In other terms, a religion shows you the way to reach God by giving you a guideline about what to do and what not to do. And about the origin of religion, it is from the Almighty in almost all the religions except few. His Words, His Instructions, His Will etc make those set of beliefs, that one follows as religion. Its all from HIM.
Few days back I read an article: http://www.huffingtonpost.
It talked about the morality vs. religion. Can there be morality without God? And this article lists few experiments conducted on animals which indicate that to do good, one doesn't need religion.
In one of the experiments, the monkeys demonstrated compassion, helpfulness, compassion. The things which are taught by religion. If an animal can do good without knowing the concept of God, After-life, Heaven etc, why can't we? Why we, humans, the most intelligent species, need to be taught to do good things or compelled under some threat (of hell, bad destiny etc) to do good.
That's why I think that the religion was "designed" to keep few of us in line, who are little weak with "morality" concept. I remember childhood incidences when my mother used to make me drink milk by telling that "drink it fast otherwise a monkey will come" (I was scared of monkeys in those days). But now I know that milk is good and monkeys are just animals. The point I am trying to make is that what my mother made me do, was right (as per science too... drinking milk is good) but she had to take the support of my belief system (that I will be in trouble if monkey comes).
In the same way, I think, the religions etc are designed by some visionaries who knew that it would be difficult for all to have same level of maturity in deciding their actions or deeds. hence there has to be some thing (no matter baseless or true) to keep temptations away and to use the "free will" in correct way.
I have read few religious texts from different religions (as hobby only - and haven't read any religion completely), none talks about worshiping etc as a whole. They mostly talk about human conduct. The same things demonstrated through capuchin monkey experiment. Love for fellow being. I believe that these are inbuilt qualities and there not much need of the concept of religion or God to have them.
The people or groups or anything who convinced the society of these things, or started it or wrote those texts, did a splendid work for human society. God and Religions sure kept many of us in-line and helped a lot of us by giving us self-confidence and believe in us.
But, there is a downside of this. There are too many religions created and any religion is not fully open to other ones. All religions say, if you follow me, you are destined to have best in life, after-life or whatever, which indirectly means if you follow some other religion, then it gonna be trouble times ahead. This has led us to religious extremism, hatred for others and communal problems. It has given an opportunity for the competition to prevail between two religions. For many people following religion only is the life. Which next leads to unacceptability towards other religions. Had there been only one religions, wouldn't we be better? But thats a very far-fetched thought, I know.
However, what I feel is we lack education on these grounds. Right from birth we are taught to follow something and being a kid, we never question the acts. The religious teachings always emphasize on rituals more than human conduct and compassion. "Go to Church", "Do Prayers", "Follow this", "Follow that" etc are heard often and "help other", "don't be selfish", "love everyone", etc are heard less. No one tells us to sacrifice for other fellow, rather we are told to sacrifice in the name of religion. "Give up a day's food" on the name of religion, but don't do it for your neighbor. According to me that's the wrong interpretations of religions, ehich needs to be corrected and we all can have better lives in multi-religion world.
I am neither a believer nor atheist, so not advocating anything. but I think that the religions and faith system is the brainchild of some great thinker, so can be the concept of God. And with the advancements, that human race has done, these concepts need little modifications. But still who knows what exists beyond our knowledge. May be we all are gods, in some way, controlling some things around us. Indeed we also make things happen, only difference is that we put in efforts and our ideology says that God can do those things on a wink of His eye. Moreover, God is Omnipresent, so He must be inside us also.
