If religion is as simple as treating others as you would be treated, why do you need religious authorities?

Question

Aren't religious authorities to religion what lawyers are to the law: people who profit from confusion, and the more confusion there is, the more profit to be made?

If the Golden Rule is the sum of all wisdom, why do you need a religious authority to explain it to you?

Answer 1

What a great question!

The GR is a code of personal conduct to be followed by individuals.

Institutional religion, however, also involves worship, evangelism, theology, charity, social support, etc., and of course maintenance of the institutions and people who are involved in all that. Jesus recognized as much when he said "On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." In the case of historical Judaism, that referred to the over 600 rules and regs required of righteous and devout Jews; Jesus was saying that the validity of any of them was whether or not it served the two great commandments (one of which was the GR).

Institutions of whatever sort typically include a hierarchy of power, so the "authorities" are there to assure that the organization is doing what it is supposed to do and/or setting the direction to be taken. And, because competing institutions sometimes work at cross-purposes, you get things like the crusades.

And yes, there are some big bucks to be made along the way.

You will note, I think, that your personal encounters with the authorities (when it comes to non-radical religions) are few and far between. Most of the time, the authorities are dealing with the hired help, so to speak. And so the Pope is plagued with priests who want to marry, the Anglicans wrestle with gay and lesbian bishops and the Baptists fuss over support of candidates for secular office. Very damn few of them, sad to say, get involved with just doing good and exercising the GR.

This all refers to non-radical religious organizations. Its the other way around for the radical types: they're all ABOUT enforcement at the personal level, either by application of brute force (execution) or promises of reward for following (Jim Jones). Choose your poison. Really.

Let's take a small example that might help clarify this situation. Suppose you really, really, love model trains. You are an MTL (Model Train Lover). Your credo -and the acknowledged mantra of all model train lovers- is the simple phrase, "Love toy trains." THAT's what its all about.

And then, you get together with a few others and form a model train club.

You know where I'm headed with this, don't you?

The GR? Easy.
Organized religion? Oy.

Answer 2

Because treating others the same as how you want people to treat you isn't all that easy. Especially when others don't do the same for you either. Religious authorities can only guide people, they can't force you to be a saint. There will always be problems, it's just natural.

Answer 3

First off, religion isn't that simple.
At least the truth in Christianity isn't.

Even in Jesus' day, they appointed Elders and Servants to serve over the congregation and to look over God's flock of people. They did not make material gain or cause confusion.

The one's who cause confusion are obviously part of Christendom, or false religion.

Answer 4

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Answer 5

Moral wisdom is not the sum or purpose of religion.

~ Eric Putkonen

Answer 6

Love this question! The only Bible verse I ever felt close to was the golden rule..Do unto others as you would have them do unto you...If the world just practiced this alone...wars would halt! And no, I'm not Christian!

Answer 7

have you every heard a religious authority tell people that's all they needed to do? No, because then they would be out of a job

Answer 8

Without religious authorities, who would tell you how you must behave, in exchange for your money, of course.

Answer 9

Cause some buggers, believe he who has the gold rules. And you need people to sort those out.

Answer 10

because there are lots of things in the world that may mislead you to the truth

that's why we need an enlightened person to guide us in this dark path that we are taking