This is a great film with one long running metaphor on how you must face your 'demons' in life in order to overcome your fears. It was like Rocky III or Flashdance, or any of another couple of hundred films. So, why watch it? Because we all need to be reminded of this lesson, time and time again, and this film does that brilliantly. Three 'ones' on his apartment door, three of them: husband, wife, and baby; his wife gets assaulted and one of the 'ones' turns upside down. Later, when he lets go of her paralyzing memory, a 'one' drops off the door, and he finds his inner strength. Genius.

Starring Aneurin Barnard.

Do you love movies like we do? Are you intelligent, educated, and knowledgeable enough to find good things about any movie? Are you sick and tired of reading reviews from people who act so pretentious about film, that they come off as downer douche-bags? Well, we are too, so here, you will not find anything negative about any movie, ever. We like everything! I will not be saying things about a movie being 'derivative,'or complaining that it's 'clichéd' or how we 'have seen this all before.' Goddess, we hate that. Don't these idiots realize that the biggest cliché in the movie industry is all their reviews claiming how clichéd everything is?! So, get a new phrase, and hey-- open up your brain-holes and learn something.

When you know your metaphors and mythology, then liking something shouldn't be that hard. You will find short reviews only here-- sometimes just one word, but never longer than one paragraph. Here, you will also not find movies in release date order. I will review them as we happen to watch them.


First film: The Tall Man

Kids are disappearing from an economically depressed area. Some say it's because of a supernatural being called The Tall Man. But, as the film progresses, it's apparent that something much more interesting than some mere creature is going on. And, by the end, you will be amazed and left with some very tough questions about the nature of love versus nurture, wrong verses right. We loved it! Thriller with a brain.

Forgot the Title

Forget words upon their readings,
be still and immerse into their meanings—
Then you will have remembered,
to awake to what is fine about a dreamer’s dreaming.

Forget to finish the last sentence,
be taken away by warm remembrance—
and let the symphony be written on a breeze,
like fleeting pages of your life’s sentience.


(From the poetry book titled The Silent Syllable, available for fast purchase here: THE SILENT SYLLABLE

Christianity: Lay Your Burden Down

“The glory of Christianity is to conquer by forgiveness.”
~William Blake

“My chief reason for choosing Christianity was that the mysteries were incomprehensible. What's the point of revelation if we could figure it out ourselves? If it were wholly comprehensible, then it would just be another philosophy.”
~Mortimer Adler


Christianity was a wonderful concept, as taught by Jesus. It is my own personal opinion that there is very little actual Christianity in action today, however.

Joining a church does not make you a Christian. But these are not necessarily concerns for the real Christian. See, a Christian just follows the words of Christ, because it was he and he alone who set the standard. And Jesus never condemned anyone but religious leaders; in fact, he strongly counseled them against hypocrisy! Why don’t people see this? It was blindly following religious action and thought that was the problem then, and is often (but not always) still the problem today!

Jesus believed in equality: he revealed his true nature for the first time to a woman, not a man! This was at a time when women were not taught nor allowed to openly learn spiritual matters. And certainly a Jew (Jesus) would not reveal spiritual things to a Samaritan (gentile) (John 4: 7-39)!

Jesus taught we are not to worry about the outside appearance of things to the exclusion of the inside. It is the heart that matters (Matthew 23: 23-29).

Jesus taught to not condemn people! This means never condemn gays, lesbians, the transgender, people of different ethnicities, eunuchs or intersexed or anyone who has radical surgeries [see Matthew 19:12], people of any creed, culture or philosophy. This means atheists too! There was no stipulation put on who Christians were to accept and love, except that they were to love all— even their enemies. Jesus did not condemn adulteresses, the demon-possessed, the blind or crippled. He did not condemn the prostitute nor the tax collector. He didn’t even condemn the person who didn’t believe in the Torah (See Matthew 22: 36-40, John 8: 4-11, Matthew 4: 24-25, Luke 7: 44-48). In fact, he taught that everyone was our neighbor, and that loving everyone was in the same vein of importance as loving god (Luke 10: 29-37, Luke 6: 27, 37, 41-42)! Jesus taught not to concern oneself with Jewish laws and traditions to the exclusion of the internal law of love and acceptance: Mark 7: 6-15. He was constantly trying to get the people to think, really think (Matthew 12: 1-7).

