Power Hunger of Religion

Religious organizations more times than not are extremely power hungry; it is this lust for power that fuels the ambitions of those that profit from it. There are some people whom genuinely fear that others are destined for hell—or destined to miss out on some grand reward and wish to "save" them. But these people are extraordinarily rare, and not all that significant as far as numbers go. There are a few reasons that the religions of today are so pushy with their beliefs. To propagate a religion the best concept to push is that the world would be a perfect utopia if everyone believes. First of all, wishing the world was perfect for you is extremely narcissistic. People that do all that they can to make the world conform to what they desire are empathetically-retarded (for PC Nazis: 'empathetically-disabled').

I, for example, may wish the world was a bit less religious—or at least that nonbelievers were equally respected (which we are well on our way of accomplishing). While this may seem hypocritical, it's not; I believe that people should be free to believe whatever they want, just so long as other people are not harmed by it (and I'm not only referring to 'physical harm'). And no, this website is not harmful at all to believers; with a name: 'Atheist Perspective' any believer that visits this site knows full well that their beliefs may be subject to scrutiny, thus making any hurt-feelings self-inflicted. Anyways, moving on...

As humans we all want power, power is by far the greatest motivation humans know. And it comes in many forms. Humans as individuals provide great power. This is the main reason for why religions seek to recruit more members. For example, when a church has 'empty pew syndrome' they are much more worried about the collection basket than saving souls from eternal damnation; but of course they would probably not openly admit to it. Is it a coincidence that when a church is able to fill their building and collection plates they lose much of their ambition to save souls from the merciless demons? The majority of religions are set up like a business. They offer a product (consolation and a feeling of belonging) in return for as much money as they can guilt out of people.

Let's say that the Catholic Church was donated 200 billion dollars. I would be willing to bet that much of that money would be used to make priest's already lavish life that much more comfortable. I'm sure the church would donate a few billion and then boast about how charitable they are. This is done to try to gain more donations and members—just like how many corporations donate money to charities get more business. This is done so people feel their money is going to good use. It's a great model that they have set up: people will typically only donate money and belong to organizations that they feel are doing 'the right thing'.

Hypothetically if a cap was put in place to drastically limit the wealth of religious organizations, they would become much less enthusiastic to gain members, and I would be willing to bet much less charity work would be done in general (referring to time spent doing charity work, not money which is obvious).

In closing, I think that it's time to make religions pay taxes on income and land. It's obvious that these organizations are in it for the power. Religion is big-business and it should not be tax-exempt.