"Psuedo-Missionary Work" and Philosophy As a Sect
Updated: Apr 27
Have you ever wondered, what makes one believe that there is, either, a God, none, or no other option? Why must the Abrahamic God be the only option for divinity in the universe, in the eyes of much of humankind?
The answer to that is the missionary work done by Christians, Muslims, and any other Abrahamic religion or sect. If other, polytheistic cultures thrived more than the Abrahamic ones, then perhaps nowadays, gods such as Shiva or Krishna would also be probable options in the eyes of far more people.
This is just an example of the premise of this article, and this is not a post of a religious nature. What I'm trying to convey is, that by being a missionary of whatever idea or product you have, you have the potential power to shape the minds of people to think about what's probable and what's absurd. It can be, regardless of reality itself.
Let's take people who believe that the Earth is flat. That is a movement that wasn't as popular until recent years. At least in some places in the world and on the internet, it is indeed accepted to believe that the Earth is flat.
The same goes for the anti-vaccination movement. By making a considerable number of people believe in something, that belief becomes normal, and for that endeavor, I'd like to coin the term Pseudo-Missionary Work or Neo Missionary Work if you'd like.
Figures such as Jesus or Mohammad the Prophet were very unique in their lifetimes. It was because of the immense power their words had. A power that is expressed by making people follow you.
Today, however, everyone can become "Jesus" or "Mohammad". It's in the charismatic sense. The sense that you too can have the potential to carry a considerable number of people and convince them that whatever it is that you believe is too normal and acceptable. That is just like the close-minded belief that "either there is Jehovah/Allah or there is no one".
By making a belief normal, you put it in some sort of "pantheon" of ideas that become commonplace to discuss and argue for or against their existence without exclusively resorting to them being absurd.
Do you think this world is yours? It could be. But the massive chain of events that led to the world becoming what it is today, doesn't deserve obliviousness. Let's say some people, in an alternative universe, miscarried. By being miscarried, their potential ideas for the world were lost forever (unless someone came up with them instead). Can you imagine a world without democracy? Without Christianity? Without green energy? These things, after all, did not just come up by themselves. They were created by certain people, and if these people had not come into existence, then at least some of the many things that we have today might as well have been non-existent from the very start.
Missionary work is simply to make something a normal thing to either use or believe, and if this definition is correct, then this effort does not have to be exclusive to religion. Philosophy didn't have to exist, either, especially given the fact that it is not as influential or popular as other fields of life are.
Even if we are to regard philosophy as the love of wisdom, we cannot ignore the fact that someone had to come up with the idea; the concept; the name. Was philosophy created out of necessity? I don't think so, because the small-minded did not think of the great questions of life, I assume, and those who wanted existential meaning found it in religion.
What we need to understand about philosophy is that it is more or less a sect. An esoteric occupation, created and promoted by people who did not have Google, Bing, Yahoo, or whatever source of knowledge you can use today for your questions.
Here at Philosocom, I am also a "missionary". A believer in the mind as a useful and beneficial tool for knowledge and insight-seeking. Thus, as long as our minds are sharp and used, it is questionable if philosophy will ever "die".
Philosophy isn't a religion like Christianity or Islam, but it nonetheless can be counted as a sect because only a select few, even if worldwide, engage in it. Therefore, anyone who is a philosopher, and believes that philosophy shouldn't die, is likely to be a missionary of that idea. In a world that is overshadowed by other forms of knowledge acquisition, such as science, journalism, and interviews, I believe philosophy still serves functionality.
I sure hope that, as long as more and more people become interested in philosophizing, it will break the barrier of esotericism, and become an acceptable and respectable form of truth-seeking. In the end, the brain is also one to be interviewed, reported on, and, of course, used. Complete dependence on external sources (even of those are respectable as well) is insufficent. Rationality is required, and by philosophizing, we can improve it.
