Piety and Purity, not so identical twins

There comes a time in the life span of a religion when the purity (imagined or otherwise) that is engendered through interaction with the Deity or Deities gives way to piety. Purity being the mitigation of a persons sin or imperfections through the actions of worship, piety being the appearance of purity through a display of religiousness. Purity is about the relationship between the worshipper and their God, piety is concerned with a superstitious concept of God and it introduces a much greater awareness of how the individual is viewed in the community of their religion. Piety is the intellectual foundation of self righteousness, religious bigotry and divisive hierarchical structures. The pursuit of purity through an active relationship with the divine in fact precludes and invalidates the strategies of the pious. That religion degrades from the pursuit of purity into the presentation of piety is the central challenge facing any religious organisation. Piety supplies the corroded metaphysical logic that spawns fanaticism and, in its final developmental stage, suicidal extremism. It is much easier to teach piety than it is to teach the proper dynamics of an individual's relationship with God. Piety also places the worshipper under the power of the mediating authority and leaves them vulnerable to being exploited by those authorities. Piety is not Purity but it is often mistaken for it, this is the main difference between good religion and bad religion.