Instilling Fear of God and Manipulating People With Fear is an Old Trick
Fear of god is encouraged in religions which worship anthropomorphic representations of god. The image of an angry god below is amazingly well executed and effective. Being jealous, vengeful, emotionally unstable and prone to fits of extreme anger or rage are not admirable traits in humans. Why include them in mutual representations of our gods?
This anthropomorphic representation of god is absurd.
Fear of god is used by religious leaders to manipulate the behaviour of their adherents.
"They're good, god-fearing people." is often how adherents favorably describe others.
Fear is useful to people when the fight or flight response kicks in and they escape from danger with the help of all that adrenaline.
It's useful to parents, salespeople, educators, politicians, and members of the clergy when they are manipulating people's behavior.
Napoleon Hill, in his excellent book Outwitting the Devil, declared "Fear is the tool of a man-made devil."
Salespeople have an often quoted precept stating that prospects are always more motivated by fear of loss than desire for gain.
Politicians of all kinds use it constantly in all sorts of different ways to manipulate their constituents.
Parents use it to influence the behavior of their children.
Spouses use it to influence each other.
Bosses use it to manage their subordinates.
Teachers use it to control their students.
Criminals use it to control and influence their victims and in large organizations, their underlings.
Gun manufacturers use fear to sell guns.
Members of the clergy use fear of god to manipulate and control their congregations and to recruit people into their groups.
Ego-mind uses fear of god to keep you from recognizing your God-Self.
There is plenty of fear being experienced in this world made of ego-mind's creative illusions and all of it is purely imaginary.
But it seems so real...
FEAR is Simply
Fantasized Experience
Appearing Real
Fear, especially fear of god, is generated by ego-mind as a way to control you by reinforcing ideas of separation, causing you to believe you are being attacked, and taking your attention away from the present moment.
When ego-mind interprets something in the present which it associates with a past event or anticipates a future outcome, it is taking your attention away from the present.
Many of these projections into the past or future are anxiety producing associations which lead to a cascade of similar associations.
Using your God-Self Witness to watch your ego-mind's activities nonjudgmentally is an excellent way to keep things in proper perspective and stay focused in the present moment.
Use ego-mind as a tool to operate in the world and avoid self -identifying with it and you'll be a lot happier.
Fear of God and My God Fearing Ex- Wife
My ex-wife admired my courageous nature before we were married. After we became better acquainted she found it very upsetting.
A key moment was when I asked her to please stop playing and singing a popular Christian song back in the 1990s that had a repetitive lyric in which the singer indicated she was not afraid because god was on her side, over and over and over again.
The point being that this song was increasing the anxiety levels of listeners because the right brain is nondual, cannot judge, and goes about manifesting what it hears repeatedly from the left brain. The "not" or "don't want" etc. parts always get deleted.
This is why goals need to be stated in positive terms.
This led to a long standing conflict because she thought it wrong that I am not afraid of the Christian representation of god or my own representation of God.
The One Holy Source AKA God knows us as extensions of Itself in eternity, perfectly pure and nondual. God doesn't recognize good and evil, so good and evil don't exist apart from this world of ego-mind creations.
Remember to RPM which stands for rise, pee, and meditate persistently while watching ego-mind doing it's thing nonjudgmentally. It'll be okay.
Namaste
