Evangelism

Evangelism ranks right up there with the drive for power and territorial greed in creating human misery.

The rationale for religious evangelism, Christian and otherwise, is supposedly to save people's souls. Like... I see you are walking down the street and there's a deep hole in the ground you can't see. I need to step up and guide you around that hole in order to save you. In other words I can see something you can't and/or I know something you don't.

Because I know something you don't-- I know better than you do what is best for you -- I am justified in intervening in your life and either persuading or forcing you to conform to my prescription for you.

My cousin's oldest daughter and two of her fellow evangelists went a few years ago to Israel to save the Jews. They failed to save any souls. Others have been more successful. Mohammad did so with the sword, converting more to his faith than any other evangelist in history. Christian missionaries to less advanced societies have been somewhat successful in converting heathens. One explanation could be that the heathens may have thought if they converted they too could have all the Things the missionaries brought with them.

If I know what is best for your soul, I probably, as the thinking often has gone, know what is best for you in other ways, as well. This is a rationale for an almost endless list of choices and decisions I must make on your behalf. For one, I know of a better system of economics and societal organization. I've dubbed it Communism. On another occasion, the idea of creating an Aryan society was convincing to a few people. Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, as the King said.

Right now, I'm looking over my shoulder at the growing conviction that it is more productive and less painful for the government to do things for us than if I had to do them for myself. Sounds good, doesn't it?