How/Why do you feel that religion was created?

Answer 1

Relationship with God was created by God, religion was established by men.

Answer 2

Religion has several functions in human society, thought not all of them apply to modern society..

1) Religion explains things. People are afraid of things they do not understand. So if you can explain that the sun is actually Apollo on his chariot riding across the sky, it makes you feel better. It’s the same reason children are often scared of thunder.

2) Religion gives your life purpose. If you think that if you lead a good life you will eventually get an eternal reward that is good motivation to continue in the struggle of life. If on the other hand you think when you die you simply wink out of existence and all you are goes to waste, people will be killing them selves all over the place.

3) Religion lets you control other people. If I want you do something and I can convince you that a God want you to do it too, it is a lot easier for me to get you to do it. The reverse is also true. If I want you to stop doing something, I can simply tell you it is against God and you will stop. Jerry Fallwel is a good example of this.

4) Religion lets you justify things that you might ordinarily consider wrong. Early American history is full of this. Slavery was OK in the early US because the Bible said it’s OK. It was OK to take the land of the native Americans because they were pagans. You can also look at the Spanish Inquisition, the Salem Witch trials and the list goes on and on.

Answer 3

To start off, let's distinguish between two types of religions.

There are the mythological religions. These are created by cultures to explain mysteries which they don't understand such as "why does it rain?" and "why are we here?" They are continuously refined by the culture to which they belong. Science has made many of these religions obsolete.

Then there are the spiritual religions. These are often sparked by a single Enlightened individual such as Siddhartha or Jesus who attempts to show others the way to eternal bliss. However, they inevitably fail and the religion is corrupted by the culture to which it is given. Science will never make these religions obsolete, but it will be some time before science understands them.

Sometimes these religions are mixed, so that we get franken-religions that attempt to explain where we came from but which also contain corrupted forms of deep spiritual truths.

Answer 4

Religion was created to explain what men could not. It is human nature to have an explanation for everything (even if it is just faith in god). There were gods for the sun,moon,war,crops...etc. As we explained these things with science the gods were phased out of religion. Religion is now to explain what happens when we die and where we came from. I believe when science is able to explain without a doubt where we came from and where we go, there will be no more need for god or religion.

Answer 5

Relegions are created out of emotions. Getting away from the emotional part leads to oneness and religion won't matter. In other words, analysis lead to religion and synthesis leads to the One common goal. Analysis is pointing out the differences between two things and synthesis is finding the commanality.

Answer 6

going back 6000 years, if im a landlord and i own land and rent it and i want people to go into battle and risk death they need a reason
i might find you and say lets invent religion

in the beginning god created the heaven and the earth . . . . dont eat pork etc. dont do this . . to die for jim darwin is a glorious death . .

notice the smaller tribes dont have religion but a sort of mysticism

Answer 7

I personally feel that the abrahamic religions (judaism, christainity, islam) are revelations from a diety> The rest are superstitions or philosophies at best. For ex. paganism was formulated by superstions about nature (sun, moon, etc) being "gods" , buddhism is a philosophy at best. God (through the bible) revealed to man his plan for our salvation>

Answer 8

To explain things we take for granted today like rain, thunder, lightning, wind, sun, stars, death. Just like anything that can be marketed or controlled, it got into the hands of devious people who told others they had an "in" with this force and used that scam to take control.

I can see how this would happen in just any culture, it's a logical progression.

Answer 9

i read somewhere that it is a tool of the rich to keep the poor from killing them. i understand that rational from life experience and agree with it...at least partially. being athiest, i do see religion as a diversion from truth, or at least scientific reason.

Answer 10

Social cohesiveness. Governments like we have today did not then exist and these basically were societies rules then which is why it is not applicable today.