Is Christianity Really Brainwashing?

Does Christianity forbid asking hard questions about its doctrines?

Does Christianity forbid questioning of its leaders and their doctrine or behavior?

Do Christian organizations whose primary focus is fundraising, and who may even resort to deception in order to line the pockets of their leaders? Is it not true that some of these leaders live in luxury, while the one paying them live in poverty?

Do Christians not target young people, the elderly, and others who might be vulnerable to exploitation?

How can Christians be so sure they're right and everyone else is wrong? Isn't that arrogant? Isn't that evidence of a large ego?

Logically speaking, it is simply not possible for all the major world religions to be valid ways/paths to God.

Christianity states that the God of the Bible Yahweh is the only true God and salvation is only possible by accepting Christ as one's Savior and Lord. Judaism states that the God of the Torah/Old Testament is the only true God, and that Jesus is not the Messiah, putting it directly at odds with Christianity. Jesus either is the Messiah, or he is not. If he is, Judaism is not a valid way to God; if he is not, Christianity is not a valid way to God. The mutual exclusion only grows when other religions are added: Islam says that Allah is the only true God, and that anyone who says Christ is the Son of God will be condemned (Qur'an, 5:72, 9:30). Furthermore, if religions other than Christianity are valid ways to God, then one of Christianity's basic principles is false; in that case, can it still be said to be a valid, trustworthy religion?

Is Christianity is intolerant of other beliefs?
I have seen this intolerance many times, in this forum, and in real life.
Tell a Christian you are Wiccan, you very quickly are told that you work for Satan, or are in league with Satan, or Demons, or that you are a Demon, or are possessed by Demons. It is nearly the same if you tell a Christian you are a Buddhist, a Hindu, Taoist, or follow the Native American ways. Isn't it true, and the way if the Christ, that we shouldn't pass judgement on, or condemn these beliefs as being morally wrong? Or sinful?

If someone has a bad disease, telling them that they don't need to seek medical treatment, but to only trust in the Lord, is a wrong thing to do. Isn't it true that a Doctor can help, perhaps faster, and with better results, than prayer?

Whether or not basic Christianity is true or false is a topic of much debate, which is clearly evident in this forum, and elsewhere. It is my contention that when a group, any group, claims to have an exclusive hold on TRUTH, we all tend to immediately doubt the claims of that group. Does Christianity make such a claim? It does claim that Jesus is the only way to God, basically stating that there is only the one path, and all other paths are either morally wrong, or sinful, or the direct path to Hell.

Christianity claims there is good evidence, and lots of it for the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. But truthfully, this evidence is mainly confined to the [canonized] New Testament texts and gospels which were retold from oral/verbal story-telling, (no doubt big in the days before Radio and TV) and various non-inspired written accounts of the life and death of Jesus. The Romans kept meticulous records of everything, and there are no records bearing the name, or the execution of Jesus, to the best of my knowledge. Also, do not forget, there were many men named Jesus at the time:
A Surfeit of Jesuses

This man Jesus is best thought of by secular people as merely another failed Jewish prophet, and human a man, a wise teacher and sage, and nothing more. There were many of these in those times. A lot of them met a violent end, too.
Upon his shocking crucifixion, his disciples had visionary experiences of him and concluded just like the Millerites, the Jehovah’s witnesses, and other similar religious groups that their God was providing a new direction for their cult. In the case of the early disciples they concluded from these visions that Jesus was still alive and that the end of the world would come very soon, within their lifetime.It is my contention that this "historical evidence" is very poor evidence to believe in such extraordinary claims, like the claims Christians must believe in anyway. (or else!)

Christians will claim they have a religious experience which counts as good evidence for what they believe, like an inner witness of the Holy Spirit. This is so bogus of an argument it’s hard to even start. When a believer has a religious experience it is really hard, if not psychologically impossible, to argue him away from his beliefs. It is basically the same with people who have had the ET/UFO experience, once experienced, it would be virtually impossible to make the person think he or she did not really have it. It is the same for a non Christian to have a vision. The vision may be very real for the one having the vision, but to a Christian is it Satan or a Demon trying to fool you. I have been told this many times.
Of course, if a devout Christian has a vision it is fully accepted as coming from God.

