What is Religion?

Well, aren't you glad that I asked that question! Go on, admit it - yes you are. What it is...is... a hoax, a farce, a fantastic piece of fiction that has been visited on generation after generation, often by force, frequently by family, from parent down to children. This can safely be called the most appalling case of child abuse that has ever been invented. Yes it can. Oh, come on, wake up! For anyone to point to the Bible and say 'It says so here, in the Bible, so it must be true'. It's a book (these days it's an electronic book, but still a book). The Bible, The Talmud, the Quran, and countless other 'Religious Text' books have no more authority than the Harry Potter books, or Asimov's Robot series, or Poldark, or Robert Heinlein's stories about the Howard families. Before you start complaining, NO THEY DON'T! Sit yourself down, and switch the mobile phone off, and THINK. It doesn't matter if you are an active athiest, a Scientologist, a Christian Science follower, a Buddhist, a Baptist, a follower of one or other of the 'flavours' of Islam, an Orthodox Jew, a Reform Jew, or a Liberal Jew - it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter to me, and if you were to spend ten minutes actually thinking about it, instead of just following what you have been told to follow (sheeple) then it would not matter to you! Virtually all religions started many centuries ago, when the people in charge told you that the earth was flat, or that the Sun moved around the Earth, or that the stars in the sky might be angels, or that 'of course we are right - it says so in this book!'. Centuries ago anyone who was in power simply didn't have a clue! No, they didn't. Admit it. They were as ignorant of the placing of Earth in the Solar System as anyone, and they were more than plain ignorant of the sheer scale of the Universe, as we understand it now. We still don't have all the answers! There are thousands of questions that we cannot yet answer, but I prefer that to the blind assumption that there are answers that cannot - must not! - be questioned. That way lies madness. On that note - how do women sleep at night, when they follow a faith that is driven by the men, the men tell the women what they can (and cannot) do, what they can (and cannot) wear? They also have this text (in their holy book, of course!) that stipulates that a Mans testimony is worth that of two women. Think about that. What does that even mean? A man, some ignoramus from centuries ago, can (and frequently did) spout some garbage that meant that two women had to get together to even equal his utterings, in a court of (laughter inserted here) law? The Catholics got it wrong centuries ago. Make the woman subservient, dress her up in a wimpole, etc, and let her think that she is free in the faith. Almost every faith has repeated this lie, ever since. Islam (insert more laughter here) has announced that they have an ambassador - a female ambassador. That's rich. http://dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2015/Apr-14/294380-iran-to-appoint-first-female-ambassador-since-islamic-revolution-in-1979-reports.ashx Oh come on, people! Are we supposed to say encouraging things? 'Wow, look at Iran. That's fantastic.' or are we supposed to say 'You are still a few hundred years behind the rest of the world - grow up!' Women in faith are treated as second class the whole world over - it's just that women don't seem to see it that way! How the Hell did that happen?