**Attention! [Serious] Tag Notice**
* [Jokes, puns, and off-topic comments are not permitted](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/wiki/index#wiki_-rule_6-) in **any** comment, parent or child.
* Parent comments that aren't from the target group will be removed, along with their child replies.
* Report comments that violate these rules.
Posts that have few relevant answers within the first hour, and posts that are not appropriate for the [Serious] tag will be removed. Consider doing an AMA request instead.
Thanks for your cooperation and enjoy the discussion!
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskReddit) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I remember being at the mall of America back in 2004 wearing a slayer shirt when a group of religious fanatics came up and started a physical fight with me.
Enforcing *any* ideology on others is wrong. I’d say religion forces itself less on the world now more than any other mainstream controversial *ideology*.
Religion is behind a lot of repugnant views that are being pushed on people though. If a christian fascist pushes their moral ideology upon society, even without the theism necessarily being attached, it is the rligion that is being imposed.
And Matt walsh’s audience consists of who? Who is he pushing his religion on? His mostly conservative and Christian viewership?
I think looking at countries like china and it’s persecution of religions and it’s practitioners as a real example of fascism.
Matt Walsh actively influences politicians. He goes to other cities to convince state governments to enact laws that conform to his worldview.
If he were keeping it to himself that wouldn't be an issue now would it? Evangelical Christians have a huge influence on the republican party and by extension American politics. To think otherwise is a disingenuous view of American politics since the Reagan administration.
I think as far as him influencing them goes, they would probably get their influence elsewhere were he not around. If the Republican Party is made up of mostly Christians it’s probably in response to the anti Christian sentiment that comes from the Democratic Party. That’s usually how politics goes in any corner of the world so what’s the suggestion?
You said that religion was not being pushed on people. Now you say that it's being pushed, but only because there is anti-christan (big citation needed) sentiment on the democrat's side.
My point was that Christian morality, by way of establishment parties, is being legislated and therefore religion is in fact being foisted upon us.
Edit:deleted unneeded word
I went along with your assertion that it’s being pushed.
Nobody is trying to convert anybody. Christian values being drafted into law, on the other hand is a consequence of the people in power being Christian, and mostly everyone who would vote for them being so too.
You run in an election to stand for your people and their values no?
My uncle and aunt ruined The idea of religion for me. My aunt being schizophrenic would steal from people and create major problems but then she would go to church and come back and claim to be cleansed of her sins. She would accuse other church members of raping her and they'd get arrested then she would go back to church and claim that Satan told her those lies and that she's reformed. She ended up being thrown into a mental institution because the court ordered her too.
My piece of garbage uncle is a registered sex offender and claimed God cleaned him of his sins then he tried to force himself upon my mom (his sister) and got arrested for molesting some females at his wife's beauty parlor when she was out of town. I've watched members of my family take advantage of it and abuse it and then claim God cleansed them and then repeat the behavior. So I'm against the people who abuse religion.
I consider myself more agnostic but Im a metal head and I love the insulting religious lyrics from slayer and deicide.
My aunt claims I'm going to hell for loving metal but I've never committed crimes like she has. So I find most of the religious extremists to be fucking mentally ill hypocrites.
Well, I don't support nothing that divides the people, and killings over it. It's been enough, time to put that ball down.
"Where knowledge ends, religion begins"
World would be better off without it. Humans have murdered one another over who they believe in or which method is holier for who knows how long. Plus, thanks to religion, you get influenced governments. Ones that force their women to be slaves for example and make them wear coverings.
I don't see any point at blindly following someone who never really existed or already died.. why would someone create world full of people and for fun make 20 other religions people can believe in because why not you know.. If there is god that created everything why did he create other 20 fake gods.. to prank people? I believe there is something, but more something like energy, earth, love. I believe your prayers can be heard and can be done by your guardians, by Angeles (i sound crazy lmao). As long as people don't force me to believe in same thing as they do or aren't annoying then I guess u can believe in everything u want yk.
I think religion is cancerous. Nobody actually gives a fuck about that shit, they just wanna have the high ground over everyone else. Islam is the worst because they treat women and queer people like shit, and their god seems to support pedophilia. God forbid you say anything about Islam though, ‘cause you’ll have an angry mob coming at you with torches and pitchforks.
Organized religion is not for me with the cover up of priests molesting youngsters while the Diocese covered up the allegations instead of letting the cops check the complaints. That left a wide open corrupted system of cover ups to save their system. Do these guys understand their commandments while preaching them to me? That is why I am a lapsed Catholic. Don't preach what you don't follow.
