questioning organized religion

Ouch.

"The daughters of the high priest Anius changed whatever they chose into wheat, wine or oil. Athalida, daughter of Mercury, was resuscitated several times. Aesculapius resuscitated Hippolytus. Hercules dragged Alcestis back from death. Heres returned to the world after passing a fortnight in hell. The parents of Romulus and Remus were a god and a vestal virgin. The Palladium fell from heaven in the city of Troy. The hair of Berenice became a constellation...Give me the name of one people among whom incredible prodigies were not performed, especially when few knew how to read and write."
Voltair, Miracles and Idolatry

"The solemn elevation of infallible leaders who were a source of endless bounty and blessing; the permanent search for heretics and schismatics; the mummification of dead leaders as icons and relics; the lurid show trials that elicited incredible confession by means of torture...none of this was very difficult to interpret in traditional terms. Nor was the hysteria during times of plague and famine, when the real authorities unleashed a mad search for any culprit but the real one."
Christopher Hitchens

"A mad search for any culprit but the real one",... sounds terribly appropriate doesn't it? The culprit in the end is the institutions, but we are the threat. Any of us who have defied tradition, broken rank and started questioning the institution. How many courageous individuals over the years have been persecuted for trying to bring light to a dark time. Go back through history and its quite obvious, for as many Christians that were persecuted by the Romans during the blossoming of their religion, Christianity in turn returned the favor tenfold as they stepped into infallible shoes of divine authority. I'm only beginning to understand what religion used as a weapon has done to our species. And its truly a catharsis. To go back to the roots of it all, to see it for what it really is,...its liberating. To no longer be bound by superstition, ritual, and fear, that is the meaning of true spiritual freedom.
"I appreciate the games and shit, putting on the tie and going to church and everything da da da but there is a LIVING GOD THAT WILL SPEAK DIRECTLY FUCKING TO YOU!"
Bill Hicks

Living God. That's the key, when we pore over these ancient texts and observe the rituals that existed to wow and awe an audience into reverence we are simply buying into a very sophisticated and collectively respected puppet show. Carry the bible in your right hand and you could be a hatefilled homo-phobic sadist but you've got the right puppet at your disposal, and you've got an audience. Someone will listen because you slipped on the puppet of tradition, that's the power of inanimate divinity. This symbol, this book, this name they only have power when we recognize them as powerful. The second we turn our back on these lifeless tools and relearn about ourselves and our world that is the second GOD simply becomes a manmade word.
Once we stop looking to the inanimate puppets we'd be able to see the LIVING brilliance all around us.