-By Caleb Jones

Ohhhhh shit. Is he really going there? Yes, he’s really going there. Man. Touchy subject today. Everyone is going to get pissed. Let’s see how the commenters handle it. Let’s rock, gentlemen.

Religious Societal Programming is the second most powerful programming you’ll have to wrestle with, second only to Cultural Programming. If you were raised by largely nonreligious parents, you probably have nothing to worry about. If you haven’t recently converted to a new religion, again, you probably have nothing to worry about today.

However, if you were raised by religious parents or you have recently “found the Lord,” you have some serious false SP in your mind that is restricting your freedom, and thus your long-term happiness.

Is this always the case? No. I’ve often been asked if it’s possible for an Alpha Male 2.0 to be religious. The answer is yes, as long as you don’t take it too far. Alpha 2.0 is has nothing to do with religious or spiritual beliefs. Alpha 2.0 is about freedom and long-term happiness.

Thus, if your religion makes you happier and more free, giving you spiritual peace and direction in your life, then it’s Alpha 2.0 compatible. If on the other hand, your religion has brainwashed you into thinking that that God Almighty™ is pointing an angry finger at you and expects you to get legally married and sexually monogamous to just one woman for the rest of your life, and if you don’t you’re an Immature Selfish Bastard™ who needs to Grow Up™, then no, that’s not Alpha 2.0 compatible at all. That’s a path to Alpha 1.0 at best, not 2.0.

I’m about to lay out various religions and how you can overcome their brainwashing if you have them, but before I do that, it’s only fair to show you my own biases so you know where I’m coming from.

My Opinion on Religion

Religion is something I know quite a bit about.

I was raised Catholic, mostly by my mom who was a former Catholic nun (my dad was nonreligious but supported my mom’s Catholic household). I went to eight years of Catholic school as a child, attended church services literally thousands of times, have read most of the Bible, married a Catholic woman, and raised two kids Catholic, at least while they were younger. I’m no longer Catholic, but that’s my background.

I have spoken with a great deal of Protestant Christians and have attended their church services. The same goes for Jews and Buddhists. I have spent a lot of time among Buddhist monks and even stayed at Buddhist monasteries in Asia.

I have also read extensive history regarding religion, particularly European and Asian religious history.

Perhaps needless to say, I have had many long relationships with women from all kinds of religions, including Christians, Catholics, Jews, Buddhists, Shintos, hardcore atheists (which is not a religion but very religion-like) and even Wiccans.

So while I don’t consider myself an expert in religion, I do consider myself highly informed.

I have two opinions regarding religion, one societal and one individual.

While religion causes many problems, is pure fantasy, and is quintessential false Societal Programming, I think religion is more or less a wash in terms of society. Based on my research, it is very clear to me that most of the time, not all the time but most of the time, religion on the societal scale tends just as much good as harm. Hardcore atheists and anti-religionists often love to point at just the harm religion does. And they’re right; religion is extremely harmful as I’ll get to in a moment. Yet they ignore all the good things, such as the trillions of dollars religion has donated to the poor over the past years. Regardless of your feelings on the matter, religion does do great good in the world.

In terms of you, the individual, I do a complete 180 and my opinion is pretty much the opposite. I think devoting yourself to a fantasy called a religion will restrict your freedom, give you angst and unhappiness, cause guilt, make you look down on others who don’t adhere to your beliefs, and even generate self hatred. As I describe in my book, historical Christianity alone is responsible for most of the anti-sex SP that causes all kinds of pain for modern day people, from women not wanting to have sex because of ASD, to all the cheating, divorces, and screwed up kids that occur because people have been brainwashed into thinking they need to be forever monogamous or else they’re doing something wrong. And that’s just Christianity…don’t get me started on crap like Islam.

The exception to this is if you have very causal religious beliefs. If you call yourself a Christian because you think you should be a good person, but you never go to church and have tons of premarital sex and think it’s just fine, then I don’t think you belonging to a religion is any big deal.

However, just about every time I see a man truly devote himself to religious dogma, I usually see that guy become stressed out and more easily pissed off, not happier. If you’ve ever seen a Jesus freak make posts on a forum or blog (including this one), you already know what I’m talking about. Hardcore religious people aren’t happy people; they’re uptight, stressed out people. (Yes, there are always unusual exceptions to every rule.)

