Religion (as well as formal society) seems to be silly, superfluous, and unnecessary in Hucks's eyes. For example, Huck scoffs at the formal religious customs and loses interest in learning about Moses once he learns that Moses lived a long time ago and thus does not directly come into contact with his own life. Miss Watson presents religion to Huck in simplistic terms, as he encounters religious morality as "she told me about the bad place (2)," and prayer with the explanation, "pray every day, and whatever I asked for I would get it. (8)" Huck seizes on these broad terms by accepting them as true yet defying them on his own personal terms by saying that he wished to go to the "bad place" instead of the "good place." But Huck does not merely defy for the sake of contradiction, he does so because to him it makes more sense in the terms of his individual life, whereas the group consciousness of religion is supposed to make sense on a broad impersonal level. His reason for wanting to defy simple religious morality is practical for him: he wants to be with his friend Tom Sawyer. Huck relays, "I asked her if Tom Sawyer would go [to the good place], and, she said, not by a considerable sight. I was glad about that, because I wanted him and me to be together. (2)" This is an initial example of how collective consciousnesses in Huck Finn represent a severage of the individual from the individual problem or situation, and by oversimplifying things thus cloud morality and judgment. Huck comes to terms with this problem when he confronts the morality imposed on him by the collective consciousnesses of society and religion and the personal moral problems and emotions he has (and how the morality he has learned doesn't necessary apply directly to his life) when he is contemplating writing a letter that would send Jim back into slavery. (COME BACK TO THIS).
Religion also represents one collective consciousness that influences another, as religious law, morality, and judgment has a great impact on society, specifically in this case slavery.
