I hate mainstream religion

you know, I hate religion too, but truthfully - everyone is religious! All religion is, is a set of rules and regs that we abide by on a daily basis. Some folks brush their teeth before going to bed, while others takes showers instead of baths...so what? Well, it's a religion, a way of doing things, being things, etc. Religion is also a way to gain the favor of God by works. Well, we're all guilty of that to some degree too. Folks go to church because of the kids, or maybe the wife won't ride em' if they go, you know... I think we should destroy religion and work on a RELATIONSHIP with Christ; that's powerful, intimate, real...and it doesn't cost me $39.99 for a prayer rag that doesn't work!! Look at it this way: let's say you have a toothache and you need it taken care of so you run to a dentist to get it knocked out. The deductible is $500 and you need a root canal...well, they only give your teeth a good cleaning and send you out the door, you're like what???!!! That Scam artist!!! Never again!!! Well, now you've gotta choice - either ALL dentists will rob you, or you gotta get to one that will treat you right, after all, you still have a tooth ache!! Make the connection?? Selah...(That means pause and reflect)

I don't necessarily have any aversion to mainstream religion by itself, although I'm not the least bit religous. My problem is more with individuals feeling a need to push their way of life, their "holy" standard, on the rest of us. I'm a hypocrite in some areas on this. My saying that I don't want them pushing their standard means I'd rather the world work on my standard. And that makes me relatively the same. However, I don't cape myself in an infallible light. I don't live as if I'm righteous due to my beliefs or nonbeliefs in anything. I won't judge while simultaneously telling others not to do so. We find "religion" flawed because mankind is flawed. And since--at least per my beliefs--mankind developed religion, it's the logical evolution to see what we're seeing. In fact, there is probably no other scenario in which thinking beings could have evolved where some type of "godlike" something-or-other wasn't created. That's also a logical step in the evolution of thinking - pondering one's fate once realizing mortality is inevitable. The conclusion would always be divine in an age where "science" didn't exist. Knowledge we have today through science and the freedom to question beliefs are relatively new things to us. At a time when humans were at their most vulnerable, religion was pushed as truth. And it's still being passed down as that to many in the world, but now more people are free to draw their own conclusions. What this means, I think, is that mainstream religion will eventually subside. For all the good-hearted, god-fearing people out there, whomever or whatever their "god" may be, I have no problem with them. I don't speak against their beliefs. But for individuals wishing to harm or murder, seize power or take over, while justifying it with their religion, I really do wish they'd put a sock in it. We're not longer at a point in life where slighting god will cause those mythical bad things to happen. We understand ancient fire and brimstone was most likely comets or meteors. We know the earthquake in Haiti wasn't because some devil dealling hogwash. Religion should be private business, kept out of the mainstream. I don't want to be converted, and I don't want to have to tell anyone I don't want to be.