the challenge of all religious views

[Theweirdtophat]

Of course they do! They come up with rules and regulations for their followers, they often insist on their follower's giving a sizeable percentage of their income, the whole of most modern religions is based around control. What you can wear, what you can eat, what you can do, what you can believe and where you can go and if you don't do what they want you to do, they back it up with threats from imaginary gods that will punish you, often in the afterlife where there's no way to tell if it ever happens. Whether they were designed that way or not, there's no denying that's how they are today and have been for thousands upon thousands of years.

And very early humans were ignorant of the world around them, they didn't understand how it worked, they invented gods to explain the things that they couldn't otherwise comprehend. Over the years, these god beliefs and many others have become organized and systematized into religions. Tales have been told about them, books have been written about them, specific rituals and ceremonies have been standardized, such that organized religions have become businesses. They have a business model. They operate by selling a "product". They expect people to pay them for said "product". Are you unaware of any of this?

Some are rules and some are just guidelines on what's the best way to live. They had virtues and vices back then just like we do. Not all of them had deities that would punish you if you don't follow a specific way or even had "deities" at all like Buddhism and Jainism. Not everyone worshipped the same deity or worshipped them in the same way in each religion. How would they invent a god when they don't know what a god is? How do you explain encounters with gods in the stories, where they not only meet one person but whole groups of people? How do you really make all of that up and convince people. I believe some parts in history are exaggerated and a lot of these is legendary but there is always some truth to legends. Otherwise, they wouldn't be "legends" to begin with.

It doesn't explain how people in the woods all of a sudden have concept of civilization. Nobody invented these deities. There will be some feats that were exaggerated but that doesn't mean they didn't exist. How would they make it a business when they don't even know what a business is or understand the concept of products and money? Someone taught them this. They didn't just learn this by themselves. Someone more intelligent must have and it wasn't humans that did it. Religion never started as a business, it BECAME a business later on when they realized it could be used to their advantage. And some religions today aren't as strict as not every Christian or Druid or Muslim or Buddhist is the same and they all have their own beliefs and some are more strict than others while some are quite lenient. It isn't all about control. Some will use it to control others, while others use it as a guideline. It all depends.