Marcel Délèze Resisting religious indoctrination Sequential version Edition 2021-08-09 Marcel Délèze is a retired mathematics teacher. In public schools in French-speaking Switzerland (Valais and Fribourg), he spent his entire life working with chaplains and teachers of religion, religious sciences and philosophy, including a future bishop. He resisted the militancy institutionalised by certain Catholic cantons, which has now subsided, but whose mechanisms have remained in place. A critical look is taken at various issues such as the history of the Church, clericalism, secularism, morality, ecclesiastical taxation, divine goodness, Heaven, Hell, the inconsistencies of the Bible, truth, Pascal's wager, faith in the face of science, the fear of death, etc. This deconstruction of Catholicism extends to other religions and to agnosticism, leading to atheism. Resisting religious indoctrination 2 / 167 How can we free ourselves from religious indoctrination? Read carefully and meditate on the following digital book and say to yourself "This is only one path among many, but by adapting these reflections to my situation, I can find an alternative to subjugation and free myself from the feeling of guilt". For all those who want to read sequentially, in one document, the whole website “Resisting religious indoctrination”: www.deleze.name/marcel/en/philo/resistance-en.html One of the aims of this site is to help people who wish to free themselves from the grip of religion and to protect themselves against enlistment. Our life is too precious for us to delegate its conduct to a religious authority. To gain our intellectual, philosophical and moral autonomy, we must subject religious propaganda to rigorous criticism. The example of Catholicism developed here could be adapted, to a large extent, to any other religion. On how to get out of religious indoctrination A clear distinction must be made: • On the one hand liberating oneself, or another person who desires it. This is what my site focuses on by explaining my personal deconstruction/reconstruction path. • On the other hand, to weaken someone's indoctrination, without that person wishing to diminish his or her attachment to his or her religion. This theme is not dealt with here. Find out, for example, about the method - street epistemology - in order to conduct the conversation with a chance of success. Resisting religious indoctrination 3 / 167 Overview The overview combines the functions of summary and table of contents. Overview of the first part Resisting social control by the Church The Church in search of power through the state and the family Society By analogy with biology and ecology, it is cultural diversity, including religions, that offers the best opportunities for the adaptation and evolution of civilisations. Development needs freedom and benefits from the plurality of beliefs. It is not religious diversity that is a source of tension, but intolerance. Currently, the West is better characterised by democracy than by Christianity. It is dangerous to give free rein to a determined religious ideology without opposing it with the counter-powers of plurality and freedom. It is necessary to flee from organisations working to establish an ideologically homogenous society. To guard against this, young people must be informed about the weight of religion on previous generations. Clericalism in French-speaking Switzerland It is commonly accepted that religion is a personal matter to be dealt with as a matter of conscience. Very well, but that doesn't really correspond to the current situation, and not at all to what I've experienced. For decades, I have been subjected to massive state interventions in religious matters in French- speaking Catholic cantons. During my five years of primary school, I had to recite the catechism every day and go to Mass in column of two. During the three years of secondary school, religion classes were compulsory. Then, because I wanted to become a teacher, I was obliged to spend another five years in a boarding school run by a religious congregation. I was required to be a committed Catholic and a school catechist. My feeling is that religion was, and is still in a non-negligible measure, a matter of state against which I feel obliged in conscience to resist. • In Valais, Catholicism was the state religion until 1973: see p. 12: Clericalism, never again! (testimony). • Although attenuated, clericalism in the manner of Fribourg is still very present: see p. 20: Clericalism and secularism in the canton of Fribourg (Switzerland). The state must welcome all citizens equally, whether Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, non-religious or other. Consequently, it cannot take sides with particular communities, for example by proclaiming itself Christian or declaring that certain religions are entitled to a privileged status. It must display, including in public education, its neutrality with regard to beliefs. Resisting