Mitre makes Right!

If my black, hemoglobin-injected mechanical fluid pump were capable, one of the few things I would love¹ would be Religion. Not little-r religion, as in "I'm spiritual" or "Oh no I've said too much." Personal belief, faith, whatever -- knock yourself out. No, I'm talking about big-R Religion, the organizations of masses of humanity that proclaim to be worshiping a particular God (or Gods), but in essence only follow the direction of a localized power structure that often espouses policies antipodal to the teachings of their deity. Indeed, it seems ludicrous that the "lambs" of a congregation or sect fail to consider how truly sheep-like they've become: led by someone more powerful with only the interests of the patriciate in mind, shorn of their valuable wool, and sacrificed at will. Used by their patrons to extract fealty, riches, and ultimately greater power, they reinforce their own cognitive dissonance by accepting that it is not right to question the words of their creator, because the words of the creator were written by men inspired by (whichever) deity and those words of <insert deity here> say to not question them. Since those books are written thus, it must be true and therefore must exist because it cannot be proven that it does not.

In fact, it appears that most Religions are sustained merely by logical fallacy, particularly appeal to authority and burden of proof. Yet, the flock of imbeciles seems unable or unwilling to break from their self-enforced ignorance long enough to realize the wool² is being pulled over their eyes.

For instance, let's point out the cognitive dissonance of the parishioners of a particular Religion, where murder is a forgivable sin but divorce is an ex-communicable offense. Where adultery is sin but their own priests are shuffled around from parish to parish to cover up their pedophilia. When caught, well, just shovel out some of the treasure and the problem goes away. Hopefully the priest has already shuffled off to his eternal reward in the afterlife.

What about another Religion, where the parishioners believe that their convicted con-artist founder, who discovered some magic stones (twice!) that allowed him to "translate" some golden plates that he allowed nobody else to see, and believe that their savior (and lost Jewish tribe) came to America³ despite mountains of archaeological evidence against it, decry how badly they've been discriminated against -- and then use millions of their hoarded loot to fund a campaign discriminating against a class of individual in your state of California. Also, they believed until 1978 that black folks bore the mark of Cain and banned them from their ministry. But hey, what's a little racism amongst mindless drones?

Let's not even expound upon a Religion conceived by a science fiction writer that believes you're all alien spirits from an alien prison world that arrived here by alien spirit prison ships.

So for such a powerful tool by the leaders of these Religions, you'd think that said leaders would be rather content. That's where you'd be wrong, because if you know anything about evil overlords, you'd know we're never content. No, Religions have made sure that while their followers are fanatical and devoted to allowing themselves to be fleeced by their leaders, that they're also almost always incompatible with other power structures of a Godly nature. In fact, many are so diametrically opposed (while actually espousing similar ideals) that they must constantly be locked in battle⁴.

This dissonance, of course, plays right into the hands of the godless military industrial complex, which uses the religion-contented state of the sheep to fleece further money through taxes for building weaponry to kill the other people that don't believe in their version of sky cake. Having a phantom bogey-man is always good for the bottom line.

Meanwhile, the masses are told that their government (a competitor with Religion for the wool of the sheep) is taxing them too much, and that they should demand cuts⁵ in government programs to the disadvantaged⁶ in society because it's the church's job to care for them out of the goodness of their 501(c)(3) hearts. The military gets a free pass, of course, and to ask those that are in power to pay a bit more⁷ is Anti-American Socialist Communist Nazi Hippie talk. But don't worry, ye disadvantaged. You'll be rewarded in heaven for living piously and destitute.

Meanwhile, the riches, power and control keep getting concentrated upwards. Excellent.

1. Aside from unlimited power and subterranean vaults full of precious metals.
2. Often wool shorn from their own sheep-like hides in the form of tithes or collections. 
3. Evidently by the steamships common in the days. "Dead Sea Cruise Lines -- We float because physics God says we have to."
4. Most religions haven't explored the moral issue of their "loving God" condemning his lambs of other Religions to eternity of hellfire just because they were raised in a different society with no chance to worship him. For those that have, I salute your ingenuity.
5. I've always said, if you can't compete with quality, get a horde of pitchfork-wielding morons to yell louder than everyone else about it.
6. Lazy.
7. Or even their fair share.