Jesus taught forgiveness. We are to forgive everyone, at any time, for anything: (Matthew 6: 9-14). Are you a true Christian? Do you follow the ways of Christ? Do you make sure to not condemn anyone? Is everyone welcomed by you, especially those of faiths you do not personally follow? If you start condemning people while claiming to be a Christian then you are not following the words of Christ. That doesn’t make you a bad person, but it does mean that maybe you should think about opening your heart a bit more.

There was only one ritual said to have been set by Christ, and that was the remembrance (this could simply mean to keep it in your memory) of his (at that time) impending death (Matthew 22:19), which was a sacrifice in the ascetic way of transcending hatred and/or a fear of death. Some of the rituals of Christianity were set later by Christ’s surviving disciples and new apostles.

In Acts 15:23-29, we see what was considered as Christianity by the apostles (the name Christianity was also coined after Christ’s death, at Acts 11: 26). The term “sexual immorality” was put in by translators in the Bible who were unable to accept their own sexual proclivities, but the actual term was simply “fornication,” which was “a voluntary act between two unmarried persons or one person who is married having intercourse with another who is not, or adultery,” (Random House Dictionary, 1982).

All the apostles ever really said at the Council of Nicea was that people should abstain from worshiping other gods, to keep from ingesting blood which showed disrespect for God’s creation, and from adultery, which meant to keep living with the highest respect, fidelity, and integrity. That’s all that was ever required. The idea was to remove the burden of trying to attain redemption through extensively complex Jewish customs and laws, and to attain peace of mind by simply acknowledging Christ and living a decent, loving life, period (Matthew 11: 28-30). Many of the other rituals that so-called “Christian” churches practice today are not Biblical, nor are they of much concern to the awakened Christian. (That is NOT saying that they are without merit or importance or value! If they bring someone closer to spirituality and loving their neighbor [everyone], then there is no problem for me; thus, I am not condemning. I am simply saying that many of the practices are not Biblical. If they don’t serve either of those functions specifically for Christianity then I would not personally see much use to them beyond something that could be used as a growing tool to get a person to a loving place one day).

To me, and this is simply my opinion, it doesn’t matter what you believe or not believe, what religion you practice or don’t; it only matters what is inside your heart. Does love exist, and are your motives honest and productive? Or are you full of hate, intolerance, and violence? Does your inner being sing with purity, or does the inside of you have a schism of personality where you fight with yourself to feel good or do the appropriate thing at the right time? Unifying your heart and removing the guilt you feel over your hidden secrets can help set you free, and then you will be living to that which is true to yourself: your real desire to be a loving and kind person in this world. Remember, Jesus said, “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free” (John 8: 32). Those words are impactful on several different levels and are timeless wisdom principles!

This is not an attack on Christianity, which in its original essence really was a beautiful thing. This is instead an education to those people who are stuck in their metaphors (thus they see them as facts); this is for those that do not understand that the Bible is simply a collection of 66 books that were written by men in a very metaphorical, symbolic way.

The Bible contains very few “facts.” Instead, the books it contains are a collection of symbols, allegories, similes, fairy-tales, and alliteration (Matthew 21:33-45, Matthew 24:32-33, Luke 8:9-15). Jesus said once that the entire law and point of the Old Testament was love; love for your neighbor and love for god (Matthew 22:36-40, Luke 10:25-28). But, Jesus not only recognized that he was god (John 10:30), but also that everyone else could potentially recognize the same truth in themselves (Matthew 7:24-27, Matthew 4:9, John 10:36, Matthew 18:20); at least, he taught this would be true for those who realized that the parables he constantly told were simply about the individual nature of the universe and of the wisdom of self-awareness in an egosyntonic human being (Matthew 13:10-14).

