There is no question that religion has provided millions of people with comfort and hope. Hope is essential for us to keep on in life. Yet there is equally no question that religion has produced some of the most extreme forms of behavior, from the more than 900 followers of Reverand Jim Jones at Jonestown who willingly ended their life by drinking poison they mixed into their Kool-aide (hence the term "
they drank the Kool-aide", when people accept words as proof), to the 36 followers of Heaven's Gate in California who drank poison to end their life, believing that their soul would be taken aboard a space ship coming in the wake of the Hale-Bopp comet to be with Jesus Christ. Seventy-six Branch Davidians died in the fiery siege at Waco.
What does this tell us about the mind?
We have 200+ versions of Christianity, seven major religions, none of which agree, and 10,000 variations of other religions. In addition, there are an estimated 45,000 denominations of Christianity. What is the psychology of religion? Nearly all of the over 200 variations of Christianity in America, from the "Holy Rollers" to the "Snake Handlers," who speak in tongues, drink poison, and handle snakes, believe they have the true version of Christianity, and the other 199 are mistaken, misled, or even condemned to burn in agony in the fires of Hell for all eternity for not following the exact words of Jesus.
How can this be? How is it possible that the most serious questions of our time are ignored by the news, the church, and our educational system? Why are we unable to deal with this issue?
This is a critical question in psychology and religion that cannot be ignored. Yet the fear of offending others has made it almost impossible to discuss these critical issues. It is missing from our free press, ignored by our religious leaders, and censored from our schools. Our Sunday Schools and Bible Study teachings are void of any mention of the most serious issues.
No discussion of religion or the psychology of the human mind can fail to account for these facts.
