What are the enemies of our faith, and what is the enemy of faith and belief? They are not the same things. To understand the difference, you must understand the link between faith and fear. Dispelling falsehoods with facts is the key to our planet’s future. Are you ready to help?
To fight this foe that endangers you and everyone on planet Earth, you must be able to recognize it. Then, after you find it, you need to know what to do to minimize or eliminate it. It is not an easy undertaking, but the rewards are worth the effort.
The Three Enemies of Faith and Belief
There are three primary enemies of faith and belief: facts, logic, and science. Facts provide evidence and understanding. Logic, which includes common sense and reasoning, gives us the tools to determine truth from fiction. Science provides proof for sound conclusions.
Truth is something we can prove facts about, whereas people can state things that are not true as facts. People can believe things are true when they are not. The belief in things where there is no proof is called faith and belief.
Facts support the truth. Things without facts are not true. This is the difference between fact and fiction. One is real, and the other is not.
What is the Enemy of Faith Defined by Religion?
To understand the enemies of religious belief and faith, you need to know what they are and how they are used. Faith is placing trust and confidence in something for which there isn’t any proof. But, in organized religion, this isn’t a problem; it’s an opportunity.
Religions use creative methods to make up for the lack of evidence. They substitute myths and superstitions for facts. Meanwhile, they employ manipulation tactics to suppress rational thinking. It enables the ability to program belief in a wide array of things, from an imaginary friend to talking animals.
This mind control programming is done with a system of continual indoctrination in myths and superstitions. They start with children and continue throughout the life cycle. It can make otherwise rational people believe and do irrational things.
Your faith and belief aren’t the problem, it’s what it is based on. You can have faith and confidence that the Sun will rise and set tomorrow. This trust is based on the history of sunrises and sunsets. Religious faith and belief are based on fear.
The Faith and Fear Connection
How does faith connect to fear? Fear is always just around the corner when you trust in something without proof, so the underlying ingredient for faith is fear. You can trust and hope all you want, but underneath, there is the creeping fear that what you believe in is not true.
Faith enters our cultural narrative when it is accepted via tradition. Traditions can be positive or negative. It all depends on the traditions and how people use them. So, we must learn to dissect our customs and rituals and determine the good from the bad. Let’s review some examples to see how to do this.
When you see how our culture spins them, you can see how they are able to sell us everything from soap to ideology. One common element in these is fear. You buy soap because you fear your body odor will offend, and you purchase an ideology because you fear god and hell. So, let’s look at these goals from the perspective of those who use them. Releasing ourselves from the burdens that give us will free our minds.
So, Exactly What are the Enemies of Our Faith?
The answer depends on how you define and use faith. If you base faith and confidence on facts and evidence, then our enemies are those who pervert these concepts to substantiate false narratives.
Sadly, this battle has been going on for so long that most people cannot recognize it: the war between religion and science, between superstition and fact. Religious zealots always want to take us back to the dark ages when the Church was in total control. It is the historical version of The Handmaiden’s Tale.
What are the enemies of our faith if we trust in democracy and freedom? It is right-wing conservatism. Facts are the enemy of faith and belief when faith and belief are perverted by religion.
Overcoming Our Real Enemies of Democracy
One way to imprison people is to appeal to their innate desire for comfort. First, make them feel comfortable. Then, when they get used to it, they either threaten to take it away or make them believe someone else wants to take it away. Pretending is another tactic used to capitalize on someone’s fear.
A common ploy is to make someone or some group a scapegoat for any problem. They don’t have to be responsible for the issue. They are typically someone or some group you deem expendable. Then, you can justify eliminating these undesirables. Better yet, sell them the weapons to kill the scapegoats. Yes, our comfort zone is often the unhealthy zone or twilight zone.
“Comfort is the enemy of progress.” — P. T. Barnum (1)
We also have personal enemies closer to home. Our self-talk can be one of our greatest enemies. You can’t get away from it, but you can learn to repair it and make it work for you instead of against you. To do this, you’ll need to remove the harmful programming and replace it with positive scripts. It isn’t easy, but it’s worthwhile.
Dispelling Falsehoods with Facts
If you think our culture sends mixed messages, you would be right. Those who place profit over people and the planet are our real enemies, and these enemies hide behind the following masks:
— Corporate Culture and Excellence
— Misuse and Perversion of Science
— Religion and False Perfection
— Popular Culture and Changing Standards of Perfection
Ask yourself, what is the enemy of faith and belief in my life? Chances are you will fall into one of two camps. In one group are the religious zealots. Facts, science, and logic will be your enemies. The other group will be those who don’t want religious zealots to make laws and rules that govern their lives.
Corporate Culture and Excellence
In most companies, a good performance rating doesn’t warrant a promotion; instead, it justifies paying less. So, the goal is an excellent rating.