When they asked him about this idea of loving one’s neighbor by way of the question, “Well, who is our neighbor?” He went on to tell them a story that culminated in the idea that a neighbor can be anyone, regardless of differences or ethnicities (Luke 10:29-37). In other words, when we love the whole world, we love god, because god is love! His early followers understood this idea that love was god (1 John 4:7-8, 1 John 4:16), and that anyone who loved had god in their heart. Now think about this really hard: why would you ever need to know anything beyond this simple wisdom? My goodness, even The Beatles knew, “All You Need is Love!”

It was never about some mystical being far “out there,” but rather, about the realization of one’s true nature, and that nature is something people refer to as god, but it is really about being a complete, authentic human being. The Old Testament says we are god (Genesis 3:22). Jesus also connected the idea that he, god, heaven, earth and all people were truly one (Matthew: 25:40, Matthew 18:18-20, Matthew 10:20), and his followers saw this too (Romans 8:28). He freely interchanged terms like “Son of God,” and “Son of man,” because he understood they were the same thing (Matthew 9:6, John 10:36, Matthew 13:55).

Jesus and his followers both encouraged peace and happiness (1 Thessalonians 5:13-16, Matthew 4:5), to not judge (Matthew 7:1-4, Romans 14:1-4), to always forgive (Matthew 18:21-22), to ask questions constantly and seek knowledge (Matthew 7:7-8), to value spirituality over riches (Matthew 45:3, Matthew 6:20-21), to show total acceptance of the intersexed, transgender, eunuchs and/or any who have genital surgery (Matthew 19:12), encouraged deep self-reflection and purity of intention coupled with excellent ethics (Matthew 23: 25-28), and an abiding love for animals (Matthew 12:11). All of these ideas are also basic to early Hinduism and Buddhism, and both of these religions predate Christianity.

When you realize that there was no literal heaven, no literal resurrection of Christ (Matthew 12:40), no hell, no soul that departs, no forgiveness of sins, no devil, no temptation (the Buddha was also tempted three times, by the way—about 500 years before Christ), no immaculate conception (an ancient story; look up the Egyptian story of Isis and Osiris, a myth from 4,000 years before the Christ myth), no virgin Mary, no walking on water, no healing of the sick and/or blind AS FACTS, then you can begin to see that the stories are metaphors with wonderful, even much deeper value. No, they weren’t made up to fool people, because only a hopeful, day-dreaming fool (or someone completely brainwashed by religion) would believe that Jonah lived inside a huge fish for 3 days.

These stories were folk tales, and when you read the Bible, the Upanishads or the Koran, you must start thinking metaphorically, not literally! Ask yourself, “What does this really mean?” Then you can extract lessons from these works that make some sense, and you will see there are no contradictions when the tales are viewed metaphorically. But for those of you who are stuck in your metaphors as “facts,” or those who encounter people rigid about seeing their metaphors as literal, I offer this to help you educate and/or defend yourself against narrow, dogmatic beliefs.

But once again, this is not a put-down of Christianity or the Bible; this is, if you will, an education to defend you against those that think the Bible is to be read in a literal way. And, you should know by now that this is coming from a woman who was raised to believe in the literal interpretation of the Bible. Honestly, I now find that utterly laughable. Also, I want to say this: the Bible is not your enemy, nor is it a problem at all. The problem is people who do not possess the intelligence and/or education to understand what the Bible is really saying, and thus they persecute others. No book makes you kill people. People kill people. I love the Bible (although I love the Upanishads more as they are definitely much deeper to me), but I read with eyes wide open that help me pull lessons out of even the most mundane of passages. So, in the following, I offer 18 (there are hundreds more to be found, by the way) Biblical contradictions to show that when the Bible is read literally, it is a mistake. However, with each contradiction I offer how to see it metaphorically so that one may pull wisdom out of it. I hope this helps you and all others to read their Bibles in new ways, and to see that wisdom can be pulled from any source, at any time. Religion matters not; only perspective matters. Stop blaming the Bible for your religious persecution!