And what of those who say they speak to the dead? Christianity teaches that humans have but one life only, and when one dies they either go to Heaven or Hell, and nowhere else. I call attention to
I Samuel 28:11-16: The Witch of Endor. The Witch of Endor reveals that she saw Gods (plural) ascending out of the Earth. There is much debate as to whether or not the apparition that was conjured up by the witch was the real Samuel. The witch described Samuel’s appearance to Saul as being an old man covered in a mantle. A mantle was a type of robe, or coat for the upper portion of the body. There was something about this mantle that convinced Saul that the apparition was indeed Samuel.

I myself have spoken of my Grandfather, who came to visit me, and took me with him for a night of travel and talking that enthralled me. I have also seen, and spoken to my Father, and two friends, all of whom are dead. I also have had conversation with ET Beings.
I have told these things to Christians, who told me it was actually a Demon, fooling me, and not who i thought it was at all. How does one defend against this?

I believe there are many people in the world today who are very deluded by their religious beliefs, even to the extreme in some cases. How do you know that you are not one of them, having been brainwashed by the very culture you were brought up in? How do you know? You must consider this a possibility for it’s a fact that brainwashed people do not know they have been brainwashed.

My claim is that most who call themselves Christian are brainwashed. Demand good evidence along with good reasons for why you believe, believe you know. It’s that simple.

Today's Cult News

Brainwashing & Mind Control Techniques

reply to post by autowrench


In my experience.....if its not brainwashing.....its at least one hell of a marketing scheme.

Lets face it, preacher dude stands in front of a crowd once a week (sunday morning), and collects enough money to provide for his family.

Wow, must be nice to only work one day a week.

Unfortunately the answer to most of your questions in my view helped by the Christians on this site is yes.
It's time they realize that 68% of the worlds population are not Christian, they are so blinded by their faith and refuse to listen or take into account anyone else's point of view.
Excellent thread my fella
But expect a lot of them coming on here quoting scripture.

I was lied to a lot in my "Christian Upbringing" youth. So much information I wasn't told, and so much more.

Particularly scientific facts, and complete misrepresentations of or other religions and non-religious people.

Oh, and obviously, couldn't even be told about the content of most of the book, considering how unbelievable and non-child appropriate the old testament makes itself out to be.

Brainwashing? I'm not sure. I believe everyone has the right to believe and worship however they want. If it's it's "Choosing to be brainwashed".

Brainwashing children? Again, I'm not sure. Is it ok to pass on misinformation so that a child will take your religious faith as well? Is it ok to give them any alignment before they're old enough to think about it critically themselves? Is it a right of a parent, or are the parents taking away from the right of the child?

I'll say I personally am not happy that I was feed false information. I'll say I wasn't happy about not being given the choice myself. However, I'm still unsure at where the rights should lay.

I'll certainly not "Brainwash" my children(If I have any). Or even if it's not brainwashing, push them towards any ideology. I'll teach critical thinking, give them any facts(truefully) they want to know, and let them grow up and lean however they choose to. If they choose differently, not only will I be ok with it, I'll be interested in what lead them to those different beliefs.

In my youth, i went to Catholic School. During religion class, i asked way to many questions one time. as an example, one of the questions i asked was "After Jesus healed the blind man he turned around and told one of his followers, 'even you can do the things i can do' after that follower asked Jesus how he can do the things he does." Now clearly in my mind as a 5th grader that clearly meant that we all should be able to do the things Jesus did. Well that question infuriated the nun who was teaching the class and she sent to me to the Sister who was the principle. the sister asked me what i had said and i told her. She got mad also and she sent me to see the priest. So i walked over to the church and told him what i said. He just smiled and knelt down on one knee and put a kind hand on my shoulder and said, "my son, those questions are what we call the mystery of faith and should not be asked. Now i think you need to ponder on that question and do the rosary 7 times.
needless to say, I'm no longer Catholic, I'm a Pagan and proud of it. I have many friends who are christian and we get along just fine and even have some interesting conversations, as long as they don't bring up the Vatican, things don't get heated... lol

reply to post by autowrench


i can't claim that all Christians are "brainwashed' though i would say many if not most are "socially brainwashed"... These are the ones that don't adhear to what their own lord told them to do... Instead they prefer to judge any and all that disagree with their religion and its doctrine... and condem those that prefer a different belief...

There are many christians who maintain an open mind and chose to see their path through reading the bible themselves instead of getting it preached to them like 90% of the religious world.

