***do you really feel it's leaders are solely intrested in controlling their people, or do not many leaders have good intentions with no intrest in controlling others and truely feel they are doing gods will? ***
Gumball,
Why can't the religious leader do good and have helpful intentions toward his fellow man without having to join a god team? Why can't he simply help in his own name with no financial or spiritual compensation instead of the name of some mythical god product? Because there is no money in it or people will not identify a person's intentions as good without the proper label being sewn on his shirt?
I don't feel any religious theory is as black and white as the fundamentalist believer would like it to be. I think religion is a bastardization of many things such as ancient myth, tradition, government, social psychology, philosophy, right down to proper toilet training. It is all rolled up into a scripted concept of proper behavior based on specific mixture of religious myth and culture. The concepts are then subdivided and labeled as various religions and a persons belief in said religion is dependent on ones geographical place of birth, upbringing, and social majority. Then the religious theory is mixed with cultural tradition and the actions and reactions of those encompassed in it's boundaries do and think what they do and think. Some who move up the social ladder and become religious leaders may in fact do it out of the goodness and caring aspects of their personality. Others do it out of the position their social climbing gives them as an authority figure and then mold it into something that personally benefits themselves.
Whether a religious leader now, does it for the good of others, or for personal gain, it is all still based on a social misconception of myth and handed down in a neatly packaged belief system. That original manipulation of myth was used to control the minds and actions of others whether for bad or good. Do as the writers of the myth say, or you will be punished or rewarded. Good or bad aspects of the writings that came from the myth are unimportant, the ability to control others minds and actions based on those myths is what I have problems with. It hard for a person to become a leader with aspirations of helping others as a personal good will exercise without having to join a religiously labeled team that gives the recipient of his kindness a label to associate the persons reasons for helping to.
It seems that the existence of mankind has had religion as a moral compass for so long that it is almost impossible to recognize things such as basic human kindness, socially acceptable behavior, or love and understanding as coming from anything but their mixed up and shuffled theology.
To me (and this is just my opinion) that is wrong. A person does not need an easily identifiable label such as religion, to anchor his reason for being a decent, intelligent, and caring human being on. The more we look for alternative reasons for our thoughts and actions, the more we become dependent on the full calendar of it's philosophy. That restricts open minded thinking and growth of personal intelligence and unbiased kindness. Religion is not open to individual interpretation to barrow and pull from other religions and make up your own mind for mutual benefit, because there is no money in that. But, in fact, religions of today have been developed in just that manner, borrowing and pulling from each other. The problem came about when they all claimed the borrowed myths and theories are exclusive and created specifically to and by them. History that has been written and is still being written today has shown the power and destruction in the actions of those who believe their specific brand of religious myth.
It seems virtually impossible to separate the good aspects of mythical writings from the bad. Some try but it is hard to ignore the genocidal mentality of it's gods and acceptance of their old ways and simply keep the puppy dog warm fuzzies of today's interpretations. It all comes from the same pile of shit. Some shit can be used to fertilize a garden while other parts of shit can give you a staff infection. Personally I use dried leaves and grass for fertilizer, I can't stand the smell of bullshit no matter how good it is supposed to be for my garden.
Dave