Why was religion created?

[BlackMagic]

No one controls me....I worship no one and no thing.    Well, except  I worship showers. I love taking showers. 

[J]

Showers.....and me!

[BlackMagic]

*guess I'll have to take up Voodoo then* 

[Helter]

VooDoo or not, you're supposed to worship me!

looks like im going to hell then  lol

[Reeses Pieces]

i think, note i said think, i think it was made because of peoples ignorance of things they couldnt control such as weather and things like that.
make sense?

[xbehemothx]

I don't get it. explain

[Reeses Pieces]

before people understood the weather and the sun and moon and such, im guessing their ignorance of it got the best of them and they created religion based upon it...understand now?

[xbehemothx]

yeah it makes sense now.  I think that was true during some ancient civilizations because they had Gods and Goddess' that were specifically for the weather, like having a sun god or sea god.

[J]

before people understood the weather and the sun and moon and such, im guessing their ignorance of it got the best of them and they created religion based upon it...understand now?

You know, I was watching something on the Mayan Empires last night, and it started off as a mix between control, and actual beliefs with them. Towards the end they gave up their beliefs, and went straight to using it as control. Just like Christianity is doing now.

[xbehemothx]

I just wish that people knew that most religion are just trying to control them.  Ignorance does not seem like bliss

[jessealess]

Religion can be looked at from basically two viewpoints; the modern theological view, and the more sociological / anthropological / archeological view.
The "modern" definition of religion is one that, apparantly, has had a very troublesome and unsuccessful struggle to maintian itself, with definitions ranging from very rigid and strict dogmatic guidelines to overly-generalized phrases that don't say much of anythiing at all, much less serve as proper defintitions.

"Sociologists and anthropologists tend to see religion as an abstract set of ideas, values, or experiences developed as part of a cultural matrix. For example, in Lindbeck's Nature of Doctrine, religion does not refer to belief in "God" or a transcendent Absolute. Instead, Lindbeck defines religion as, "a kind of cultural and/or linguistic framework or medium that shapes the entirety of life and thought… it is similar to an idiom that makes possible the description of realities, the formulation of beliefs, and the experiencing of inner attitudes, feelings, and sentiments.”[6] According to this definition, religion refers to one's primary worldview and how this dictates one's thoughts and actions."  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion)

To me, this statement says about as much as I would care to have religion defined to me. Any attempt to add to this definition would be the first sign of a persuasive agenda (for lack of a better word).

[Helter]

yeah thats what i was saying before hand(pertaining to baphomet,J and Reese) that it is for control and to explain the unexplainable. and thnak you reese weather was the other one i was trying to think of when listing things that ancient civilizations didnt know how to comprehend.

[demonicpunk666]

if you wanna see somthing that will make you think more on religon and its fucked connections to everything look at this http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-594683847743189197 it is the Zeitgeist and the first part of it about reliogn is the best but it also goes on to talk about the goverment

[jessealess]

It would be a good thing to remember that religion, i.e., a set of social guidelines for interacting with the world around you, existed long before any sort of formal government was introduced. Religion, like it or not, is in our roots as human beings.  Anyone who dismisses religion altogether has in effect also dismissed their very own world view. How? Because if, for example, I were to dismiiss and ridicule a religious thought that is foreign to me, then I, in turn, have effectively just opened up the gate for my own thoughts to be dismissed and ridiculed. Notice that in no way do I imply that imposing a particular view on anyone other than the owner of that view should be tolerated.  The goal of eradicating religion will result in absolutely no effect or consequence. Instead, the goal should be to eliminate the idea of active conversion. Active conversion being where a person or group actively attempts to convert others, and differing from voluntary conversion, in which a person chooses to convert by his/her own judgments.

[asegod]

Money, Control, and Domination of weaker beings.. That is why religion was created