Why do we like Religion so much?

De: D. Bogéa

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

"I grew up in a magical world. Negative words attracted negative experiences. Thought, like a metaphysical sculptor taking the circumstances of the world as raw material, had the incredible power to bring about the most diverse imagined situations. All environments and people manifested good or bad energies capable of positively or negatively affecting the course of my existence. I had a personal relationship with the omnipotent Being who created the universe. He was permanently at my disposal like a customer service that never shuts down. Fortunately for me, commerce with the beyond was not restricted to a single God. All Indian gods could be accessed through prayers and sufficiently powerful visualizations. Obsessors - spirits of the dead too attached to the Earth or who were too evil in life - roamed around my body and could drain my energy. Corners and pillars, as material obsessors, could also steal my energy. Luckily, in this world populated by bad energies, obsessors, and pillars, my guardian angel, "my zealous protector," was always ready to take care of me and protect me - hence it was convenient for me to pray to him before going to bed at night. Initiated into the noble magical art called Reiki, I learned to channel universal energy so that, flowing through my hands, it - or was it me? - could heal any illness. The key to healing any illness that befell me, by the way, was in the modulation of my state of mind, the strength of my thoughts, or the exploration of the many herbs and natural elements available on Earth - after all, there is no illness on Earth for which there is no cure. In meditation, the power of my energy could make a candle flame double in size, as well as expel all negativity from my spirit - all I had to do was imagine a reverse waterfall flowing out of me through the crown chakra - the sahasrara - on top of my head. The more I could "purify" myself, the fewer reincarnations I would have ahead of me. By the way, how many reincarnations had I already had? Had the "me" of my previous incarnation been good or bad? Could I now purify myself enough to go and live in eternal bliss in the beyond alongside all the other spirits of light?"

Religious beliefs are omnipresent in all existing societies to this day. There are tens of thousands of religions and hundreds of thousands of gods, each representing, for their believers, the deepest truths of the world and life.

What makes religions so attractive to the human mind? What does the resounding success of religions tell us about the functioning of our own minds? How were the gods formed? What desires do they respond to?

In seven thought-provoking chapters, Diogo Bogéa, Ph.D. in Philosophy, draws on the psychoanalysis of Freud and MD Magno to investigate the power of religions. From the Goddess-Mother, through the God-Father and the God-Children, to the contemporary era ruled by the Capitalist Religion of the God-Money and the doctrine of its two great Gospels: the Liberal Gospel and the Marxist Gospel - developed by the Prophets Adam Smith, Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek (Prophets of the Liberal Gospel), and Karl Marx (Prophet of the Communist Gospel).

Table of Contents:

1. A Magical World
2. The Empire of the Mother
3. In the Name of the Father, the Son...
4. The Drive for Omnipotence
5. The Empire of Mammon
6. The Prophets of Mammon
7. The Pulsional Machine