Category: Censorship

Rationality: An Obligation for Human Autonomy

Rationality is not just a tool — it is an obligation that drives our autonomy, to fulfill our potential. It serves as our fundamental compass in navigating reality, empowering self-determination in a complex world increasingly dominated by systems seeking to control rather than liberate. Through rational thought, we question beliefs, free ourselves from illusion, detect manipulation, and rigorously examine the foundations of our deepest convictions.

This capacity for reasoned inquiry is necessary for both individual autonomy and societal progress because it provides the only reliable defense against pervasive forms of dogma that seek to subjugate the mind through unquestioning acceptance and obedience. To embrace rationality is to embrace the fullness of what it means to be human; to abandon it is to surrender our most essential faculty.

Where dogma demands false binaries, rationality questions. Bush’s infamous “Either you’re with us or you are with the terrorists” exemplifies how authority traps thought. Questioning such framing is not weakness, but portrays strength to demand evidence.

Where media and political rhetoric erase nuance, dig for the bodies. Where belief offers comfort, test for errors.

There is a cold comfort in this: The cold, solitary process of self-examination is comforting because it abandons superficial lies we might let slip, using personal agency to hold Truth as a high value; in ourselves and in others. The process reveals the struggle of integrity: Questioning “how much do I really value Truth within and beyond?” humbles us to recursively examine, and to not accept the first thing uncovered by an epistemological process.

To abandon rationality is to betray yourself. It means willingly submitting to intellectual subjugation, rejecting the responsibility of autonomy, and surrendering your power to those who would enslave your mind. Unlike external systems that offer fixed answers, rationality provides an approach that evolves as our understanding deepens. It represents both a personal imperative for individual flourishing and a social obligation for human progress. When we fail to think rationally, we not only diminish our own potential but sabotage our capacity to contribute meaningfully to society. Our progress, fate, and circumstances are determined by choices informed by reality, and rationality is our only reliable compass for navigating this complex world.

Whom fear controls, reason empowers to interrogate. What dogma suppresses, reason invites to question. Where obedience is demanded, rational inquiry sows the first seeds of dissent — not for rebellion’s sake, but for truth’s.

Religion: The Oldest System of Unexamined Control

Religion is historically the most socially acceptable form of intellectual subjugation, and perhaps the most widespread form of psychological abuse inflicted upon children, its most vulnerable victims, captured at an age where they are less capable of abstract thought and cannot opt out. Modern schooling has somewhat supplanted the church as a more socially acceptable form of intellectual subjugation than religion, as will be discussed later.

Faith demands unquestioning belief, regardless of understanding. It punishes doubt and rewards conformity. It elevates obedience to a virtue and casts divergent, independent thought as sin.

The deeper harm is more subtle: Religion interferes with thinking, offering the comfort of certainty in place of the inquiry and doubt essential to critical thinking. It relieves us from the labor of thinking independently, and that habit rarely stops at theology. Belief without critical examination weakens the mind, leading to the acceptance of approved falsehoods without deeper examination. In contrast, belief grounded in evidence resists the comforting temptation of certainty, keeping us aligned with reality, even when the honest answer is “I don’t know”.

Religion’s emphasis on faith over inquiry is deliberately self-sustaining. It valorizes obedience, casts doubt as weakness, portrays curiosity as dangerous, rewards adherence, and damns the disobedient — all to preserve its perceived authority and suppress dissent.

• Biblical Moral: Unquestioning obedience to divine authority is paramount; doubt and questioning are dangerous and damnable.
• Rationalist Moral: Question all claims, especially those from authority, as it is necessary for truth and liberty.

Consider the doctrine of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit (Matthew 12:31–32) — unforgivable sin, “And so I tell you, every kind of sin and slander can be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven”. This doctrine weaponizes faith with eternal punishment to silence questioning and shield religion from scrutiny. This very article, in promoting rational inquiry to question religious authority, is blasphemous, by definition.

Religious control mechanisms exploit our faculties of trust and fear, while rational inquiry demands us to resist both. Throughout the Bible, God rewards faith and punishes doubt — a necessary tool of rational inquiry. “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20:29) — this shows how the bible valorizes Absence of Evidence, which exposes its mechanism of control, praising illogic. Ask yourself what kind of god would grant you a rational mind, then condemn you for using it to question its existence — all while refusing to reveal itself?

Fear-Based Control

Where the Gospel of John offers a “carrot” – bestowing blessings upon those who believe without seeing, thus valorizing the absence of evidence and praising illogic – the Epistle of James portrays god wielding the “stick” of damnation in a sort of spiritual blackmail:

But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do. (James 1:6-8)

In this and other Biblical examples, God rewards faith and punishes doubt, a necessary tool of rational inquiry, to foster obedience and conformity to social and religious order.

