The hijack of morality by religion

What is meaning of 'morality'?
It could be defined as, the distinction between proper and improper thoughts, intentions and actions. 

Who defines what is moral or immoral?
As far as we can remember, morality has been defined by religion.  By religion we mean institutionalised/organised religion.
Structured as an institution with clear organisational hierarchies, defined powers and role of  priests (officers).  Religions are structured like the Communist party says Pope Francis.
Religions can only produce blind, compliant followers who, unquestioningly obey the diktats of the clergy.  Any non-compliance is always dealt with by inflicting severe physical and mental punishment, social boycott, in many cases torture and even death. 

Institutionalised Religions cannot tolerate intellectual or awakened beings, even when one appears. This is why great masters like the Sikh Gurus, Jesus, the Sufi master Mansur Al-Hallaj  were brutally tortured and killed. 
Politics and organised religion are two sides of the same coin. That is why morality has traditionally been defined exclusively by religion. Religions work in tandem with the state and the ruling elites, with the sole purpose of enhancing their own wealth, power and influence.

Religions practice politics with morality as a powerful and effective control tool. Politics, is all power and control. It demands intrigue, deception and extreme ruthlessness. It usually brings out the worst of human nature, the desire for dominance over others.

That is why the worst atrocities in Human history have been carried out in the name of religion. Those who make us believe in absurdities will also make us commit atrocities.

Religions and politicians can make us do these things because we let them. 
At heart the vast majority of humanity are spiritually pure, morally good and intellectually trusting people. Unfortunately we humans are inherently spiritually and intellectually lazy, therefore we are easily misguided, fooled and indoctrinated. Is it any surprise that we cling to the religious version of morality?

The more the rules, the more foreign the language, the greater the scope of abuse. All religions except Buddhism and Sikhism use language such as Latin, Arabic, Sanskrit which are known only to a very small minority of followers and restricted to the priestly class. 
Add to the language challenge the reference to incidents and people in contexts thousands of years old, and the masses are completely blind and confused. Impossible to relate to but sufficient to awe-strike people, the masses throng to religion out of fear and greed.

Thus the priests and religions use, rather misuse religious knowledge not for the benefit for humanity but for enhancing their individual and institutional power and wealth. So persistent and aggressive are religions that they wear down and destroy all resistance. Eventually the masses simply submit to religious authorities to buy their sanity and survival.

New pathways have been demonstrated by Gautama Buddha and the Sikh Gurus. Alas they too have become afflicted by the same malaise of other religions. Yet Buddhism and Sikhism offer the best chances to to provide humanity with morality.

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Organised religion is not benign, politics has made religion toxic.
To keep minds from thinking and feeling, religion covers the being under several cloaks of darkness. They function to,
1. Keep people ignorant. Restrict access to all channels of information, learning and influence. So place strict curbs on literacy, and restrict interactions between followers and non followers of the religion.
2. Instil fear. 
3. Tempt them with greed. Promise them fulfilment of their wants and desires. Offer them heavenly delights in the afterlife.
4. Intense and regular indoctrination.  Starting in childhood, continue to program them to obey without questioning.
5. Never permit them to doubt, and forcefully curb the urge to raise any kind of questions.
6. Closely monitor compliance. 
7. Maintain strict discipline to ensure compliance and mete out severe punishment for non compliance.

Religion is increasingly unable to use these tactics any longer. People are openly expressing dissatisfaction with religion.

Its plain to see that the number of followers of all religions are increasing, but practitioners are decreasing.  

The thirst for spiritual growth drives humans to seek answers in religion. Unfortunately traditional and institutionalised religions are unable to provide this.   That is why there is a proliferation of, 30,000 different Church denominations , 73 Islamic schools of beliefs, numerous schools of Buddhism, and the proliferation of Hindu and Sikh Babas and Gurus. All of them hostile to one another even in the same religion.

Organised religion is discovering to its dismay, its easy to hijack but impossible to keep the questioning and thirsty human spirit imprisoned for long.

The frightening thing is organised religion has played so central a role in human societies throughout history, that humanity cannot seem to live with, nor cannot live without, organised religion. 

Wish to review and comment - Checklist to determine toxicity level of an Organised Religion.