Think back to medival times.
leaders needed money and a way to keep their subjects in order.
so they created (in england) Christianity, the peasants were told if they murdered, commited crime etc. they would be sent to hell. the "bible"was written in latin so the commonrers couldn't read it. because it was a myth. subjects also had to pay a tithe to the church. which went straight to the monarchy.

So the bible and religion was just a temporary way to keep the king/queens subjects in order and a form of income,overall a good idead of the monarchy. and somehow religion has conned people into believing that its true and has carried on in to the 21st century were it serves none of its purposes

please posts your thoughts

Louis O'Sullivan

Eeeek. Good thing you didn't post this in the religion forum. Anyways, I have two points for you to consider: first, Christianity preceded the Medieval period by around 1000 years; second, Religion is not the only means by which those who have power seek to oppress the many.

A: i dont care what people think about me because i am me
B: i was using medival times as an example, im not just talking about christianity
C: i believe religion was one of the first, and most successful forms of opression

A: i dont care what people think about me because i am me
B: i was using medival times as an example, im not just talking about christianity
C: i believe religion was one of the first, and most successful forms of opression

A: You will.
B: Fair enough.
C: It was, and still does a good job today.

remind me. what conclusion have we come to about this then? :p

I doubt people had the foresight to create religion simply for sake of oppression. More likely, oppression developced once a priestly class came to the fore and sought to monopolize power.

Yeah, I hesitate to say that religion is *entirely* or *originally* prepolitical.

Religion seeks to fulfill certain insatiable desires. One of these is for the infinite, for the absolutely other, for that origin which is higher than ones own. Another of these is the craving for communal worship which has fueled (in one way or another) nearly every war since the beginning of time. Another desire is that of social control. Religion provides traditions, rituals and practices that encourage obedience, solidarity and conformity, as well as (ideally) compassion, generosity and fairness.

But as far as the political impact of religion, let's talk about how well missionaries and mercenaries work together. It's like: OK, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. You convert to our religion so we can take your resources, pawn off our obsolete consumer goods and control your production. If you refuse, it's the hard way of invasion, occupation and creation of a colonial government. :)

As for religion being a second law.......NO

Religion is Law. Every law we observe in modern times dates back to the beginnings of religion [possibly not just christianity, there would have been rules to follow predating Christ]

thank you for your thoughts :P