Where did Christian holidays come from? Where did the cross come from in the Christian religion and what does it mean We paint eggs and rejoice

If we were to ask a priest where religion came from, his answer would most likely be rooted in theology. The same is true for rabbis, imams, yogis and others. We believe that the source of our personal faith will provide an answer to questions about its origin. Once Arthur Schopenhauer: "Everyone has the limits of his own vision for the boundaries of the world."

Religion came about as a result of... death?

However, we partly associate spiritual practices with the infinite, just as we assume that the "soul" is inside our flesh until it is released. Death, in fact, is often seen as the main ingredient at the heart of religion. Rituals and beliefs about the afterlife provide an "antidote", but at the same time require significant responsibility.

This view is relatively recent. Historian of religion Karen Armstrong also suggests that death was the main cause, although perhaps not in the way we expect. In her latest book, Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of World Violence, she writes: “Much of what we now call religion was originally rooted in the recognition of the tragic fact that life depends on the destruction of other living beings. The rituals were meant to help people come to terms with this insoluble dilemma.”

Dilemmas of primitive people

It is interesting to note that this dilemma arose from the need to kill animals for prey, and not from killing other people. As our ancestors developed ethics in growing societies, living in larger and more diverse groups, our paradoxes could not remain veiled. While people helped their families and friends, they regularly took the lives of other animals, many of which (in their own way) did the same.

How could a bipedal animal that benefited from the development of the neocortex realize that it craves security in an unstable world, but must also kill other living beings to eat? That this is a biological heritage is beyond doubt. But one more question remains: how could a person, on the one hand, create life, while on the other hand, he had to constantly take it away?

How did the first rituals appear?

Think of the crude tools these primitive hunters used to kill animals. They were not yet able to take advantage of gunpowder or the modern hunting equipment now available to wealthy tourists. As Armstrong points out, ancient arrows could hardly pierce the skin of an animal. That is why they began to apply poison to the tips of the arrows, and the hunters could only wait for it to work and track the animal. It turns out that it was at the very moment when this method of hunting appeared that the thing that we now call religion was born.

As the animal died, the hunters gathered around it, stroking its head and singing songs. If an animal screamed in pain, they cried and sympathized. They saw it as a sacrifice to help them survive. Our ancestors knew they were part of this process, not separate from it. That is how the ritual came about.

Modern vision of religion

Only the romantics of bygone eras can claim that life used to be much simpler than it is now. As Armstrong writes, early humans loved hunting. Many continue this trend today. It's as much in our DNA as our emotions. And the ideology we developed helped us cope with the knowledge that we, like the animals, were going to die.

But the modern vision natural world confuses the person. In a world where science rules and religion is predominantly seen as a building where you have to go to certain time year, something special is lost.

Throughout his book, Armstrong argues that our understanding of what we now call religion is a relatively modern invention, nurtured by secular advances in Europe and America in the last 200 years. This means that there was no phenomenon called religion separate from everyday life. The cosmic and the ordinary existed together.

Difficulties in perception

It's hard to imagine this connection when you no longer need to kill anyone to survive, and you buy meat in the store packaged and already without bones. It is even harder to understand this in modern hunting, where you stand at a distance of hundreds of meters from the animal and pull the trigger. And it's not about qualifications or convenience. It's about empathy. We lack emotions because we are already very far from our origin.

History of creation

In his classic work on the subject, Mircea Eliade wrote: “More useful than classifying myths and searching for their possible origins is the study of their structure and the role they play in the spiritual experience of primitive man.”

The history of creation is very important: it brings us back to earth. Knowing where the tradition originated will help us trace the vicissitudes of ideological adoption over the millennia. Sometimes it's good. We all know the biblical, Qur'anic and other theological passages regarding the slavery and enslavement of women, which should not play any role in our modern world. We have evolved, and for the most part this is a positive development.

But sometimes old wisdom has value. Our ancestors understood that if they take something, then it is necessary to give something in return. Rituals that may seem strange to us today were attempts to do just that.

Christians borrowed their main holidays - Easter and Christmas - from other religions.

Jesus and Mithra are twin brothers

The tendency of the Christian Church to pass off other people's holidays as their own has long been known. So, for example, at one time the Christian church appropriated the birthday of the solar god Mithra (otherwise, the birthday of the Invincible Sun - dies natalis Solis invicti), which took place in the Roman Empire on December 25, turning it into the nativity of its own god, day, month, and even whose year of birth they did not know.

