Mick: yup, good film, have to re-watch soon
Ed: well yes, yes and no. It's sadly waaay
more complicated than that; as far as we
know through what is left of written (or
drawn) history, religion has simply been
a very effective tool to control the masses,
but the "root of all evil" remains greed and
the thirst for power.
Spirituality is one thing and religion is another.
Spirituality is an undisputed fact of life because
we all, with no exceptions, are at some point
torn with the duality of the human condition.
Torn between being an aware beast and/or
something much higher.
Religion is a whole different animal. When people
believe in nothing, they'll believe anything and
this is dangerous. It all started as a way to try
to explain electromagnetism, the celestial bodies
and other natural forces and occurrences, this
eventually turned in to tales, legends and mythology.
Further on, this was found to be a great tool to control
whole populations because it really resonates with the
one single universal instinctive human desire (which
can also be turned into a weakness): we are explorers
by design and therefore we crave answers, specially to
the 3 fundamental questions of WHO are we, WHERE
do we come from and WHY are we here?
Religion promised answers, but there was one catch,
a loophole to weasel their way out of their part of the
deal... this we call "faith".
Science to the rescue? Not so fast, because the
second it becomes politicized, it becomes religion
and the vicious circle starts again.
The funniest thing of all is that when one
really studies all of the world's religions you soon realize
that they are all a carbon-copy of the other, and is
here exactly where nothing makes sense anymore
and where you can clearly see the truth:
the ill-meant intentions of the ruling class, the end.