Well, Boerseun, since you already went out on a limb here and really rattled the hornet's nest, I suppose I'll deposit my 5 minus 3 cents...
Religion is a crutch. People are afraid, and uncertain, and find comfort knowing that others believe the same as they do. "It must be right... look at all these other people in the pews/benches/alter/kneeling/chanting/dancing... that feel the same way." I'm not refering to any one religion here, but all.
Especially before society took off and education and the sharing of knowledge became normal daily ways to assist in survival, but even today, there is fear in the unknown, and this fear is manipulated. It's not just a group of con men and women doing it, but a natural tendency to stick together that has evolved through the millenia. (i.e. we get sick or our normal foraging lands are devastated...whatever... and we have a group who will share and help us. The folks with friends survived).
It grew out of this, and out of the desire to understand what's around us. Why do I feel cool on my face when the trees move? Why does the water sing such lovely songs? What are those bright dots in the sky? Why do brilliant lights come down from the clouds when it rains and make enormous booming sounds? What is death? What does it all mean...
We are creatures birthed by a parent, and our consciousness has evolved along this path forever... since the first molecules joined and split, they came from the molecule before them The concept of a parent creator has just magnified through these billions of years of permutations into a greater societal perception of a supreme being. Since it's changed so often, we have different versions and different stories, but it's all the same thing... this supreme being...
Which... as I mentioned in another thread... is pizza.
Re: Wtf?
semantics is not always just pedantic quibbling. ~ douglas r. hofstadter
