Then that was a very dumb church, and a very dumb person who sent it. It was probably a con.

Again, Whats with all this nonsense that Christianity is the only religion out there?

I'm no historian, however the way I see medival european history is basically that people saw that the only way to move up in life was to con people into thinking that you were out for thier benefit. People in these positions who were wanting to gain power, used thier positions to gain more power and to create an empire where they could have most power with minimum risk to thier self.
Since the systems in place were not set up for "good people" to move above thier station, the good people who were able to adapt and were not really concerned about gaining power, but rather with thier own lives didn't have many means to worry about "what everybody else was doing" and so you had what you had.

People have done this in every system in existance. The greater organization which is doing "good will" for everyone, the more likely it is to become corrupt and be run by people who have almost no intention of good will. Just compare you average "megachurch" to your average "local church." I know that in the Jewish communities, the larger the Synoguge the more likely the leaders ontop arn't such devout Jews in their private lives. And the greatest Sages of our times tend to be in charge of the smallest unkown yeshivas with populations of about 50.


What does "organized" religion even me? In the 60's it ment that if you went to India you weren't in an organized relgion.. even though those cults and religions have been around for thousands of years with very structured rules and heiarchies. Polythieism and Paganism is just as structured and full of corrupt people as any other system of organized peoples. Are those not 'organized' religions... I've seen them organize group projects before...

I've always said this in regards to religion:

Marx said "religion is the opiate of the masses", however if you know anything about how opiates make you feel, the metaphor goes down the drain. So I like to say religion is the alcohol of the masses, you've got your happy drunks that want to tell you how much they love you and want you to take another drink so you can be cool like they are, and you've got your angry drunks who want to kick your a** all over the place unless you drink with them (or you're drinking the wrong drink)...

You must all now bow down before my great Wisdumb

Can anybody say bigotry? You may not believe in a certain religion, but you don't have to come here and flame religion. I assume you think i'm evil for beinng Christian, or for being Mormon, which for those of you who would argue otherwise, IS a Christian religion. Don't you have anything better to do than try to defame a person's beliefs?

Not really, she totally missed my point.



There will ALWAYS be people who wish to do nasty things.
They will ALWAYS find some sort of excuse for their actions.

If it's not religion, it will be something else.

Nearly ALL religions are peaceful. They preach peace. Given that if religion did not exist, another reason for hatred, genocide, murder, etc would substitute itself, we can therefore take religion to be a force for good.



Is it not much the same now?

The basis for the feudal system was mutual self-interest. If you were just a farmer, you were going to get savagely beaten + killed by the first roving band of brigands. If you were a farmer who had your own brigand to look after you, you were sorted. Brigand gets food and tribute, farmer gets protection. Ta da! Feudal system. Dag, your comment is so wonderfully general that it's not particularly indicative of the Medieval age at all.. it's more a comment on human nature, equally applicable in any age.