On Sun, 28 May 2017 21:36:45 -0400, wrote:

On Mon, 29 May 2017 01:12:54 +0000, Stormin' Norman
wrote:



Don't forget, all religions exist as tools for one group of people to
influence, control and extract resources from another, much larger
group of people.

Deities are inventions of humans, little different than a pry bar,
tools to separate people from their valuables and gain control over
their free will.

Religions are tools of the unscrupulous and a refuge for the weak of
mind.


I am sorry you have had such a bad experience with "religions"
Some organizations may indeed be as you say - but most certainly not
all. What you describe is a theocracy, like the catholic church.

There are religeous organizations that have no "elite class" that
"lives off the masses"

You are sorry I have had bad experiences with religions? That is
pretty funny, but not unexpected.

Religions across time and the entire planet have been victimizing
their followers in the name of non-existent deities. Every religion
from evangelical christianity to scientology is nothing but a cult. In
fact, the only difference between a cult and a religion is the size of
the membership.

Whereas I would not want to prevent anyone from believing in their
personal fairy tales, I do advocate fully taxing all religions as one
would tax any business. There should be no special treatment of
religions.