In The Brand Age, Paul Graham writes about how once a product has maxed out performance, competition maxes out brand instead, even at the expense of the original product. Paul Graham uses the examples of watches, but principle applies to world religions too, including Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam.
Getting in touch with [poetic] God is simple. You go somewhere quiet and peaceful like the Cave of Hira or a meditation center and let your mind quiet down. This practice is ancient. We don’t know exactly how old it is because it is older than writing. This technology was maxxed-out thousands of years ago.
You can look at branding from the producer or consumer perspective.
- Producer perspective: When products cannot compete on performance, products evolve to compete on brand instead.
- Consumer perspective: Brand is all about shouting to other people how much social status you have.
For thousands of years, religions have been competition on brand instead of competiting on God.
Branding is particularly poisonous to getting in touch with God because getting in touch with God requires you let go of stuff like social status. How can you tell whether a religion is a brand that prioritizes factional infighting over the universal God? One way would be to find a divine commandment requiring you to prioritize factionalism.
Thou shalt have no other gods before me…for I the Lord your God am a jealous God…
Do not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.
―Exodus 20-34