> Now, if you don't want to sound like a random person on the internet talking about something they don't understand This made me laugh. Thanks for not letting

> Now, if you don't want to sound like a random person on the internet talking about something they don't understand This made me laugh. Thanks for not letting me fall unassisted into such an overpopulated trap. ^_^ > People form religions, the power gets abused, they form new ones, the power gets abused, rinse, lather, repeat. Zeal in general and religious movements in particular are useful. Power imposes its order on anything useful in the exercise of power. States adopt religions, religions adopt armies, people change religions. Lather, rinse, syncrete, repeat. The individual manifestation of religious feeling of a hermit and his favourite cactus is in the main not what gives the "great religions" of today their greatness. > the book humanizes the power structure [...] it exists because of social momentum and peoples' desire for a social support system. To be sure, community centres have existed wherever humans have formed community. I suppose we can agree that our species was living in groups quite early in its evolutionary journey. Group living and pooling resources are fundamentally advantageous survival strategies. But there is order even in such humble groups. Individuals may agree or not on what they believe. A rapid survey of the present or of any other time/place in history shows that they often disagree. Sometimes with weapons. Humanised or not, the power structure serves a few main purposes. Among which: imposition of order, economic management, and (in many examples) military support. The power structure expands to meet the expanding needs of the power structure. Which may even result in people praying for its healthy continuance.