Mithra was one of the most popular gods of Eastern origin. The cult of Mithra resembles not only the cult of the Great Mother, but also Christianity in its doctrine and ritual. The similarity was so obvious that many Christian theologians interpreted it as the machinations of the devil. The similarity of the doctrines and individual elements of the Christian and Mithraic cults is indeed great. Suffice it to say that Mithra, like Jesus, was sentenced to death and resurrected on the third day. The Encyclopedia Britannica points to numerous Mithraic rites identical to Christian ones, such as: the use of holy water, communion, the consecration of Sunday and December 25, as well as a similar dogmatic basis: the atoning sacrifice, the immortality of the soul, the last judgment, the resurrection of the flesh, and so on.

But back to the birth of the Sun, which was celebrated on December 25 according to the Julian calendar. In Syria and Egypt, during the celebration of the Nativity of the Sun, the celebrants ran out of the temple at midnight shouting “The virgin has given birth! Light abides! and even put on display a doll that personified the born god. The virgin who gave birth to a son on December 25 was the great eastern goddess, whom the Semites called the Heavenly Virgin and acted as the hypostasis of Astarte. The Mithraists called Mithra the All-Conquering Sun and therefore dated his birth on December 25th.

The Gospels do not mention the date of the birth of Christ in a single word, so the early Christians did not celebrate this holiday. However, over time, Egyptian Christians began to consider Christmas on January 6th. The custom to celebrate this date spread throughout the East by the 4th century. But at the beginning of the 4th century, the Western Church established December 25 as the true date. Over time, the Eastern Church agreed with this decision.

The fact that Christmas has pagan roots is tacitly acknowledged by Blessed Augustine when he admonishes the brothers in Christ to celebrate this day not as pagans, that is, because of the birth of the Sun, but for the sake of the one who created this sun. From all this it is clear that the church decided to celebrate the birthday of its founder on December 25 in order to transfer the religious zeal of the "pagans" from the Sun to their own god.

God stole a holiday from God

Christians borrowed their main holiday not from the Romans, but from the Jews. This is the main Jewish holiday Pesach, in Russian - Easter. The Jews celebrated and continue to celebrate this holiday, dedicating it to their exodus from Egypt, the liberation of "God's chosen people" from "Egyptian slavery." That is why the holiday is called "Pesach", which means "passing by" in Hebrew.

Let us recall the biblical legend underlying this holiday. Pharaoh did not let the Jews who wanted to leave. Then the Jewish god began to send various curses on the Egyptians. At first, these curses were in the nature of dirty tricks - toads, midges and flies. However, soon the anger of Yahweh-Jehovah grows stronger - now he sends pestilence, inflammation with boils, hail and locusts. This ends with the Jewish god killing all the Egyptian firstborn - all children, including babies (so that the all-seeing god does not confuse "his people" with the Egyptians, God's chosen ones smeared their doors with blood.) Then the pharaoh let the Jews go. But before leaving, God's chosen ones still managed to rob the Egyptians. The Jews asked their Egyptian girlfriends to “reproach” gold jewelry, and the Jewish men borrowed from the Egyptians, initially not intending to give it back.

Well, the story is really funny and the faithful have been rejoicing in it for the third thousand years. However, what does it have to do with Jesus Christ? And none. The events described in the gospels - the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ - coincided in time with the Jewish holiday. The Christians themselves, with childlike spontaneity, declared that now Easter is "the day of the bright resurrection of Christ." However, the position of Christians in Judea at the beginning of the 1st century AD was much weaker than in the Roman Empire in the 4th century, when Christianity became the official religion of the Empire. The Jews did not give up their holiday, and then the Christians decided to celebrate Easter on another day. To justify this decision, a complex and confusing system for calculating the day of Easter was later invented. Note that not a single church Christian holiday is calculated in such a strange and ornate way as Easter. All the rest (for example, Christmas) for some reason stand still. This means that Christians still celebrate the Jewish Passover, passing it off as their holiday.

Moreover, so that people would not confuse the “bright” Christian Easter with the incomprehensible Jewish Easter, in a believing environment, preachers spread all sorts of stories that were by no means canonical. One of those terrible Black Hundred stories hundred years ago can still be heard in the Orthodox-Christian milieu. According to it, the Jews at Easter make a pudding soaked in the blood of a Christian baby, who is stolen for this purpose. It must be admitted that it is difficult to come up with a more vile nationalist lie in gratitude for a borrowed holiday!

Attis is risen! Risen in truth!

