The need or desire to worship and revere seems to be inherent in man. We have always been spiritual beings, praising the gods and fearing the demons. We have always held deep beliefs regarding the afterlife and our nature. For centuries, the idea of a God has been a part of mankind’s history. Its human nature to attempt to intellectually analyze, criticize and evaluate the information in which we come in contact. However, we often struggle with matters regarding “eternity” because of our finite nature. Questions like "is there a God?" and "why are we here?" are almost exclusively asked by people purporting to know the answer, and indeed the very formulation of such questions suggest not only is someone looking for a specific kind of answer, but are asking them only to justify the existence of their answer. Whether its religion, or the fundamental nature of humanity, which tries to explain the origin of a God, mankind has always stumbled. For this, there isn’t and has not been sufficient evidence or comprehensive rationale to justify the existence of any deity.
Religion was and is still known as the link to possible immortality and for some, a basis for accepting and following a moral code. But how can we define this phenomenon? Well, Richard Dawkins does a good job. In a nutshell, he says: Religion can be defined as 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 (B.Delaire). It must be remembered, that religion is a manmade institution. Although more than three quarters of the world participate in all its holy practices, its origin must be questioned. To fully comprehend such a thing, one must go back to prehistoric times, when humanity lived in a world where nothing was known. Where many things, if not everything could not be justified, as there was little or no real scientific advancement.(L.Antony) This was one of the main reasons to “create” what we didn’t know and couldn’t explain. Sam Harris explained the approximate historical origin for religion, its traditions and all its books. He was almost certain that it was the work of sand-strewn men and women, who thought the world was flat and for whom a wheelbarrow would have been a breathtaking example of emerging technology (L.Antony).Other philosophers believe that religion was pieced together from fragments and contradictory sources and then had claimed for it a spurious unity. Nonetheless, Cristopher Hitchens hits the hammer right in the nail, by saying that the sciences of textual archeology, physics and molecular biology have shown religious myths to be false and inconsistent. (P.Harrisson)
Aside from merely being powerful and influential, organized religion is corrupt & destructive, and it prevents man from reaching his true potential. However, it is only those who follow organized religion who are blind to its corruption. It is not entirely their fault; indeed, when you are indoctrinated into an institution that goes back thousands and thousands of years, an institution that discourages questioning and encourages dogmatism, an institution that perpetuates and thrives on ignorance, how can you be blamed? (Shermer 48). A perfect image of this work can be illustrated through our brutal history. The Inquisition-judicial institution, established by the papacy in the Middle Ages, charged with seeking out, trying, and sentencing people guilty of heresy. Heretics were considered enemies of the state. The penalty for heresy was torture and death and The First Crusades- wars against pagan peoples, Christian heretics, and political foes of the papacy. - are perfect examples to illustrate this point. (Shermer 49) Both examples illustrate how man has used God to justify his greed and quest for power. When the leadership was challenged, it used divine decree to justify the murder and torture of the