Let’s begin with your headline. It’s very thought-provoking: Does God fit into religion, or does religion fit into God? The answer seems obvious since man invented God as an idea to explain the unexplainable and give it purpose. Human beings require something greater than themselves, a great father or mother figure, to ensure their security and keep them from going mad from fear. God serves this role very well, because he’s as big and powerful as you want him to be.

When we talk about religion we are talking about a cult, a club, an organization, an institution, etc. And this means that religion is focused on what all groups focus on: teachings that are divisive, exclusive, secretive, awe-inspiring, fear-mongering, self-conflicted, deprecating, demeaning, and hierarchical. Perhaps not all of these are on purpose, but they certainly are the byproduct of religion and those who invented and perpetuate it..

Since human beings have created God and religion, neither can be any wiser or clever than man himself. This is analogous to watching a movie about a great sage at the top of the mountain or a wise man directing the hero: Such a person cannot really express any wisdom beyond the ken of the screenwriter and his team of researchers. It’s a closed system. And this is why God is replete with faults and very human emotions and actions.

As I have said before, trying to make sense of religion is a work of futility.

You wrote: “the greater the theological lunacy, the more effective the teaching is as a test of the initiate’s loyalty to the religious organization and its leaders.” And this is an excellent context for the insanity of those Christians who carried out witch burning and drownings a few hundred years ago.

Your article is so full of gems that it made me smile the whole way through. Well done, Dr. Cain!!