
I was reading this book from Alan Watts who said he went through immersion in religion only to discover it was all a hoax. He described enlightenment is realizing there is no God that a person is responsible for his life. Only people who study religion deeply and immerse them self in it do they come to the core realization that enlightenment is freedom from the illusion of a being that is creating our pain and rewards. Most people skim read religion, never go deep into it and never able to put the pieces of the puzzle together. Much like a beginner in chemistry in high school, they see just the surface and are of little threat or of value knowing just the surface but once they are able to understand the whole picture and pull the pieces of the puzzle together, so then does that person become a threat to those at the top that don't want competition and want people to remain robots full filling duties.
Mark Hamilton talks about certain religious leaders that know religion is bullshit but still sell it like a drug because they believe people need something to believe in. It was when I read this I had the Epiphany that the lack of humanity it takes to sell drugs and poison people is the same lack of humanity these evangelist have to lie to people's face and believe they are doing good. Drug dealers rationalize that if they don't sell it to that person buying, someone else will, and it's not their job to look out for anyone but number one. Drug dealers and these religious leaders share the same lack of humanity with share with no remorse. Its complete narcissism.
So if you think about it religion is used like a drug, as an escape from reality. Those that aren't able to cope with life use drugs or maybe do need the belief in a supernatural fairy tale where everything is perfect free of opposition and pain, all which are apart to of this life and necessary learning and growth.
Those in power know how people rely on religion like a drug and they exploit this weakness to usurp money and resources from them, just like drug dealers or big tobacco companies exploit peoples weaknesses for the need to be high. However there are a lot of people with good intentions, who are leaders in religion that aren't aware of the hoax and believe it themselves.
The supply exists to meet the demand. People are to blame for allowing the market to exist. If people didn't want drugs, drugs would cease to be sold, but sense people do, the supply comes in to meet the demand. The same goes with religion, if people practiced fully integrated honesty, religion would cease to exist because people would see through the lies and become self-responsible and self-leaders, versus accepting suffering as noble and looking towards and afterlife to escape it as a reward for suffering? That concept of suffering is moral in order to be rewarded in an afterlife is so asinine and crippling.

It's very evident that drugs are damaging to people in every way, and cause more problems then they do good, but religion however is failed to be seen as just as damaging because it has been programed into our culture that religion saves, when in reality religion creates problems where none exist. Anytime one lives in conflict with reality, it is going to create problems where none exist. The rules promoted around sex cause a great deal of problems where none exist because those rules split up the mind and body as a functioning whole and instead make the body an enemy that the mind is fighting.
What is being promoted through religion is escaping reality and that effort and growth is bad, that thinking is bad because it requires energy, thus let religion think for you and surrender your life over to an effortless pseudo utopia. It is hard to expend energy, laziness is one of man's greatest obstacles. Expending energy and exerting effort requires discipline and conscious effort which most people would rather default to laziness and be taken care of by religion or the government because its much easier. I'm reminded of Disney's cartoon Wall-E and in the scenes where people are sitting on robotic chairs being programed from T.V.'s what to like, not having to exert any effort to have their needs met, and are fat, unhealthy, unhappy and dependent of the government while living and effortless existence like a couch potato. I think the creators of this movie understand what our government would love is to have everyone dependent on them and that people are looking for the the magical utopia where they don't have to exert effort for anything, that all their wants and cares will be taken care of. The government couldn't exist without people's own laziness to surrender their liberties to be taken care of and not have to think for oneself. This is the world in which they dream of both the slave and en slaver dream of. The government loves laziness as much as crack dealers love crack heads. Churches love people who don't want to think for themselves yet want to be told how to live life.
I speak of opposition because problems and opposition are things which lead one to seek out drugs or religion as a way out of instead of one's own mind. People are wired to want the easy effortless way out, then to have to expend energy thinking through things. Religion offers this to people. They give you a rule book of abstract poetry that can be rationalized to fit their agenda, and also they teach to surrender your mind to God. Doesn't that sound so enticing, to not ever have to think again and have one's wants and needs met in an effortless heaven.

The real evil people are trying to get rid of is having to expend energy and exert effort because its hard and it doesn't always guarantee a pay off. It isn't in our nature, just as it isn't in man's nature to build muscle, that as soon as he quits putting stress on his muscles they atrophy to preserve energy because muscle is higher quality and requires more energy to sustain.
As long as their is a need in people for effortless rewards, there will always be a market for religion and drugs. We have become a culture that wants instant gratification and having to work for rewards is too hard. The culture we grow up in raises people to be pussies and that escaping life is a normal thing, while exerting effort is alien and rare. The secret to a good life and a heaven on earth is honesty and spending ones energy towards that, not in a religion or drugs.