From: "CE" 



Two things spring immediately to mind. First, religious belief is not the
result of mindless drones simply following the dictates of their masters.
In many cases, religious belief has spread in opposition to the wishes of
the socio-economic elites and even against the existing laws. During the
early days of the church, for example, Christians were hunted down and
killed. And in some countries, it is illegal even today to be a Christian.
Believers in those countries meet in secret. But the religion itself
carries on and spreads.

Even if we were to accept, for the sake of argument - that people profess a
belief because they are simply and perhaps unconsciously imitating the
behaviour or following the wishes of the ruling elite - this position would
still be problematic. There would be way for us to know whether atheism and
agnosticism are the result of people freeing themselves from religious
indoctrination or merely the result of yet another indoctrination. Under
the proposed sociological model, it would be just as valid to claim
atheists and agnostics are merely following the dictates of a capitalistic
elite in a secular society - and not really the freethinkers they feel
themselves to be.

--- BBBS/LiI v4.01 Flag