It's sad that most humans are wicked. Our political leaders are wicked and greedy, their greed has led to the neglect of the masses and has brought hardship on the citizens. This hardship has made people suffer and are desperate for relief and a greener future. Religion promises such not just on earth but in the hereafter (at least, in the hereafter). This is why desperate and suffering societies are religious.

Political leaders alliance with religious leaders to fleece and control the masses. Political leaders use religion because it gives them virtually unlimited freedom to fleece and descend hardship upon people while keeping them from rebelling and protesting against them. People won't rebel because they believe god will fight their battles for them, god is in charge, they are to forgive and commit things into the hands of god, the economy won't affect them because there lives are in hands of god's, this life is not important but heaven is and hence they should focus on heaven and leave the leaders to god's righteous judgement etc. Some even go as far as foolishly proclaiming that as long as they have Jesus they are richer than Bill Gates, Dangote and Otedola combined. Such deluded folks are easy to exploit without risking their rebellion.

Instead of staging a rebellion and revolution, people still say "e go better and let's join hands and pray for our dear country." believe me, such idiots are easy to exploit without risking their rebellion. Awakening and rebellion from the masses are the worst nightmares of any greedy and heartless political leaders. Religion not only prevent people from rebelling and claiming their rights and freedom, it makes the hardship brought about by bad political leaders worse. Religious leaders feed on the suffering, stupid and desperate masses through tithe, offerings, sowing seeds, relieving prophecies and other gimmicks. Both religious and political leaders then become the two power houses in exploiting people. Common to both are greed and religion. The alliance between the two increases their benefits of exploitation and further their agenda.

During election, the political leaders start playing nice and come to church to "seek god" where as all he wants is for the clergy to endorse him in front of the sheeple. After this is done, the sheeples vote for the leader. The politicians and clergy can't fight with each other because lesser people would be manipulated without the alliance between them. Let me stop here.

Seun, Mynd44 and lalasticlala please put this on front page.

Hi Martinez19,

This is such an interesting topic! I have always been against organized religion--Christianity, Islam, etc etc etc. I myself am Jewish and, although my family is not orthodox by any means, I did have a bat mitzvah which I'll admit was quite beautiful and very transformative, at least in the sense that I was learning about personal growth and that I had achieved some personal growth at that time by memorizing around twenty-thirty chants and having to sing/chant all of them without reading anything. I was also just thirteen so it was that time of life where you aren't a kid but you're not an adult yet so....

Anyway, that's not the point of my post, nor is it the point of this thread.... so let's move on.

I believe that religion, at least organized religion, has contributed a lot of harm to society, mainly because of the points you mentioned. Some thoughts I'd like to add are that religion can make people be unhappy since they believe that they must suffer in this life to be rewarded in Heaven. They believe that the hardships they go through are unsolvable by themselves and, as you said, that God's got a plan and it's all in his hands, which I think is complete bullshit. It is up to the leaders of these societies to make everything right, of course, but it's also up to the individual person to see what exactly is going on and to see how they can get help.

I also think that religion teaches people that they are allowed to do whatever and to not worry over what they may enact since God's all forgiving, as you mentioned in your post. You are responsible for what you do, only you and not God, not Allah, none of that. Just you. And, as some other unorganized/pagan philosophies teach, you reap what you sew!

So... yeah, that's my take on this. Again, you pose a very compelling and, in my opinion, very true and valid argument. I'd love to hear your thoughts on mine!

FeelDeMusic:
Hi Martinez19,

This is such an interesting topic! I have always been against organized religion--Christianity, Islam, etc etc etc. I myself am Jewish and, although my family is not orthodox by any means, I did have a bat mitzvah which I'll admit was quite beautiful and very transformative, at least in the sense that I was learning about personal growth and that I had achieved some personal growth at that time by memorizing around twenty-thirty chants and having to sing/chant all of them without reading anything. I was also just thirteen so it was that time of life where you aren't a kid but you're not an adult yet so....

Anyway, that's not the point of my post, nor is it the point of this thread.... so let's move on.

I believe that religion, at least organized religion, has contributed a lot of harm to society, mainly because of the points you mentioned. Some thoughts I'd like to add are that religion can make people be unhappy since they believe that they must suffer in this life to be rewarded in Heaven. They believe that the hardships they go through are unsolvable by themselves and, as you said, that God's got a plan and it's all in his hands, which I think is complete bullshit. It is up to the leaders of these societies to make everything right, of course, but it's also up to the individual person to see what exactly is going on and to see how they can get help.

I also think that religion teaches people that they are allowed to do whatever and to not worry over what they may enact since God's all forgiving, as you mentioned in your post. You are responsible for what you do, only you and not God, not Allah, none of that. Just you. And, as some other unorganized/pagan philosophies teach, you reap what you sew!

So... yeah, that's my take on this. Again, you pose a very compelling and, in my opinion, very true and valid argument. I'd love to hear your thoughts on mine!

Your take is absolutely correct. It's high time humanity drop the god idea because it has robbed us so much and will continue to. Just as you said, religious people do wicked things and get away with it because they know that if they can just confess and ask for forgiveness they are free.

Martinez19:
Your take is absolutely correct. It's high time humanity drop the god idea because it has robbed us so much and will continue to. Just as you said, religious people do wicked things and get away with it because they know that if they can just confess and ask for forgiveness they are free.

Awwww, thank you so much! I, to be honest, am not one who doesn't believe in what someone may call "God", but I'm certainly not one to believe in the Abrahamic god. I think that God/It/a higher power, whatever you'd like to term it, is something that we cannot comprehend. It's something that we can't see, can't know, and shouldn't try to figure out. It's mysterious, it isn't a person, to me it's more of an entity/energy/force.

I don't really practice any sort of religion personally, but that's just what I believe. I relate more to religions, like Buddhism, Hinduism, Shintoism... more pagan kinds just because, in general, they seem more open-minded when it comes to most things and ways of behaving, and most have a sort of system of karma.