Look at all the world religions (that I know of) except one and they all have the same thing is common. God is aloof, distant, unreachable, just outrageous and the Gods have the same weaknesses as the humans. But if I jump through enough hoops and sometimes that value is arbitrary I will - to use the term loosely - reach "nirvana". The God that I believe in is not any of the above and is very specific that to reach him is a gift from him that is available to everyone without having to do anything and since it is a gift there is nothing that I can do to loose it. But it is his desire that we all reach him because we are all his children. Not a select number of people, I don't have to wage a Jihad or go through multiple levels of reincarnation, or any kind of works of my own to receive it.
I think it was Mr. Stanley that said something about organized "religion" and mind control and I can see where you would get that opinion because those are the bastardisation that man creates of what God has given us. Look at the Biden Palin thread and you can see almost any of us that posted anything on that thread putting our own personal twist on the "facts". Again the bible is very succinct Mt 22:36 "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.” If you look at the relationship between God the Father and Jesus, Jesus and the Church (us), man to wife, parents to children, the government to the people good uses the same system. God did nothing to Jesus out of anger, jealousy, or to cause harm he only did what was best (perfectly) and out of love "agape*" and because God will is perfect Jesus out of love "agape" followed them not without question but followed them because he knew that God knew best i.e. "God's will be done". This is the hierarchy that God set up for all relationships and again we as humans have managed to muck it up.
*Agapao (verb) and agape (noun). This is the "Christian love" of the Bible. It means affection, benevolence, good-will, high esteem and concern for the welfare of the one loved. It is deliberate, purposeful love rather than emotional or impulsive love. Almost all of the New Testament references to love are agapao or agape in the original Greek. The King James Version of the Bible sometimes translates agape as "charity," but charity has now taken on the meaning of assistance to the poor rather than benevolent love.