Superior performance is difficult to achieve and unrealistic to maintain without the use of drugs. Also, people are imperfect and make mistakes. So, although it is possible, it’s not realistic. However, it is still very good for corporate profits, even if it requires people to sacrifice their health.
People are tools to get the job done. Corporate culture is an endless treadmill that treats people like paper and paperclips. They will do everything from dispelling falsehoods with facts like this.
More often than not, performance ratings have more to do with your physical attractiveness than your performance. It’s true. We overlook the mistakes of people we find attractive. It’s an aspect of human nature. Studies in workplace psychology show that beautiful people have a clear edge at work despite all the talk about fair metrics. But, as the company’s overall performance rises, they also increase the standards of performance. An excellent rating last year is only average this year because average performance has risen. Our fear is the enemy of progress.
“To pursue a goal which is by definition unattainable is to condemn oneself to a state of perpetual unhappiness.” ― Emile Durkheim (2)
Very few people achieve excellence because it’s a rare temporary condition, but this doesn’t stop companies from using the goal of excellence as carrots to drive performance. Striving for unreasonable levels of achievement motivates people to work hard. The employee’s health may suffer, but the profits flourish. After all, that’s how to maximize your human resources.
The corporation designs its policies to protect its rights. For example, non-compete clauses and intellectual property rights give the company ownership over new ideas while restricting the employee’s right to work for a competitor. It’s evil. Policies which prohibit discrimination and sexual harassment are common, but they do not protect the employee. These policies are an affirmative defense to protect the company from lawsuits. Policies do nothing to change the behavior of those who commit these acts. If someone violates the discrimination or sexual harassment policies, the company terminates them; they just go to another company.
Perhaps one of the greatest enemies of our health and welfare is the way companies use the goals of excellence and perfection to drive performance. People think the objective is somehow attainable, but in the long run, unrealistic goals are not motivators. They are the source of stress, which is a health concern. Yet, the strategy of most companies is to set higher standards for performance. How about you? Are you a victim of this ploy?
Misuse and Perversion of Science
Scientific discovery is the problem-solving force of the modern world. Science requires precision to solve problems, which is why it is the enemy of faith. Precision differs from perfection. Some people use Thomas Edison and his invention of the light bulb as an example of excellence, but is it really?
Edison did not invent the light bulb; he simply improved the previous versions using a source of energy he could exploit. He made it more marketable by monopolizing the sale of the electricity that made them work. His product is not an invention. It is the product of continuous improvement and suppressing the competition. It is a good example of corporate greed.
Religion and False Perfection
Western Organized religion has the most significant influence on the world’s cultural narrative. Without a doubt, your favorite religious tradition creates fear, and fear is the enemy of rational thinking.
The three main organized religions are Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (3). These systems have extensive experience infiltrating society. The three largest religions boast over 3 billion members (4). These religions are not docile or submissive. They protect their customer base through continual indoctrination and violence. They program children at an early age, which continues throughout life.
Facts are the Enemy of Faith When Faith is Distorted
Western organized religion promotes its “own brand” of perfectionism. The fear of the unknown is the key. In Western culture, religion sells the ultimate high-margin intangible product, the afterlife. To get it, you must be perfect and obedient.
Here’s how it works. First, find or create a problem, hell, and then provide the solution, heaven. One of the more lucrative issues of religion is how it capitalizes on our existential fear of death by selling the antidote, the afterlife. The afterlife is expensive to get and keep your place in heaven because it is conditional. If you are a follower, in good standing, and pay your dues, then you qualify for the afterlife reward of heaven. If you fall out of good standing, then the result is eternal torment in hell. Bill Hicks says it best.
“Eternal suffering awaits anyone who questions God’s infinite love.” ― Bill Hicks
This concept isn’t new. The mystery religions of ancient Egypt, Babylon, Persia, and Assyria created the afterlife scam. The Abrahamic faiths adopted and rebranded these tools. You find perfection by becoming a believer. Here, the light of truth is the enemy of faith. They do not want you to research their origins.
However, you also need to pay your way. Remaining in good standing requires some monetary indulgence to ensure your place in the afterlife. In this worldview, you achieve perfection by becoming a follower. Follow the correct god and obey your leaders. Isn’t pretending faith beautiful? It’s a conman’s favorite tool, and that’s why facts are the enemy of faith.
“The enemy is fear. We think it is hate, but it is really fear.” — Mahatma Gandhi (5)
In reality, these cultural narratives are based on fear and greed, which never lead to progress. The period we know as “the Dark Ages” is an example of what happens when religion has full reign to create laws based on religious pedigree. Organized religion is by far the greatest enemy of progress. It has the power to overcome common sense and scientific evidence. Western organized religion is the originator of group hypnosis or groupthink manipulation tactics.
