name='Mr. Popo' said:
Who is this "King James"?
Ok, religion, looking at it from an outsider`s pov, is inherently designed to keep the masses in order, and help a figure-head, or a group of figure-heads, in luxury.
Thousands of years ago, it was easier to keep the peasants inline and working for you, as rulers only covered a small area of land, and all you had to do was to threaten them with a beatin and they`d do what u said.
As rulers fought each other, areas of control got bigger and bigger, and it made it alot harder for you to threaten some1 with a stick, even with a nail sticking out of it, when you were 1000s of miles away. In some cases overseas.
Armies could only keep so much control, as they are ultimately filled of such a peoples as you are looking to control. Policing, in the form of localized groups, with a single figurehead working on behalf of ruler worked to a certain degree, even to the extent that they could collect monies for you, keep a percent for themselves and their fellow policers, but this was had to govern, regulate and avoid corruption - particularly when your quickest way to keep in touch with them in some1 running back and fore on a horse, and if they`re 1000s of miles away - even more so.
Now region is clever. What you aim to do here is to get the people to believe in this-that-and-the-other and u`ll go to a good place, we`ll call it `heaven`. Do anything bad, or opposite to what we say is good, and u`ll end up in `hell`. (with all the crazy depictions of cruelty, abuse, torture and suffering) - with a minor mental capacity of a then peasant, that`s very easy to portray.
Even cleverer (if that`s a word), you don`t even have to fight these people. All you need is a bunch of missionaries to settle amoungst the communities and preach to them, and of course take `donations`. The only real conflict is going to happen when either you`ve got some groups talking about older religions, which we`ll call heathens/witches/heretics, and other religions spouted by similar rulers, that we`ll just call heathens. Either way, we can get the public/peasants behind us by making these other religions appear evil, hell-bound, publicly kill them - involving trials they can`t possibly survive (like the ole chuck a witch off a mountain - if they survive they`re evil, if they die they goto the `lord` - lol) - often in a most scarey way involving pain, ridicule - just enough to scare you into staying with `our` true religion.
Biggest conflicts will of course arise when large religions try and take overall control of certain areas. Biggest maybe being the middle east, supposedly named that way as it was really the middle point of the landmass where travel bottle-necked. And to control this area would be paramount.
Tell them the son of the lord was born there ? - would definately get you the largest support for any crusade you would chose to champion.
Then of course, what about this son ? The best way to convey to the masses, who at this point are growing into their millions, would be to have a simple book. Preachers can read from it in their missions, or now churches, for those who aren`t able to read, and they can also explain to them what we mean by what we`ve written. Either way, every1 can be focused on this one book and all the words written inside.
The book idea was brought about by one of the largest rulers of the time, who`s predecessor had already denounced and threatened the previous larger religion, so that he could do pretty much what he wanted. This other religion had already formulated their own bunch of scripts, to keep their peoples in order and keep them fed off the cream, even to the extent of having their own country inside another country. Very good defense, to base yourself inside another country, especially if u can get the country surrounding u to believe also.
This largest ruler of the time got together a collection of writers, and a collection of texts raided from the area they wanted to assume as the birthplace of the son of god, so as to combine the two, keep out anything that could cause them a problem, but pronounce anything that would emphesis what we`re looking to achieve. Areas always have a person that from time to time pops up and causes a group of support for a certain cause or minor belief, we`ll pick one of those and run with it. Plenty to chose from since the Roman occupations.
Make sure u destroy any texts of any other persons in the meantime.
Now, since about the 1600s, you have a book for people to read and follow. A church in which to fund the preachers, so it`s self sustaining. An easy point of converting countries b4 invading them. A basis to trash fellow religious versions, and thus get the greater numbers on your side, greater lands and riches.
It may well be b4 the 1600s, I`m not a historian, and in anycase history is mostly written by the victors.
Hundreds of years ago, if a group of peoples publicly disagreed with anything preached within this book, they would be publicly killed off, by means of some heretic demise. Today, it is less likely to happen, maybe more so in some religions than others - other religions having their own bibles or scripts.
There is coming a point where religion is going to be the evil itself, and science is taking over at an increasing rate. Then we will be at a stage where if a region is more religiously biased than other areas, it will be invaded. It`s already started, but the progress is going to take decades.
The biggest religions will always prevail, interms of control and reign. The biggest one will eventually be Spending.
