I think that it may be appropriate to ask at this point "what is the purpose of religion?"
I think that is much harder to answer nowadays than ever before. When I was young, I don’t think the question would have arisen amongst the general public. It might have come up insuch things as Philosophy at University, but I doubt that there would have been many atheist voices speaking up strongly! It seems reasonable to me to suppose that, when the branch of an ancient ape ancestor evolved, via random mutations and natural selection, to be able to communicate thoughts in language, then that species, aware that they could think, would presume that other aspects of nature could also think and act. Perhaps the first purpose of thoughts and actions which led to religions was to appease the apparent anger of, for example, mountains, rivers and seas. It would have then been an easy, probably inevitable, step for one or some with leadership qualities (and these could be for good or bad, since there had been leaders of mammal groups for millions of years already – a vital survival trait)to take that role in those early human groups.
My own view is that it is a system of social control - different from systems which involve physical methods such as violence or the threat of physical restraint - which uses the suggestion of revealed knowledge to influence behaviour.
This, with all its inherent problems, probably was also a strong survival trait even into comparatively recent centuries!
A shaman, or priest, or imam or witchdoctor ... or whatever ... has "knowledge" not possessed by ordinary people and this is used as a source of power.
Yes, and in the past they did not have people – well, there must have been some, but nowhere near enough – who would challenge by saying that their claims of such powers were based on wishful thinking!
Allied to this is a general lack of understanding of the physical world (lightning is a weapon used by the gods or whatever) and a promise of continued existence following death.
Agreed.
Brutality and violence is accepted because it is considered necessary for the "truth" to be accepted by everyone and the violent suppression and subjugation of alternative ideologies is essential to ensure that "truth" is not corrupted. It has been a hallmark of Christianity over many centuries and is seen at present in factions of Islam.
This is, unfortunately, all too true. However, there certainly seems to be a far, far greater awareness this century that this is no longer acceptable. With all its spread of rubbish noted, the internet is making positive messages of talk not war,
heard more clearly. The claims made by religious leaders of all kinds are no longer accepted without question.
Religion is the practice of telling minimally plausible fairy tales to a frightened community in order to ensure compliance.
Thank goodness this is not working anywhere near as well as it did in the past!