Again, as in the case of Christmas (but historically earlier!), Christians decided to appropriate the joyful holiday of another religion. Since they started this business back in Judea, they tried to appropriate the local, ethnic holiday. However, Judaism was not widespread in the countries of the East, excluding, in fact, the area of ​​Jewish settlement. It was not widespread in the countries southern Europe. For these peoples, the joy of the Jews about the flight from the Egyptians was not relevant. For them, the celebration of death and the resurrection of another Asian god, which falls at the same time of the year - spring, was more relevant. Indeed, the Greek, Sicilian and Italian Easter rites are remarkably reminiscent of the cult of Adonis. The Church deliberately adapted new holiday to his pagan prototype in order to recruit as many supporters as possible. But the cult of Adonis flourished in the Greek-speaking areas ancient world. In Latin-speaking countries, the cult of Adonis was not widespread. But the cult of Attis was popular, whose death and resurrection were officially celebrated in Rome on March 24 and 25. The last number was considered the day of the spring equinox, that is, the day most suitable for the revival of the god of vegetation, who had slept like a dead sleep all winter.

Given these and some other facts, the English historian Fraser comes to the conclusion that the ascent of Christ to Golgotha ​​was specifically timed to coincide with this date in order to correspond to the more ancient celebration of the spring equinox.

Down and Out trouble started!

It is also worth remembering that the celebration of St. George's Day in April replaced the ancient pagan holiday of Parilia; that the day of St. John the Baptist came to replace the summer pagan holiday of water (Ivan Kupala); that the feast of the Assumption Holy Mother of God in the month of August replaced the feast of Diana; All Saints' Day in November was a continuation of the pagan Feast of the Dead. Christians generally liked to appropriate the holidays of other religions.

But such unambiguous coincidences between the dates of the resurrection of the Christian god and pagan gods led to fierce disputes between followers of warring religions: the pagans argued with fervor that the resurrection of Christ was a fake for the resurrection of Attis, and the Christians argued with equal vehemence that it was the resurrection of Attis that was the diabolical forgery. The pagans claimed that their god, being older, was not a copy, but the original, because the original is usually older than the copy. But Christians easily deflected this argument. Let Christ, they argued, be a god younger in time, but in fact he is older, since Satan in this case surpassed himself in deceit and reversed the course of nature. But let's leave these amazing theological discoveries alone and return to the equally impressive experiments in the appropriation of holidays. And Easter again. Now orthodox (Orthodox).

We paint eggs and rejoice

Things are even stranger with Orthodox Easter. Since Christianity is not the original religion in Russia, but was forcibly established at the end of the first millennium of our era, the Jewish holiday appropriated by Christians fell at the time when the Slavs celebrated their "pagan" holidays. It was one of the many rituals of Slavic paganism that was the offering of eggs to the gods. Of course, not only eggs were brought, but also other edible products. On the one hand, the egg was a minimal gift to numerous idols, and on the other hand, it could perform a symbolic function. Much later than the Christians encountered this pagan ritual, an absurd story was invented about the egg that Mary presented to the Emperor. This story, by the way, testifies to the spiritual and intellectual primitivism of the people who composed it, since it is a sluggish, feeble-minded and unsuccessful attempt to explicitly artificially include a pagan ritual in the mythological plot of Christianity (well, think for yourself what the painted chicken eggs to Jesus Christ?).

The example of Easter shows that this holiday is borrowed in several stages and in different places. To begin with, they borrowed from the Semites the name of the holiday and the system for calculating it according to lunar calendar. Then they borrowed from the Greeks and Romans the content and meaning of the holiday itself. And only then they collected various pagan rituals. To make it more fun. Here it is, the essence of Christianity: to celebrate with pagan rituals a Roman holiday with a Jewish name, calculated according to the lunar calendar!

Not everyone knows and understands why certain people created a religion many centuries ago, and what goals are pursued by those who spread it around the world for many centuries, but I will gladly share revealing information that will reveal to your eyes the whole truth about religion. This deep truth will never be revealed to you by religious leaders and will keep it secret from you with all their might. In our information age, it's time to understand that all lies, no matter how disguised or very similar to the truth, become clear.

Religion has many different goals and the most important goal is power over other people! Complete control of people's minds and worship of those who are trying to impose this or that faith on us. Of course, many millions of people will not agree with me, since a seed of faith was planted in their head from early childhood, from which a strong religious tree grew, but it is never too late to cut down this tree in order to finally become a truly free person. Freedom is the most important thing in our life, and religion makes a person limited and does not allow to think broadly. Many people limit themselves only to what is written in religious books and firmly believe them, but if you think about it more deeply, you begin to understand that there is a completely different side of the coin. The one that allows you to think for yourself and draw your own conclusions about where people and, in general, all the space around us came from. Unfortunately, until now, religious communities have great power over many people and with great joy impose their teachings in order to make novices from the people who carry donations into their hands (under the pretext that all this is for God and for the right deeds), but in fact, the god they preach money does not need, because it simply does not exist. Naturally, the lion's share of donations settles at the highest level of the religious system and only then is distributed to lower levels. Churches play on the feelings of people and force them to worship a god that was invented many centuries ago by cunning loafers who want to rule over people.

