Is christianity manipulative?

“Believe what I say or burn in hell forever. Obey and have eternal bliss.”

If this does not sound like the ultimate, most intense psychological coersion ever, I honestly don’t know what does. People who have become estranged to the faith — or people who are genuine strangers to it— might hear something like this and quickly put this kind of rethoric in the same bag as those charlatans trying to sell us clouds in the sky.

We might understand the immense insight christianity brings, the huge importance it calls attention to love, forgiveness, care for the meek, poor and disadvantaged. We might even find christians better people than any other kind of group. Still, it may be hard to shake the impression the whole thing gives of being somehow fake, unauthentic, contrived.

Pascal’s wager puts rationally, explicitly and overtly what is most times an irrational, implicit and subliminar process in people’s hearts. Why believe? Well, just think of the possibilities. Not believing gets us maybe some temporal freedom, at the cost of running the risk of burning forever. Believing costs us some temporal freedom, but gets us eternal bliss. Put this way, the decision is obvious. In a “game theory sort of way”, we are way better off believing.

As long as there is some resquice of doubt about the existence of God, the argument has a pull on us. It works almost regardless of the truth of the matter — it is purely practical, nothing more than cold calculation of risk and reward, done in a way so upfront and factual that it almost sounds cynical and disingenuous.

But believing this way is clearly not sincere. It is a selfish and self-interested belief. Pascal says that we can will ourselves into belief by force of habit: pray everyday, live only with people of faith, read nothing but the Bible, and it will start to sink into you. Basically, brainwash yourself into belief. Stick with it until you forget how to question anything.

Just do as you are told by those who promise you the most. It is obviously the most rational thing to do. Keep your head down. Don’t risk everything. Endure the years you have here. It will pay off soon, when this life is over. If not… Well, it’s not like you lost so much — compared to the eternity you never got.

Not only manipulative, this way of seeing things is also life-denying, as Nietzsche so indignantly pointed out, time after time. It weaponizes our imagination against ourselves. It can and has led people to live their whole lives in constant fear, anxiety and anguish that could only end one way: together with life itself.

Coupled with the idea of original sin, this belief in final judgement is the source of our hating this reality. This world is cursed, since we all were put in the position of suffering eternally, depending on what we do. While not hell itself, this life is a responsibility so great it is nausea inducing, if we actually think about it. Examine your conscience. You most likely would be going to hell if you died right now.

Forget about this we must — if we can. If not, we do anything in our power to convince God, the all-watching, that we were always well meaning — or at least most of the time. That we tried our best, or close to that, really, pretty please, I beg You not to send me to hell!!!!!

Having people this dedicated is great for your cause, let me tell you. Having people this dedicated is great when you manage to tie their salvation to financial donations to the church where you work, when their salvation is tied to your power — here, in this life, thank you very much.

How not to cast suspicion? How to take faith seriously when it becomes clear that, while some try to buy their salvation, the ones who take this metaphysical bribe money use it to cover up ongodly scandals and commit new ones? Only the ones buying believe there is something to be bought, apparently. Only the powerless in the equation are actually invested.

If it sounds like a scam, looks like a scam, smells like a scam…

Even if the victims of the scam become kinder and more generous for it, it just does not seem right. Of course, if we believe they are victims of a scam, though, they are innocent. There is nothing disingenuous there. Unless there is also some sort of stubborness, an irrational commitment not to question the truth about the matter, or maybe even a very rational one (remember Pascal). In that case, which is not all that uncommon, believers come across as foolish and ignorant — willfully ignorant.

This was not my way into belief. I never really concerned myself too much about heaven and hell. I know I sin and I know my guilt for it. I am very aware of the inevitability of my failure in trying to be perfect. If I manage to be good, it is up to God. That’s how I tend to approach the matter. What convinced me back into christianity was not that at all — as far as I can tell. Metaphysical, epitemological, ethical and aesthetic questions made me come to the conclusion that the christian world-view was the best to understand reality. And not any christianity — in fact, I openly denounce a lot of what comes under the banner of “christianity” as really profoundly misguided. Maybe even this obsession with hell and all.

And the fact of the matter persists: regardless of my path into belief, which has been much more erudite and subtle; a great part of believers, now and historically, were of this fear and trembling sort. Most christians even today are, or appear to be, very much brainswashed.

You could argue that everyone is brainswashed in their own way, that if not brainwashed by Jesus and the Church, they would be by something else — almost certainly something worse. As much as I would agree, that still fails to answer the point: wasn’t christianity and faith supposed to make you free? Sure, free from evil. But forced to be good? Really? Is it not overly paternalistic to suppose that most people “need to be guided” in this way? That, if left to come to their own conclusions without being manipulated, they wouldn’t stay?

There is a line between manipulation and encouragement, that is for sure. But it is also for sure that, many a time, christianity has gone over the line into hardcore manipulation — not the least with the threat of hell.

I honestly don’t know what to think of this.