My friends and I were in a heated debate over how religion as a whole has influenced how we as people live our life in fear up to a time of accountability to decide what “God/god” is to ourselves personally. One thought that came of this was: Was religion created as business based and played off of our fear of the unknown? Churches will gladly take money in the name of “God”, but is it “God” that wants a million dollar church, or the leader of the congregation to have an expensive home?
I personally believe that certain churches use the “offering” for the betterment of mankind, but I believe you will agree that others do not. I am certainly not condemning religion or churches, just bringing up a possibility. I am eager to see replies to this post.
Religion was created as a way to explain what science at that time could not. (example: Greek and Roman gods.) Then some people turned it into a business, a job versus something they wanted to do for “the good of humanity.” Churches teach you to give up sin, sin that is the very nature of humanity. The true believers will take this metaphorically, and reject the “seven deadly sins” and so forth, but these sins will invariably occur, thus dragging people back to pay the church in fear of reprecussions. Often times, the offering for the “betterment of mankind” is kept seperate from the usually begging. The proceeds often go to spread that religion in third world countries, thus stifiling native culture. At least where I live, there is a church every 2 blocks pretty much… all we have around here is drugstores, churches, and banks. When you don’t have taxes, starting a congregation is an easy way to make a living (not a fortune, but a decent life). And yes, I was designing a drainage system for this one church that was adding another children’s center and parking lots, that was going to cost 1 million dollars. I just can’t believe a church could ever get a million dollars, and all they were doing is paving their dirt parking lot so ladies shoes didn’t get muddy. That dosen’t sound “the betterment of mankind” to me… unless you are very attached to your white stilettos. [Apparently you hit a nerve…I can see why this would become a heated debate.]