Ok, so there are many myth cycles. Norse, greek, egyptian, roman, and hindu being some of the more well known. I think it would be interesting to find differences and similarities in them.

:\ didn't that Zietgeist or Zeitgeist movie do it?

Yes, but try not to mention that around here. It upsets people.

I believe common threads exist in every religion. The comforting aspect of an afterlife for one. I would love to study more anthropological works that follow the meme of religion and see how it evolved.

I like to think it evolved in much the same way "Purple monkey dishwasher" did.

Anyone ever do this in class:

Sit in a circle. One kid is given a phrase, such as:

Monkeys use orange soda to wash dishes.

The kids whisper the phrase into the ear of one, who tells the next kid, who tells the next kid etc., until you get to the last kid and ask him what the phrase is and he says...

Purple monkey dishwasher!

With religion multiply this phenomenon by a thousand years and thousands of different people across language and cultural barriers. What could have started as stories to help people recognize certain constellations so they know when to plant and harvest, cast nets, migrate or a myraid of other things, evovled into...

Evil fruit, sacred cows, fasting to the point of hallucination, ghosts, human sacrifice, animal sacrifice, zombies, talking snakes, astral projection, fortune cookies, Ouija boards, humans fucking Gods who take the shape of beasts, etc.

Lawl, Religion has qualities of a virus!

Zeitgeist (Ziet?) was a decent movie, fuck the haters :P I digged the first part, but the other parts got too wacky. They tried to hard and left some fronts too open for attack to where it became just another "conspiracy" theory.

Back on topic...

I think that the ideas of religion stem from stories and such to act as a guide, but it was taken too far and corrupted. Like democracy and the free market. Jesus and all the other prophets/gods (who said more or less the same thing) had some great things to say. The overall effect was rather depressing.

So just as stories of Santa and the Boogieman, and even the three little pigs, contained lessons and moral guidings, I think religio nstarted the same way :|

I agree that it would be interesting to study and see how religion evolved. It had to of started pretty simple, since the brain functions of prehistoric humans shouldn't have been able to write six inch books, but probably stemmed from simple thigns like the sun and other things in nature that needed to be explained or thanked or even feared.

I think that the ideas of religion stem from stories and such to act as a guide, but it was taken too far and corrupted. Like democracy and the free market. Jesus and all the other prophets/gods (who said more or less the same thing) had some great things to say. The overall effect was rather depressing.

Agreed. The Bible contains a very good set of morals and standards, but the religious heirarchy of the Church twisted these morals into a system of control and maintaining fear.

Consider the seven deadly sins. They are all things that humanity cannot avoid commiting. If you cant escape sinfulness, you cant escape hell. No matter what you do, you are going to suffer for eternity!

Now here comes the beacon of light; God (or more acurately, some priest) says if you believe in him, and repent of these sins, and pay me moneyz for me to forgive you, you will not suffer but have eternal joy.

Now the small minded peasants of the fallen Roman empire have gone from fear to hope. They follow this new thing without question, "knowing" that their promises will be kept. The Church now has total control, and the power to snuff out all that may oppose their false doctrine, calling them "devil worshippers" and using their propaganda to tighten their hold on society.

I think the OP and interested parties should check out the Pharmacratic Inquisition video. I made a thread about it. It will show you some very interesting correlations.