While the Bible demands obedience, faith, and submission, disciplined examination reveals its contradictions, moral incoherence, and mechanisms of control. Whether by error or design, the Bible presents inherent paradoxes that, upon further examination, goad us to think, challenge, and, if we have the heart, to break through its surface-level dogma.

Dogma Doesn’t Work

Trust me Bro, This Works!

For centuries, across cultures and religions, illness has been attributed to divine punishment. This bad guess, held in overconfidence, led to ineffective and harmful treatments like bloodletting or persecuting the sick for “possession”.

Witch Trial (and Error)

The Salem witch trials in the 17th century were an extreme case of dogma. They showed how an unproven, outlandish supernatural claim, coupled with complete certainty in the “touch test”, a method whereby the accused witch would touch the afflicted person to see if that would alleviate the affliction. If the affliction went away, the accused was found guilty and hanged or imprisoned.

“It’s not what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know that just ain’t so.”

What Did We Learn?

We have now learned that bloodletting and witch trials are bullshit but, more important than that, have we grown the mental skills to effectively question things that seem plausible? What seemed plausible back then is obviously wrong now, but the tendency to adopt such beliefs without careful scrutiny, or, worse, to refuse to reconsider them, is common, and persists. Dogma pervades online, especially in politics and policy, through perception management to effectively influence and manage public perception, as will be discussed later.

“Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.” ― George Carlin

Intellectual Sovereignty — A Mental Exercise

Do you value truth above all else? If so, what method do you trust most for determining it? These aren’t abstract questions, they define how you navigate reality. Are you genuinely open to revising your positions based on rational analysis? This stance demands strength, intellect, and humility.

Intellectual integrity trades false comfort for freedom, at the cost of uncertainty and the burden of shouldering your choices. To embrace rationality is to accept fallibility, to sometimes say “I don’t know” rather than cling to comforting beliefs.

So ask yourself again, honestly: do you value truth above all else?

What to Believe?

What do I believe, and why? This is the first question of disciplined mental housekeeping. We tend to become so comfortable with our beliefs that we forget the reasons we adopted them in the first place. If you teach, guide others to reason freely — not to obey. If you lead, lead them to think — not to follow.

There is no greater defense against dogma — religious or ideological — than intellectual honesty, clarity, and the courage to be uncertain. Rationality is the antidote to overconfidence.

Examine Your Beliefs:

• What do I believe? (Be specific. Write it down.)
• Why do I hold this belief? (Was it inherited, learned, reasoned, emotional?)
• How certain am I that it is true? (0 to 100%?)
• What evidence would cause me to revise that level of confidence? (And would I genuinely change my mind if I encountered it?)
• What are the ethical implications if I acted on this belief fully? (What would it justify, excuse, or demand of others?)

For example, posted on x.com:

Israel exists because GOD allows it! No one else…. God Himself. Jews came back to Israel to the land God promised them after thousands of years, a statistical improbability…. by the hand of God. Good luck with fighting God. You will lose

— The belief that the world is inherently fair and that whatever happened was deserved because god ordained it reveals errors in thinking: Wishful thinking, appeal to divine authority, emotional reasoning, confirmation bias, etc…

This is not just critical thinking — it is epistemic integrity; a form of mental hygiene against dogma, tribalism, and manufactured certainty. It is for yourself, as well as friends and family, and especially children, who are so often misled.

Reason Is Not Optional

In a world of propaganda, algorithmic echo chambers, and narrative warfare, reason is resistance.

It is the one faculty institutions cannot co-opt without your permission. It cannot be imposed. It cannot be faked. And it cannot be comfortably ignored.

Those who do not develop it will be governed by those who exploit their absence of it.

To Think Clearly Is to Live Freely

Rationality is not cold or mechanical — it is enlightening and empowering.

It is the clarity of mind to see through fear, deception, and control. It is to reject the default settings of culture, the familiar comfort of certainty, and the seduction of belief. It is the willingness to embrace the unknown in pursuit of freedom, knowing that freedom demands discomfort.

Reason demands we face the unknown at the cost of potential discomfort. Faith relies on things unproven, externally reframing discomfort as divine will, while demanding unwavering devotion.

Through analysis and inference, we transform raw observations into structured knowledge. Without this process, we are left adrift in a sea of information, observations, beliefs, assumptions, and deceptions. Reason enables us to evaluate information, reevaluate our beliefs, and more consistently arrive at the truth.

Moral Autonomy vs. Authoritarianism

Fundamentalist or authoritarian religious traditions glorify submission to divine will, treating dissent as heresy. Similarly, rigid state systems demand loyalty to the chain of command.