The point of this is also to show that the Bible cannot possibly be the word of an infallible God; and if it were, would you really want to follow a God that couldn’t even make sure his own writings remained without contradiction? Well, to be a Christian following standardized religions today, then you might not want to follow such a god (although I don’t think Jesus would have any problem with it, because he thought metaphorically), but a Hindu might follow such a God. Why? Because Hindus believe that contradiction is the path to enlightenment. I believe the same way. But look, that is not what is taught to most modern-day Christians; so, if you are going to be a Christian, which is perfectly fine and sensible, you may have to adapt your field of vision and stop thinking in a literal sense. Just practice love and all should be just fine; practice acceptance, not tolerance. You should never have to tolerate one of your fellow brothers and/or sisters on this planet.

1. 2 Kings 8:26 says, "Two and twenty years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign..." but, 2 Chronicles 22:2 says, "Forty and two years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign..." (Read literally, this is an error, and it would be an error attributed to man and also God’s inability to communicate effectively with man. Read metaphorically, however, it is touching; we see that mistakes do happen even in the most sacred texts, and that mistakes are part of our lives. From mistakes we grow.)

2. 2 Samuel 6:23 says, "Therefore Michal the daughter of Saul had no child unto the day of her death" but, 2 Samuel 21:8 says, "But the king took...the five sons of Michal the daughter of Saul." (Read literally, this is an error; read metaphorically, we can see that a mother’s daughters may be anyone since we love, nurture and influence with our feminine presence.)

3. 2 Samuel 8:3-4 says, "David smote also Hadadezer...and took from him...seven hundred horsemen..." but, 1 Chronicles 18:3-4 says, "David smote Hadadezer...and took from him...seven thousand horsemen..." (Read literally, this is an error; read metaphorically, we can learn how time can misconstrue historical “facts,” and that we have to be mindful of the fallacy of believing everything that is written or said.)

4. 1 Kings 4:26 says, "And Solomon had forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots..." but, 2 Chronicles 9:25 says, "And Solomon had four thousand stalls for horses and chariots..." (Read literally, this is an error; read metaphorically, we learn that the simple addition of one zero to an equation can radically alter the “facts,” of our lives. In other words, our entire beings are made up of potentialities that can be activated with the right, additional thought and action at the right time.)

5. Gen 2:17 says, "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day thou eastest thereof thou shalt surely die” [note: it does not mention a 'spiritual' death] but, Gen 5:5 says, "And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died." (Read literally, this seems to contradict itself, although the Bible much later says that “a day to God is like a thousand years,” (2 Peter 3:8). Read metaphorically, we can see profound wisdom in this piece unlike that taught in most Christian places of teaching. To know good and evil and to accept it as natural is what the Buddha called, “Joyfully partaking in the sorrows of the world.” To die to a sense of idealistic philosophy that wishes to see the world in only a linear, positive or negative fashion [there is only good or there is only bad], and to wake up to see that all seemingly contrasting elements blend into each other [there is no good without bad, and no bad without good], is the way to grow to wisdom. In other words, when they ate of the tree, they did something that was a great thing; to defy god is to grow to wisdom, for our limited viewpoint of what god is never gives us the experience of the god itself. We must break beyond the notions of god in order to experience god! This is why, after god says to not eat of the tree, and the man and woman defy him, that god then says “they have become like us…knowing good and bad.” The incident in the Garden of Eden is not a sinful, condemning act; rather, it is a way to grow to wisdom, and was necessary for the man and woman to do).

6. James 1:13 says, "…for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man" but, Gen 22:1 says, "And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham..." (Read literally, we see that someone, somewhere either got God’s message from the Holy Spirit wrong, or that God lied. Read metaphorically, we can smile as we see that god is our idea, and is a manifestation of a human being. We are made up of contradictions too, and they blend into deeper realities in us, as they do in god. Why? Because god is a reflection of our ideas of wisdom. And, wisdom knows that a lie is not always a lie, and that a contradiction is not always contradictory. We lie, we tell the truth, but in the end, which did we do, and which did we do not? They are the same).

7. Gen 6:20 says, "Of fowls after their kind and of cattle [etc.]...two of every sort shall come unto thee..." but, Gen 7:2,3 says, "Of every clean beast thou shall take to thee by sevens...Of fowls also of the air by sevens..." (Read literally, someone got their counting wrong; read metaphorically, however, and we see that 2 is a number that signifies completion—i.e., the male and female energies that produce unique life by the way of offspring. But, the number seven is also a number that signifies completion, because it is our viewpoint of the cycle of days. When Monday blends back into Monday by way of midnight the following Sunday, then we have contrasting energies that produce one thing: a week, or one cycle, just like life.)

