Who thinks religion is man made and meant to brain wash people into behaving?

Answer 1

Religion is the perfect con. It is government protected, tax free, and the product they sell never has to be delivered until you reach a place that doesn't exist. Little wonder so many con-men (and women) jump on that manured money wagon.

Answer 2

Religion is not man made in that sense. So if religion is a form of making us behave, the islam terrorism is perfectly behaved. Why? Because their qur'an tells them to "Fight against such of those who do not embrace the true Faith, until they pay tribute out of hand and are utterly subdued."

All religions can be traced to an original creation though, whether it be a lunatic, some angry man, or the government (india). Joseph Smith founded the mormon religion. Simon Magus founded Gnosticism. God founded Christianity. The church has definately been tampered with by man. Shortly after Christ's death, a group of men began a Bible study. This study grew with more and more members, and as it did, they appointed leaders. More and more branches were created over many years. That was the birth of catholicism. India created reincarnation to scare their people into staying in their castes, yet today over 60% of the population on earth believe in reincarnation.

The pharisees (the old Jewish leadears) were madly power hungry, and created laws mainly for control (and other reasons). When Jesus came along, he used nothing but his Father's law and power. Jew's didn't like it, so they hated him and slaughtered him. Christianity is basically the only religion I can not disprove. No one can actually disprove it. A man has offered 1 million dollars to anyone who can disprove it, and no can do it. If it can't be disproved it and there is a ton of evidence, then it must be true right? So does that mean that God is real? Am I even allowed to write that?! Modern culture would like to tell me no.
Christianity is more of a relationship than a religion.

Another point to bring up is, if religion were fake and there is no God (atheism), do morals even exist? No, so how could someone "behave" if there is no standard of behavior. Would you feel bad if you killed someone? Why? Who put that there? We are born with certain values that just don't go away. Why do we hide certain things? Porn, lying, and man slaughter ; why hide it? If you simply must have some other excuse other than a god, the only thing i could think of is the fear of prison or punishment. What is behaving then? Living under fear of government authority? No. That makes no sense really. It seems you need more faith to believe that morality is nonexistant than to believe in a God. Atheists' recent answer for morality is "You're right. There is no morality. We could go and start a massacre right now, and not be held accountable for our actions."

I believe in absolute truths (If you don't, are you absolutely sure about that?), and my answer to your question is no. I don't believe that true religion (not cult) is not man made. Basically it can't be. And as for your question, I'm sure that when you asked it, you meant behaving as in not getting drunk or having sex, but dare not think of murder! Where is the line of good behavior and evil doing start? Oops, i just stumbled apon a moral! Think about all I've written, because words can not contain a definition for your question.

Answer 3

Listen, junior. Even if religion were man made and meant to keep your *** in check, it's a good thing. Fortunately, many religions are God inspired, also meant to keep your *** in check. You will get the authoritive answer on judgement day. Why not repent and hope for the best? Furthermore, why not behave yourself and hope for the same? What do you have otherwise? Read the Book. Salvation is granted to all who ask. I know it seems too easy, but even your dumb *** can get to Heaven. Just ask. So simple. Oh, and His name is Jesus.

Answer 4

Completely. Man has been making up stories about things we didn't understand since the beginning of time. The fun thing is watching man squirm and tap dance when those theories are disproved by scientific evidence. For examples see: lightening, thunder, earthquakes, volcanoes, epilepsy, turrettes syndrome, leprosy, homosexuality, the sun, the obit of the earth, the alignment of the galaxy around the sun, the moon, tidal waves, carniverous animals, plagues, disease, etc. etc. ad nauseum.
For examples of people who do irrational things in the name of religion, see: The Branch Davidians, the Heaven's Gate Cult, the Jamestown Massacre, Islamic Fundamentalists, Christian Fundamentalists, etc. etc.

Answer 5

I think even the lord was against man made religions, because it bought so much hatred amongst people, look at the ethnic cleansing down through the years.
When I say the lord, I do believe in a higher power, because I think that we, each one of us is comprised of body mind and spirit, the body decays, the mind decays, so hopefully that leaves the spirit of who that person was, and I think that through the spirit,is where we convey our messages of love and peace, we are positive energy and negative energy, I think the higher power , whether he was a prophet, messiah, Jesus, whatever name religions give him, his whole book is based on LOVE , and that is a hard concept to follow.
I have gotten off the path of your question. but yes there are some religions that brain wash more than others

Answer 6

Carl Marks called “religion the opiate of the masses.” Early religions like that of Native Americans, the Norse or the Greek were explanations of how things worked and about creation. These myths also had a few good bedtime stories, and even an amusing tale or two. The people may have believed in those religions, but they didn’t use them to control their society.

In the orient the most common religions are some form of ancestor worship or a belief in demons and gods that control nature and the afterlife. The Hindu religion is similar; there is a large pantheon of gods that offer protection and control of nature. For the Hindi there is no afterlife. A soul gets reincarnated again and again until they work off their Karmic burden when they reach the state of Nirvana and become one with the great god Bahrama. Buddhism is a religion based entirely on self-discovery, self-understanding, and self-advancement. Buddha was once asked if he was a god and he said no, he was merely enlightened.

