Not a book really but just listening to a lot of people talking about the subject of 'religion' - between quotes because of the wide application of the term - and coming to the realisation that my previous stance on it did not hold in light of recent (as in the last century or so) developments. A bit of background: I was born in a non-practising Catholic family and always went to Catholic schools where I stood out by not going to communion and not becoming an altar boy etc. I went to a Jesuit-run high school where my French teacher would lead the service at the start and end of the year, etc. It was a good school and I had a good time and good teachers but they did not inspire me to pick up religion. I saw religion as something which more or less belonged to history where it played an important role but which was slowly but surely being overtaken by the products of the Enlightenment: the scientific method, the age of reason, objectivity. Where I saw religion rear up I saw trouble: Iran under Khomeini turning into a theocracy, all sorts of scandals in Catholic churches (of which I never noticed anything by the way), periodic outbreaks of long-banished diseases among strictly religious communities because they refused vaccination and thought prayer to be as effective as modern medicine, etc. It would surely be better for us here in the Western world to rid ourselves of the final remains of religious dogma for then we would be free...

...or would we?

We did and still do rid ourselves of old religious bonds but we do not seem to have become more free for that, the opposite seems to be true. The 'god-shaped hole' which is left after leaving those 'old religions' did not get filled with objectivity and reason. It seems to have become a fertile bed for even more dogmatic ideologies which have many of the downsides of religion but offer none of the upsides. Many of these 'ersatz-religions' are distinctly anti-western, some go even further by being anti-human. There is no salvation to be found among them, man was born in sin and repentance will not save him. There is no heaven awaiting those who try to follow the 'correct' path, only a different version of hell.

What all this has taught me is that religion did not appear out of a vacuum but out of necessity. To keep society as sane as possible there is a need for a higher authority - whether real or imagined - which (or who) stands above all us mortals, even above the most mighty of kings and the most powerful of warlords. It is to that higher authority and his set of commandments that even those highest rulers need to be subservient to so as to keep them from usurping the power to do as they please without recourse. This can only work if enough people consider the will of the higher authority to overrule that of their 'earthly' rulers so the message needs to be spread and someone needs to get that ball rolling - a prophet, so to say.

Maybe a time will come when we as a species can live together without the need for a higher being to keep us from violating the commandments but that time has not yet arrived so: choose your god(s) but choose them wisely. You do not need to believe in the actual existence of the deity/deities in question but you - being rational - should be able to reason yourself into a position where acting as if he/they exist(s) is the better choice. You do not have to follow mortal leaders who claim they know what your god wants but you can listen to what the wiser among them have to say and find your own way towards a fulfilling life.