Real Motives behind creating religions?

Originally posted by madnessinmysoul

religion is a product of man

That is not explicitly true... You may think it is, but it's not. Given the fact that you don't believe in a deity,I can see how you would think that.

[edit on 6-2-2007 by SpeakerofTruth]

I can see how a lot of people have become angry toward the organized church. I would even support the contention as a whole that humans have taken religion and turned it into a tool of oppression. But I think there may be a gap in logic when we jump to this point:

Originally posted by PuRe EnErGy
...because by itself it's nothing, just words, fairy tales at best...

The facts don’t really support that. Hell, YOUR facts don’t support that. If you are saying that religions are the chains by which humanity is bound then there MUST be some substance to them. People do get SOMETHING out of religions or they would simply not exist…they would have been sloughed off the skin of humanity years ago.

Now please don’t jump ahead and think that I’m trying to prove GOD…I’m simply saying that you have to give credit where credit is due. You can’t say that religion has enslaved the human race, then turn around and say that there is NOTHING to it. There has to be SOMETHING to it…it must fulfill some NEED in people if they make themselves willing slaves to it, wouldn’t you agree?

That SUBSTANCE is why this type of thing doesn’t really hold water:

Originally posted by PuRe EnErGy
The bs is just a cycle of repetitive non-sense and your search will never end because there will never be an end to the interpretation and creation of words.

Words, words, words...

Words are simply symbols that we attach to feelings, they have absolutely no meaning in and of themselves. If you are moved by a particular speaker or philosopher it is because they have tapped into a FEELING inside you that has inspired you. THOUGHTS have power, FEELINGS have power, MOTIVES and AMBITIONS have power…words are simply the plate we serve those things on.

Please then, stop arguing that religion is simply a tangle of words. Words simply don’t have the power to move people unless they are framing a significant concept. Here’s the question that should be argued:

What human NEED is it that cannot be filled by money, power, or fame, but can be filled by the belief that there is a GOD?

It seems to me (and I feel certain that I will be corrected if I’m wrong) that most of the postings on this thread are claiming that there is no God and that religion is simply a tool that humans use to attain money, power, or fame.

Originally posted by whatukno
religions first came about to try and explain how things worked in the world through god images. they eventualy found that they could controll the masses with dogma and thus make life more civil. after a wile of that they realised that they could be fed clothed and make a living off of other people and that is how the religions of the world today were formed.

I would respond that there are much more effective ways to attain money, power, or fame than to shop the basic tenets of most religions (i.e., that poverty, meekness, and humility are key attributes of worthwhile individuals).

I’m getting a little long-winded here, but this is where I’m headed:

If we’re going to explore religions completely, then these questions need to be asked:

What if there is a God?
What if that God does have a purpose for this universe?
What if that empty feeling we get when things don’t make sense is our innate desire to understand God’s purpose?
What if the misuse of religion to start wars, to pass judgment, to isolate individuals…what if all that is based on that POWERFUL innate desire to understand God’s plan?

Personally, yes, I believe that there is a God and that there is a plan and that I have an innate and epically frustrating desire to know that plan. When it comes to the organized church, I agree with SpeakerofTruth whole-heartedly:

Originally posted by SpeakerofTruth
Religion, in and of itself is not corrupt. I think religion has indeed been used and manipulated for corrupt purposes...

But to be sure that I’ve covered all my bases, I’ve asked these questions:

What if there is no God?
What if there is no ultimate purpose for this universe?
What if that empty feeling we get when things don’t make sense is nothing more than the chemical that gets released by our brain when it is stuck?

I’ve answered them for myself, and I feel better for having explored.

Like mrwupy said:

Originally posted by mrwupy
Your path is your own, Just as another persons path is theirs.

The only crime is a narrow mind…whether you’re a believer or not.

Dismissing religion as a misty fabrication of evil men is as narrow as clinging to the organized church as an infallible entity.

For the past 1800 years or so catholicism was the predominant religion (so called different christian denominations evolved from it, just like gangs break up from the main organization to take a piece of the pie) , those were also called the dark ages in history. It is all about controlling the masses and profiting from it, the Egyptians did it long time ago by having the ability to predict eclipses and telling the masses the sun god is unhappy. The catholics pretty much controlled the known world through murder and persecution. Imagine if they haven't burned or threatened some of our brightest minds from that period we would have been hundreds of years ahead of where we are now. But if you make the populous pay 10% or more to sustain your organization you would want to eliminate any threats also.

Originally posted by Lecter
It is all about controlling the masses and profiting from it...

History shows, I think, that promising people protection and wealth is a much more effective way to control them. (Elamite Empire, Roman Empire, Ming Dynasty...I'm no historian, but I'm not sure there was a unified religion that kept these POWERFUL dynasties afloat...I feel certain that someone will correct me if I'm wrong...)

The catholics pretty much controlled the known world through murder and persecution.

So you're not really talking about religion controlling people, are you?
You're talking about threats of physical harm (military control).

My theory is that religions stem for beings from other planets. The reason for this theory is that if ancient aliens help our species evolve in some way would'nt they also want to create some sort of guidelines (i.e. Ten Commandments ) for us to have a civilized community? Also they could then have us believe they are gods and that all their powers are magical.

You have to think that the technology that they had to get here would be godlike to us. Chariots of Fire, burning bush, walking on water.......many things in the bible and other religious texts sound more like alien technology than an omnipitent god.

Face and pyramids on mars that resemble sphinx and pyramids in egypt, pictures in pyramids of helicopters and ufos/usos, Sumerian carvings that look like astronauts........you have to ask yourself where did all these things come from if we were never visited by beings from other planets?

[edit on 20-2-2007 by Frank Black]

Originally posted by Frank Black
My theory is that religions stem for beings from other planets. The reason for this theory is that if ancient aliens help our species evolve in some way would'nt they also want to create some sort of guidelines (i.e. Ten Commandments ) for us to have a civilized community? Also they could then have us believe they are gods and that all their powers are magical.

Frank Black, this sounds like an interesting hypothesis, not a theory

You have to think that the technology that they had to get here would be godlike to us. Chariots of Fire, burning bush, walking on water.......many things in the bible and other religious texts sound more like alien technology than an omnipitent god.

that doesn't seem to be a logical deduction
i mean, a burning bush?
that sounds closer to a drug trip than aliens
a chariot of fire?
celestial chariots occur frequently in mythos
from what i'm seeing so far, you are siding with von danaakin (i probably spelled that wrong)

Face and pyramids on mars that resemble sphinx and pyramids in egypt,

an optical illusion of shadow and some peaks don't prove anything..

pictures in pyramids of helicopters and ufos/usos,

you're projecting helicopters and ufos onto those carvings

Sumerian carvings that look like astronauts........you have to ask yourself where did all these things come from if we were never visited by beings from other planets?

well, it's obvious that it is merely a psychological projection

by your logic horses have heavily influenced clouds because i once saw a cloud that looked exactly like a horse

I still stand bye my theory but here is some evidence to back up your claims about egyptian helicopter and ufos

www.catchpenny.org...

Also why wouldnt aliens be able to make a bush burn while making Moses think it was talking to him. What you are saying is Moses was on drugs? Im also implying that accounts in the Bible of God coming down in Chariots of Fire was actually aliens.

[edit on 2/21/2007 by Frank Black]

So by your logic these events in the bible didnt have any truth to them?

Here is some evidence that supports my THEORY

www.crystalinks.com...