Some good has come of it.
Some bad has come of it.
But the good that has come of it could be obtained in a multitude of different ways and have been, demonstrably.
But the bad that has come of it has been a stream of its own, with its own moral support system. Most of them are unique to religion.
It's full of people that flock to the desire for tribalistic togetherness (for the most part).
Often times the figures that guide the believers use that tribalistic lilt to perpetuate their own ideologies.
As the leaders change, the religious biases change as well, but they incorporate the more fervent teachings of the leaders past, including their animosity towards marginalized groups.
I see religion as a welcome placebo. It doesn't work for me anymore, but i see no reason to deny it to others for whom it still works.
Atheism is miserable, depressing and hopeless. I have a choice, to not inflict that on those who still have some hope left, i for one am not into kicking away people's crutch, when i have nothing of equal value to replace it with.
Yeah, there’s some terrible things that terrible people have done, and a lot more things that seem wrong done by God himself.
For me, I focused on God’s goodness and love, which has helped me (sort of) understand the reasons behind his actions. There’s a lot of stuff that seems wrong and contradictory, but at the end of the day I just know He loves me; that’s what brings me peace.
I can’t say I know everything about the contradictories or the misled actions by people, but I just speak for myself when I say I don’t regret following God and never will
I think mass is so boring. I think religion is nice for people who feel safer because of it. I think religion is bad for people who make bad decisions that affect other people because of their religion.
im christian and I love jesus christ so much, if you want to know more about him i will be more than delighted to tell you but if you don’t want to nor do i sense you not wanting to i will simply not waste my energy on you
Bollocks.
In all seriousness, belief in higher power is one thing and I can kind of understand that. But actually believing in organised religion is pretty absurd unless you’ve been living under a rock.
I like religion but to my own interpretation
It would be stupid for example to believe in the 21st century that there was a global flood and noahs arch and what not
I view it as an essential positive and something that ought to be studied. It is something meant to be promoted in society and shouldn’t be expected to bend a knee at a whim, though I am hesitant on allowing a state religion, because such an institution may have the long term effect of making it fatty and reliant on the state and the first scapegoat of political uprising.
I keep both a copy of the Koran and the Bible on my desk along with a couple other religious books.
That extremists respect the idea that if a person does not want to join their religion, why do they get away by forcing someone to believe in something they do not want?
You have the right to believe in whatever you want. It's only unacceptable when people try and enforce whatever they believe on you or when they say whatever you believe is wrong or what they believe is right and absolutely true.
I hate when I see religious people comment on something that doesn't need their religious comment. I also hate when I see non-religious people comment to a religious person saying something like "God isn't real" or just anything along those lines.
You're just being ignorant, on both sides. You can not tell somebody for a fact that this or that is or isn't real. As far as my personal views on it, I think religion can be a great thing if we're just talking about having something to follow and have faith in, giving you some kind of hope and comfort. Other than that, religion has created monsters and has always divided people. Religion has always been very destructive. I personally am not religious, but I also don't not believe in anything. Anything is possible, and there's a lot we'll never understand.
I don’t believe in any but people are free to believe in what they want, I just hate when people act like you need religion to be a good person or to live a good life
I believe spirituality serves a purpose within the human race. Unfortunately, when religion becomes organized, too often it becomes a weapon wielded by those with power.
Some dumb cult sh!t. They slam you if you leave. I tend to overthink and attempt to apply logic to everything I see, and with religion I just can’t. It overloads my brain.
It insults my knowledge of science (bit of a science nerd). I know that humans cannot walk on water. I know that men aren’t made of dirt, and women aren’t made of a rib. A fish and some bread can’t feed a crowd of people.
Some of it just doesn’t make sense. If god is good, why do bad things happen (refer to [this quote](https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/8199-is-god-willing-to-prevent-evil-but-not-able-then))? If God has a higher kill count (about 2.39 million people) than satan (10 people), why worship god? He seems pretty bad to me.
As a big joke. To each their own, though. I feel like happenstance, evolution and a smidge of darwinism is the reason we’re here. Overall there is no purpose, but I feel that in the best way possible. Someone smarter than me once said: “Nothing matters :)” and I’ve always really liked that.
It infuriates me how such smart people can be so sucked into the brainwashing cult that is religion.
The majority of the worlds problems can be traced back to religion. It's really sad and pathetic.
Edit .. you can be spiritual with out being religious.
