Hello bfp,

religion has been around as long as man has walked the earth, I don't know of any civilization or even tribes of individuals that did not believe in some diety. Man has a willingness to look for a higher power. Old habits are hard to break and religion is a very complex and complicated thing to understand much less to explain. When catolic monks went into Britton it their task was to convert the celts to christianity. The celts didn't like that they liked the old gods, they had worked in the past and surely were going to work in the future. So the pope told them, if you see them worshiping a tree, bless the tree and tell them to meet there again. What I am saying is a lot of the old habits were incorporated into christianity to win over the "pagan". This may sound like trickery, and I guess it is. But sometimes we get hung up in the "ritural" and historic aspects of christianity instead of accepting the message it gives. That was the problem Jesus had with the scribes. He told them and I am paraphrasing , that the rituals were not important, what was important was the teachings and following those teachings as good as one could. Like I said in an earlier post I can understand why this really ticks some people off about religion or "christianity". I had a preacher get really ticked at me one time because he didn't like my view of what I thought God looked like. What difference does it make? But he was raised to believe that god is an old white haired man setting on a throne surrouned by heavenly host. And he may be, But I don't think it matters, and I don't think I am going to burn in an eternal lake of fire because I don't believe that.
Yes, I believe all religions were based originally on stimuli that affected each group (religion). Didn't mean to write a book. Hope I made some sense.

Thanks,
odin1


People will forgive you for anything -but being right !
odin1