Is religion simply more about control than a god?

[GODZILLA]

Why is there religion in the first place? Aren't we all the same? Can't we all speak to God? I mean that is what the bible says. Why is it someone has to be an "authority" when it comes to religion? Why do they need followers? Why do they need money? Isn't the relationship with god between God and yourself? i.e. 1 on 1? It also seems there A LOT of rules when it comes to religion. I grew up in the Mormon faith, and I can tell you there were sooo many rules. Like does God honestly care with what you put in your body?

[ignoramus]

It's a Darwinian thing. You know...

[onlinebiker]

There' s always going  to be some miserable prick who wants to be in charge. When they come up with an idea ( good or bad) - they become politicians and try to get everyone to follow their idea.

When they have nothing else - they make up an invisible friend - and try to get the more dimwitted of their neighbors to believe in that invisible friend. Thus - religion.

[Gwaithmir]

I'm no expert on the subject, but according to my observations, the bigger religious denominations get, the more their aims revolve around the acquiring of wealth and political power.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

I'm no expert on the subject, but according to my observations, the bigger religious denominations get, the more their aims revolve around the acquiring of wealth and political power.

Huh.  Sound like an expert to me. 

Boru

[ignoramus]

He's just saying that because the RCC is the world's richest landlord!

That all came about by accident! I swear!

[The Grand Nudger]

Why is there religion in the first place? Aren't we all the same?

That's more an explanation for why there's religion than some reason that there shouldn't be.

Can't we all speak to God? I mean that is what the bible says.  Why is it someone has to be an "authority" when it comes to religion?

Magic book is commonly wrong, why would it get that right?  Our sense of the numinous combined with an inability to strike up that two way convo is another one of those cases where the answer is hiding in plain sight.  Someone has to fill in that part of the dialog.

 Why do they need followers? Why do they need money? Isn't the relationship with god between God and yourself? i.e. 1 on 1? It also seems there A LOT of rules when it comes to religion. I grew up in the Mormon faith, and I can tell you there were sooo many rules. Like does God honestly care with what you put in your body?

Here's where I think the main thrust of your question..and the answer to it, comes in.  Institutional interests often skew to the interest of the institution.  That's how we end up with non profit ceos making more than for profits and sitting on cash reserves in he billions.  At the core of it there's a valid reason.  The institution feels that it is providing a useful service.  They have to maintain their place and legitimacy in order to do that.  The more affiliated people they have, the better the case (and the greater the pool of potential resources) from which to draw.  While religion isn't about god anymore than a religious institution is, it is about that sense that the religious share with the non religious and irreligious.  Religious institutions, otoh..and by necessity, are more about the maintenance of the institution than that common experience.

The most authentic forms of modern worship (and their ancestors of a few thousand years ago) lack those sorts of institutions, eschew them, even.....but like anything else in human life, organization trumps intent. It's only a matter of time in the case of successful religious movements until the more organized set becomes the dominant factor and, then, an institution. In this process you see a cyclical and endless falling away and re-stratifying of the adherents.

[ignoramus]

^
Very true indeed.
1957. Ray Kroc opens up his restaurant to sell nice burgers!
Today, I'll have a Woody, a Donald duck, the limited edition olympic games coca cola glass and why not, gimme a cheese burger thing as well! It's not like it's gonna kill me ...

[Belacqua]

Aren't we all the same? Can't we all speak to God? I mean that is what the bible says.

I guess we can all speak to God, but that doesn't mean that what we're saying to him is right. Nor does it mean that God speaks to all of us. 

Does the Bible really say God speaks to everybody? It seems like from the beginning some people are messengers, prophets, etc. 

Why is it someone has to be an "authority" when it comes to religion? 

Some people know better than others, some people have worked on the problem more than others. I don't want everyone's opinion to weigh equally in every matter. 

When authority works, it is there to act as a counterweight to every hare-brained scheme that individuals come up with. In history, there is always a tension between tradition, which is often wise, and innovation, which is sometimes necessary. 

Very few people have good original ideas, many people assume it's the voice of God telling them to do something, when it's really their own selfish opinion. There should be authorities to make them stop and think again. 

Isn't the relationship with god between God and yourself? i.e. 1 on 1? 

Is it? Do you really trust yourself so much? As Feynman said, the easiest person to fool is yourself. 

I have had a lot of terrible ideas in my life, which at the time I thought were good. I am grateful that smart people wrote books, to serve as my teachers and make me doubt myself. 

Nothing is easy, and thinking about what we ought to do is complex. Currently we're in a society which distrusts any sort of authority and looks up to the maverick who goes his own way. (E.g. the hero in Star Trek -- HQ tells him or her, "return to base immediately, that's a direct order!" and the hero always disobeys, saves the universe, shows that disobedience is good.) In part this is because our authority figures have betrayed us, but in part they have betrayed us due to their own exaggerated faith in their own goodness. When you echo an  opinion which is so widely held and so compatible with Hollywood, it should give immediate pause. 

So it's probably good to get away from the authority of the Mormon church. No argument there. But you need to look at what authority is there waiting for you when you jump out of your previous one.

[Shell B]

In answer to the thread title, yes. Very much yes.