Editing Openai/6923f6d0-6398-800f-88a6-895979bdbe94 (section)

===== Whenever a religious institution separates itself from the essence of religion, three things happen: =====
# Power replaces God. The Church’s decisions become “divine command.”
# Madhhab (the institutional religion) dominates over true religion. Madhhab = administrative–clerical structure Religion = spiritual, innate connection to God The churches did not destroy religion; they magnified madhhab and minimized religion.
# Intelligent and justice-sensitive individuals—like Spinoza—ended up fighting not God, but the Church’s ''image of God''. From the outside, this looked like hostility toward religion.