religious indoctrination 4 / 167 No religion in the functioning of the state! Religions In Western Europe, we see that age-old religions are crumbling while others are infiltrating. Certainly, we are far from finished with the zealots of True Revealed Faith, which has the oddity of being plural. From it emerges the image of a God who hides, delivers contradictory messages and presents a dissociative identity disorder. The diversity of beliefs reveals that they are cultural constructions devoid of objective foundations. It is unreasonable to obey the propagandists of such an ill-defined God. Why does man cling to so-called beliefs about the afterlife that are in fact beyond all plausibility? The answer is to be found between our two ears - O revelation -, that is to say in our brain. To be content with arguments of authority is a capitulation of the mind. Religions work to dramatize existence: the eye of God that observes us, sin, Judgement Day, hell (or reincarnation into an inferior being), eternal life, ... Religion does not provide access to inner peace, as it develops a rhetoric of intimidation that puts the faithful under pressure and demands more and more of them, without end. Whoever does not put up a defence is phagocytised. Beware of a religion that sanctifies subjugation and obedience: believing will make us captives! It is not enough to resist a little to avoid extremist drift; it is necessary to resist firmly to avoid the gears of subjection. • Being moderate in religion What values to oppose to barbarism? See p. 37: Resisting the teaching of the Church: human rights, morality, secular culture. Religious education The method of religious teaching consists in dramatizing existence: the eye of God watching us, sin, the Last Judgement, hell, eternal life, etc. The aim is to enclose the mind in a system of thought that gives the Church power over your conscience. Wouldn't it be better to play down the drama of existence? It is better to develop creativity and critical thinking rather than fidelity to a religion or tradition. This principle also applies to the teaching of philosophy. Justice To have the courage to oppose injustice in the name of dignity and solidarity, one does not need to believe in deities. Feeling part of the human community can be enough. The sacred The sacred is a feeling, halfway between self-censorship and taboo, a component of which is a paralysing fear. Religious institutions cultivate it in order to numb the critical spirit, reinforce docility, promote subjugation and avoid any questioning. Resisting religious indoctrination 5 / 167 Only human rights are "sacred", and the Church has paid little attention to them, both in the past and today, for example in relation to gender equality, remarriage, homosexuality and paedophilia. Morality An institution which, throughout its history, has flouted human rights cannot be "the" moral benchmark. Progress has not come from a movement of the Church itself, but has been snatched from it by the demands of modernity. • See p. 54: Some shortcomings of the Catholic Church in secular morality Belief, the believer The believer holds it to be true that he lives according to God's will, whereas he endorses a ready- to-think established by very human ideologues. It is said that faith moves mountains, but it must be pointed out that these are mountains of human rights deliberately evacuated. Belief would not be a problem if it were limited to the dictionary definition. Unfortunately, the believer feels held in consciousness of being missionary. The believer holds it to be true that he lives according to God's will, whereas he endorses a ready-to-think established by very human ideologues. It is said that faith moves mountains, but it must be pointed out that these are mountains of human rights deliberately evacuated. Belief would not be a problem if it were limited to the dictionary definition. Unfortunately, the believer feels held in consciousness of being missionary. It commits the state to supporting certain religious communities, which leads to unequal treatment and exposes non-believers to one-sided and unwanted religious publicity. Ecclesiastical tax Ecclesiastical tax is a remnant of clericalism. The State does not have to interfere in the religious life of citizens by organising the financing of the Church. In the cantons of Fribourg, Jura and Bern, one can be exempted from church tax on leaving the Church. In the cantons of Valais and Vaud, after leaving the Church, one can apply for reimbursement of the parish share of the tax. • See p. 62: Ecclesiastical (or parish) tax in French-speaking Switzerland Leaving the Church Ecology Ecological awareness will only be able to progress once mankind has truly understood and accepted that nature is not limited to our environment, but that we are an integral part of it. Humanity is a conscious part of the universe. • See p. 64: Ecology and Judeo-Christianity Power and authority • See p.