Losing my religion

 I was raised Roman Catholic. Went through baptism, first communion, confirmation - the whole shebang. SWMBO is Roman Catholic, HWOSWMBO is agnostic.

I even went through a happy clappy uber-religious phase, which was probably annoying to everyone around me...

After my sister passed away, I could not have been less religious. For a while, I was pretty much full blown atheist.

As time has gone by, I've moved from atheist to agnostic to believing in something but not really giving a name to it.

I still don't subscribe to organised religion. I'm still not entirely comfortable in churches, and for our wedding day, AntisocialHusband and I had a non-religious garden ceremony. It would just seem hypocritical to swear before God when we don't really subscribe to his stuff.

I'm not anti-religious at all - hell, my Mom is religious, some of my closest friends are religious. I just don't see why two thousand year old world of mouth translated from an ancient language stories should be used to run your entire life. I fail to see how wearing clothes with mixed fibre makes you less Catholic.

I mean, the basic idea of the Catholic religion (or most religions to my knowledge) is pretty much "be awesome to each other, don't treat each other like shit and oh yeah, I'm your only God." All that other stuff about stoning your wife and selling your daughter is kind of contradictory, don't you think?

Not to mention that a lot of unscrupulous people use (amongst other things) religion for their own selfish purposes...Point in case - Westboro Baptist Church. Need I say more?

Plus, it's kind of hard to get behind any religion that subjugates over half the world's population (i.e. women), tries to dictate the love between adults, and sweeps pedophilia under the rug because the offender is a "religious leader".

I suppose the main reason why I don't trust religion, is people. People in large groups cannot be trusted. They cease thinking for themselves and can be whipped into a frenzy and lives can be lost. All you need is a charismatic leader, a belief and a crowd of people willing to listen. It's scary.