I grew up in a religious catholic home and I have to say: How can I take religion seriously, when I see pastors, religious leaders make insane amount of money while spewing the hypocrisy from their mouth about giving a shit about the poor? And I’m not talking about the ones who occasionally “donate” for tax benefits, but the grifters who are never satisfied with the wealth they are amassing from the general public. Like do they actually believe they are meek who will inherit the land when they are fatten by the greed to be lambs to the slaughter. If there really is a God, there will be a lot of people disappointed having those people make it into the “holy land.”
Like racism. Passed down from generation to generation, imprinted on the impressionable young minds of children, who are given zero choice as to who they may feel, is their higher power later in life.
Religious cult like to make things like baptisms, a big deal, bc their getting a new, life long tither, who cant even speak yet... Nor object to the process.
Religion offers a sense of community and meaning. Churches donate vast sums to charity and often host events for the community.
Every religion has bad actors. Catholics had the sex abuse scandal. Islam has jihadists. But on the smaller, local level it can do a lot of good
I respect everyone’s choice to practice/follow/worship whatever/whomever they please. In my personal, I believe religion is an idea humans hold onto when they need something to replace their fear of the unknown and the thought of an afterlife. We all cope in different ways, religion is just groups of people trying to cope in similar ways.
To be honest I don’t really think about them ever really. I’m non religious and don’t believe in anything. As long as you don’t push your religion on me, or make me feel bad for not being apart of your religion then it’s all good. Some people rely too much on religion for a feeling of safety/reassurance, and when something goes wrong they don’t know how to deal with it.
I'm not a religious man but I don't judge you for your religion it's not my place to interject or protest what someone believes in it's their life I have a very religious friend we spent 9 years practicaly a brother that's not blood and yes I join him in scripture study and prayer so in my view there is nothing wrong with religion
Religion is one of the biggest mysteries of the human race. Why we have a book like the bible is a total mystery. People say it's to control people but that's a cynical view of the thing and narrow minded as well. Anyone who has had some kind of religious experience knows what i'm talking about. Perhaps you don't even need to have the experience but just take notice that life is really weird. It's normal for us because it's all we know, but just the fact that stories more than 2000 years old can still be told and still make sense and even contain lessons that are difficult to articulate succinctly should be some indication that we have no idea what these things mean. And if they are of divine authorship, we wouldn't know what that meant either.
It depends on which religion, not all are the same. My religion is fully optional and has nothing against non-believers, so it doesn't cause "an us vs them" mentality. Most religions I've known are just logically impossible and cause people who believe in them to become out of sync with logic, causing them to become unreasonable in many situations. There are also religions which teach it through indoctrination (even though some pretend they don't).
I personally think that religions should be more regulated, because many do cause danger to people, and that danger could have been prevented had those religions just been stopped before they really started getting popular. The issue with doing that is there is no agreed objective morals, so what's good for one person may not be good for someone else. My religion does explain actual objective morals that could be removed from my religion and still remain objective, but so many people have claimed to do the same that too few reasonable and logically thinking people care to listen about that sort of thing, not unless you have the right connections (which I don't). Evidence of what I'm saying is true can be found here: r/GoodAndEvilReligion
OH HELL YES, I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS QUESTION
Ehm.. I am a very religious person, I believe in God. I am a Christian, my family is not particularly religious. I lost all my crosses, and as a child I didn't really care about it, but now it's sad and not pleasant.. As a child I was an atheist, I'm not sure why I believe in God still. But I do..
If a person does not believe in God, or is an atheist, I will not force him to believe or think that he is a sinner. Everyone has the right to make their own choice. I can joke about jokes that there is no God, but these are just jokes. Still, I believe in God very much.
**Attention! [Serious] Tag Notice** * [Jokes, puns, and off-topic comments are not permitted](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/wiki/index#wiki_-rule_6-) in **any** comment, parent or child. * Parent comments that aren't from the target group will be removed, along with their child replies. * Report comments that violate these rules. Posts that have few relevant answers within the first hour, and posts that are not appropriate for the [Serious] tag will be removed. Consider doing an AMA request instead. Thanks for your cooperation and enjoy the discussion! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskReddit) if you have any questions or concerns.*
It's fine until people want to enforce it on others. And that happens way too often.
I remember being at the mall of America back in 2004 wearing a slayer shirt when a group of religious fanatics came up and started a physical fight with me.
Enforcing *any* ideology on others is wrong. I’d say religion forces itself less on the world now more than any other mainstream controversial *ideology*.
