Each religion is a way to extract money from the community built around it. This is done via a variety of donations, compulsory or semi-voluntary. There has to be a justification for it, so the community is told that the money goes to the temple construction fund which then turns into a temple maintenance fund. Those who run the fund redirect the funds to their own and their friends' pockets.
>>surfin+(OP)
This is so wrong it's painful. Consider how difficult that would be to prove: starting with the question "What came first: money or places of worship?"