Popular Culture and Changing Standards of Perfection
Achievement, excellence, and perfection would seem to be objective standards of progress, but who determines the standards? What is excellence or perfection in popular culture? Many people are trying to set standards for what they call truth so they can control a certain niche or market segment.
Our culture bombards us with stories of achievement, excellence, and perfection, so you would think there would be a lot of successful people. But that is not reality. The culture tells us anyone can achieve excellence.
We see professional athletes and successful business leaders promoting the purchase of their products as the way to success. The message is that excellence and perfection are the only real goals. Anything short of perfect is a failure. They are leveraging your fear, and this fear is the enemy of progress. You will always fall short of the mark because they keep raising the standard.
Money is the golden idol of materialism but does hoarding monetary resources make you successful or just narcissistic? There is a difference of opinion between the message of the goal and what happens. Many people strive to be first at something. However, statistics tell us most people will be in the middle of the bell curve. Most people are “average.” However, being average in a culture based on the exceptional 1% standard is unrealistic. Let’s look more closely at how culture uses this message to manipulate us.
The quest for excellence is a constant message in popular culture. The pursuit of excellence takes on many forms. You see it in organized sports at all levels. Baseball and football are where star athletes show off their talents, paid for by advertising.
Boxing and martial arts are acceptable forms of entertainment. These are just examples of how the quest for excellence pays monetary dividends in a cultural narrative driven by greed. It all goes back to Greek and Roman cultures. The Olympic Games and combatants in the Roman coliseums are attractions, and these social attractions distract us from paying attention.
“The coveted perfect life is a created standard which is purposely unattainable.” ― Bryant McGill (6)
Excellence is all that counts. Being first and winning is all that matters. Those who cannot excel are not worthy. These games exploit the fascination with human conflict, cementing their superstitions in the cultural narrative. Corporations benefit from celebrating the few who sacrifice to excel. These are examples of what you might become if you buy their products and ideas.
As we mentioned before, the goal increases as more people come closer to the objective, and so the standard for excellence becomes more challenging to achieve. Thus, our popular culture is an enemy of progress. The higher the performance standard, the less attainable it becomes. As a result, an unrealistic goal becomes a barrier for most people. Thus, a culture driven by excellence is hindering our progress.
Personality and Perfection: The Enemy of Faith and Belief in Yourself
All personality types are prone to the effects of the cultural narrative. For example, let’s look at Enneagram types one and three: the reformer and the achiever. By the name of these types, you can see why they find the irresistible goals of order and achievement. As a result, you’ll find many personality types in leadership positions in both business and religion. You don’t become a leader by questioning the cultural narrative. Instead, you must learn to promote their messages without questioning the underlying motives. Otherwise, this becomes an enemy of progress.
The more you expose yourself to the programming, the more invested you become in the ideas it sells. What is the enemy of faith in yourself? It is the culture that promotes unrealistic standards. This speaks to the power of propaganda and shows how groupthink manipulation can affect anyone. It has nothing to do with intelligence.
Propaganda of perfection works by molding our thinking and values. It often triggers underlying obsessive-compulsive personality disorders (OCPD). When someone develops excessive concerns for excellence and perfectionism, it shows up as a relentless work ethic that dominates their lives. Not surprisingly, this disorder is an asset in the workplace (7). Workaholics climb the corporate ladder using any tactics they can muster, so it is an enemy of progress for health and wellbeing.
So, it isn’t our personality that is the issue. It’s how the culture exploits it. Our personality is only an enemy of our progress if we don’t understand it. However, we can learn to understand these mechanisms. We can resolve this with inner work through tools like the Enneagram Personality Profile. We will talk more about this tool later when we discuss solutions.
The Cost of Perfection and Excellence
It doesn’t matter which category of performance you choose. If you look at the superstars in any field, you’ll see achieving excellence is a life-consuming effort. So, it’s appropriate to classify it as an obsession. And this doesn’t lead to satisfaction. The costs of being an overachiever are steep.
First, your physical health and wellness will suffer by working longer and harder. Overachievers may lapse into depression because perfection is hard to sustain. Stress in the modern world is why life expectancy declines in the USA (8). Second, the families of overachievers always pay the price of absence. In the end, the advertisers and corporations are the true benefactors. In the end, your achievements add to their profits and justify raising the performance bar for everyone.
Overcoming Our Real Enemies
Can you relate to any of the categories above? Can you see how unrealistic goals are an enemy of progress? Are unrealistic goals a problem built into the cultural narrative? Are our efforts to reach unattainable goals benefiting someone else? If so, what do we do about it?