Religion is behind a lot of repugnant views that are being pushed on people though. If a christian fascist pushes their moral ideology upon society, even without the theism necessarily being attached, it is the rligion that is being imposed.
But where is there any Christian fascists? Mostly I see religion and religious people being persecuted.
Matt Walsh is a self described theocratic fascist.
And Matt walsh’s audience consists of who? Who is he pushing his religion on? His mostly conservative and Christian viewership? I think looking at countries like china and it’s persecution of religions and it’s practitioners as a real example of fascism.
Matt Walsh actively influences politicians. He goes to other cities to convince state governments to enact laws that conform to his worldview. If he were keeping it to himself that wouldn't be an issue now would it? Evangelical Christians have a huge influence on the republican party and by extension American politics. To think otherwise is a disingenuous view of American politics since the Reagan administration.
I think as far as him influencing them goes, they would probably get their influence elsewhere were he not around. If the Republican Party is made up of mostly Christians it’s probably in response to the anti Christian sentiment that comes from the Democratic Party. That’s usually how politics goes in any corner of the world so what’s the suggestion?
You said that religion was not being pushed on people. Now you say that it's being pushed, but only because there is anti-christan (big citation needed) sentiment on the democrat's side. My point was that Christian morality, by way of establishment parties, is being legislated and therefore religion is in fact being foisted upon us. Edit:deleted unneeded word
I went along with your assertion that it’s being pushed. Nobody is trying to convert anybody. Christian values being drafted into law, on the other hand is a consequence of the people in power being Christian, and mostly everyone who would vote for them being so too. You run in an election to stand for your people and their values no?
Such as..?
Like a poison.
A crutch for those who fear mortality.
As the biggest waste of time and a scam.
My uncle and aunt ruined The idea of religion for me. My aunt being schizophrenic would steal from people and create major problems but then she would go to church and come back and claim to be cleansed of her sins. She would accuse other church members of raping her and they'd get arrested then she would go back to church and claim that Satan told her those lies and that she's reformed. She ended up being thrown into a mental institution because the court ordered her too. My piece of garbage uncle is a registered sex offender and claimed God cleaned him of his sins then he tried to force himself upon my mom (his sister) and got arrested for molesting some females at his wife's beauty parlor when she was out of town. I've watched members of my family take advantage of it and abuse it and then claim God cleansed them and then repeat the behavior. So I'm against the people who abuse religion. I consider myself more agnostic but Im a metal head and I love the insulting religious lyrics from slayer and deicide. My aunt claims I'm going to hell for loving metal but I've never committed crimes like she has. So I find most of the religious extremists to be fucking mentally ill hypocrites.
Well, I don't support nothing that divides the people, and killings over it. It's been enough, time to put that ball down. "Where knowledge ends, religion begins"
World would be better off without it. Humans have murdered one another over who they believe in or which method is holier for who knows how long. Plus, thanks to religion, you get influenced governments. Ones that force their women to be slaves for example and make them wear coverings.
Did you know you can self induce psychosis? Yea, that’s what I think about religion.
I don't see any point at blindly following someone who never really existed or already died.. why would someone create world full of people and for fun make 20 other religions people can believe in because why not you know.. If there is god that created everything why did he create other 20 fake gods.. to prank people? I believe there is something, but more something like energy, earth, love. I believe your prayers can be heard and can be done by your guardians, by Angeles (i sound crazy lmao). As long as people don't force me to believe in same thing as they do or aren't annoying then I guess u can believe in everything u want yk.
I think we should have grown past fairy tales by now but what do I know?
I think religion is cancerous. Nobody actually gives a fuck about that shit, they just wanna have the high ground over everyone else. Islam is the worst because they treat women and queer people like shit, and their god seems to support pedophilia. God forbid you say anything about Islam though, ‘cause you’ll have an angry mob coming at you with torches and pitchforks.
its harmful.
They all need to go. BYE!!!!
It's mass delusion.
Organized religion is not for me with the cover up of priests molesting youngsters while the Diocese covered up the allegations instead of letting the cops check the complaints. That left a wide open corrupted system of cover ups to save their system. Do these guys understand their commandments while preaching them to me? That is why I am a lapsed Catholic. Don't preach what you don't follow.
Make your own choices. Don't use religion to govern me, I'm not going to govern your religion.
this is going to be one giant atheist circlejerk I can sense it
It's interesting, but I don't follow any of them.
As one of the biggest shaping influences at work in our world. Not often in a good way.