Of course, churches these days don't have the power and influence that they used to have, but if they are given full rein, there will be real chaos, which has happened many times in the past when there were no stable policies and laws. Let's just remember the Inquisition and Crusades that killed thousands of innocent lives. The popes gladly proclaimed campaigns and forced them to convert to Christianity by force. The Holy Inquisition fought heresy and burned those who deviated from generally accepted religious teachings. This is only a small part of what happened in those troubled times and how many wars were kindled on religious grounds. Of course, now is not the Middle Ages and such crazy deeds are unacceptable by law. In our time, religion is a source of income for those who manage it, and only the blind do not notice this. On faith people make huge millions and all this money goes to certain individuals who have all control over the process. Have you ever wondered why there are so many religious beliefs and why new ones are constantly multiplying? It does not take a very smart person to understand what the reason is, and it is only in one thing - new religious communities are chasing a sweet piece of the pie that is held in their hands by long-established religious communities. For example, in European countries, religion is already being hammered in from kindergarten, when the child absorbs everything like a sponge and it is easiest for him to put false information into his head, which is more adulthood becomes part of the truth for him, but in fact, these are only embedded elements of the beliefs of those people who benefit from it. After you are baptized in one church or another in European and many other countries, you become a part of it and belong to its faith, and after you go to work and earn money, church tax is removed from you and these are huge sums when a certain number of people belong to a particular church. For example, disconnection from the Catholic Church is punishable by a fine and this is just complete absurdity. One of my acquaintances in Finland received a fine of 300 euros when he refused the Catholic faith, and these religious figures are still talking about some kind of god. Yes, this is a real robbery on their part.

People will never stop being interested in who created them and in general how everything around appeared, up to the universe itself. If a person comes up to you who says that I know everything and that the very thing that interests mankind most of all has been opened to me. Will you believe him? If you are a perfectly reasonable and normal person, then you will immediately understand that he is bluffing, but if he provides you with real evidence, then it will be true! Where are the facts and evidence of those who by all means impose different faiths and religions? Of course, religious figures will say that there is evidence - this is an old book like the "Bible or Koran", in which an allegedly sacred text is written. They decided that if the book is 2000 or more years old, then this is proof, but in reality it is just a book that was written by ordinary mortals like you. Each of us or a small group of people is capable of writing a new religion and inventing a new god or many gods, but will it be true? Don't limit yourself to one book and open your brain to broader thinking. Earlier, I have already outlined all the arguments and thoughts about why a religion was created and what goals religious leaders have, but still I will continue to tell you, since there are many goals. Let's start from the moment when the Bible appeared and think about who benefited from it and what it was actually created for, and then move on to its competitor called the Koran. These two books have a strong influence on the minds of people, and by the way, there has been a fierce war between these two religious teachings for a long time. Some do not like some - others others, as they are fighting for the novices who constantly join this or that teaching. In addition to the Muslim and Christian faiths, there are many others, but they are less popular, since there is much less time and in their ranks there are many less people. The most important and important detail in every religious community is to wrap its influence around as many people as possible so that they bear donations. When there were no monetary units in the world, churches fought for power and tried to control people in order to dictate their rules to them. Religion influenced not only the minds of ordinary people, but even the minds of kings, kings and other important people who dominated the peasants. Church officials could easily start a war, and they did it repeatedly to take even more people under their power. Many were simply forced and coerced to believe in a certain god that was imposed on them, and in case of refusal they were simply killed. Much evil is lurking precisely in such creeds, and it does not give anything good to people. Of course, churches today can no longer force people to believe, but they are trying to act differently and their actions are quite insidious. Parents who have been instilled with faith since childhood naturally try to hammer it into their children's heads, and this goes on from generation to generation. In Europe, already from kindergarten, they begin to instill faith and little children begin to unquestioningly believe, since their own opinion has not yet been formed. Religion is so oppressive political system that even in the gardens there is a complete zombification of children without the right to choose. They inculcate their creeds in children and many fall into the trap of religious addiction. Of course, addiction manifests itself differently for everyone, someone is completely immersed in religion, and someone remains on the path of doubt, and only a small part understands over time that religion is a sweet deception that makes herd sheep out of people.

