Phemanderac wrote on Sep 12
th, 2014 at 10:02am:
The very moment that religion became "organised" it's link to spirituality became at best tenuous, at worst, non existent.
Organised religion, particularly in relatively recent history, is nothing more than a tool to exert power and control. Ironically, it is not the religious basis that is necessarily wrong either, however, it is the interpretations of said religion and the actions taken by people and then justified as being in the name of their brand that has done this.
Further, the reformation periods have been both driven by people representing religions and (here is the kicker...) resisted by members of the very same religious groups.
Slavery is an excellent example of this. Whilst reformation was certainly participated in by members of Christian groups and a range of "god fearing" people, slavery was simultaneously conducted by, supported by and profited by from members of Christian groups and a range of "god fearing" people. As such, it cannot be said that organised religion was in anyway fully responsible for reformation at least not without highlighting that it was simultaneously responsible for the very issues that required reforming...
In my opinion, organised religion is not actually in our species long term best interests. Just look at the bloody history also attached to organised religion, particularly when opposing religious views run into each other.
It may well be a case of "and then man made God in the image that most suited man's ego and ensured maximum leverage for a minority to exercise power over the masses...."
Excellent post all up, but that part really hit the spot.
Basically, religion was hijacked to serve the very thing it stands against. If you dress up something as the complete opposite of what it truly represents, and convince millions of people to believe in it, it is the perfect strategy for deceit and control.
We see our politicians and other people of power do the exact same thing in all different aspects of life.
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