I just realized that religion is at its very philosophical core no more than political warfare. [View all]

What is politics good for?

We have groups of people, we have interactions between those people, we have ressources, we have territory...
"Politics" is how we organize this. Which people are what. What those interactions between people are and not are. Who gets what.

By taking care of such topics, "politics" stakes the claim that it has the AUTHORITY to even do that. This claim to authority is the essential foundation of any political act.



Religion merely extends this political power-struggle from physical people, physical interactions, physical ressources and physical territory to the spiritual realm.

Religion is about controlling, taming and ruling the spiritual realm by claiming the authority to define what there is therein.
Religion is about defining which people are what on a spiritual level.
Religion is about defining which spiritual interactions there are.
Religion is about defining how spiritual ressources (e.g. heaven and hell) get distributed.

By exercising the opportunity to define the spiritual realm, an instance of religion/belief claims AUTHORITY over the spiritual realm. Just as in politics, the claim to authority is the essential foundation of any religious act.

And that is why different religions do not get along: They don't want to. Because religion is a POLITICAL CONFLICT over hypothetical inhabitants and hypothetical interactions and hypothetical ressources and hypothetical territory in the spiritual realm.

If you do not understand what I mean, imagine religions to be nations and the spiritual realm as a planet.
Religions get founded and eventually die when they run out of citizens, just like nations.
Religions evolve, split and merge, just like nations.
Religions are at conflict with each other because multiple religions claim authority over the same things: Each religion claims the authority to rule what God is, to rule what he wants, to rule what a soul is, to rule how to properly worship, to rule what the afterlife is... These topics are the people/interactions/ressources/land I talked about.

Religion is essentially another expression of our desire to rule, to claim, to conquer and to dominate.






Thanks, guillaumeb, for the inspiration.