I used to have a hard time explaining to people what my sort of religion was. I used to believe that there was some sort of "higher power" beyond my comprehension. People always took this as being an atheist. One time someone scolded me because my name is Joshua and my parents must have wanted me to be a god-fearing Christian to have such a religious name. Now I don't really believe in any higher power, but that's a story for another time.
Basically, I believe that organized religion is a scam. This is based on my experiences with it. I think the original reason behind religion can be summed up with one nice, short word. Control. Sure I have no evidence. Fuck evidence.
I believe when civilization was first getting started, and people were beginning to come together and live together, there was needed a way to control the masses. There was a need for a way to get everyone to work together. So innocent wonderings about how we came to exist here on earth turned into stories of half men-half fish creatures battling it out with the all powerful sun god for control of the universe. Next thing you know, some people write the stuff down, everyone subscribes to it, and accepts the ridiculous stories of a horny god who comes to earth every so often to get some hot mortal action with the girl down by the river. Eventually, people accepted this as a natural part of life.
So despite the fact that there was some order, people kept their religion. It gave life a reason to be lived, and it gave good things a reason to be done. I mean, who wants to spend eternity chained to the walls of Bungholius'(god of painful anal penetration with insanely large objects) deep cavern?
As a result, today we have billions of people following thousand years old religions, which are sadly and hopelessly out-dated. Being that way, we have weird laws that are illegal only due to the fact that the prevalent religion in the said area considers it bad. Why is prostitution illegal? Because god said so I suppose. Would it be illegal if I went up to someone and offered them 5 dollars to shake my hand? Nope. Is this all-powerful god really so concerned with some guy getting a little action, and having to pay for it because he is damn ugly? Oh, and don't think about putting a dollar on your favorite team in the playoffs. Apparently, that really pisses god off. Coincidentally it's also illegal in alot of places. Separation of church and state my ass!
Even if Christianity is correct, that there is a male deity up there in heaven, above humanity but acting like a human gone mad with power, why would this god care if you did something so insignificant as paid for sex or bet a dollar? Why would god demand that he be worshipped at least once a week?
I used to be a nice little Christian. But one day, the friend I used to go to brainwashing class, I mean church, with moved away. It turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me. One of the things that happened there(in church), which made me start questioning the whole church thing, was really not a significant event. But it just pointed out to me that things they say don't always agree with other things they say. One day a leader was talking, and he was explaining that we shouldn't swear. Then he informed us that we should not say words in place of swear words. For instance, damn is bad, but so is darn. So in his ultimate wisdom, he gave us the following advice. When you feel the urge to say darn, you should replace it with a good word, like tree! This will make god very happy.
Now had he stopped at darn being the same as damn, I would have accepted it, even though it was fucking stupid. But when he went on, and I started doubting everything they said. I am no algebra expert, but I believe that if Damn = Darn, and Darn = Tree, then Damn = Tree! Oh well, god is above mere rules of mathematics.
Well, that's the end of this. I could go on all day, but I won't. I am not concerned enough with religion to talk about it all night.