Essay, Research Paper: Worship

According to the dictionary "religion is the service and worship of
God or the supernatural."1 I challenge that definition. It is true that all
religions do involve the worship of some supernatural force, however, it
is also true that no religion in history has ever stopped at that. For a
more complete definition of the word religion we also have to examine
two other aspects. How has it affected man over the centuries? And
what is the true motivation of its leadership? Some would have you
believe that it has brought peace and harmony to the world and that its
leaders are motivated by the service of their god. I suggest that a more accurate definition of word would be as
follows. Religion, a feudal system of government which uses fear, hate and
sometimes lies to control and manipulate people for the betterment of a
select group
of individuals. To better illustrate this point let's look at just three of the countless
examples that human history has to offer. The Inquisition, "judicial
institution, established by the papacy in the Middle Ages, charged with
seeking out, trying, and sentencing people guilty of heresy."2 Heretics
were considered enemies of the state. The penalty for heresy was
torture and death. The crucifixion of Jesus Christ, "Jesus was taken to
Golgotha and nailed to a cross, the Roman punishment for political
offenders and criminals."2 The Crusades, "The name Crusade (from
Latin, "Cross") was also applied, to the wars against pagan peoples,
Christian heretics, and political foes of the papacy."2 All three
examples illustrate how man has used God to justify his greed and quest
for power. When the leadership was challenged, it used devine decree to
justify the murder and torture of the innocent. We are expected to
believe that a non-physical being order the religious leadership to aquire
riches and land, often at the demise of the poor and helpless. The
misuse of God isn't limited to the Ancient world. Today we have people
like Louis Farakahn and Adolph Hitler and David Koresch who use god
to propagate racism and hate, there by giving them the power unite and
control a given segment of the population. As you can plainly see, religion is much more than the worship of
a supernatural force as its leaders would have us believe. It is in fact, a
method by which a society is governed and controlled. "God created
man, man created religion, it is therefore corrupt."