Simplified viewpoint I agree with

[detbuch]

Originally Posted by Got Stripers

Religion is the route if all the BS this world has endured.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Communism is one of the kinds of religion which is the root of most of the BS. Secular religions in which the power of the leaders is the only god they believe in, are invested with the dogma that there is no greater authority than themselves, which gives them the ultimate authority to do to the rest of us whatever maintains their wealth and power.

And even though these secular religions are often founded by idealists who believe they have instituted something for the greater good, like all authoritarian organizations controlled by centralized power, they are corrupted by their own systems which put power in the hands of a few elites. And so evolve more and more into the nature of religion in which the followers follow them and are subject to their will rather than to a God, Creator, to whom even the elites must bow. Our modern socialist, progressive, and communist systems are such examples.

Most of the religions today are of that sort. Even the ones in which the leaders profess to believe in a god greater than themselves, but really don't.

Most of the mystical, spiritual, and transcendent religions in which the believers truly do believe, have been a hedge against the avarice, cruelty, and oppressive tendencies latent in human nature. But they too are often corrupted by power seeking non-believers. The more highly organized these religions become with centralized power structures, the more likely that they are co-opted by corrupt non-believers for their own benefit. What has happened to the Catholic Church, in my opinion, especially under the current papal administration, is an example of that. But even so, it is still not as destructive as the purely secular religions of today.

Islam is an example, in my opinion, of a sort of outlier spiritual religion that claims a God greater than everyone and everything and even has many leaders who are true believers--but was started mostly as a political system by someone who sought power rather than spiritual enlightenment. And is more a governmental system rather than a spiritually directed personal religion.