[mrnoodle]

Good point. All manmade religious denominations do it to some extent. But religion is man's corporate attempt to define and worship God corporately. On an individual level, our relationship with God is free of religion - we just gather with people who believe similarly, so we can help each other in our faith. It's only when we start deciding to form committees and act in the interest of "the church" and not in God's interest that we fail. And the failures are spectacular, and lots of people get hurt, because we suck at being God.

Thousands if not millions of Catholics are waiting with bated breath to see if the pope is going to live or die. If he dies, they think God won't have a mouthpiece and we'll be without spiritual direction until the next one is appointed. It's the pinnacle of wrong thinking as far as Christianity is concerned - God acts on a personal level, not through some guy in Rome. Who set that up, anyway? T'weren't God.