By the way, this is true regardless of the particular religion this person is a part of. It doesn’t matter if you’re a hardcore Christian, hardcore Muslim, hardcore Jew or hardcore Hindu. Regardless of what you are, if you’re the hardcore version, it’s extremely unlikely that you’re as consistently happy as I am. Hardcore religion of any kind isn’t conducive to long-term, consistent happiness. (Yes, there are always unusual exceptions to every rule.) At its core, religion of the right is a restrictive, collectivist ideological structure, every bit as bad as the socialism of the left.

My Religion

Regarding my personal beliefs, I don’t have a religion. Religion is fantasy. If you walk around talking about how you believe God crated Adam and Eve and Jesus Christ magically cured the blind, it would identical to me announcing that I believe that Middle Earth was once a real place and Frodo Baggins and Gandalf were once real people. I don’t differentiate between religion and fantasy, because they’re the same thing. Entertaining and interesting to be sure (Passion of the Christ is one of my favorite movies), but still bullshit.

I do have some strong spiritual beliefs, but spiritual beliefs are not a religion. I believe in some spiritual aspects of life that our current level of science and our five senses can’t prove, including intelligent design of a creator or creators. This puts me somewhere between an atheist and agnostic deist. Whenever an atheist and religionist debate, I’m always on the side of all the atheist arguments, but I have way too many spiritual beliefs to be a true blue atheist. I’ll write more about my specific beliefs at the CJ Blog soon.

How to Overcome Religious Programming

1. Identify which the specific religious beliefs harm you.

Just because something is bullshit doesn’t mean it’s harmful. Being raised Catholic, I was taught that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was almost as important as Jesus himself. Did this belief damage me in any way? Not really. It was just an interesting bit of Catholic mythology.

I was also taught that premarital sex was a horrible sin, something done only by very bad people, and punishable by an eternity in hell. Did this damage me in any way? Oh yes. This false belief was one of the biggest reasons why I lost my virginity as late as I did (age 22-23).

Identify the precise religious beliefs that are causing you pain or holding you back. Don’t be like many jaded ex-religionists and scream about how much your entire religion sucks. That’s not helpful. What are the 1-3 beliefs your religion has instilled in you that are causing you trouble? Isolate those.

2. One at a time, expel those beliefs through repetition and action.

Removing limiting religious beliefs is the same as removing any other self-limiting belief. You need to attack it on two fronts, the psychological (via affirmations) and the physiological (via action).

Pick one of your limiting beliefs, just one for now, and work on it. Once you get it nailed, then you can work on the second one. This is important; only work on one limiting belief at a time.

First, use affirmations that are the positive opposite of that belief. Either say them over and over again, or print them out on a piece of paper and stick them on your monitor so that your subconscious is looking at it all day. (Or do both).

Next, take real action against the belief. At first, this will be difficult. With practice and focus, you’ll nail it.

For example, I was raised to believe that premarital sex was evil. I identified that this belief was a serious problem in my life causing me much unhappiness. So I made an affirmation that I repeated several times a day whenever I remembered it. I don’t remember it exactly because it was so long ago, but it was very close to: “Consensual condomed sex between two adults is wonderful, natural and a gift to both.”

It’s very important that your affirmation is stated in the positive, not the negative. Instead of saying “Sex isn’t bad!” which is negative, say “Sex is wonderful!” which is positive.

Next, I took action. Instead of avoiding sex, which is what I did during my teens, I actively started seeking it. Within a year of making this decision, I finally lost my virginity and got laid, and god damn, it was wonderful. My affirmation was proven correct. Since then, sex with beautiful women has become one of my top three sources of happiness, and will be forevermore. My bullshit Catholic programming is long gone. Thank Jesus.

Let’s now examine some of the major religions and the specific bullshit they may be invading your mind with.

Christianity (including Catholicism)

Christianity’s negatives revolve primarily around two things: guilt and hatred of sex. You are born a sinner and it’s all your fucking fault, and you’d better bow down before God Almighty™ and beg his forgiveness for being born, you worthless piece of shit.

Oh yeah, and sex is fucking evil. Don’t do it. It’s bad for you, bad for society, and most importantly, bad for God. Nothing pisses God off more than his followers having sex. Oh man, does that piss him off! Unless they’re legally married as approved by big government of course. God loves the government-enforced legal contract called marriage. If your wife stops having sex with you, that’s your problem. Now shut up, get married, and stop being happy. GOD COMMANDS IT.