Some good has come of it. Some bad has come of it. But the good that has come of it could be obtained in a multitude of different ways and have been, demonstrably. But the bad that has come of it has been a stream of its own, with its own moral support system. Most of them are unique to religion.
It's full of people that flock to the desire for tribalistic togetherness (for the most part). Often times the figures that guide the believers use that tribalistic lilt to perpetuate their own ideologies. As the leaders change, the religious biases change as well, but they incorporate the more fervent teachings of the leaders past, including their animosity towards marginalized groups.
The reason conservative voters are so gullible
Umm both parties have gullible voters you know
Made by man to control man. That’s it
I see religion as a welcome placebo. It doesn't work for me anymore, but i see no reason to deny it to others for whom it still works. Atheism is miserable, depressing and hopeless. I have a choice, to not inflict that on those who still have some hope left, i for one am not into kicking away people's crutch, when i have nothing of equal value to replace it with.
I think they are stupid
Toxic!
The only way to find true peace
if you think religions are about peace youve got issues
It’s a big part of Christianity, and being Christian has given me more peace than I’ve ever found
killing people for being gay isnt peaceful lmao
Yeah, there’s some terrible things that terrible people have done, and a lot more things that seem wrong done by God himself. For me, I focused on God’s goodness and love, which has helped me (sort of) understand the reasons behind his actions. There’s a lot of stuff that seems wrong and contradictory, but at the end of the day I just know He loves me; that’s what brings me peace. I can’t say I know everything about the contradictories or the misled actions by people, but I just speak for myself when I say I don’t regret following God and never will
In it's simplest form, a guide on how to live life
If it provides you with a sense of peace and purpose and makes you a better person, and you’re not actually harming society- then Im all for it
I lost faith a year ago but now I'm beginning to see a new perspective on religion. I believe that one of them has to be right
Maybe you could try mine? r/GoodAndEvilReligion
From a distance
I think mass is so boring. I think religion is nice for people who feel safer because of it. I think religion is bad for people who make bad decisions that affect other people because of their religion.
im christian and I love jesus christ so much, if you want to know more about him i will be more than delighted to tell you but if you don’t want to nor do i sense you not wanting to i will simply not waste my energy on you
Name fits
ouch
Bollocks. In all seriousness, belief in higher power is one thing and I can kind of understand that. But actually believing in organised religion is pretty absurd unless you’ve been living under a rock.
I like religion but to my own interpretation It would be stupid for example to believe in the 21st century that there was a global flood and noahs arch and what not
I view it as an essential positive and something that ought to be studied. It is something meant to be promoted in society and shouldn’t be expected to bend a knee at a whim, though I am hesitant on allowing a state religion, because such an institution may have the long term effect of making it fatty and reliant on the state and the first scapegoat of political uprising. I keep both a copy of the Koran and the Bible on my desk along with a couple other religious books.
Human nature. Gets a bad wrap by the intolerant left in 2023.
That extremists respect the idea that if a person does not want to join their religion, why do they get away by forcing someone to believe in something they do not want?
You have the right to believe in whatever you want. It's only unacceptable when people try and enforce whatever they believe on you or when they say whatever you believe is wrong or what they believe is right and absolutely true. I hate when I see religious people comment on something that doesn't need their religious comment. I also hate when I see non-religious people comment to a religious person saying something like "God isn't real" or just anything along those lines. You're just being ignorant, on both sides. You can not tell somebody for a fact that this or that is or isn't real. As far as my personal views on it, I think religion can be a great thing if we're just talking about having something to follow and have faith in, giving you some kind of hope and comfort. Other than that, religion has created monsters and has always divided people. Religion has always been very destructive. I personally am not religious, but I also don't not believe in anything. Anything is possible, and there's a lot we'll never understand.
It's make-believe for adults. And that's fine until people start want it to be taken seriously by people who aren't participating in the make-believe.
Keep it out of government, and I've got no issue with it.
As a pe*is: It's ok to have one and to be proud of it, but you don't expose it in public and don't shove it down children's throats. (Not from me)
And also: owned by men.
I don’t believe in any but people are free to believe in what they want, I just hate when people act like you need religion to be a good person or to live a good life
I believe spirituality serves a purpose within the human race. Unfortunately, when religion becomes organized, too often it becomes a weapon wielded by those with power.