Now the era of technology is in the yard and a lot has already been studied, and especially proven by scientists. Of course, it is still not clear to anyone and even scientists cannot give an exact answer how life on earth originated, but there are some assumptions on this subject and they carry a more weighty argument than a god invented by certain people. Just think about the nonsense that they talk about in religious books: God created a woman and a man, who later began to bear children, and children still have children, and so on. It turns out that we are all sisters and brothers, and this leads to the fact that billions of sisters and brothers all over the world sleep with each other, but this turns out to be world incest, which sounds just awful! Let's now reflect on such a fictional character as Jesus Christ, who is allegedly the son of the Almighty, whom religious figures like to talk about. Was there really such a person, and where is the proof that he is the son of the creator and does this creator really exist? I can say with full confidence that religion and fictional gods are a crazy lie that strongly sticks into the brains of people and it is difficult to get rid of it, since it is laid in people's heads already at an early stage of development. In this world, so many circumstances put pressure on people, and some figures try to influence the mind, and this deprives a person of the true freedom that was given to him from birth. Some frames, labels and creeds only limit a person, and especially if they are hung on him from childhood, when the personality is at the very dawn of formation. Surely you will ask why I am so sure that religion is a hoax and that there is no god that is written about in religious books, to which I will give you a completely objective answer. Firstly, not a single priest, priest or other religious figure has absolutely no opportunity to prove the existence of the creator who is written about in religious books, and if there are no facts and evidence, then this is a fairy tale or fiction. Secondly, if you think about it normally and carefully weigh everything, then you begin to understand that religion binds people hand and foot, and this, in turn, kills a person’s freedom. Thirdly, if you listen to your inner voice, it will give a powerful signal that will reveal the truth to you and you will really understand that you are simply being deceived. Each person has been given a mind and should be used at their own discretion, and not allowed to be controlled by others. If you are suggestible, you are strongly influenced by ancient stories or books like the bible, then it is easy for you to hammer any lies into your head, and this is a serious problem that needs to be dealt with.

Each person is unique and must personally decide whether he needs this or that faith, but many do not ask this and simply try to put it in their ears from a young age, so that as an adult a person believes in what he has been hammered into his head for many years . I believe that these are insidious methods and this should be completely excluded. Religion should be taken in a more rigid framework and given to a person only when his thinking is fully formed. The child is not even asked if he needs it and they simply pour false information into his ears. It is sad that in many religious families this method of instilling faith is practiced, and in principle these people are not to blame, since behind everything there is a religious system that managed to influence weaker minds many centuries ago. Of course, you can’t convince a deeply religious person, since his faith is complete fanaticism, from which he actually suffers. There are a lot of believers all over the world and in fact they need the help of a person who can open their eyes and prove that there is no god and all this is a cunning invention of people who wanted to rule over others. Many people have this question: but if not the Lord, about whom religion speaks, created everything around, then who did it? Here I want to clearly note that not a single person on our planet knows who created everything around and all the creatures that inhabit the earth. It’s just that at a certain moment it was very beneficial for someone to invent a god so that there would be a strong advantage over those who are interested in the question of who we are and why on this earth. Just think, when people were uneducated and there was little information in their heads, then naturally a person supposedly knowing who created everyone immediately became elected and could dictate his rules to others.

In our information days, when technology is taking over everything, scientists are trying with all their might to solve this question, since many of the great scientists do not believe in the tales told by religious figures and these are actually false tales that are not proven and not confirmed by anything. . Now the bright minds of science have managed to look into other galaxies and even look into the very end of the universe, where red radiation prevails, but the most amazing thing is that nowhere in this billions of light-years stretched space did they see God. All this leads only to thoughts that they are deceiving us from early childhood and trying to turn us into obedient servants of God in order to manipulate us like puppets. The cunning system of religious leaders was created precisely for this vile purpose, and now this system makes billions of people on faith. Churches in Russia live on donations, and when millions of believers bring money there, this amount becomes multimillion. Now Russian religious leaders are trying with all their might to get into politics and influence the political machine in order to create the same mechanism as in Europe and America: the one who belongs to the church and works will be charged a church percentage, and this is very convenient, as there will be a stable cash flow to the bank accounts of the luminaries of religion. If you carefully study the entire system built by religious leaders, you can easily see what goals it actually pursues and why this system is trying with all its might to hammer the creed into the head of people. When a person begins to believe and becomes a novice, it is much easier to take something from him or just control him. Of course, it’s hard to believe in all these words, and even more so for those who have religion hammered into their brains since childhood, but it’s never too late to open your mind and let in what is actually the truth. Why do you think there are so many religions? Yes, only because new teachers appear and they also want to snatch a piece of the money pie, which is held in the hands of the dominant religious communities. Like it or not, but every priest, priest and other religious figure is chasing money, since these days it is the first goal that the church faces.

