God is a good way of controlling masses of people with no possibility of reproach.
For centuries it has been used by the powerful to keep the less powerful in check.
I know this is going to upset some people, and it's purely my own opinion but i think religion as such can be a good and bad thing, in times of need it can be a friend to fall back on, and at other times it can be a stick to beat you with, but to hold on to this idea of a single entity controlling/watching all is pretty foolish, considering the number of deity then who would have control?? Can you imagine the board meetings???
Allah, god, shiva, vishnu, shakti, etc etc.
Could be the case that they are all one and the same, which means that religion is never the cause of war, the actual cause of war is powerful people wanting more power, and religion is used as a scapegoat.
It wasn't so long ago that many civilised cultures believed the heads of state and church were gods themselves. Not sure who changed it for this country but think it was around the time of the tudors, could have coincided with henry dissolving the catholic church. Strange how he dissolved it and replaced it with a religion of his own choice. Was he perhaps concerned about losing control of the masses???
I would just like to add, that i've never known god kill anyone, but plenty of times i've known people kill in his name, and powerful people call on his followers to kill in his name.
In response to JohnD son of man is correct, i read somewhere else..........again this is just someone elses interpretation, that the bible was incorrectly translated and that his correct title should have been jesus of the nazarea/n *sp* which was an anti roman terrorist organisation.
I'm not trying to sway anyones opinion, you make your own decision, but from what i've read and tried to understand, religion should be an open/joyful experience, not some archaic system of control, where things that may cause people to question the religious leaders is concealed at all costs.