Systems of power — religious or state — survive on submission and obedience. They quash independent thought by punishing dissent and othering nonconformists. Whether through divine will or chain of command, both exploit the same psychological mechanisms to override moral judgment. In both, dissent becomes heresy.

Heresy — from Ancient Greek haíresis (αἵρεσις), originally meaning the process of personal examination to determine how to live.

The Nature of Authoritarian Systems

Authoritarian systems exploit our instinctive deference to trust authority figures that is reinforced by cultural conditioning that trains us to obey. This results in a psychological vulnerability that is systematically weaponized against individual conscience.

God-Fearing Bootlickers

Authoritarian systems glorify moral surrender, rewarding compliance and punishing independent judgment. Many religious interpretations of Genesis 22 exemplify that, praising Abraham’s willingness to murder his son at God’s command as a triumph of faith over reason, which we’ll discuss in much greater depth. And in modern society, “just do what the police tell you”, is a common authoritarian trope that discourages the assertion of individual rights (thereby weakening them) to appease authority.

Does Christianity promote authoritarianism? Christianity has historically been used to promote authoritarianism, including doctrines like the divine right of kings.

“Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.? — Romans 13:2

State authority benefits from the obedience inculcated by religion. Religion doesn’t merely coexist with state power; it conditions uncritical submission, making control easier to maintain.

Psychological Foundations of Obedience

Research has demonstrated the disturbing ease with which normal people surrender their moral agency. Solomon Asch revealed how group pressure can override individual judgment, leading people to accept a false consensus. Milgram showed that most will obey even the most abhorrent orders when issued by authority figures, suppressing their own moral conscience.

School Reinforcement of Obedience

These studies expose human tendencies to conform and obey — traits reinforced by compulsory schooling. Children are not given a choice; attendance is mandated by law and enforced through truancy penalties. From the outset, their time, attention, and thought are placed under institutional control. Adults dictate what is learned, when, and how. This hidden curriculum conditions children, rewarding passive compliance, suppressing independent thought, and normalizing lifelong subordination to authority. By removing volition and punishing deviation, the system trains children to internalize obedience as virtue and comply without resistance.

Modern schooling functions like a secular religion. It has supplanted the Church as the institution for shaping belief, behavior, and identity, with six classes a day, five days a week, nine months a year, for twelve years. “Childhood” is extended until age 18, treating young people as non-persons requiring constant supervision, stultifying by enforcing dependence.

Religious Dogma Kills — Genesis 22 and the Glorification of Obedience

In Genesis 22 , God asked Abraham to kill his son. Some people read the story literally; others read it allegorically, symbolically, or morally, suggesting it’s about trust in God under extreme circumstances, a rejection of child sacrifice (since God ultimately stops it), and virtuous faith that transcends human reason. This final point is contentious, as Abraham’s willingness to plot to kill his son and lie to his family about it praises the faithful obedience to suspend moral judgment.

Command over principle and obeying unjust orders prevents exercising moral decisions. In Genesis 22, God commands Abraham to murder his only son, and Abraham commits himself to doing it. As Isaac innocently asks, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” (Genesis 22:7). Abraham’s deceptive reply, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son” (Genesis 22:8), starkly illustrates his commitment.

This reveals not a loving and compassionate God, but one with a psychopathic willingness to inflict profound suffering for the sake of a test. The test itself was an act of mental torture, which should be expected to cause immense lifelong psychological trauma on father, son, and wife (also half-sister) damaging familial bonds.

“When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son” (Genesis 22:9-10)

Regardless of the sacrifice being called off, Abraham still has to live with himself, and with a mutual understanding with his son, whom he lied to and plotted and determined to kill — stabbing him in the back, figuratively and almost literally. It’s no different than if Abraham had pointed a gun at his son and the gun jammed. He tried to kill his son and now has to live with it, because God put him in that place, knowingly, maliciously to torture Abraham to damage his family through his willing lies and murderous betrayal, as Abraham obeyed God’s command rather than his own moral conscience.

This story has been used to justify extreme acts in the name of faith. It’s an archetypal tale that illustrates the harm of accepting religious texts without considering the harmful implications of their teachings. The veneration of Abraham’s willingness to murder his son stands as perhaps the most prominent example of how religious authority demands the suspension of moral judgment — a pattern that extends into secular authoritarian systems.

The bible tells us to obey, but is obedience virtuous? When orders demand submission, moral agency raises questions. Conscience compels us to act not in allegiance, but in accordance with principles that reduce harm and preserve dignity. Obedience offers simplicity and security at the cost of agency, including moral agency.

Moral action demands clarity, which comes from understanding, regardless of, and sometimes against faith. Unlike the tale of Isaac’s binding, most moral corruption does not begin with grand betrayals, but with small compromises, made quietly, one after another. It progresses insidiously, until the compass is no longer surrendered, but simply gone.

