To non religious folk: do you think the creators of religions created it for gain...?

Question

Or do you think they truly thought they we're right?

Answer 1

Mostly they truly thought they were right. Probably about 75% of the time.

Answer 2

I believe, at first, they thought they were right. They wanted explanations for the sun rising and setting, they needed answers to why and when it rained, ect. Later, early man figured out that those that revered these deities and prospered were led by what advice they would give. Hence, someone saw the opportunity and used it for personal gain and those that were more prosperous because this person could "speak" to them and were rewarded were powerful and when predictions coincided with occurrences more would follow. Well, we all know, the more people working towards a mutual goal usually prosper better than those separated. Others took it to the extreme when others did not, just like today but now there are common laws for all that are not based on religion that they must follow and so it has been curtailed a bit. But there will always be megalomaniacs that will use "religion" to govern the masses.
Good question - I hope many will read this and take an objective and informative opinion towards the truth.

Answer 3

Kinda an odd but neat question since you're judging rightly that most religions were created by man. The only religion created by God was when He called Abraham from his worship of lunar gods to serve Him. But even then it was a covenant (a promise) made by God to man.

The name christian (meaning Christ like) was originally a curse word towards followers of Christ that they later adopted. Christ didn't come to change the law, only fulfill it.

Man made the various divisions. But even Paul said to let there be no chisms (disvisions) in your worship.

So I believe most religions started out with someone truly believing they had the truth. But being exalted in their pride it became for gain. Both being sin.

Man has this amazing ability to justify his actions & has to use a higher authority to make others listen. Originally Mohammed believed in the Jews & Jesus until his views were rejected by them. Alot of religions take what they want from the Bible & explain away the rest by using scriptures out of context.

Read about Jim Jones life before he went off the deep end. He was doing for the poor & disenfranchised what the true church should have been doing from the beginning. He was trying to do so much for so many he began to justify his use of drugs because he was needed so much. The deception led to his own & ultimately the deception that cost thousands of lives, including his own. History is full of examples like that.

There have always been charlatans in everything. But I don't know of any religions (though some churches) themselves that have started solely for monetary gain.

Answer 4

It was probably a good mixture of both.

There is no doubt that most religious people are just trying to do what is right.

But if we look at the creators of religion, it gets a bit blurry.

Joseph Smith comes to mind. Looking at his life, it would appear that he started it for personal gain, but after a time, began to believe in what he started. A bit of both.

Jim Jones had a bit of both as well, he was getting personal gain, but believed in it enough to have someone shoot him in the head to join his dead followers.

Answer 5

I think a combination of both.

Religion came about as an attempt to understand and to a certain extent control the world we live in and evolved from there.

I think a lot of people now... (look at Scientology and those funny American TV guys) are after the money these days - at the expense of those who truly believe.

Answer 6

I think there were many reasons.The primary reason to me is that we are talking about a time when there were no Forensic sciences or advanced detective methods to solve crime.Crime went largely undetected and unpunished.So create a supreme judge sitting in the sky watching every move you make and ready to damn you to hell for all eternity if you step out of line. Some people if not all will fall for it and hence crime is greatly reduced.The only problem was by its very nature they couldn't write a footnote for future generations to say it is only a control mechanism and dont go basing your whole life on this story.Shame.

Answer 7

It depends. I think a lot of the religions were based on trying to find a moral code for people to live by. People in general are pretty stupid and need a reason not to kill each other or start a family prematurely.

Answer 8

Originally I think it was created to satisfy inquisitive minds with some kind of answers... I think once it caught on to how many OTHER things it can be used for, it became a social control device for the Government to use to gain support and power.

French Fry?

Answer 9

Believe it was created to Control Mass amounts of people. That way the people that wanted power had less to worry about.

Though as history shows, like most power it became very corrupted.

Answer 10

Mankind has a built in sense of mystery. We also have a built in sense of compassion and morality. We also have a need to control and govern other people's behavior for our own self-protection. You combine all these human attributes and religion is unavoidable. It is uncertain whether humanity could ever grow out of it, but many of us have evolved enough to see it for the illusion that it is.