Christianity; the Old Testament part started off in a similar fashion, it was an early history of the people. The 10 commandments are the basis for all Western Law, and the New Testament gives a good guideline on how to live your life.

However, in the Middle Ages, Christianity became more than that; mostly through the interpretations of the church officials. For a long time agriculture was manpower intensive. In early societies it was done through slavery. The church decided that slavery was immoral, but society still needed a way to tie the serfs to the land—making them everything but slaves. This created the Feudal System. The Catholic Church became the power behind the system. They said that the kings and queens were divine beings appointed by God, so disobeying them would be disobeying the word of God. They also emphasized the hereafter; saying that if you only just did right in this world you would be rewarded in the next. In another words if you follow the laws of the king and his nobles, if you slaved in the fields like a good peasant for a short time (your life), then you would go to heaven and receive your Eternal Reward. It was all designed to keep the majority of the population in line and work under the feudal system. Soon the church held itself above the kings and queens of Europe, saying that even the nobility had to go to church and obey their laws. Then the church decided that it needed more churches, and grander churches. So it started a huge building program. In this way the Catholic Church could rival the castles of the kings and queens. When the church needed more money they started selling “indulgences” and other religious documents that were important to the nobility. An “indulgence” was permission to commit a religious infraction. Until the 20th century it was wrong to eat meat on Fridays. An indulgence could give a person permission to eat meat on a Friday—in fact legal permission to commit a sin. Indulgences for other “minor sins” were common.

The Catholic Church was a dominating force in society and did everything to make themselves the most powerful and the most controlling part of that society. They have tried to continue this habit today. The town’s preacher is always known as the moral compass of the town.

When Martin Luther posted his list of abuses made by the Church on the door of Saint Marks. He started a schism with the Catholic Church. It wouldn’t have been a major event except for Guttenberg. He had invented the first press with movable type and was looking for books to publish. He published the first bibles; which were a roaring success, so he published Martin Luther’s list of abuses (about 100 in all). Guttenberg included a portrait of Martin Luther inside his book. Until this time the only people who had their portraits publicly published were the kings and queens that appeared on coins. Martin Luther made a huge impact on the Church and started the division of Christianity. The pilgrims and other early colonists continued that fragmentation. England broke from the Roman Catholic Church because it wouldn’t grant King Henry VIII a divorce. He went through a lot of queens looking for a male heir. So when the Roman Catholic Church got too inconvenient he simply succeeded from it taking all of Britain with him.

Still the church tries to rule the world, since it has been so fragmented it has lost a lot of its power. Otherwise Christianity would be like the Islamic religion, which rules so many people, and is a religion more widely observed than all of the various forms of Christianity. Islam has gone beyond a history and a moral code; it contains rules to live by and rules to control the government. There are even rules about a person’s beard: “A good Moslem is known by his beard. It should be long enough so that a man can be recognized as a Moslem, but not unkempt least he be mistaken for a Jew.”

The Jewish faith also has some strong rules, and it contains the Old Testament. There are sects like Hassidic Jews that only have religious concerns and fill their lives with study of the Koran, but they are a minority of the Jewish population. Since the Jews have various sects and they mostly honor each other the government of Israel has a non-secular government with religious tolerance.

When Carl Marks tried to write the rules of a new society he wanted to escape the control of the Christian Churches. So he envisioned an atheist government. The American tradition of religious tolerance was started because so many of the colonists were from different sects.

This isn’t my opinion; all that I have talked about above is history, and it is the major reason why I don’t trust the big two organized religions. Personally I think that the question is only true for CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAM—which is the majority of the world’s population. Israel may be a nation of Jews, but their religion does not rule their government. China, Japan, and India can make similar claims. George Bush’s recent veto on stem cell research shows that the US government cannot make that same statement. In fact everything from our “work ethic” (thanks to the Puritans), to our intolerance of sexual material has all come from religion.

Answer 7

Condi!

http://www.mechanicsburgnewchurch.org

Answer 8

Religion I believe is man made, Christianity is not. Most people I come in contact with are more religious, (doing stuff because that's what they were told to do it) Then they get mad at me for questioning them. And to top it off they try to make it seem like I'm in need of converstion. Whatever.

Answer 9

I don't think it started out that way. I think it started out as an attempt to relieve cognitive dissonance... and probably started to emerge quite soon after language and abstract thought came on the scene... as soon as people came to realize that they were all going to die.

Once they came up with the idea of gods, they came up with the notion of appeasing them... and some people ended up in the position of mediating between man and gods, interpreting what was going on. In that situation, it was inevitable that these people would figure out that they could use their position (and the inate fear of the unknown that everyone felt) as a means to wealth and power. It's been going on since then, and is still successful... 87% of our population can now be numbered among the dupes.

Answer 10

Religion is man-made. Christ was not a Christian, Mohammed was not a muslim, Buddha was not a Buddhist.

Religion was created to follow the teachings of these great leaders, and religion is only meant to direct you to goodness

Answer 11

omg (goodness, lol) haha, i really do. i have always thought this. I'm so glad other do too. Religion (and the theory of Hell) was a man-made deterrent to crime and stuff. Since people could not follow man made civil laws, religion was created to threaten people with torture after death burning in Hell!! How ridiculous!!!