posted on Mar, 4 2008 @ 12:00 AM
IHO
Religion started, and is and always will be at the very core, a way of giving explanations for the unexplainable, a guiding force for people who need
structure in their lives, who like the routines. It was so people would not spend their lives worrying about death. It gives a sense of order and
peace that is otherwise hard to get in this turbulent world, which was much more turbulent in the past, when the majority of religions started.
Religion made people happy.
And then...
People realized how this powerful guiding force could help reach previously unattainable status. In the pre-civilized world, status was achieved,
that is to say you had to earn it through actions and deeds. If you faulted you lost your rank. These societies were relatively egalitarian. This
is true even of most tribes and chiefdoms that survived to modern day, although many chiefdoms starting having a more ranked society.
Anyways, it was through religion that first hereditary over class came to be. This was in lower Mesopotamia, in Sumer, considered the first
civilization(didn't give me flack about Atlantis or others, even if they existed we don't know anything about them). Anyways so the very first
Noble class if you will, who were born into the position, was not from some powerful warlord passing his son the crown and so on, but from the priests
of Sumer, the very first civilization. There were no kings at first, if I'm correct right up until Akkadian times. Religion was THE power right
from the start. (Sumerians invented writing, the wheel, the plow, among many other things)
The divine right went on from there. Everyone from the Pharaohs to the great dynasties of China, to the Kings of the middle ages, has since then used
the divine right of god. It was up until the Enlightenment, the only tangible excuse the Lords, Kings, whatever name they went by had for the
hereditary dictatorships throughout history.
Talk about a source of power. I won't even touch the power of the Catholic Church.
This thread hits it right on the head. I'm tired of people blaming religion for wars. No people use religion as a way of gaining power, then using
it to their own ends, blaming religion. The crusades weren't really about gaining the holy land, at least at first. There are several reasons, the
biggest was that the knights of feudal Europe were basically in a constant state of war and the church decided they should unite against a common
cause, which happened to also put a lot of coin the church coffers. If you analyze most "religious" wars, they all use religion as a front, but it
always comes out to power and money. There are a few examples of purely religious war, I can't think of any off the top of my head, but most involve
some kind of power being gained. I cannot think of a single war that was fought not to control the people but to change their faith...