[Locked] What is Religion and the Holy Books Really?

Religion is NOT equal to God.

That is my firm belief and altough the circumstances surrounding that decision are complicated, I'll share the jist of it.

Similar to what has been quoted, many parts of The Bible are truly adaptations of myth. This was to ensure a "simple" transition for all polytheists to a single, universal deity. It was simply easier to adopt the already existing and accepted notions than to radically change the core of it. In the end, humans cannot know the shape or form of our creator, so this is a dead debate point IMO.

The Christian church is the single largest, most powerful organization on the planet. It is commanded to govern over all christians, guiding them onto the right path of faith and belief, which in turn has become a government, far more powerful than any countries. I don't reprimand the church, for it does create and perform many gracious and necessary deeds. What I do wonder about was: who gave this institution the power to rule over the masses? Who gave them the authority to proclaim that a single book, written by MEN and their wordly interpretations is the ture word of a being we cannot hope to understand?

This was the core of my doubts in my younger days, when I was still religious. So on a random day, I asked my priest to answer these questions. Long story short, he became extremely angered at me and told me that I shouldn't ask these questions. That I was angering God by doubting his words. I took my questions to others only to find similar results. No one had answers simply because they chose to blindly believe in words that were not their own, completely disregarding their own reasonings. I still felt the pull of religion and congregation however so I attended, until three years ago, when the reality of it all hit me so hard I left and never looked back.

I had serious problems with my family and we became fractured. My entire congregation sided with one party of the conflict, so myself and the other half of the party were ostracised completely. These (including the preacher) were people that we had dined with on Christmas, we had prayed together, done volunteer work together and shared painful experiences together. Yet it all mattered for nothing in an instant. In anger I told them they had done their religion proud and expressed my points. Not a single person could answer back and many left in tears. If the foundations of someone are so easily swayed and broken, then they weren't strong to begin with.

It was then that I turned areligious, still a firm believer in the Creator, but unsatisfied by worldly explanations that contradict each other. After all this time, I came to a single conclusion: Religion is simply an institution that helps guide people looking to be guided. The Bible is a collection of experiences by people who made a mark in history. By themselves they are complementary, not self-excluding but including, ready to take whoever desires to enter. The real problem are the people who live their life ONLY in accordance to these, as if they were a textbook to follow down to the last detail. The only way to grow is to experience things for yourself; to wander out of the flock and put what you've learned to practice. If not, then you're not truly living the "way"; you're simply going down the same path like a pack of lemmings.