Religion is Good, Man is bad (or How things should have gone in early Europe)

My analysis of the enlightenment period in Europe is showing me that it was not a proper enlightenment unfortunately but only half of one. It did give rise to democracy, secularism (separating religion from the state) and freedom of belief which are all great things but it missed out on one major thing unfortunately. It should have adopted the idea that religion is good and that man is bad. What is meant by this is that the Creator is good and loving,  and sends us good guidance and teachings but that man then chooses to change that message to suit his interests and brings harm to mankind as a result. So the priesthood becomes a corrupt entity in all religions and end up working to secure the interests of those in power instead of actually following the wishes of the Creator. The priesthood is man and so the problem is with man and not religion. This is when we define religion as the teachings sent down by the Creator and not the distortions added to the teachings of the Creator. Currently because we don’t distinguish between what the Creator has sent down and the distortions that man has applied we see religion as the distorted teachings. As a result religion is viewed negatively. Had the enlightenment clarified this out then we would be living in a very different world now. How?

1. We would have known that the clergy are the enemy and not the friend. This applies to any organised religious hierarchy that tries to present itself as the representative of the Creator on earth. The Creator sent guidance to all humans so that they develop a direct relationship with Him/It (Note the Creator has no gender and is a non human entity (ie above human) , hence one can use He/It/She interchangeably to refer to It. There are pious individuals who are not part of any organisation and who are known for their purity and closeness to the Creator by their good moral behaviours and brave actions. Such people can become good teachers, and they would not go after wealth or power but remain modest and may not have much  interest in a luxurious life. Additionally they would not speak to please those in power but would be brave enough to criticise them when they oppress society. These would be the true representatives of the Creator on earth. Like saints. Happy to sacrifice for the general good and not wanting anything in return from people. Their reward would be from the Creator. They see the higher picture, not the lower one.
2. We would focus on the main themes of the guidance, which is goodness, truthfulness, service to society, justice & fairness, freedom to think & choose any belief one wants. The Creator created us free to choose our way in life so what right has any creature to take away this freedom from us?
3. Based on the above it means we can organise ourselves as societies based on fairness and justice for all humans with people free to think how they like and choose the belief paths they want. And this would link up with democracy and secularism.
4. Given that we would now see religion as good, then we would not have any problem about believing and loving our Creator (who loves us too). And we would look at the guidance and try to ensure we have the version that is most intact and undistorted by man.
5. Because religion would now be portrayed as good, then the Creator will also be portrayed automatically in that way. So many would start asking the obvious questions of why the Creator created us. What is the point of it ? Etc And there would be a search for meaning to our life, as well as what happens after we die and is there another journey for us afterwards? It would be also easy and logical to view ourselves as souls rather than bodies. That we are thus spiritual beings rather than material beings.  We are able to interact and connect to material, as well as perceive this world through those material bodies we are connected to. This would give a completely new perspective to the reality we are in. That the spirit is using the material and peering into this material world through it. And that during death we may fly away to another realm or domain of interaction and peering. Another life and another existence. Our reality would thus become magical and mystical. Instead today it is all boring and material and all we have for fun is enjoying material consumption. With the spiritual aspect there would be a new dimension to our life. And things would be more meaningful. And there would be purpose. And we could start to make sense of things as opposed to assuming it was just a random chance event that happened and here we are. If you compare this view to our current one, you will see the vast difference in awareness, plus it would be a view that makes sense as opposed to one that is just chance based and carries little or no meaning.
6. By believing that religion is bad and that man is good, we have tried to blot out our Creator from view and assigned negative connotations to It eg Hell and punishment , instead of Reward and eternal life. We have blotted out Heaven because of our dislike of the concept of Hell. By believing that the Creator is some kind of evil being even though It advises us to do good and be truthful.

So one can see that just by labelling religion as bad it has led to the easy dismissal of the idea of a Creator existing and many negative connotations being assigned to him.  And that had religion been labelled as good and man as bad that we would now be in love with our Creator and busy trying to get closer to Him so as to be taken into the perfect eternal life afterwards. All this simply by labelling something from bad to good. As a result of this grave mistake during the enlightenment times humanity has suffered a lot. Greed has spread due to emphasis on materialism. And due to us believing that this is all the life that we have and so should enjoy it to the max rather than think about why it is there in the first place and what is the nature of the entity that provided it. We have become lost superficially minded people instead of enlightened deep thinking people wanting to satisfy our deep intrinsic connection to the unknown. Also this because the enlightenment of the past was never a fully fledged enlightenment but only a partial pseudo enlightenment, despite the benefits it has given compared to the dark ages of priesthood (ie man) control and exploitation in the name of religion.

So I believe we now need to correct our mistake of the past and bring about a full enlightenment by perceiving religion as good and man as bad (or corruptible) so that we can start journeying into a new age of true enlightenment and new discovery about man and beyond man. To go into a magical world and leave this terrible superficial greed based one. This is a big ask at the moment, I am aware, but I believe this is the way ahead for humanity and there is no other way for our progress. It may sound crazy but that is fine. Perhaps sometimes crazy things are good things too.