Now let's discuss in more detail about the creator mentioned in the religious books and think about this issue more thoughtfully. Religion and creeds have been told since ancient times, and information about God is transferred from generation to generation, and religious books also have a certain influence on people. Fortunately, I grew up in a family where they practically didn’t talk about religion and didn’t try to drive religious teachings into their heads, but still external factors tried to influence me. From the age of 7 I began to understand that they are trying to deceive me and drive an incredible fairy tale into my head, which many people swallow with a bang. For the first time I was taken to church at this age and I asked the priest a direct question: father, I hear about this god from many people, that he supposedly created us and everything around, but is there any hard evidence or confirmation of his existence? He answered this question as follows: of course, my son is - this is first of all holy book"Bible", and the second is that God is inside each of us and at some point he will open up to you. The answer immediately showed distrust in me and after that I never again crossed the threshold of the church, and over time I began to study the activities of each religious community in more detail and came to the conclusion that they were only trying to influence our minds and, of course, get material benefits from us. Let's now fast forward many centuries ago, for example, in the days of the Aborigines and see what happened then. It is unlikely that any of the people then thought about God, since at that time people only cared about one thing - this is where to get food and find a place warmer. Over time, people evolved and writing appeared, and they also began to invent all sorts of gods. If you think about it, there were a huge number of deities and someone thought that lightning was the wrath of God, the storm was also divine wrath, and so on, and over time it turned out that these were just weather phenomena, which is quite normal for our planet.

If the bible says not to kill, then why do people kill thousands of innocent animals and serve them on the table in the form of a steak or add them to soup? After all, if we take into account religious books, then God created all living things and animals also come out of his creations. It turns out that he allowed other living beings to be killed and served on the table, which sounds really terrible. After all, other living creatures are also alive and feel pain, like all people on this planet. All religious leaders happily eat meat and do not think about the pain the animal experienced when it was slaughtered. In fact, people can live without meat, and they just teach us from childhood to eat meat, but if a child is given with early age vegetable food, then he will become a vegetarian and he will not need meat products at all, since vegetable food has everything necessary for the human body to function normally.

Earlier, I already mentioned that many people from childhood begin to inspire fairy tales about God, just like teaching them to eat meat, which is already difficult to refuse at an older age, as well as information about God stuffed into their heads. Studies have been conducted and children who live in families where religion predominates, as well as in families whose parents do not believe in God, have been interviewed. Of course, the children of religious families absorb the information of their parents and naturally believe in God, whom they are trying to put into their brains from early childhood, but in a non-religious family everything is reversed and these children grow up as free individuals, whose brains are not full of fictional stories that thousands have come up with. years ago. I repeat once again that it is beneficial for religious communities when people believe, and that is why they are trying with all their might to impose their incredible teachings on others, which relate to fairy tales, not facts. Now let's think about why the creator, who is written about in the Bible, the Koran, and so on, appeared to only one person, and not to everyone at once? If he created all of us, everything around us and even the universe, then why is he hiding and not wanting to show his face to others? Surely you have never thought about this, but it's time to think a little and reflect on these questions. For example, over time, people will create robots on earth that will think like we do and have an advanced brain, which, by the way, is where everything goes. It turns out that people will not hide and hide from their creatures, which should be the same with the god that religious figures talk about. The creator who is written about in religious books should not hide as a ghost and simply must appear to all of us, but this has not happened for many thousands of years and there is only one conclusion: religion is a complete deception, but unfortunately many do not understand this. The religious system is simply beneficial to certain individuals, but someone does not understand this and believes in a myth. In Russia, many donate money to the church, others material values and it all goes to the church ministers and those who run the whole system. Many millions are made every month on the faith of people, and only a small part really understands this, since from early childhood mythical stories about God have settled in the head, and especially among the older generation. Religious teachings make a person limited and deprive him of his freedom, as they make him think only about what is written in religious books. Because of religion, many exclude other options for the appearance of people on this earth and everything around.