8. Luke 23:46 says, "And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, ‘Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit’ and having said thus, he gave up the ghost" but, John 19:30 says, "When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, ‘It is finished’: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost." (Read literally, someone either got Jesus’ words wrong, or didn’t record all his words in just one book. Read metaphorically, we see they are the same expression. To commend one’s spirit into the hands of the father, is to transcend death and time and to realize the union you have with the divine; thus, it (your life and/ ignorant individualism) is finished, or done. This is not something that has to be accomplished by dying physically only, however! This can be done by dying to your former beliefs, or Ego.)

9. Gen 32:30 says, "...for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved" but, John 1:18 states, "No man hath seen God at any time..." (Read literally, something is amiss. Can we see god or not? Read metaphorically, we learn that seeing god and experiencing god are two different things which make up one wisdom: to see god is not to know god, and to not see god is to know her/him/you.)

10. Psalms 14:5:9 says, “The LORD is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works” but, Jeremiah 13:14 says, “And I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together, saith the LORD: I will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy them” (italics, mine). (Read literally, if god is good to all then why is he destroying, without mercy, some people? It makes no sense unless understood metaphorically. You see, all gods are ideas that express different divinities within ourselves; that is why there are gods of: lust, anger, hatred, love, malice, fertility, war, justice, peace, etc. These are qualities we embody as human beings. Sometimes we are angry and sometimes we are good to all, just like our notion of what god in these passages is. In other words, we are god.)

11. Matthew 1:16 says, “And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ” but, Luke 3:23 says, “And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli.” (Read literally, is Heli really Jacob? Possibly. But, in another sense, what we get here is the idea that the Christ tale is a metaphor: he has no empirically discernible lineage to man, thus he is linked to the eternal. Later, it is said that we must be like that which has influenced Christ, which he says is “(Y)Our Father.” So, we must realize the Christ nature in us, and be reborn to a higher state of spirituality in order to realize that we too existed before living on the Earth. We existed as star dust.)

12. John 10:30 says, “I and my Father are one” but John 14:28 says, “Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I.” (Read literally, we are left scratching our heads wondering how Christ and the Father can be one, while Christ says the Father is greater than he. Metaphorically, we see that this makes perfect sense, for we are all one with the father, but in this oneness there also exists the potential for the polarities that make up greater or lesser qualities. It is the blending of these polarities that make up the one!)

13. Matt 5:1,2 says "And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him: And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying...." but Luke 6:17,20 says of the same event, "And he came down with them, and stood in the plain, and the company of his disciples, and a great multitude of people...came to hear him.. And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples and said..." (Read literally, we wonder why this detail is wrong; did the disciples not get their information correct? Did they not remember where he was? Read metaphorically, we learn that concentration on these types of details is like concentrating on a finger pointing at the moon. When we just stare at the finger we miss the impact of the moon’s deeper significance. It isn’t important where these things were said, nor is it important if Christ even said them! All that matters is that what was recorded for us is tangible and we can either learn from it or not. And, for another metaphor, we can also see that the plains and the mountains are one thing, just like that chair you are sitting in is one with the ground, and thus the Earth.)

14. II Samuel 24:1 says “And again the anger of the LORD (YHWH) was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, ‘Go, number Israel and Judah,’” but I Chronicles 21:1 says, “ And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel. (Taken literally, we have to believe that god is Mastema, or the devil; taken metaphorically we see that this makes perfect sense, for heaven and hell, good and bad, etc, all exist within us simultaneously, as was written about many times in the Bible. Compare Ecclesiastes 3 and Genesis 3:22.)

15. 2 Kings 2:11 says, "And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven" but John 3:13 says, “No man hath ascended up to heaven but he that came down from heaven, except for the Son of Man." (Read literally, either Elijah was the Son of Man (Christ), or someone was lying about Elijah’s ascension. Seen metaphorically, we can cull some very deep wisdom from this. It might be seen, in one way, that realizing the Christ nature in us like Elijah did (that we are divine), means that although we are sons [and daughters] of men, we ascend to heaven (in our minds) by seeing this connection to something greater. Whirlwinds into heaven imply a physical, terra firma connection with the eternal, or great beyond.)

