The existence of a divine world order is a creation of the human mind, but this fact is not clear to the human being. He does not recognize that the content of this spiritual world order has sprung from his own mind. He invents gods in his own image and lets the world be ruled by them.

The truth is that he projects his inner nature into the outer world, and then subordinates himself to this, his own creation.

One finds countless people who believe they are governed by gods. Yet, there are no believers who do not independently and over the heads of the gods, judge what pleases or displeases, these gods. It would not be acceptable for a religious person to set himself up as the lord of the world. But this does not stop him from determining, out of his own absolute power, the likes and dislikes of the god who rules the world.

“We will not live by your commandments, we are free."
Moses' "There is no freedom without the law."
"Whose law Moses, yours? Did you carve those tablets to become a prince over us?”
Moses: “Who is on the Lord's side, let him come to me.”

One need only look at the character of the religious, and one will find my assertions confirmed.
Is there anyone who proclaims the existence of god and does not, at the same time determine in quite exact detail what pleases god and what god finds repugnant?

Every religion has its wise teachings about the cosmos, and each religion also claims that its wisdom comes from one or more gods. If one wants to characterize the standpoint of the religious person one must say: He seeks to judge the world out of himself, but he lacks the courage to take responsibility for this judgment. So he invents spiritual beings outside himself that he can saddle with this responsibility.

Such considerations seem to me to answer the question: What is religion? The content of religion springs from the human mind. But the religious person does not want to acknowledge this origin to himself. The human being submits himself to his own laws, but he regards these laws as something foreign coming from outside himself. In this way he establishes himself as ruler over himself. What this means is that every religion establishes the human “Ego” as ruler of the world. Religion's nature consists precisely in this, but the religious are not conscious of this fact. What the religious person regards as revelation coming from outside, is actually what he reveals to himself.

The human being wishes to stand at the topmost place in the world, but he does not dare to pronounce himself the pinnacle of creation, so he invents gods in his own image and lets the world be ruled by them. When a person thinks in this way, he is thinking religiously.