The Humanity Party: Religion is a Fantasy - Or is It ?

There is a fascinating new political movement going on in the America, but accessible anywhere in the world thanks to social media. Their name is the Humanity Party, and they have some very bold and interesting plans on ending poverty.

I'll post a link to their website, so people can see the details of their platforms and also all of their videos, but for now let's look at two specific tweets that came from the Humanity Party.
http://www.humanityparty.com/index.html

Again, if we could just get rid of the fantasy of religion and the idea that there exists an entity outside of ourselves that will help us and save us, we would then become more focused on saving ourselves and solving the problems that WE created ... that the "dragon" created.
-June 29th

Most people believe in God because they don't believe in their own goodness and of others. God is the concept of "good," the moral compass of our humanity. But until people learn to love themselves, first, above all, and then their neighbor as they do themselves, God will exist.
-June 29th.

I will also post a link to their Twitter account, so you can follow all of their updates, tweets, posts, and so on.
https://twitter.com/humanityparty1

Now, let's get to perhaps the more pressing issue of the day. I am coming from the spiritual side, and when I first read their tweets regarding religion as a fantasy or people believe in God because they don't believe in their own goodness....I did not quite fully understand them. It took me a few times to read over the tweets to grasp what they are trying to say.

Response 1:
Religion is not a fantasy term. There are an enormous amount of religions in the world, and religions such as Hinduism and Jainism (once you get deep into their theology) often deal with observations of the cosmos and existence itself. This is referred to as religious cosmology. For starters, religion contains many things from many aspects of human life, and how would a religion like Pantheism (which states that either the universe is God or that nature is the equivalent of the Divine) hold up to any sort of fantasy term. It is dealing with real life and existing properties.

Response 2:
Let's look at how we approach God and religion.
I would propose that the vast majority of humans use the term religion to mean that spirituality can affect culture.

God - 

A concept, idea, property, or anything that is greater than our material world.

i.e. the divine

Spirituality-

Someone's personal  connection to the God or the Divine. 

Religion-

When spirituality begins to affect culture. 

One persons viewpoint, individual practice, and feeling about the divine is not religious (Sorry Jordan Peterson, Maps of Meaning is a off point). Once it begins to affect a social group, and change the course of the that social group, it is becomes religious. One person who prays to God in their own way is not a religion, but when people start praying five times a day toward Mecca as described in the Quran, that is religious.

One person not eating fish on a Friday because they have a reason is not  religious, but when a social group proclaims that fish should only be eaten on Fridays and one should attend a service on Sundays, it becomes religious. Religion is when Spirituality affects culture.

There is no fantasy associated with that. It is not impossible that certain fantasy-elements could be incorporated to a religion, but that is not the heart of the issue. Moreover, it is not guaranteed that there is any connection between religion and fantasy. To reiterate, many religions devote a large portion of their work only to try and understand the cosmos, and through observation...I repeat observation...they have discovered that the our material world is contingent upon the existence of something greater.

Response 3: 

The most important of all responses. "But until people learn to love themselves, first, above all, and then their neighbor as they do themselves, God will exist."

This statement is supported by the assumption that humans have any control over God or the Divine. The fact of the matter is that as human beings we do not get to decide whether or not God exists. Many critics of religion can articulate well-worded prose and debate performances on this subject, but first one has to accept the premise that a human can control the outcome of whether or not God exists. Humans can control the outcome of very few things, and more importantly, just because one person says one thing it does not alter the universe of existence.

Humans have no control over whether or not there is a God.

All discussions of religion and politics aside, I invite you once again to visit the Humanity Party's website and check out their videos.