Believing religious books is the same as believing that if I tell you that people were created by a creature that lives in a parallel world, but then you ask, where is the evidence? Of course, I won’t give them to you, since they don’t exist, but if I write a book and say that it is sacred, then will you believe me? Then perhaps you will believe if I still connect a group of people who will inspire with all their might that this is really true and that he really saw the creature he is talking about in this book. Each of you can come up with your own religion and start hammering into the heads of the younger generation, but there is one problem: stronger competitors will not let you promote it, as you will interfere with them and take away from them fresh heads into which you can drive your teachings. Of course, if you have a lot of money, it will be a little easier to deal with competitors who carry their religious teachings around the world. Any church system has its own ranks and steps through which progress is made, which is reminiscent of a game that adults are passionate about. The higher the church rank, the stronger your authority and naturally you have more from this. For example, the Pope and his henchmen almost bathe in gold, and their Vatican is a gold machine that generates huge cash flows, but the Vatican is far from the only place that, on the faith of people, makes unthinkable amounts of money. Let's take for example one of the European countries, let's say Finland, where, legally, religious communities are removed from wages people church tax, unless of course a person belongs to a particular religion. Let's at least make a small calculation in order to know approximately what amounts we are talking about. Let's take for example Orthodox Church, to which 500 thousand working residents of the country belong and each contributes a church tax of 1.5%, let's say from a salary of 2000 euros - this comes out to 30 euros per month, and if you multiply this amount by 500 thousand workers belonging to the church, then the amount is 15 million euros every month and that's a lot of money. Where do you think this money goes? God? Of course not! All this wealth settles in a powerful religious system, which, with its teachings, is trying to zombify the population. It turns out that the people need to pay for believing in a god whose existence has not been proven and will never be proven, since this is a cunning deception that was conceived thousands of years ago by certain individuals in order to subdue the will of people. It turns out that huge masses of people pay simply for what they were inspired from childhood, and in fact it is a pity for such people, since they are under the strong influence of the religious system. Such madness needs to be stopped and I am writing these lines from the bottom of my heart, as I am fed up with the religious system, which is built on total deceit.

I really feel sorry for those children who are not given a choice and are told stories about God from an early age. That is why in all European and many other countries, from the very kindergarten, they are trying to instill religious teachings and make a person a believer in something that does not really exist. Church officials often visit kindergartens and schools to tell children about God, since it is during the formation of thinking that it is easiest for a child to inspire something. I believe that each person is unique in his own way and each has a particle of freedom, but at an early stage they try to trample this freedom in every possible way in order to enslave a person not in the physical plane, of course, but in the spiritual one. If you have reached these lines, then perhaps you begin to understand what I am talking about and apparently agree with me.

Recent publications on related topics

We are all probably very familiar with the concept of "Islamic fundamentalism." Numerous terrorist attacks, the war in Chechnya, hostage-taking, etc., etc.

A very large part of the people in this world are united by one religion - Islam. We all know very well the founder of Christianity - Jesus Christ. But what is known about the founders of Islam. Where did this religion come from?

Mohammed (570-632) was the founder of Islam. Mohammed was born in 570 in Mecca, in southern Arabia; at that time it was a backward region, remote from the centers of trade, crafts and education. From the age of six, Mohammed was orphaned, grew up and was brought up in poverty. According to Islamic tradition, Mohammed was illiterate. But his financial situation improved when, at the age of twenty-five, he married a wealthy widow. But even when he was already under forty, nothing yet said that Mohammed was an outstanding personality. Most of the Arabs then were pagans and professed polytheism. True, there were a small number of Jews and Christians in Mecca, and, perhaps, it was from them that Mohammed first learned about the one omnipotent God, the ruler of the Universe. When Mohammed was forty years old, he came to the conclusion that this only true God (Allah) speaks to him through the archangel (Gabriel) and made him, Mohammed, his chosen one for the sake of spreading the true faith among people. For about three years Mohammed preached the new faith to a narrow circle of relatives and friends.

However, in 613 he began to give public sermons. Gradually, he gained supporters, and the authorities of Mecca began to look at him as a troublemaker. In 622, fearing persecution, Mohammed fled to Medina (a city 200 miles north of Mecca), where he managed to acquire considerable power and influence. This exodus from Mecca, called the Hijra, was a turning point in the life of the prophet. If in Mecca he had a few followers, then in Medina their number became much larger, and soon he gained such influence that he turned there, in fact, into an unlimited ruler. In the next few years, as the number of Mohammed's followers grew rapidly, military clashes broke out between Mecca and Medina. This war ended in 630 with the triumphant return of Mohammed the victor to Mecca*. (* There is evidence that he received the support of many ordinary Bedouins in Mecca itself, as they wanted to get rid of the oppression of the priests of the Kaaba and usurers.).

