Reply #10: Insulated Community - Groupthink - Ingersoll's Description of Revival Psyc

[NAO]

The Religious Reich are masters of Belief System (BS) formation, modification and maintenance.

The Church system is unmatched by anything in the mundane secular world. Large numbers of people who do not ever think about or discuss ideas in their daily lives attend meetings every week where they sit and listen to lectures about metaphysics (nature of reality, origin, and destiny) and ethics (right and wrong) in integrated talks called 'sermons'!

Christians are encouraged to 'seek fellowship of other Christians' AND they are discouraged from being 'worldly' or from being 'unequally yolked' with unbelievers. This serves to reinforce their very odd beliefs which have no correlate in ordinary experience or sensory data - it makes unreal things seem real if everyone pretends. And by keeping to their own, they insulate themselves from those who do not accept their beliefs and whose conversation might sow seeds of doubt.

Further, they are inoculated against escape from the BS by being taught that 'the devil' tries to deceive them with 'vain philosophy'. They are told not to rely on 'mere human reason'.

And there is a strong emotional component in their ceremonies.

Ingersoll has a nice description of the "Evangelist Revival Meetings" in his brilliant piece, "Why I am an Agnostic":

***

In those days ministers depended on revivals to save souls and
reform the world.

In the winter, navigation having closed, business was mostly
suspended. There were no railways and the only means of
communication were wagons and boats. Generally the roads were so
bad that the wagons were laid up with the boats. There were no
operas, no theaters, no amusement except parties and balls. The
parties were regarded as worldly and the balls as wicked. For real
and virtuous enjoyment the good people depended on revivals.

The sermons were mostly about the pains and agonies of hell,
the joys and ecstasies of heaven, salvation by faith, and the
efficacy of the atonement. The little churches, in which the
services were held, were generally small, badly ventilated, and
exceedingly warm. The emotional sermons, the sad singing, the
hysterical amens, the hope of heaven, the fear of hell, caused many
to lose the little sense they had. They became substantially
insane. In this condition they flocked to the "mourner's bench" --
asked for the prayers of the faithful -- had strange feelings,
prayed and wept and thought they had been "born again." Then they
would tell their experience -- how wicked they had been -- how evil
had been their thoughts, their desires, and how good they had
suddenly become...

Well, while the cold weather lasted, while the snows fell, the
revival went on, but when the winter was over, when the steamboat's
whistle was heard, when business started again, most of the
converts "backslid" and fell again into their old ways. But the
next winter they were on hand, ready to be "born again." They
formed a kind of stock company, playing the same parts every winter
and backsliding every spring.

The ministers, who preached at these revivals, were in
earnest. They were zealous and sincere. They were not philosophers.
To them science was the name of a vague dread -- a dangerous enemy.
They did not know much, but they believed a great deal. To them
hell was a burning reality -- they could see the smoke and flames.
The Devil was no myth. He was an actual person. a rival of God, an
enemy of mankind. They thought that the important business of this
life was to save your soul -- that all should resist and scorn the
pleasures of sense, and keep their eyes steadily fixed on the
golden gate of the New Jerusalem. They were unbalanced, emotional,
hysterical, bigoted, hateful, loving, and insane. They really
believed the Bible to be the actual word of God -- a book without
mistake or contradiction. They called its cruelties, justice -- its
absurdities, mysteries -- its miracles, facts, and the idiotic
passages were regarded as profoundly spiritual. They dwelt on the
pangs, the regrets, the infinite agonies of the lost, and showed
how easily they could be avoided, and how cheaply heaven could be
obtained. They told their hearers to believe, to have faith, to
give their hearts to God, their sins to Christ, who would bear
their burdens and make their souls as white as snow.

All this the ministers really believed. They were absolutely
certain. In their minds the Devil had tried in vain to sow the
seeds of doubt.

I heard hundreds of these evangelical sermons -- heard
hundreds of the most fearful and vivid descriptions of the tortures
inflicted in hell, of the horrible state of the lost. I supposed
that what I heard was true and yet I did not believe it. I said:
"It is," and then I thought: "It cannot be."

***

Why I Am Agnostic
Robert Green Ingersoll
http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/robert_ingersoll/why_i_am_agnostic.html