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.
A person that has since youth invested emotional energy and time into their belief system isn't going to accept anything that does not support the belief system, because it has become their identity and how they navigate through the world. It would be like all of the sudden gravity didn't exist and things were floating or the ground gave out, that person wouldn't have the certainty of understanding reality and would be over taken by stress unable to look towards their own beliefs for direction. So beliefs serve as a function to give meaning to the world around us whether they are true or not and prediction to things. 
Life is hard, and the nature of this universe does provide opposition but its not evil or wrong, it just is. Man has invented religions to ease the pain of life and provide hope. Much of our civilization's culture exists as ideas, wishes, and stories from religion that are ingrained into our culture they are accepted as reality, because it is repeated everywhere and the masses accept it. If a story of when people died we became butterfly's was passed on from generation to generation, and art and education were oriented around this, we would accept it as true, whether it is true or not, just because we are bombarded with the illusion that it is true. It is very hard to escape the subjective world of mysticism we live in when it's like a disease that is all around us, you can't watch a program with out it being apart of it or go into public without seeing statues and art that support the great hoax of religion.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.
I have read during the ruling time of Constantine, Jesus was voted upon to be son of God and as a symbol for the church. He also integrated Paganism with Christianity for political reasons to gain numbers of supporters. The concept of having to suffer is promoted by the symbol of Jesus suffering for all humanity. Which is ironic that the church defied Jesus for his teachings that did not support its agendas, then after crucifying Jesus turned it around and used him as a symbol, that maybe if they teach people that suffering is good, that its God's will, that those suffering while fallowing religion and the government would be more likely to accept it because it is thought of as fallowing Jesus way. 
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.
Each day we are met by some form of opposition in the world. One's own false belief that life is supposed to be problem-free without having to try, is a myth that is ingrained in us from everywhere. Problems are thought of to be bad and people take on a victim mindset that the universe is conspiring against them, when in reality it is only our judgement of things that makes them bad or good. If while walking down the street we come across a puddle we don't take this to mean the universe is out to get us, but just walk around it. The same should go for malfunctions in the luxuries of everyday life. If one's TV goes out it doesn't mean that persons life is a mess or the universe is against them, but that all things in this life break down and need energy to sustain. It doesn't have to be serious nor does a person have to create an identity out of it. Far too much in life do people make problems out of things that are really just inconviencies.
Opposition is something that should be celebrated, it is much like resistance in weight training, with out stress we would not grow. I see far too many people create identities out of problems instead of remaining fluid like, unattached from their expectations and how things should be. Then the problem becomes like a wall, instead of a post that one can swim around.
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.
Doing drugs has much the same inclination, to escape reality. To find an effortless, blissful, high where energy doesn't need to be exerted to achieve. That a person can be lazy yet still be high.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.
