Some of these dangers are well-known, such as the wars of the Reformation - the worst ever. If you visit the waxworks in London, be sure to see the exhibit depicting the execution of Queen Mary of Scotland - who had the misfortune of being Catholic.
How did religion start? As a belief in Spirits. We could not understand much of what we saw going on around us (and still cannot). So we believed Spirits were causing them. And we even made drawings and sculptures of these.
This can also be seen in our technologies. Which started off with the use of clay in Mesopotamia. Very handy stuff, and so cheap! W even used it for writing!
We invented Language first, our most important invention. That will never be equaled. And once we invented that we were off to the races - the human race.
But that is history, ancient history. Most of us are affected by modern religions. Such as Mormonism, the religion of my family.
This was started, innocently enough, by Joseph Smith, a young man with a problem: he needed a job! And he found one in plain sight: his neighbors were digging for buried treasure, but didn't know where it was! But he had a magical solution: a special rock (a seer stone) that he could use to see this treasure.
There was a problem, however: this was an illegal profession, and he had to leave upstate New York, and reside in Pennsylvania for a while. Where he met and married his wife, Martha.
He had another talent however: he could make other people believe in him! And he used this to start his own church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - commonly abbreviated to LDS.
But he soon became a dictator to his people, and the target of a violent mob, that ended his life.
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