Religion, as I mentioned, started at the beginning of humanity, and it simply could not have survived this long unless it served a basic human need. And it certainly does: religion provides a set of rules and guidelines by which Man can comfortably live His life, and by which He can gracefully accept His death; it gives hope in a world full of chaos, that there is a Purpose that He serves; and that, when all is said and done, that Man’s place in the Universe, well, matters.
All of the world’s religions share some common themes: cosmology, or the beginning; eschatology, or the ending; rules and guidelines differentiating a good life from a bad one; an underlying myth or set of myths, to underscore the importance of the Supernatural; and the need for an intermediary between Man and God. And, most importantly, it tries to establish itself as the One True Faith, the One Truth, denying all other religions, and gods, as false. But the people who shape the religion, the intermediaries between Man and God, the Priest Class, that gets the least attention in the study of religion, which is unfortunate, because it is the Priest class which gains the most from it.
The Priest Class, the Masters of the Supernatural, holds the keys of eternity. It is their assertion that they alone determine which people can gain eternal bliss or eternal suffering, making the role of Society secondary, for Society is concerned only with the living, this tiny fraction of life that people live, according to the Priest class, solely to determine their place in the Cosmic hierarchy.
This puts the Priest class on par with, or above, the highest levels of governing Society. The Priest class either installs or blesses the heads of State, the King, and allows the King to serve at their pleasure. If the King begins to upset the workings of the Priest class, the King can be removed. Early Kings learned that they ought not to mess with the Priest class, and, in fact, the Ruling class and the Priest class began to merge into an amalgam called the God-King, which served from the times of Pharaoh to the Kings of Europe who ruled by Divine Right.
Of far more importance than the myth underlying the religion was the wealth gained by it. If God created the Universe And Everything In It, it was the Priest class that owned the land and all of its fruits. If the Priest class, representing the One True Faith wanted a piece of Real Estate owned by some other group, they could call them Infidels, raise an army willing to fight to the death, and take the land by force, and this was the basis of their power.
Again, this is not ancient history at all. Religious wars are still waged across the world today, and the word of one religious fanatic can topple, well, you know.
One last note. It is important to understand that where the will of the Priest class is at odds with the underlying myth of the religion, that portion of the religion is simply ignored; otherwise, Jesus’ teachings about not praying in the Church, but instead keeping one’s faith private and praying in a closet, would shut down all Churches associated with Jesus’ teachings. The rules of the Priest class always trump the teachings of their religion.
New Thoughts for a New Age 
I remember only that they say, that it is better to sit at the inn and think about the church, than to sit in church and think about the inn.
Can you refer to the place where Jesus ‘teachings about not praying in the Church, but instead keeping one’s private faith and praying in a closet, would shut down all Churches associated with Jesus’ teachings. ? Thank you very much!
Matthew 6:5-6
And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou has shut thy door, pray to the Father which is in secret, and thy Father which seeith in secret shall reward thee openly.
It’s just before the Lord’s Prayer (beginning at Matthew 6:9), so the Church knows just how important the passage is…
I heard an archbishop asked about that passage, and the logical backflips the guy did must have strained a muscle! 🙂
Tak for svaret. Jeg forstår ydmygheden i at bede alene, og på alle tider. Men med fokus på selve bønnen, havde jeg ikke læst / forstået det, som om man ikke skal bede i en kirke! Det er godt. Jeg holder ikke af “min” præst pt., så jeg er ved at finde en anden vej til min tro/ eller mangel på samme.
Det her er også en tak til Bambi, initiativrageren.
Det fremmer forståelsen med en debat, og stof til eftertanke.
Kærligheden til din næste, er ypperst af alt! Så jeg ser hver dag frem til nye indput. Fred være med alle
Tak for svaret. Jeg forstår ydmygheden i at bede alene, og på alle tider. Men med fokus på selve bønnen, havde jeg ikke læst / forstået det, som om man ikke skal bede i en kirke! Det er godt. Jeg holder ikke af “min” præst pt., så jeg er ved at finde en anden vej til min tro/ eller mangel på samme.
Det her er også en tak til Bambi, initiativtageren.
Det fremmer forståelsen med en debat, og stof til eftertanke.
Kærligheden til din næste, er ypperst af alt! Så jeg ser hver dag frem til nye indput. Fred være med alle
This is an interesting post; I love the comparison of the ecclesiastical hierarchy with secular hierarchy, especially in terms of conquest under the blanket of holy war. Only thing different in a holy war is the color of the spin, eh?
I would also add that not *all* religions involve an intermediary between seeker and the Divine…but I’ll grant you that I can’t think of a mainstream religion that doesn’t. (Which is why I practice a religion far-removed from the mainstream. ;o) )
It’s funny. When I was first doing my explorations of what the religions had in common, I completely overlooked the whole intermediary between Man and God thing, until I happened to overhear two priests complaining about it at Jewel (the big grocery store chain in Chicago for you folks outside the City), and, *of course* there’s an intermediary required between Man and God, otherwise, where would organized religion be? In everyone’s closet? 🙂
It’s not so much that religion would be in closets, it’s that nobody would be making money off it….which, I can tell you from professional experience, is the purpose of a broker.