FEAR, THE GREAT MOTIVATOR
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Fear is an emotion induced by a perceived threat which causes entities to quickly pull far away from it and usually hide. It is a basic survival mechanism occurring in response to a specific stimulus which is perceived as a risk of significant loss of health, wealth, status, power, security or of anything held valuable. In short, fear is a motivating force arising from the ability to recognize danger leading to an urge to confront it or flee from it (also known as the fight-or-flight response).
Yes FEAR has been a very powerful emotion during the evolution of mankind and still is. It is the most powerful motivator which has been very successful in the survival of man. Not only have we used fear to save us from disasters and predators but we have also learned to use it to make others do our bidding by using threats. Powerful leaders have used threats to make their followers obey them for a long, long time. These threats are even more powerful if they can make their followers to believe they are speaking for an all powerful supernatural being. The FEAR OF GOD (Allah, Jehovah, etc.) is a very powerful motivator. Yes many religions speak of the LOVE OF GOD but they use FEAR as the motivator. “You will be rewarded, as long as you recognize my authority (or the authority of the people who tell you they represent me on earth),and will have eternal life. If you do not, you will go to HELL”.”If you’re not for me, you are against me”.
People will buy this because they FEAR the alternative. They might even doubt that Hell or Heaven exists but who wants to take the chance! (see Pascal's Wager on the Blog page).
Since Fear is such a powerful motivator it is not only used by religious leaders but also, frequently, by politicians. Fear mongering is the greatest motivator of all times. Using negative advertising they paint a disastrous outcome if you vote for the wrong party. Fear motivates people far better then positive promises. They suspect that promise are seldom kept but they believe the fear mongers far more readily.
Fear is a useful emotion in that it protect us from dangers but its misuse can be as dangerous. We have the ability to think rationally and to avoid the fear-response by recognizing when we are conned into the fearing of speculations which are pushed upon us to conform to religious or political ideologies. You might have noticed that I used the phrase: "the people who tell you they represent the Deity on earth”. These self appointed unelected “leaders” cannot prove that the truly represent a supernatural authority but they can always claim that whatever they say, or how to interpret old Books of fiction, is a direction given to them by “God”. How arrogant is that. I think that if God existed he should tell us directly, not in dreams or hallucinations, without picking out “special” people, what he wants us to do. Does the Pope speak directly to God? The “fear” emotion that has been a great factor in our survival should not be discounted, but not be misused. At the same time we have been benefiting from another characteristic which evolved in humans, that of rationality. It has given us the power to discover the real nature of the universe and although we don’ have all the answers yet, we will get there without having to explain things by creating fantasies and being suoerstitious. Think rational.
THESAURUS: Humans are rational beings: INTELLIGENT, thinking, reasoning, cerebral, logical, analytical.
Fear is an emotion induced by a perceived threat which causes entities to quickly pull far away from it and usually hide. It is a basic survival mechanism occurring in response to a specific stimulus which is perceived as a risk of significant loss of health, wealth, status, power, security or of anything held valuable. In short, fear is a motivating force arising from the ability to recognize danger leading to an urge to confront it or flee from it (also known as the fight-or-flight response).
Yes FEAR has been a very powerful emotion during the evolution of mankind and still is. It is the most powerful motivator which has been very successful in the survival of man. Not only have we used fear to save us from disasters and predators but we have also learned to use it to make others do our bidding by using threats. Powerful leaders have used threats to make their followers obey them for a long, long time. These threats are even more powerful if they can make their followers to believe they are speaking for an all powerful supernatural being. The FEAR OF GOD (Allah, Jehovah, etc.) is a very powerful motivator. Yes many religions speak of the LOVE OF GOD but they use FEAR as the motivator. “You will be rewarded, as long as you recognize my authority (or the authority of the people who tell you they represent me on earth),and will have eternal life. If you do not, you will go to HELL”.”If you’re not for me, you are against me”.
People will buy this because they FEAR the alternative. They might even doubt that Hell or Heaven exists but who wants to take the chance! (see Pascal's Wager on the Blog page).
Since Fear is such a powerful motivator it is not only used by religious leaders but also, frequently, by politicians. Fear mongering is the greatest motivator of all times. Using negative advertising they paint a disastrous outcome if you vote for the wrong party. Fear motivates people far better then positive promises. They suspect that promise are seldom kept but they believe the fear mongers far more readily.
Fear is a useful emotion in that it protect us from dangers but its misuse can be as dangerous. We have the ability to think rationally and to avoid the fear-response by recognizing when we are conned into the fearing of speculations which are pushed upon us to conform to religious or political ideologies. You might have noticed that I used the phrase: "the people who tell you they represent the Deity on earth”. These self appointed unelected “leaders” cannot prove that the truly represent a supernatural authority but they can always claim that whatever they say, or how to interpret old Books of fiction, is a direction given to them by “God”. How arrogant is that. I think that if God existed he should tell us directly, not in dreams or hallucinations, without picking out “special” people, what he wants us to do. Does the Pope speak directly to God? The “fear” emotion that has been a great factor in our survival should not be discounted, but not be misused. At the same time we have been benefiting from another characteristic which evolved in humans, that of rationality. It has given us the power to discover the real nature of the universe and although we don’ have all the answers yet, we will get there without having to explain things by creating fantasies and being suoerstitious. Think rational.
THESAURUS: Humans are rational beings: INTELLIGENT, thinking, reasoning, cerebral, logical, analytical.