Intelligent Design.
There has never been a conscious being that thought the gods did not look like him. Why would a conscious being consciously place himself in an inferior position?
Religion must fill a void, the void is the questions of where are we, why are we here, and a few dominant ones must prevail over the others. Therefore, we can say that it is inevitable that a few dominant religions exist since this void must be filled in people’s lives.
The Bible, or other religious texts mostly regulate behavior of people,, and there must be a lasting text which does this, since states rise and fall.
There is no ultimate truth that has been revealed. In the past, the church let their followers be ignorant since they were uneducated and perhaps could not understand higher ideas or teachings. As the congregation becomes educated, and mankind progresses, the previous teachings often are proven wrong but the Church then modifies the stories and logic change so stay within the parameters of the belief. The Church itself actually learns through the progress of man and when their previous teachings have been proven false, they either must modify them or exist in error.
For example, the church once taught and the “heavens” revolved around the earth. As mankind gains knowledge the Church was forced to change this teaching. Why does the bible not provide us with the knowledge of our surroundings in the first place? The explanation we received was that it was mans way of describing his surroundings. Yet we were also taught that it was actually God’s word through man. Does this mean that God was wrong?
If we consider the vast infinity of space and time we as human beings have only existed for a mere blink of an eye. Why do we consider ourselves to important as we will extinguish just as fast as we came into being.
Without religion man would be extremely frightened and lost. God must be created by man so he may think there is a divine being watching out for him which brings comfort. If by some means all religions were proved wrong then there would be mass panic and depression. This is the void that is filled with religion.
The Church is neither bad nor good. It does reach out to the poor and those participating in these works do so out of the goodness of their own hearts under the umbrella of religion. That is why the Church has been successful throughout the ages. It gives people something to believe in and that their belief is good. There have been times when this belief has gone too far which lead to the forceful conversions of people such as the crusades and the inquisition. But the Church must fight for survival just like any other religion or state. It must attack that which threatens it, just as in the counter reformation.
As the idea of God is the highest form of authority, almost all leaders throughout history have claimed to be god, be a partial god, or given authority to lead directly by God. Every form of Authority must have a higher form of authority which validates it. The mayor of a town is backed by the Governor of the State, who is backed in turn by the president of the nation. In a democracy the prevailing idea is that the president is backed by the will of the people, but still in this modern age, most presidents still find it necessary to invoke God’s blessing or will to validate the presidency such as the monarchies or Theocracies of the world do.