16. Mark 14:72 says, “And the second time the cock crew. And Peter called to mind the word that Jesus said unto him, Before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice. And when he thought thereon, he wept. Matt 26:74 says, “Then began he to curse and to swear, saying, I know not the man. And immediately the cock crew. Matt 26:75 says, “And Peter remembered the word of Jesus, which said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And he went out, and wept bitterly. Luke 22:60 says, “And Peter said, Man, I know not what thou sayest. And immediately, while he yet spake, the cock crew. Luke 22:61 says, “And the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. John 13:38 says, “Jesus answered him, Wilt thou lay down thy life for my sake? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, The cock shall not crow, still thou hast denied me thrice,” but John 18:27 says, “Peter then denied again: and immediately the cock crew.” (Read literally, this is one jumbled mess. After watching a movie like What the Bleep Do We Know, which is a film all about Quantum Physics, then we begin to see that there is no cock, there is no crow, there is no twice, there is no thrice.)

17. Galatians 6:2 says, “Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ,” but Galatians 6:5 says, “For every man shall bear his own burden.” (Read literally, we wonder: should we bear only each other’s burdens or are we to bear just our own? Seen as a metaphor, we see the wonderful combination of two into unity: by supporting others we support ourselves, and by supporting ourselves, we support others.)

18. Proverbs 26:4 says, “Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him,” but Proverbs 26:5 says, “Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit.” (Read literally, we wonder if the writer had a stroke after writing the 4th paragraph and decided to suddenly change his opinion. Should we answer a fool and become like him in doing so, or should we not answer him and let him think he is right? Seen metaphorically, we understand that either way produces a fool, and that either way produces conceit, or arrogance. If we answer the fool, are we not behaving foolishly? And, if we do not answer the fool, are we not wise in our own conceit? This is wonderful, deep wisdom when seen in a different perspective.)

So, the question may arise: “But what if the writers of the Bible (or any other book) did not intend for these to be seen as metaphors? What if they are just errors? How should we view it then?”

The answer is simple: “Most of the above passages were obviously just errors, and not meant to be taken metaphorically in all instances. But, that doesn’t mean we can’t view them in the way we choose! The ability to see wisdom from any resource has nothing to do with the intention of the person(s) behind the resource; rather, it has to do with our ability to think abstractly. It makes no difference if a metaphor is intended or not; all that matters is that we learn a lesson regardless.”

(There is so much to learn from myths; stop associating religion with people who have harmed you, for that is like blaming the car for pollution [and not its driver])

This is dedicated to all those afflicted by religion; it is to all those who are transitioning in one way or another and need guidance, and arming, against zealot nuts who wish to oppress. It is to all ex-Jehovah's Witnesses and those about to leave the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses. I am on your side, and love you all. This article came from my book, 'Pride (I am Self-Identified!)', which can be found on my website, DANIELLESAINTEMARIE.COM , as well as at Amazon, Lulu, Barnes & Noble online, and more.

Once a church religio’s (links up) their god with being the one that can bring desperate humans all that they desire, then the money just comes pouring in. The god becomes a Godfather, a type of mafia leader, and his priests all become hitmen killing the souls (the spiritual lives) of their subjects and making them dependant on an Invisible type of Godfather. They collect money and they offer wealth and abundance in return…but at the cost of your soul.
Now, think about it: the Godfather promises protection for your undivided service to him. But, you will have to do things you do not agree with. This Godfather can be seen as a God that requires your soul for protection (heaven, paradise earth, etc).
But, what happens if you wish to leave the Godfather's graces? Well, eventually, he kills you. Thus, religion equals mafia. Either way, you live your life in fear. The difference is that the Godfather really can have you killed, while the fake 'God in the ether somewhere' cannot.
Hey, at least the mafia is honest about what they do.

(Note: Religio=link up, or link back, a phenomenal being to regular people. This is the meaning of the word, 'religion.')