46. On Religion:A religion that cannot be exploited by rulers is not a major religion.

Human beings always live within consciousness. If we classify human consciousness, it can be divided into instinctive consciousness and social consciousness. Instinctive consciousness refers to the various innate awarenesses that humans possess as living beings without needing to learn them, such as the sense of fear, the sensation of pain, and so on. Social consciousness, however, encompasses awareness shaped by habits, cultural environments, traditions, and social learning. Examples include the concept of nationhood, ethnic identity, religious beliefs, and moral principles. Social consciousness is artificially constructed, while instinctive consciousness is innate. Thus, while instinctive consciousness remains largely consistent across nations, social consciousness varies dramatically. For most of us, our entire lifetime of social consciousness originates from society and others, not from our own creation. We can reflect: which concepts in our minds did we create ourselves? Upon calm reflection, we'll find almost none. Our consciousness and concepts enter our minds consciously or unconsciously from the outside world. Religion, then, is a systematically created social consciousness.

Life and death are the two core issues all religions must address. Confucianism speaks only of life, not death, and thus cannot be considered a religion from this perspective. Religion offers people a blueprint for life from birth to death, instructing them how to live, how to die, and where they will go after death. When people accept this blueprint in their consciousness and widely embrace it as a belief system, religion is successfully established. Why do people embrace the life plans offered by religion? Because those facing hopelessness in life seek spiritual solace. Religions typically emerge in eras of rigid social class structures, severe wealth disparity, and profound despair among the lower classes—precisely when spiritual comfort is most desperately needed. The Pope capitalized on this moment, proposing his doctrines to win the people's allegiance and thereby gain control over them.

All religions operate on the principle of self-interest, offering believers benefits—whether in this life, the afterlife, or a future existence. The fundamental logic is this: if you believe in me, you will benefit either now or later. This is essential for any religion to establish itself successfully. To propagate his religion, the Pope also designed reward systems within the doctrine, incentivizing believers to spread the faith for corresponding benefits. This ensured the doctrine's continuous dissemination, thereby expanding the religion's influence.

The Pope's motivation for founding a religion was often to gain political power; religion served merely as a means to that end. Precisely because popes establish religions to gain power, religion and the ruling class share an inherent affinity. Once rulers embrace a religion and become its leaders, they can use it to govern the people. When religion and political power merge, that religion inevitably grows and flourishes. All major world religions today share this characteristic. Conversely, if a religion cannot align with political power, it cannot expand. Taoism in China exemplifies this situation.

Does humanity need religion? As humanity enters the democratic era, citizens in democratic societies certainly have no need for religion as a tool of domination. As for separating religion from governance and embracing it as a personal way of life, this is not inherently objectionable for citizens. However, such religious belief should stem from genuine conviction, not serve as a means of livelihood through lip service or proselytizing as a path to unearned gain. Any exploitation of religion for profit should be prohibited by democratic societies. Today's religious organizations commonly preach spiritual doctrines while reaping worldly benefits—so-called religion is merely their livelihood. Such organizations have no justification for existence and should be banned by society.

In summary, citizens in a democratic society possess freedom of religious belief, but religion absolutely cannot serve as a means of livelihood. For citizens, religion concerns the spiritual realm, not the material.