Babylon

I had a dream some years ago in which I saw Babylon the Great, a city that was beautiful but so very alien to the natural earth. The dream had a practical purpose, to warn my girlfriend of something so she wouldn't get hurt, but it was also a general revelation to me of how the world works. Babylon is built through exploitation, not cooperation or faith or fairness; people exploit people for purpose or gain, and that was building a city. I hated it, although I realized it was effective.

That is, generally, how the world works. And I've learned that it is generally how the institutional Church works too - especially the clergy. Fear, greed, envy, loathing, control, hate, lust, etc are how this world turns; religion is just another sector of Babylon. And if any genuine churchlife emerges which is not Babylonian in operation and spirit, religion will defame it and try to destroy it. In the name of God, of course.

Religion is so effective at this that anyone who does not play its game is considered a hippie, weirdo, heretic, or outcast.