I think perhaps there may be three stages at issue. First, how did religion originate. Second, how did it evolve to what it has become. Third, why does it remain.

I think originally religion is simply attempts to understand what goes on inside ourselves, our minds, and outside of us. These are powerful questions, and at the beginning they were only informed by the contents of the basement of our minds. Things like magic, disembodied spirits, and so forth are all miscues of signals from parts of the mind, providing illusory answers.

Powerful questions yield powerful answers. Power will naturally gravitate to those with the most popular answers, and corruption ensues. Manipulation and social processes I think are just layered on top of the inherent power of these themes in our lives.

Why does it remain? Two reasons. Religions tend to be conservative stabilizing influences. Unchanging doctrine inspires more trust than changing, unstable climes. But the most important reason for the endurance of religion is the family. Our core values are transmitted uncritically from generation to generation through the family. We're built that way, because before civilization and nations, the family was who you depended upon for the bulk of your learning. Evolution made the transmission from parent to child very robust, and it remains so to this day; it's the primary way religion is transmitted by far.

I don't I have in anyway been manipulated or brainwashed in anyway. When I chose to become a follower of Christ, I made that decision under my own will, no human was present. I don't think my churches uses our money for their own gain neither the elders or the minister are rich. Before they take offering the remind non church members that they don't need to give anything. Currently we are collecting money for the crisis in Iraq and Sudan and we collect food to give to the elderly, this isn't a way of the elders gaining money. There are a number of times in the Bible when God showed himself to people not just elders. Jesus is one of the main points to Christianity, how did he gain power and wealth by dying on a tree for his teaching.


Finally you are basing your arguement off of a cartoon you saw on youtube.

No human...and very little humanity......

It's a way to gain influence and credibility, but yes..it's also a way to pay the bills. There's nothing wrong with paying the bills....though there probably is something wrong with making the claim that those funds aren't used for their own gain. Placing your church on a pedestal won't make them any more holy, it has the opposite effect. You ask how he (christ) gained power...but isn't christ the king -and did he die for his teachings, or for your sin (thus...a debt is owed, a debt of fealty...at the least)?

If Jesus was a normal human being, if he was a con man what did he have to gain from dying on a cross? What did the 12 disciples have to gain from dying for their beliefs?

Clearly, quite a bit, you've sworn your allegiance..haven't you? It isn't christ that benefits (assuming a con).......but your church obviously does...huh?

The disciples...heaven, of course - but that's just a fairytale too....both heaven and the disciples.

Nah, I don't belief in fairy tales, you are mistaking me for an evolutionist, a frog turns in to a hansome prince.

If you were a con man would you be willing to die for your lie?

What have I sworn allegiance to?

Many people have "died for a lie" (please don't embarrass yourself going down this road) - and if I were a con...I doubt that the purpose of my con would be to die (did jesus have a job...who was feeding him, who brought him those glasses of wine, who's bed did he sleep in) but that won't actually have any bearing on whether or not my con gets me killed. It happens. Won't stop suckers from telling stories -about me- after my death either, que Joseph Smith.

Do you actually think that evolution states that a frog will turn into a handsome prince?

Giving enough time and adding chance to the mix may do

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Any way what does a minister teaching in africa gain from a people who have nothing?

No, I'm afraid that it wont, and that evolutionary theory makes no such claim - but so what if it did......doesn't have the power to make you right on whether or not people would die for lie, whether or not jesus was real - or not a con, or whether or not your church both stands to and does gain from their actions and your allegiance to a character from a book.

So what you are telling me is that evolution doesn't take place. You haven't addressed my question.