reply to forum on religion

**copied from a discussion at www.noodleheadstudios.com/forum (look under the section entitled "Talk About God" and the header "What do you think?"**

this was my response to the question: "is religion a crutch for the weak minded?" i thought it'd be relevant here as well.

*************************************

i don't know exactly how to answer this, but even as a Christian myself, i am tempted to say yes. perhaps "weak-minded" is too harsh. perhaps not.

the thing is, i believe that everyone is "religious." a politician's religion is probably the government. a business-man's religion is money and wealth. religion is something we sell our lives out to. it often has laws, doctrines, guidlines, partnerships, communities, and warring factions. it often has an equal dose of love and hate (as i suppose all things do, b/c try as you might, you cannot separate those nor any other "polar opposite").

often a "spirit person" as Marcus Borg tags Jesus, has to operate within the arena of popular Religion. i believe that all religions are man-made responses to encounters with the "infinite," "Creator," "God," or whatever label you want to stick "Him" with. it's natural that those who encounter God would want to show others what they learned or experienced, but the problem is that people in positions of power (i.e. governments) have manipulated those symbols, metaphors, rituals, and scriptures to control a public and force them into submission and deny them the use of free, critical thought. need i remind you of the reformation, or the flight of the Puritans from an opressive, religious government?

just as maps are created to help us efficiently move through our geography, the governmental system is a map created to keep us safe from each other. the spiritual or "religious" system is a map designed to keep us safe from ourselves. the business system is a map created to increase wealth and therefore more easily manipulate the governmental or spiritual systems. there are undoubtedly more systems to reference, but these are the three most easily understood. basically, i am suggesting (along with many, many others) that governments, in the interest of power, have taken their laws and attached God's name to them. you see this a great deal in the Bible if you look closely, especially in the old-testament, i.e. Leviticus. also, notice if you will, that the 10 Commandments apparently did not apply to relations between the Israelites and other tribes or nations. it was perfectly allowable for an Israelite to kill, rape, or steal when dealing with tribes that occupied land that they wanted (sounds to me like imperialism). here is perhaps, simply another case of a nation using God's name in vain by attaching it to their own rules, thereby creating a safety net for their people. that nationalistic deity does not match up with the universal God we were all describing in the other thread.

so, in the interest of not letting this get too much longer... i suppose i have to answer yes to the question at hand.

i do believe that religion has been improperly understood for centuries. and has developed, to some degree, into a crutch for many. on the other hand, i believe that at this point in human evolution, it is entirely a necessary construct because it does point to the Creator, and to put it simply, humanity in general is not prepared for a truely universal God, and the freedom that "He" has already offered us.