In fact there are many "paths" to God... because ALL paths lead there eventually... Jesus mearly presented Gods ideal path...

Though YOU are free to chose your own path.

reply to post by autowrench


This is truly an excellent post and so well thought out. There is so much here though that you raise that I'm just going to respond to a few of the points right here and keep following the discussion.

Yes it is brainwashing and they've almost guaranteed you never find that out. If you follow the Bible literally and you are a woman you are told if you have questions about the faith you are to ask your husband at home. You are not permitted to speak in the church and it says in the Bible that women are to be submissive. (1 Corinthians 14:34) I often wondered what if your husband has no clue or doesn't care?

No you are not at all encouraged man or woman to question the leaders and their doctrine or behavior. In fact if you do you are seen as a troublemaker. If you're a child you will be punished for doing that. Churches are very strict that no one step out of line. You have to assume these men are straight from God and can do no wrong. That God speaks directly to them and only to them in all matters concerning the Church.

Most definitely at least within the Catholic Church the leaders --upper higherarchy-- live the absolute lap of luxury. Look at the Vatican. Who but them lives like that? Not the majority of the worlds population doesn't. Not the elderly Grandma that chances are is sitting in the pew next to you. No they want what little she eeks out from Social Security to go into their collection plate. They raise tons of money where does it go?? Its not going to feed the world. Its going to pay for elaborate churches, mega churches, and Vatican. The poorer churches when they run into trouble financially are shut down. People try to get their churches saved because they've gone there all their lives and its "home" to them, but in the Church's eyes its a financial loss, so see ya. Go find another church.

The Catholic Church encouraged people to have so many kids so that it would have generations of kids that would become adults to bring in more money for them. Forget the fact that imposing this was such a strain for these families. And for their communities. Large families like this had to juggle who gets paid and when. Say you are the family's doctor for example... you might not get paid, there is no money. And so on with every service the family often required. Its not their fault they are behind on bills or don't have enough to pay people but it sure is the fault of the Catholic Church that cares not what it does to these families. They only care about the money that THEY will get.

OK, thats enough for now. I want to see what others think. But again, very very well thought out and presented thread.

Christianity is a religion based off Fear totally,dont get me wrong there is a deep message to be heard when you take the message METAPHORICALLY at least I like to believe.But how many followers are only following because they are petrified at the thought of eternal damnation i wonder ??hmmmm

I normally don't make a point in getting into religious discussions, especially on this site because it is a place people come to discuss conspiracies and frankly my personal opinion is that many of them are as delusional in their basis as those who claim the same for religion.

I was raised in the South as a Baptist and do believe in my God and am strong in my faith and belief. I take some issue that people paint all Christians as narrow minded, brainwashed, etc. And I can tell you that Christians are no more intolerant of other religions than any other religion on the planet. As with any group of people, there are always the extremes...those who do in my mind incredibly non-Christian acts in the name of their faith. Nothing as extreme as the Islamic extremists, but still crossing lines in my book.

I have never understood why the Christian faith seems to take such a hit here. It may be easy because a fair number of people here come from areas that maybe are predominantly Christian-based...I don't know.

I don't tell anyone else they are wrong for their beliefs...however I do believe what I believe and base that belief on the teachings of the Bible. I am a Christian. I am also a scientist by training and so have spent a good deal of my life trying to find that bridge between science and religion because I don't believe they are mutually exclusive.

All religions are based on faith...I cannot prove to you that what I believe is hard and cold fact. That is why it is called faith.

Criticizing all pastors, priests, etc. for accepting salaries for what they do is pretty narrow minded because we assume every one of them is making a fortune in the process. Childhood friend of mine became a pastor.n let me tell you...he works as hard as many people making 3-4 times what he does every year. He has no 401k or retirement/pension plan...other than what he has invested in on his own. He has spent money out of his own pocket to travel and help in disaster situations...counseling and assisting in cleanup and recovery. His passion for his fellow man exceeds that of most people I have ever known. And he represents the majority of pastors I have been around in my life.

Are there bad examples out there? Sure. Every group, religious or not, have enough bad examples to convince most people that there are too few good people in this world to make it worth saving.

One thing is for sure...at the end of our time on this planet we will all find out the truth. It's just a shame we spend so much time while we are here not making it a better place to coexist and so much time running it and it's peoples down.

