Religion

As we all know there are by category multiple religions, per Wikipedia twenty of them to be exact. The truly oldest of these is Judaism, which is a factor that we will get back too, but you need to remember this fact. At this time though we will center on the word “religion” itself.
Per Merriam-Webster one of the definitions is:
“An organized system of beliefs, ceremonies, and rules used to worship a god or a group of gods”
Now note that it is an “organized system,” with “rules.”
Here is the thing, there is ideals and principles that are taught within the New Testament of the Bible. Now there were rules and requisites established in the Old Testament or by its other name the Torah, some of which the ideals and principles point in the newer parts of the Bible. However these rules were made of a different time and the need for them changed once Jesus of Nazareth entered the picture. But this point is a distraction at the moment even though it was necessary to mention.
What I wish to key in on though where do these rules and need to organize come from?
They come from a need by humanity to have structure and control over any given aspect of their lives. For without some sense of stability humanity as a whole loses control.
Does this desire of humans seeking control of their own existence exclude that there is a God? No it does not even though there are religions that do dictate this very ideal. In fact nearly one billion people think this very way, but they themselves constitute being labeled and counted as religious even though they themselves for the most part will deny this. They have their own organized system of beliefs and their own rules, they just choose to exclude the fact that there may actually be a God.
If you have ever entered into these buildings which are called “churches,” you will encounter a community of people which reflect many of the dynamics you most likely encountered during High School. There is a good reason for this. For those dynamics have been transplanted from the non-religious aspects of the halls of academia into this building people attend once or twice a week, if that. This is a factor in the need for organization that humans seek to have a feeling there is some type of control in their lives.
This however has nothing to do with God, even though there is the pretense of worshiping Him. It is this charade that fills all religions that has turned so many away from God, and it is all due for humanity to have rules and regulations about how they are to act and behave, within the buildings that are called “churches.”
Those that turn away from churches see this hypocrisy and so in turn see the being known as “God” to be lie, a fallacy, a fabrication, a fiction. Not realizing that what they are rejecting is in reality the rules, structure and organizations made by human beings. They are rejecting humanity and the human image of God. They are also rejecting the social system that was transplanted from High School by those attending these social clubs called a “church.”
I cannot attest for most of the other religions in this world, but this I do know. The God of the Bible and the Torah. The God that is the focal point of the longest lasting religion is not nor ever has been what he is shown to be within these social clubs that have stolen the name “church” from.
Many within the religion of atheism have strived hard to remove any portrayal or images of God from the public environment having already come to the conclusion that the hypocrites within the social clubs mentioned above would drive out people that are truly seeking to know what is real. They in turn give their own religious message on the fact that there is no God. They will spout out their own theories and ideals that have their own organization and rules that must be adhered to like spread hate and belittling those that do not agree with their point of view.
One of the methods they do this is to throw out this idea that the Bible and the Torah are myths. Their pretense for this is that anything that is written about any particular person or event in history that is made one hundred and fifty years after the fact is a false narrative since there are none alive to counter this myth that has come into being by the writer.
A prime example, the story of the siege of Troy. The Iliad was written four hundred years after the siege took place and within it are several events that can be said to be mythical. None contest this.
Here is the point though. Those that state there is no God and that Jesus was not a real person or that he did not rise from the dead made these assertions over one and fifty years after the actual event when it is documented that the New Testament was written within twenty to twenty five years, with oral traditions traced back to within eight years after the crucifixion and resurrection. This allows people alive at that time to challenge these statements by those that were the enemies of Jesus like the Pharisees, and those that did see Him after His resurrection including five hundred at one time, and since none did, that shows that those creating the myth are those that state Jesus did not rise from the dead and state there is no God.
It is also after the one hundred and fifty years that many of the rules and rituals created by humanity started to take place and over shadow the truth and the facts found within the Bible.
So those within all religions associated with Christianity have in many ways created an organized and rule oriented mythos and applied them within their “churches” thus leading to many either not going to church, denying the very existence of God or denying the resurrection of Jesus.
So religions for the most part are at odds with the Bible and with God at this time. It is up to each person to fully study the Bible and come to understand that God is real and that His Son did in fact walk this planet two thousand years ago. It is fact that he never sinned and died upon the cross for our sin. If that is the case, which it is. We must then truly learn the Bible and come to understand that through its teaching we can move on from this live into a higher and eternal existence that is no longer, in most cases, truly found in most religions.
A point that does need to be made. Yes you can say there are still “rules” within the Bible. There is a difference between man-made rules and those things which come from God through His Son Jesus. The teaching that come from the Bible are something that when you accept salvation are things you seek to keep and to follow. The rules made by humanity are designed to fulfill the wishes and the desires of that religion that has been made not by God.
Example: the Catholic Church and the requirement to go to confession, using a human to tell your sins to when all that is required is to pray to God through Jesus and ask forgiveness. There is a bit more involved but that is a topic for another time.