There has been a strong drift in religion away from the realities of life. People aren't being taught how to live or overcome sin. They aren't even being taught what sin is.

Christ taught about human life. Not only is morality produced in human life, but God can only be known through human life. What is right for humans is right for God.

Religion used to be effective in impoverished societies, because the realities of life had to be dealt with by solving problems. Religion then served its appropriate purpose of showing the moral significance of the problems, which developed awareness and truth and in turn allowed a more direct influence by God in peoples' lives. Nowdays, impoverished societies have been decimated to where little of that is occurring.

In the affluent societies, religion is used more as a substitute for the lessons of life. Religion becomes separated from the realities of life, because problem solving is more easily avoided where there is affluence, and objective reality is more illusive.

A very noticeable preoccupation of religious authorities is their attempt to synthesize purposes for religion which have no relationship to the realities of life. Then the peons are prevented from adding back relevance by imposing strict rules upon them. Enforcing the concoctions requires a heavy dose of authoritarianism. It's closing the doors to knowledge, not entering themselves and inhibiting those who wish to enter. (Luke 11:52).

Putting it all into perspective requires a look at the purpose of material existence. Religions never describe the purpose of material life, but conservatives operate from the premise that material life is an end in itself and must therefore be perfected. Supposedly, God was trying to create a Garden of Eden, but satan tripped over a vine and added sin to it. Now it's incumbent upon conservatives to restore God's kingdom on earth.

Restoring the kingdom and purifying everything is not the same as solving problems. One difference is the motives as forces in subconscious minds: selfishness, bigotry, elitism, etc. Another difference is that sinful means are used for supposedly noble purposes. The primary method of purifying is to prevent other people from living.

God's purpose with material life is to overcome sin. Sin develops in a cyclic manner in the spirit world. When it gets to be a real problem, material life is used to correct the standards. Stabilized realities are needed to teach proper methods of relating to objective reality, because proper relations between persons must be objectively defined.

Religion is supposed to be applied to solving the problems of material life, as Christ taught. Solving problems requires and develops all elements of intelligence and morality. Christ described how to solve problems in life as the basis of morality.