People or Religion, who corrupts who?

[Scoobes]

I said both but it's a cycle:

1. People create religion to explain the unknown (OK, this part is outside the circle and only needs to happen once)
2. People in power use religion as a tool to manipulate and control the masses
3. The masses further utilise religion to spread the doctrines further and carry out the preferred acts of person in step 2
4. Person in step 2 dies or is replaced. Steps 2-4 are repeated.

In human history, religion is probably the most powerful tool one can utilise to control a large population of people. Yes, there are other tools like political ideology, but religions seems to be the only one which can overcome generational gaps; most religious people are the same religion as their parents whilst the same is not true of political alignment. Furthermore, religion is typically ingrained in people from a young age when the mind is developing making it harder to step back and question it.