Honestly, and to the best of your capabilities, answer me this: Does God need a religion?

Assuming “religion” is the man-made laws surrounding a belief in god, man-made laws that you have to follow to be allowed in the gang, then no. Of course not.

No. Religions are created by man to intervene between a person and the Divine, and also to exert power/control over the person.

No, I ask it, because most consider talking about God and religion the same thing.

Who considers talking about God and religion the same thing? What religion and what God?

A god is a being that is worshipped by those beneath.
So yes, gods need religion in order to be considered gods.
They also need starships.

I always have seen the connection between god and religion to be a little shaky.

People may need god as something to believe in.

But god doesn’t need mankind to adore him, or at least he shouldn’t. Needing to be adored and worshiped is the sign of a weak and insecure being. So if god needs that sort of adulation from religious followers, that makes god weak – that’s hard to believe.

The late Andrew Greeley, in one of his morality novels, suggested that God made man so that God would have something to laugh at. That’s as plausible a reason as any other.

Every God I have heard about starts with people telling each other stories (religion) so I would have to say, yes.

He/She doesn’t need it. But the boost to the ego should be nice…

I stopped believing in religion in the sixth grade, but was still able to believe (off and on) that there was a god for a long time after that. So people don’t need religion to believe in a god, and if there is a god…that being would not need anything from us.

I’m not sure what you mean by the terms ”(a) God” and religion, exactly.

I would say that I think of at least four categories that apply, and are different things:

1) Spirituality, as in, each person’s relationship to (and felt sense of connection with) things like nature (ours and the world’s), love, goodness, purpose, meaning, what we truly deeply care about and why (other than practical details), etc.

2) Relationships with gods as a framework for relating to spirituality.

3) “Belief” or “faith” in gods taken more literally and more personalized than the above.

4) Organized religion, as a written doctrine and social club with officials and rules and so on.

So given that outline, I would say that no, certainly what I think of as “religion” (item 4 above) is not at all actually necessary to relate to gods (item 2) or to believe in them (item 3).

If you’re asking literally are there people who need religion in a practical sense to believe in gods, then yes, I’d say so, especially in the modern age of skepticism and god-free materialism, but mainly because many people don’t feel free to choose, or don’t think about it in such terms.

Put more constructively, religion gives people a structure for their spirituality. Unfortunately, it often does a poor job.

I would also refer you to this article on spirituality on the University of Minnesota’s web site as a pretty good job of explaining what I mean, and includes and handy Venn diagram of the distinction and overlap between spirituality and religion.

I always viewed religion as the interpretations of the teachings of God. As interpretations, they can be wrong. But God isn’t something we know fully, so we have to try understand his rules and desires of us and for us. The problems come when we take a view of what seems right to us and say everyone else is wrong.

I think the idea of gods or God came historically before the development of religion. How could a religion be created to worship a god before anyone had imagined that god’s existence? It seems logical that the concept of god must have come first.

In the U.S., about 25% of the population has no religious belief. Since only a minority of that group are non-believers, that makes for a lot of people who believe in God but have no religion. My personal point of view is that if you don’t have religion, you might as well be an atheist. What difference does it make just to believe there is a God? If it makes you feel good then stick with it, but it seems pointless.

The human mind seeks to visualize, objectify and assign names to concepts. They project their limited understanding of the forces of nature and human qualities onto the source of creation. They imagine scenarios wherein the universe and life was caused to be, and their constructed stories are shared generation after generation.

Those whose intellect and charisma sets them apart from the average often are regarded as agents of the creator, though those individuals may not share this belief. Revered in life and death, the givers of knowledge and wisdom are deified and religions established in their name giving power and authority to religious leaders who profit greatly from their status.

God and Gods exist only within individuals’ minds. Their belief can help them to care for others and the environment, but it also makes them vulnerable to manipulation and exploitation. In my mind Creation is God, the spiritual force behind the evolution of the cosmos and life. We may choose to take from creation for individual betterment or give to creation for the betterment of all, serve ourselves or God.

These are a lot of good points. Without religion to pass the concept on by word of mouth, there would be no god.

No, there are many who consider themselves spiritual and not religious in that they do not conform to any one set of core beliefs.
And on the other hand, there are many who express their belief that they are religious people who exhibit no spirituality and few of the characteristics expressed by the tenets of their chosen religion.

@Dutchess_III “Without religion to pass the concept on by word of mouth, there would be no god.”
Are you serious? Do you even know what you said?? What concept? Are you saying that religion predates any god??
Gods were invented as a way of explaining the unexplainable, which occurred before anyone EVER had the notion ”...to pass the concept on…” which would therefore predate religion.
You don’t need any religion to have any beliefs in any god or gods.

I think God™ needs religion in order to exist.

But I don’t think god needs religion in order to exist.

No, I’m not saying religion predates any god @kritiper. Gods came first, but religion followed almost instantly, because whoever thought they had it figured out wasn’t going to keep it to himself, so he or she shared it. And that story spread. And what you quickly have are bands of people who believe the same story. That’s religion. It’s the organization of certain beliefs.

Then they might meet a band of people who have a different story (now a belief) of where the sun goes every night, and so they fight and kill each other.

And then you have the crusades, and you have Kings slaughtering the first born sons and you have Romans slaughtering Christians and Europeans slaughtering heathen Indians and Christians slaughtering doctors who perform abortions and isn’t religion lovely.

Religion is a man-made construct with rules, Dogma, social structure, and the united belief in A or several Deities and a method or methods of worship of said Deity(s)
So under your suggestion (per the way it is written) that there is only one GOD and that god is the God of Abraham/Christianity—
Then no- one would have to assume that GOD does not believe in or worship other Gods…and IF God existed before all else-then GOD needs nothing—just “is”.

Well, since this is back up, I think “religion” is found where you get clusters of people.
I think people can believe in (a) God in the absence of clusters of people. I know I sure did at the end. I settled on my own rules and decided for myself what to believe and what not to believe. (In other words, I would have scandalized my home Pentecostal church!)