Faith vs. religion

[unixronin]

Viewed as a process, faith can be said to be the ordering of one's life and actions based upon one's personal beliefs of what some intangible higher power has ordained to be right and proper.

Likewise viewed as a process, religion is the systematic usage of other people's faith as a means to gain power and control over them.

Comments

[ithildae]

God does not need intermediaries to express his desires, unless the person is not listening. God needs a hierarchy for the action of Divine authority. Without the structure, anyone can claim to represent God, and do great evil in his name. With the structure, a person need only accept the credentials of the organization, ignoring pretenders. It may sound insular, but God has the capacity to confirm organizational instruction at the individual level. Provided people are listening, a particular leader will not have the ability to take people from the course God desires for his organization. (Plus, if a leader within an authorized organization starts to go off course, God should be able to remove them Himself.)

[unixronin]

Then, honestly, it's about [expletive] time he did. I tend to view the leadership of the world's major religions as all-but-conclusive proof that if there is a god, who is not impotent and is paying attention, then he just plain doesn't give a damn. And in this context, I view the "Ah, but free will..." argument as sophistry.