The next two and a half years of the prophet's life were marked by the rapid transition of the Arab tribes to the new faith. On the eve of his death in 632 Mohammed was already the ruler of all of South Arabia. The Arabian Bedouin were known as fierce warriors. True, they were relatively few in number, internecine wars often took place among them, and they did not have a large army, as in the northern states with a settled agricultural population. However, a small army of Arabs, united for the first time in history by Mohammed and inspired by a zealous faith in the true God, was able to carry out conquests amazing in their scope. In the northeast of Arabia, the possessions of the New Persian Sassanid Empire stretched, and in the northwest was the Byzantine Empire. Numerically, the Arabs were clearly inferior to their opponents. Nevertheless, on the battlefield, the Arabs, inspired by the new faith, quickly conquered all of Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine. By 642, they took Egypt from Byzantium, (and the Dersidrian army was defeated in decisive battles at Kadisiya in 637 and at Nehavend in 642. But these great conquests, carried out under the leadership of the closest friends and followers of Mohammed Abu Bekr and Omar , did not mean the end of the Arab expansion.In 711, the Arabs captured North Africa and reached Atlantic Ocean, after which they crossed the Strait of Gibraltar and conquered Visigothic Spain. There was a moment when it seemed that Muslims could conquer all of Christian Europe. Only in 732 did the Muslim troops, which reached the center of France, fail.

Nevertheless, within a century, these Bedouin warriors, inspired by the word of the prophet, created an empire that stretched from the borders of India to the Atlantic Ocean - the most extensive at that time. And everywhere in the conquered lands, many followers of the new faith appeared. Not all of these gains were equally strong. The Persians, although they retained the faith of the prophet, subsequently achieved independence from the Arabs. The Spaniards, after seven centuries, finally conquered the entire peninsula as a result of the Christian Reconquista. Mesopotamia and Egypt, these two cradles of the most ancient civilization, remained Arab, as did North Africa. And the new religion in the following era continued to spread far beyond the borders of the original region of Muslim conquests. Tens of millions of Muslims now live in Africa and Central Asia and even more in Pakistan, northern India and Indonesia. In Indonesia, the new faith has also become a once unifying factor. In India, on the contrary, the contradictions between Hindus and Muslims remain the main obstacle to unity.

P.S. Although there are about half as many Muslims in the world as Christians, they represent a more cohesive group of people united by one religion. The influence of Islam as a religion has a very strong influence on the life and behavior of this group.
Many Muslims, unfortunately, are a threat to the lives and safety of many people in the world. The influence of Islam is growing, which in itself raises the question "How will this affect the future of all mankind?"

Answer from Leccinum aurantiacum[guru]
From the outside world.

Answer from Pendragon_[guru]
religion came from people who replaced worship with the heart with human commandments

Answer from Anya Zalushko[guru]
Religion was created to control the masses. What religion has in common with faith is only an object of admiration. And she took it from the supreme rulers, who were simply tired of managing only a sword, and at that time a stone and a stick. Now they rule us with money and our dependence on that money.

Answer from Iolanta[guru]
A religious person, regardless of religious affiliation, is convinced of the high, as a rule, frank origin of the religion he professes. If he (as usually happens) received his religious concepts from his parents, from the social environment, in the process of getting an education or otherwise, he will look at all these sources as intermediate instances, erecting the original origin of the religious information, ideas he received, rules, customs to the divine source, no matter how he (or them) imagined. Further from me already ... It is natural for a person to BELIEVE ... and not only to people and the environment ... but preferably also to the other world ... writing off on God's possible joys and hardships, asking for help, praying .... when it's kind - wonderful, when fanatical and murderous - I don't understand ... Theories of the origin of religion will not be enough to fill your head with a subject - for the study of which people put many years of work - without discovering the TRUTH ... I think the treatises are useless to you ... there is not enough space for an answer. quietly, peacefully, modestly A person who does not profess it, rejects it, considers it (in whole or in part) a delusion looks at the origin of a particular religion in a completely different way. For him, in principle, one or another of the numerous naturalistic theories of the origin of religions, with which we will briefly become acquainted, may be acceptable. At the same time, atheists, outright rejecting the truth of any religion28, are looking for a common socio-economic, psychological, state-political or other reason to explain the origin of all of them. Adherents of a particular religion, being convinced of its divine origin, often deny it to other religions, considering them as a delusion and explaining their emergence by natural, historically established factors29.

Answer from Verunya[guru]
There is a book called Religion by Paul Poupart that explains a lot.

Answer from naruto[active]
From the inability of people to think.

Answer from Bee[guru]
Religion is Faith. And Faith is the belief that in fact it is impossible to prove definitively.