Religion needs us, we don't need religion

“No one who knows even a little about the history of the Reformation would even attempt to deny that there were many political factors and historical ‘causes’ involved on all sides, including ambition and greed and misunderstanding and lust for power, as well as more than a little of human pride and prejudice.” ---Jaroslav Pelikan

Religion is about manipulating the spiritual side of humans for political ends. The separation of the three Abrahamic religions--Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—were purely political differences; the politics of interpretation and control. Most people don’t like hearing that the roots of what they believe boil down to power plays from individuals long ago. Humans don’t need religion for their well being, though I am of the opinion that they do need spirituality. Now to make things even more complex societies themselves may need religion to function in a healthy manner. So the true quest of a spiritual “prophet” is to be a true politician and set up a society based on being spiritual on top of the social need for cohesion; setting up a non hierarchical Religion—otherwise known as a secular State (or in my goal an anarcho-syndicalist State); but since elites are involved, violence is inevitable; the elites will fight you to the death to keep control. Jesus was trying to do this for his fellow Jews, Paul was trying it for his fellow Romans, Gandhi for his fellow Indians, Martin Luther King Jr. for his fellow man. It’s a futile cause because people are willing to go to war to keep their power.