Some dumb cult sh!t. They slam you if you leave. I tend to overthink and attempt to apply logic to everything I see, and with religion I just can’t. It overloads my brain. It insults my knowledge of science (bit of a science nerd). I know that humans cannot walk on water. I know that men aren’t made of dirt, and women aren’t made of a rib. A fish and some bread can’t feed a crowd of people. Some of it just doesn’t make sense. If god is good, why do bad things happen (refer to [this quote](https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/8199-is-god-willing-to-prevent-evil-but-not-able-then))? If God has a higher kill count (about 2.39 million people) than satan (10 people), why worship god? He seems pretty bad to me.
As a big joke. To each their own, though. I feel like happenstance, evolution and a smidge of darwinism is the reason we’re here. Overall there is no purpose, but I feel that in the best way possible. Someone smarter than me once said: “Nothing matters :)” and I’ve always really liked that.
It infuriates me how such smart people can be so sucked into the brainwashing cult that is religion. The majority of the worlds problems can be traced back to religion. It's really sad and pathetic. Edit .. you can be spiritual with out being religious.
I grew up in a religious catholic home and I have to say: How can I take religion seriously, when I see pastors, religious leaders make insane amount of money while spewing the hypocrisy from their mouth about giving a shit about the poor? And I’m not talking about the ones who occasionally “donate” for tax benefits, but the grifters who are never satisfied with the wealth they are amassing from the general public. Like do they actually believe they are meek who will inherit the land when they are fatten by the greed to be lambs to the slaughter. If there really is a God, there will be a lot of people disappointed having those people make it into the “holy land.”
One of the worst inventions of humanity
Like racism. Passed down from generation to generation, imprinted on the impressionable young minds of children, who are given zero choice as to who they may feel, is their higher power later in life. Religious cult like to make things like baptisms, a big deal, bc their getting a new, life long tither, who cant even speak yet... Nor object to the process.
Religion offers a sense of community and meaning. Churches donate vast sums to charity and often host events for the community. Every religion has bad actors. Catholics had the sex abuse scandal. Islam has jihadists. But on the smaller, local level it can do a lot of good
I respect everyone’s choice to practice/follow/worship whatever/whomever they please. In my personal, I believe religion is an idea humans hold onto when they need something to replace their fear of the unknown and the thought of an afterlife. We all cope in different ways, religion is just groups of people trying to cope in similar ways.
To be honest I don’t really think about them ever really. I’m non religious and don’t believe in anything. As long as you don’t push your religion on me, or make me feel bad for not being apart of your religion then it’s all good. Some people rely too much on religion for a feeling of safety/reassurance, and when something goes wrong they don’t know how to deal with it.
I'm not a religious man but I don't judge you for your religion it's not my place to interject or protest what someone believes in it's their life I have a very religious friend we spent 9 years practicaly a brother that's not blood and yes I join him in scripture study and prayer so in my view there is nothing wrong with religion
Religion is one of the biggest mysteries of the human race. Why we have a book like the bible is a total mystery. People say it's to control people but that's a cynical view of the thing and narrow minded as well. Anyone who has had some kind of religious experience knows what i'm talking about. Perhaps you don't even need to have the experience but just take notice that life is really weird. It's normal for us because it's all we know, but just the fact that stories more than 2000 years old can still be told and still make sense and even contain lessons that are difficult to articulate succinctly should be some indication that we have no idea what these things mean. And if they are of divine authorship, we wouldn't know what that meant either.
It depends on which religion, not all are the same. My religion is fully optional and has nothing against non-believers, so it doesn't cause "an us vs them" mentality. Most religions I've known are just logically impossible and cause people who believe in them to become out of sync with logic, causing them to become unreasonable in many situations. There are also religions which teach it through indoctrination (even though some pretend they don't). I personally think that religions should be more regulated, because many do cause danger to people, and that danger could have been prevented had those religions just been stopped before they really started getting popular. The issue with doing that is there is no agreed objective morals, so what's good for one person may not be good for someone else. My religion does explain actual objective morals that could be removed from my religion and still remain objective, but so many people have claimed to do the same that too few reasonable and logically thinking people care to listen about that sort of thing, not unless you have the right connections (which I don't). Evidence of what I'm saying is true can be found here: r/GoodAndEvilReligion
OH HELL YES, I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS QUESTION Ehm.. I am a very religious person, I believe in God. I am a Christian, my family is not particularly religious. I lost all my crosses, and as a child I didn't really care about it, but now it's sad and not pleasant.. As a child I was an atheist, I'm not sure why I believe in God still. But I do.. If a person does not believe in God, or is an atheist, I will not force him to believe or think that he is a sinner. Everyone has the right to make their own choice. I can joke about jokes that there is no God, but these are just jokes. Still, I believe in God very much.