I’ve been hard on single mothers for a long time, and they’re bad; bad for themselves, bad for their kids, and bad for society. However, just as bad as all of these low or zero income young Christian women marrying these young low income Christian men, who then start cranking out four, five, six babies. It’s okay, because we’re married! But then, oops, since monogamy doesn’t work any more, they get divorced, and Ms. Christian is now Ms. Single mother with five or six kids she can’t afford. Way to go, Christianity! I personally know at least four women like this, probably more if I thought about it harder.

Judaism

Strangely, Judaism is pretty sex-positive. I’ve dated two Jewish women, and in both cases they were amazingly sex positive and fantastic people. I also have two Jewish relatives who married into my family, and again, they seem very happy and sexual.

The downside of Judaism is that when you get into the traditional versions, you’re always looking at a very intelligent but extremely submissive beta male married to a Dominant. Jewish women, as sex positive as they are, often tend to be Dominants, and Jewish men tend to be pussies. Yes, I’m making generalizations here, but generalizations exist for a reason. I’ve seen this too many times.

While Christianity aspires to create monogamous Alpha Males (which of course is an oxymoron), Judaism seems to aspire to create beta males married to strong women. Be aware.

Islam

I have no personal experience with Muslims, so I can’t really speak to this. I have no Muslim friends or co-workers, and have never dated any Muslim women. I will be going to Dubai next year and I will provide you with a full report at that time, but for now I really can’t comment on Islam, other than all the stuff you and I have read or watched in the news. Clearly Muslims are as anti-sex as the Christians, just in different ways.

Hinduism

And speaking of anti-sex…ohhhhhh boy!

Instead of repeating myself, just go to this article I wrote about Indian men. Hinduism in and of itself isn’t any more anti-sex or oppressive as Christianity. It’s just that when Hinduism is combined with Indian culture, it’s a deathtrap that makes it worse than any other religion in terms of negative beliefs about masculinity and sex.

Atheism

“Uh…BD? Atheism isn’t a religion.”

Au contraire. For many atheists, it is indeed a religion. I have known, dated, worked with, and communicated with online many atheists who are just as fanatical about their fucking atheism as the Christians or Muslims are about God Almighty™.

There are two kinds of atheists. First are the casual atheists, who don’t even bring it up unless they’re asked. It’s not a big deal to them and they don’t ever need to talk about it (again, unless they’re directly asked). A good celebrity example is Adam Corolla. If you’re one of these guys, then don’t worry about it, you’re probably good to go.

Then there are the zealot atheists. These guys constantly throw their atheism in your face and can’t shut up about it. Celebrity examples would be Bill Maher or Ricky Gervais.

If they ever read the word “atheist” on a blog post, they scream their heads off about exactly what you said and why it is or is not atheism according to…well…whatever their personal opinion is, since there is no consensus among atheists on exactly what “atheist” means. It can mean agnostic (“I don’t know if there’s a god”) or it means there IS NO GOD. They’re all over the place; they argue with each other just as much as they argue with the Dumb Christians™. (You’ll likely see some of these guys in the comments. Just watch.)

If you’re a zealot atheist, you need to realize that your hardcore atheism is making you unhappy on a regular basis almost as much as a hardcore Christian. You cannot be long-term consistently happy, Alpha 2.0 style, if you are a zealot atheist. Believe whatever you want, but calm the fuck down.

Buddhism

Buddhism is neither sex positive nor negative, unless you’re a Buddhist monk, but if you’re one of those I doubt you’re reading this blog. Buddhism is the most relaxed and chill of the religions I have listed here, to the point where I barely consider it a religion.

The only clear bullshit I see with Buddhism that negatively affects your happiness are some of the weird rituals they have, like those days where you’re not allowed to eat any food while the sun is in the sky. (Really, Buddhists? Really?) In the summer time these guys get totally screwed. I’ve seen these dorkballs wake up at 4:30am in the morning just so they can eat breakfast, then go back to sleep, then wake up again, starve all day at work, then pig out at 9pm when the sun finally goes down.

Ah, religion. Nothing like false Societal Programming to cause needless problems in your life. At least now you’ll be armed against this, so you can (hopefully) live a life of happiness.

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