Brownshirts Example: Ernst Röhm

As a revolutionary socialist and WWI veteran, Ernst Röhm conformed to Hitler’s vision to became a lead figure in the Nazi party to lead the SA (Brownshirts).

The Brownshirts were not just blind followers but also victims of the internal power struggles within the Nazi regime. Many were ordinary men who, through their loyalty to strict Nazi ideology, gradually suppressed their own moral judgment. Hitler’s eventual purge of the loyal SA leadership shows that even total loyalty offers no protection when an authoritarian leader’s power is paramount.

Modern Example: Authoritarian Tendencies in Crisis Response

The COVID-19 response revealed authoritarian dynamics in action: indefinite lockdowns, prolonged school closures, censorship of dissenting scientific views, vaccine mandates, and the rapid expansion of digital surveillance. Under the guise of emergency, basic freedoms were suspended with minimal debate or accountability. Most people complied without question, falling in lockstep with approaches that prioritized obedience over open inquiry and control over consent.

Star Wars: The Force is Within You!

In the Star Wars saga, Luke Skywalker embodies the power of moral agency over authoritarianism. Despite facing the overwhelming might of the authoritarian Galactic Empire and the powerful influence of his father, Anakin (Darth Vader), Luke consistently chooses his own moral path, to defy seemingly impossible odds, risking the ultimate price, willing to say, “I will not serve”.

In stark contrast, Anakin Skywalker’s tragic fall to the dark side shows the slippery slope of compromising moral choices and misplaced obedience. Initially a promising Jedi, Anakin’s descent is marked by a series of decisions driven by fear and a misguided belief that the Jedi Council’s authority was preventing him from saving his loved ones. His father Anakin, tempted by power, had been skillfully manipulated into a position of absolute obedience to the dark side. Anakin’s obedience ultimately led him to betray his principles and commit horrific acts as Darth Vader, demonstrating the devastating consequences of surrendering one’s moral autonomy to an external, corrupting influence. His journey shows how noble, well-intentioned men can be led down a path of moral compromise through the insidious allure of authority and the erosion of independent thought.

The Imperative of Moral Autonomy

Authoritarian systems glorify moral surrender, rewarding obedience and punishing independent thought — conscience be damned. The U.S. Constitution, forged in the fire of revolution by men who had directly experienced tyranny’s weight, stands as testament to what happens when individuals refuse to surrender their moral compass. Its young framers, of Enlightenment thinking, determined that power must bow to principle. Unlike Abraham, who raised his knife against his son at divine command, these revolutionaries resolved to craft a preeminent system of checks and balances, where power cannot outrank, supersede, or infringe upon individual rights.

Law enforcement officers swear an oath to uphold these constitutional principles, including disobeying unlawful orders from superiors. This commitment to principle over power stands in direct defiance of systems that demand unquestioning submission. It embodies the fundamental choice we each face: will we surrender our moral agency, or defend it?

Define your values, or someone else will define them for you. When you wake up serving a cause you never chose, you’ll wonder how you got there—and the answer was always your silence. Every small compromise of conscience paves the way for larger ones. The Milgram subject who administers a small shock today becomes capable of delivering lethal voltage tomorrow. The schoolchild conditioned to seek permission for biological functions becomes the adult who surrenders medical autonomy without question.

To resist authoritarianism, you must retain your right to think independently and to question orders that violate your moral conscience. This isn’t rebellion for its own sake—it’s the sacred duty of every human being. The cost of compliance is your integrity; the price of resistance may be steep, but the alternative is the loss of your humanity itself.

Our capacity for moral choice is what makes us human, and is reflected in our actions, which defines who we are.

Authoritarian systems exploit our human vulnerability to surrender moral judgment to higher power. The Binding of Isaac (Genesis 22) is a model example that shows this vulnerability in Abraham’s willingness to submit to God’s authority, and how God exploits his human weakness for a cruel test. Biblical narratives rely heavily on such patterns of control. We will use critical thinking to reveal how these stories promote faith over critical thinking — the very faculty they discourage — to reveal their hidden mechanisms and the deeper revelations of authoritarianism that eventually gave rise to Enlightenment philosophy.

Doctrine Versus the Heresy of Reason

Truth is discovered through reason, not dictated by authority. Religion replaces reason with doctrine and condemns inquiry that deviates from it. Its narratives are not mere myths but tools of subjugation, using fear and false hope, influencing communities that use social pressure to enforce obedience and conformity over reason. That’s why it condemns rational inquiry as heresy. This conflict between authority and reason is encoded directly in scripture’s foundational stories, which frame-knowledge seeking as disobedience.