Do you think religion is the first politics created by powerful (human) people (maybe Kings and Queens) to civilise, control and manipulate people and above all stay in power?

Yes and no. Yes to keep people from committing atrocities officially(thou shalt not kill, etc.). But the irony is that religion helped to bring them about as well. Then again, people had codes or laws to maintain others.

I do not think that Religion per se could have officially been made to control people. I think that it started off as a teaching method. The Australian Aborigines have laws and rules to maintain order without the Christian religion or the bible.

Yes I agree with the teaching part about the Aborigines but that is a form of control as it’s teaching a person a particular way of doing something and controlling the way they do it. I know 'control' is a hard word.

I am a spiritual person, but I do not believe in organized religion. I believe that it is used to control and manipulate people. Not to say that all religious leaders and the faithful are guilty of doing this. However, I do think that religion is being used as a tool as opposed to a guide. (Bush administration and the 2004 election, for example.)

Obvioulsy there are great lessons and values exploited in religion. But I do not believe that I should be told what I should believe in. My beliefs are based on personal evaluation and research, sometimes inspired by friends or books or simply sitting alone and thinking about my self, the world, and such.

i feel religion is used to control people.
but at the same time i feel it was created as one of many diffrent schools of thought,"philosiphey" so to speak.
like math,science ect. i feel its another way/path of reachen the inner divinity that we all posses (or better to say a way to define what we perseave about all things,and finding the truths about ones self on the way).

off the wall as it sounds, i feel its just another kinda higher learning id soppose.

Formal religion i fell was made to control other's.. Look back into history and see how the church control the government's and other part of society.. They did this thru fear of damnation and force... But if you look before the start of religion as it is today.. It was a way to set rule's and order within the group...