I am reminded of a phrase one once heard which was "Religion is poison." Before I give my little 2¢ on this, I'm curious to hear what others have to say to this. Of course if this topic offends someone...don't answer to it. [img]smile.gif[/img]

<font color="lightgreen"> It depends on what you mean by 'religeon'... if you mean the formal religeons such as Catholicism and Protestantism, then yes I would agree. Going to formal ceremonies purely to say that "I believe this" is a waste of time, and also the Church, as these formal religeons are commonly known as, will often act like they are politicians- the most evil race on the face of the earth.

If, however, you mean religeon as in a fundamental belief, then I would disagree. Religeon in this sense refers only to what you believe in... and everyone needs to believe something after all. </font>

Religeon by it self is a beautiful thing, it does may great things for this world but, organized religeon is full of greed and hate and has killed hundreds of millions of people.

Religion, along with a lot of other things, is what people make of it. In the wrong hands it can be poison, yes, but it isn't of it's own accord. And IMO it isn't as black and white as Killjoy makes it sound; organized religion being automatically bad. Sure, in the past thousands of people were killed in the name of Christianity, and nowadays there's a war going on 'in the name of Allah', but both of these religions are, in essence, about peace, love thy neighbor etc. It's the interpretation of a few individuals that made medieval Christianity and modern-day Islam (or at least parts of it) intolerant.

all i can say is personnally i don't like religeon because although some relideos people arwe nice then there are religoes nuts that start wars (i'm more thinking back in time). but some religoens like buhdism (s/p) appear to me to be sensible i.e not forcing there belives (like some sects of christianity) and being open minded. then theres my religeon called markism (i never got round to changing the name) where every 3 working days is a holaday. [img]smile.gif[/img]

WElll.......

Religion, the practice of a set of doctrine interpreted as the 'proper' manner in which to worship a deity, can be poison. Depends on the lengths to which the enforcers of the doctrine are willing to go to ensure the followers stay 'in line'.

Otherwise, I'd say religion and/or spirituality are a wondrous and positive thing.