Is religion used for control?
yes. obviously.
right!
Or more to the point… this doesn’t mean that control is the reason why it exists and the only purpose that it serves.
So for me the crucial question is how do we separate out the parts of religion which were added to make it a tool of control?
For this I employ the following rule of thumb. If something serves and is convenient for a particular purpose then the probability is high that this purpose is the origin of and reason for that particular thing. So when we look at some aspect of religion and see that it is very convenient for the use of religion for power and control then it is a good bet that this is one of the things added to religion in order to make it serve that purpose.
For example… one that came up recently in our discussion of “what is sin?” was the definition of sin as disobedience. Not only is this supremely convenient and useful for those using religion as a tool of power and control, but we have ample historical evidence of just how bad things can get when obedience becomes a high virtue in a society. History thus shows that obedience is the LAST thing we want to put in opposition to evil and sin.
Thus you can say that one of my goals – my agenda as it were – is to defang Christianity by removing those elements which make it easy to use as a tool for power. You can begin by putting things in God’s hands and removing the legalism which give people the hook they need for telling others what they must do and how they must live their lives.