This is interesting because I had a brief conversation with my mother a few months ago that I believe demonstrates the answer to the question perfectly.

I was reading something on Aikido at the time, about O' sensei and his beliefs, and I stumbled upon a paragraph that although different in interpretation sounded a lot like something regarding creation in the Bible. I thought that with my mother being very religious she might enjoy the similiarity between the two and how one thing can be percieved differently. ( I forgot the exact text but it was something like in the beginning was sound and vibration and from this life came. Sort of like in the beginning there was the word.)

After relaying the passage to her I asked what did that remind her of and she replied with "I don't know.". So, I said to me it sounds like this out of the Bible to which she replied "Oh, I never really read the Bible." If physically possible my jaw would have hit the ground. Here was this woman who based her whole life around the teachings of one book and believed everything this book had to say and she never even read it for herself! She just believed everything her parents, teachers and priests said. In school she was taught this, this and this and that was that.

So if that is not an example of brainwashing I have no idea what is. How could she believe whole heartedly in something when she knows practically next to nothing about it and all she went on was the words of other people.

As an aside back in the day according to my parents you did not question the priests or the nuns. They could say whatever they wanted and the parents would believe them over you. I remember my father saying his mother hit him when a priest had told her he did something bad. I'm not sure I believe his pleas of innocence though..

reply to post by DetectiveT
That is a very good example of someone being brainwashed , not by the bible but by religion ...I have witnessed similar things that would include politics and law ...Some people never take the time to search out things for themselves ...I think it has more to do with our education system and how they teach us what to learn and not teaching us how to learn .....peace

Wow surprised Non of the Board regular Christians havent been on here at least to try and defend their faith, maybe you got thru to them OP

It all depends...

I see very little brainwashing here in Anglican Britain.

Evangelical Dixie? That's something else...

I agree with a large majority of what you say. The power of Religion and Blind Faith is the most powerful weapon ever created and it has millions in its grips. But I still have hope Christians will realize what's really going on here and that is that Christianity was created for social control. S&F for you.

Originally posted by LunaKat
Most definitely at least within the Catholic Church the leaders --upper higherarchy-- live the absolute lap of luxury. Look at the Vatican. Who but them lives like that? Not the majority of the worlds population doesn't. Not the elderly Grandma that chances are is sitting in the pew next to you. No they want what little she eeks out from Social Security to go into their collection plate. They raise tons of money where does it go?? Its not going to feed the world. Its going to pay for elaborate churches, mega churches, and Vatican. The poorer churches when they run into trouble financially are shut down. People try to get their churches saved because they've gone there all their lives and its "home" to them, but in the Church's eyes its a financial loss, so see ya. Go find another church.

Really? They live in the absolute lap of luxury? Can you provide some evidence of that? The money raised does not go towards feeding the world? It's for paying of elaborate churches, mega churches and the Vatican? Do you have any proof of that, either?

Do you have any information, links, proof or background for any of your statements?

And to cap things off, you start by slamming profligate spending and then end by slamming attempts at fiscal responsibility. Nice.

Here are a few things you might want to look into:

1) What's the annual operating budget of the Vatican? How does that compare to other institutions such as, say, Harvard?

2) What hospices, hospitals, orphanages, shelters and food banks are run by the Catholic Church?

3) How do you define luxury and what members of the Church hierarchy exist in that bubble? How do you support that claim?


Eric

Originally posted by Zeer0
I agree with a large majority of what you say. The power of Religion and Blind Faith is the most powerful weapon ever created and it has millions in its grips. But I still have hope Christians will realize what's really going on here and that is that Christianity was created for social control. S&F for you.

So based on your argument, all religions are simply brainwashing methods to control those who believe in their teachings? Because I see no unique connection to Christianity as opposed to Judaism, Islam, Buddism, etc.

reply to post by chocise


How is it a troll thread? many of the comments posted agree with him.
Trolling? If you disagree with the thread take time to write why you disagree with it instead of using a lazy dismissive statement.

Christianity is for sure brainwashing, scaring people into believing in hell and twisting the image of Jesus to promote intolerance and hate. Its all a means of control by inciting fear and supressing truths like 10 hail marys is gonna absolve any ones sins LOL

cant stand it, its all male dominated hypocrisy. All organized religions are horse $h!t and hopefully one day they all topple and the lies are exposed.