No, religions are - by and large - not deliberate lies (I except Mormonism and a few others) as much as they are simple wrong-headedness.
A lie is a very specific sort of untruth. For instance, suppose you ask me how many eggs I have in my fridge and I answer, 'Six.' You take a look and find seven eggs, whirl and point dramatically and shout 'Liar!' But my answer is only a lie if I knew that I had seven eggs and deliberately misrepresented the number. Otherwise, it's simply a mistake.
Nor do I think that religions are deliberately made up (again, Mormonism) with the intention of terrorizing people. I strongly suspect that religion grew out of a sincere attempt by primitive people to understand the world around them. I can easily imagine Oog spilling water out of a gourd and extrapolating that there is a Great Gourd Spiller in the sky who is responsible for making rain. That being said, I've no doubt that the priest-class of every religion that has one have been guilty of using religion to control people through fear, but that's not quite the same thing you posited. Come to think of it, EVERY power class has used fear in an attempt to control the powerless. Religion isn't unique in this regard.
But we understand what causes rain (and earthquakes and lightning and floods and disease, etc, etc) so why is there still religion? A couple of reasons, I suspect.
Firstly, momentum. People have been religiously-minded ever since they've had time to wonder about things beyond basic necessities. And for most of our history, supernatural explanations for natural phenomena appeared to work. Atheism is the relatively new kid on the block.
Secondly, religion is comforting to religionists. How often have we all said or heard or read, 'Better an honest doubt than a comforting myth' or some such? But discomfort is tough for a lot of people. In general, I don't think religionists are as afraid of punishment for themselves (they seem to want to reserve that for people of different opinions) as they are hopeful of reward.
So, no - religion on the whole isn't a lie, nor is it intentional fiction.
But that doesn't make it true.
Boru
A lie is a very specific sort of untruth. For instance, suppose you ask me how many eggs I have in my fridge and I answer, 'Six.' You take a look and find seven eggs, whirl and point dramatically and shout 'Liar!' But my answer is only a lie if I knew that I had seven eggs and deliberately misrepresented the number. Otherwise, it's simply a mistake.
Nor do I think that religions are deliberately made up (again, Mormonism) with the intention of terrorizing people. I strongly suspect that religion grew out of a sincere attempt by primitive people to understand the world around them. I can easily imagine Oog spilling water out of a gourd and extrapolating that there is a Great Gourd Spiller in the sky who is responsible for making rain. That being said, I've no doubt that the priest-class of every religion that has one have been guilty of using religion to control people through fear, but that's not quite the same thing you posited. Come to think of it, EVERY power class has used fear in an attempt to control the powerless. Religion isn't unique in this regard.
But we understand what causes rain (and earthquakes and lightning and floods and disease, etc, etc) so why is there still religion? A couple of reasons, I suspect.
Firstly, momentum. People have been religiously-minded ever since they've had time to wonder about things beyond basic necessities. And for most of our history, supernatural explanations for natural phenomena appeared to work. Atheism is the relatively new kid on the block.
Secondly, religion is comforting to religionists. How often have we all said or heard or read, 'Better an honest doubt than a comforting myth' or some such? But discomfort is tough for a lot of people. In general, I don't think religionists are as afraid of punishment for themselves (they seem to want to reserve that for people of different opinions) as they are hopeful of reward.
So, no - religion on the whole isn't a lie, nor is it intentional fiction.
But that doesn't make it true.
Boru
‘I can’t be having with this.’ - Esmeralda Weatherwax