Common sense is the enemy of faith. We need to identify the harmful customs and then remove or minimize their effects on our lives. We can then reprogram our traditions to be a positive influence. Go out and plant seeds of positive impact and help others unmask their traditions.
Overcoming our real enemies is becoming crucial as right-wing religious conservatism is being used to undermine democracy. You are already in the fight for freedom and autonomy, even if you don’t realize it.
1) Identify
Above all, it is essential to identify the sources of cultural programming. Conduct a task and time survey. Make a list of the time you spend and what sources. Putting it in writing will help you see the level of exposure.
Here’s an example of identifying these sources. Let’s say you work for a corporation. In most cases, companies have policies that govern specific guidelines of behavior. People need to monitor their behavior and conform to these standards. It’s like acting in a play all day, which is the essence of behavior modification. So, working 50 or 60 a week is corporate behavior modification, which we accept as part of the cultural package.
If you watch TV for 3 hours a night, that’s around 80 hours of cultural programming. It’s not uncommon for people to spend upwards of 150 hours a week in front of passive entertainment. It becomes invisible because you are continually exposing yourself. As such, it becomes a habit. You don’t see the programming that is going on.
Here is a list of the primary sources of cultural programming:
— Corporate and school environments
— Western Organized Religion and the God concept
— Social media, TV programming, especially news and religious programming
— Religious meetings
— Political propaganda
— Cultural events, especially those that promote organized violence
— Relationships that reinforce the cultural narrative
Knowledge is the enemy of faith in the cultural narrative that is keeping you a cog in the machinery.
2) Remove and Minimize
It is essential to eliminate or minimize your exposure to the sources of harmful cultural programming, but this is not always easy. It means making tough choices and changing habitual patterns. Unhealthy habits are an enemy of our progress. Changing patterns is hard work.
Removing the source is best but not always practical. So, minimize your exposure as much as you can. It is crucial to minimize your exposure. It provides time and space for you to do positive things.
One of the most challenging things to deal with is unhealthy relationships. If you associate with people with bias and prejudice, it will taint your thinking. It is a way for them to gain acceptance of their harmful stereotypes and ideas. Also, sometimes, these relationships affect key work contacts. You need to eliminate or reduce your contact with people who support bigotry, and you need to decide to change their minds or break the relationship.
Social media is an additional source of unhealthy programming, and it is addicting and time-consuming. So, it’s a good practice to budget and reduce your use of social media. Social media has some side effects. It is linked to psychological issues like loneliness, envy, anxiety, depression, narcissism, and a decrease in social skills. 60% of people using social media report it has an adverse impact on self-esteem and 50% report they have been victims of harmful social comments and criticism.
3) Reprogram
Engage in the active reprogramming of your thoughts and habits. It is serious “inner work.” The cultural narrative in Western society is a thread of bias and prejudice that touches almost every aspect of life. Remember, facts are the enemy of faith and belief when faith and belief are perverted by religion.
By all means, please include the study of logical reasoning. We also recommend a suite of companion tools for spotting logical fallacies and truth-seeker axioms. Using these tools will help you determine fact from fiction. The Enneagram Personality Profile is a tool that gives us insight into personality and instinct. This tool will help you understand how your basic thought patterns and desires are your default settings. And you can move beyond these limitations.
4) Plant Seeds
Do what you can in your sphere of influence. Be a change agent. Expose negative biases and prejudices when possible. Speaking up always involves some personal risk. So, be mindful of your situation. Overcoming the enemies of progress requires patience.
Be careful. Speak up when and where people can accept your words. It is essential to realize that extremists will protect their belief systems from violence. So, you’ll need to learn to guard your words and actions. Plant seeds of truth and be pro-facts, not just anti-religious. You may not see the seeds blossom. However, they may take root later on. More and more are questioning the cultural narrative. What you believe matters. Your beliefs have consequences.
Final Thoughts
What are the enemies of our faith? Do you stand on the side of religion and superstition or science and facts? Facts are the enemy of faith and belief if you use faith as a religious anchor. Learn to spot and protect yourself from the negative effects of cultural programming. The enemies of progress are everywhere, but we do not need to become victims of their propaganda.
The more you awaken, the more your conscience will show you what you need to do in this war on progress. Overcoming our real enemies is the only way to maintain a free democracy.
References
(1) P. T. Barnum: goodreads.com
(2) Emile Durkheim: britannica.com
(3) Abrahamic Religions: Wikipedia
(4) List of World’s Religions by Population: Wikipedia
(5) Mahatma Gandhi: Wikipedia
(6) Bryant McGill: bryantmcgill.com
(7) The Truth About Why Beautiful People Are More Successful: psychologytoday.com
(8) NCHS – Death rates and life expectancy at birth: National Centers for Disease Control