Post #168 "Who is in Control?"

Structured belief and law-enforcing systems were used and are being used to give power and thereby control to coalitions and institutions such as religion and the sciences. Are these systems, as in these religious institutions that claim divine appointment to direct and control our beliefs, values, and life choices, what they represent themselves to be? Does the right to claim divine power include the right to control civil governance? It seems that spiritual power could be seen as ultimate power which would give these institutions total power as history has supported. This is what the concern seems to be on the issue of separating church and state. However, government and politics are what these systems are really about. Often these power structures, especially in certain religions, operate very covertly, making it impossible to fully grasp the full impact of all under its control.

In all of this, religion claimed and continues to claim the Ultimate Power, that power being the Ultimate power of the God of creation. Religion claimed and claims its authority and its righteousness as God-given.Religion claims the right and the power to contain its God for its purposes. God-containment or God-possession is evident in the building of structures dedicated to worship.God-containment is focused in ritual, in the written word, in tabernacles, in sacraments and objects of worship such as in monstrances, in sacramentals, chalices, and in bread and wine. In other words, religion seeks to control its God as well as controlling all those others that are referred to as the masses, the unprivileged, the commonality, the un-chosen, all those outside the ordained Brotherhood.

What about science? What control does science have over life and death? Science has, as has religion, dared to provide answers to basic questions of existence, thereby trespassing on religion's sacred territory. In another sense, it could be viewed that religion is the precursor of science. It seems feasible then, that religion and science have the same purpose and focus but different approaches. It seems feasible then, that science and technology are also politically power-based and also aim at regulation and control. Is it possible that science also views this outside of itself as a means to personal wealth and status? If so, its no wonder that controversy arose at the noted inception of science and continues to exist