“The US-led invasion of Iraq was a religiously inspired debacle of monumental proportions.”

Apart from this delusional statement the article is so good that it would win the Dawkin’s Prize for Irrational and Contradictory thinking.

Western economists are delusional in their thinking believing that the free-market can take care of itself without any regulation. This 2008 financial crisis has proven them wrong. Peter Day from the BBC invited 6 economists to comment on the recent economic melt-down. There were six mutually contradictory opinions which prompted Mr Day concluding remark, “come back in 10 years time and let’s see who is right.”

Instead of ranting away about ‘the great global financial crash of 2008’, John Perkins should be glad that he is witnessing the very equivalent of the Big-Bang in Economic theory. Out of this chaos would evolve a system of economic order never imagined by all the Nobel laureates in Economics put together

GYMMY.....

remarkable insight there :)

<<However to imply (as Mr Right seems to do) the claim that what people believe has little to do with what they actually do is nonsensical - especially in the case of religious belief. Religious belief>>

Hmmmmm now 'where' have I heard THAT before.. ooooooh yes..I think it was from yours truly on the BELIEFS and BEHAVIOR thread :)

Thankyou for your support. ^5

Now..If 'I' had said that very same thing I would be battered from pillar to post by all those who are overflowing and overglowing and purring and mutually petting each other in a flood of self congratulation here.

1 Cor 15:1-3

2 Peter 1:16

<We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17For he received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased." 18We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.>

Yep....totally nonsensical.

There is probably no god. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.

Bravo! Excellent article.
As a young child I took religion very seriously.
The first chink in the armour of faith was the question "Where did God come from?"...seemed pretty important at the time.
Needless to say I was encouraged to stop asking questions and just believe.
As I grew older I discovered that religious teachers were not interested in thinking beings...they were recruiting tribe members. The more ridiculous the thing you "believe", the more "in" the group you became. Terry Pratchett explained this in his excellent book "The Globe". It is a very human thing to do when living in tribal groups.
Modern history seems to be a story of slow escape from the tribal hierarchy of religious thinking: (God, Priest, Believer, Dirt/Slaves). Wealth (due to technology and rational science) seems to bring the parasites out and the old ways can re-assert themselves for a while. Bush being able to lie to the world to bomb a modern city for obviously false reasons (read Tedd Ralls articles from the time), and bankers being able to profit from an inevitably bursting bubble are amazing examples of why we should not be complacent, and why we must defend the way of knowledge against the way of dogma.
Thank you to most of the comments here. Makes me feel optimistic about our potential for civilisation again.

I agree with many people here. This is a very good article. However, I take exception to this statement …

‘All the benefits of modern society, such as increased longevity and prosperity, derive from our technical advancement.’

This is perhaps our biggest delusion – much greater than religion, and the source of many of our continuing problems.

Modern society hasn’t really created all that many benefits. Virtually all the benefits we enjoy today were enjoyed thousands of years ago – including agriculture, industry, craft, medicine and trade. The food we eat and the way it’s prepared have been around for many millennia, as has wine, beer and spirits.

Also, many societies throughout history have enjoyed excellent health and living conditions – especially those that have had a fairly even distribution of wealth. The many health problems associated with life in earlier times – high infant mortality, death in childbirth, disease and shorter lifespans – were more the result of squalid living conditions caused by social inequality, poverty, war and limited access to resources (which occur just as much today).

The belief that we live better today than in times past is based on the delusion of progress. But all progress really does is to create more and more complex societies that in turn require an ever increasing supply of resources just to function at the most minimal level – the Law of Diminishing returns (aka ‘economic growth’). Stress, chronic war, boom/bust cycles, crime and social breakdown are its inevitable consequences.

I don’t know how true it is but I read of a report written some years ago that claimed Aboriginal society in 1788 enjoyed a better standard of living than two-thirds of the population of western Europe at the same time. I’m inclined to agree.

Polyc**p, you took your time! I agree with your self analysis: Yep....totally nonsensical!

Ahem, now, back to the article. The thesis behind the entire article appears to be quite sound – irrational belief systems (e.g. blind faith in something you call God, blind faith in the invisible hand of the “free” market, …) tend to be the precursor of tears (of regret, retribution, sorrow etc.).

Why? Because at their core they are flawed systems that cannot really assist anyone with an open and honest heart (or mind) to make sense of the world in which we live so fleetingly.

Did you see my quote from Epicurus above?

I would love your take on it.