheistic people are parts of a monotheistic religion, and as always it's the louder ones of those who we hear from more often.
Some of your points and those in the quote are very valid, but I still think it's a vast (and unfair, but that's petty and not worth worrying about) generalistion to tar all monotheists - everyone who believes in a single God - with that brush. Still, you seem to be taking monotheism to mean solely the "big three" Abrahamic religions (which are the most well known for worshiping one God), which with the exception of a few of the more liberal sects, you'd be right about.
Do you know who Timothy Leary is?
...yes, why?
Just my opinion but also I'm not the most well-versed in pantheism so enlighten me if you feel like it.
(Wow I butchered that paragraph...)
I see where you were confused, I have crappy wording. What I meant was something like "why is the belief in a single God, with or without that you're-wrong-I'm-right attitude, any more harmful/ignorant than the belief in a pantheon or a God and Goddess, if the beliefs of the individual otherwise do not vary much aside from that point?"
Yes, I can see how that applies to every person who believes in one God rather than none, the bipolar God/Goddess thing, or a pantheon. It can go for the more funamentalist sects of the Abrahamic religions, though.
It can go for the more funamentalist sects of the Abrahamic religions, though.
I wouldn't consider the latter two to be monotheistic.
As for the first one, could you clarify what you mean? Or at least provide proof otherwise because as far as I know it seems to be a pretty legit statement in terms of monotheistic religions.
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