Religion and Morality

Just a random thought I had the other day: the contrast between organized religion and unorganized is similar to Kohlberg's stages of moral development. I've used this psychology concept/theory before, so I guess I'm a believer in it, but it basically says that as we develop, our moral reasoning moves from looking at the direct external consequences of it (1-2); to looking at what society will think of it (3-4); to an abstract, more universal sense of goodness (5-6).

People are obliged to believe in God for two reasons: fear of hell/desire for heaven and a desire for the community. The former is the first-second stage (direct consequence) and the latter is the societal stage (stages 3-4). Personally I don't think the former exists, but the second definitely exists in our current society. Finally, unorganized religion believes in God or a lack of God for ideology: cerebral justification is used in their belief, and they commit themself to an idea, a principle (e.g. deism, agnosticism, etc). So the last stages wouldn't be someone being religious just because their family are, or because they were born into it, or because they need the social support of a church and people.

IG this really deals more with religious rhetoric though, which is why the divide is between organized religion and unorganized instead of theism vs atheism, which is the immediate thought. This also seems to reflect the deeper idea that it is impossible for us to know if God exists or not: an inactive God could simply troll us by never doing anything, which would look the same as if there was no God.