My new book #2

Religion
What is it? Who follows it? Why do they follow it?
If I talk about Religion, then you should understand that my background of (and indoctrination by) the Church of England does not make me an expert in it, nor am I qualified to dissect any other of the ridiculous number of 'faiths'. There are hundreds! Where should I start? My conversations about Religion are based on what I have seen, experienced over time, read about, and what I, as a layman on these subjects, understand. I believe that I am in the majority - it may be that I have thought about it a little more than some. That's all. It is the same about Space or astrophysics - they are subjects that I can talk about, to a passable level, but I am no Professor Brian Cox or Neil DeGrasse Tyson (cue very cool Science guys...)!
Religion - what actually is it? What does it mean? And who to...? 'One man's meat is another man's poison' springs to mind... I would portray Religion as an odd concept, at best. It has certainly been around for a great number of years (many thousands of documented years...but Historically it will go back before that, I am sure).
Wait, did I just read that correctly? Wiki says that there are some 10,000 distinct religions? What the hell? Surely, if you belong to a religion then that one is the 'right' one, the 'true' one, the one that everyone should be judged by...? Am I wrong...? Oh, please enlighten me, you sycophantic fool - please tell me why it is that your faith (and only yours) is the 'right' one - and follow it up by hard evidence on why everyone else is just pissing into the wind - they are 'wrong', you are 'right', because it says so in your precious magic book, which tells you that...everyone else is wrong? What? Science? Evidence? FACTS!!! WTF - you want facts, when Faith is the answer! You Heretic, you!
At worst...well, religion, in all its 'glory', is a colossal waste of everyone's time! In essence, it is the worship of a deity, by a group of people who have no rational explanation of said worship. What is a deity? It is usually referred to as a god. Which one? Which one are you following - pick one; at the last count there are thousands to pick from! What is it that makes your god the 'right' one, and your neighbours god the 'wrong' one? How is it that supposedly grown up people can go to actual war on this subject, and slaughter millions, with some pathetic 'argument' that it is somehow - to them - a justifiable act?
Unless you have just arrived from some other part of the Universe (hey, I'm not knocking it - if you have, then give me a call - now, today! I will go out on a limb here and say that you literally cannot trust anyone else that you might speak to - only me...), then you will have seen in various media reports of the last few years (anything within the last 20+ years) that so much is happening around the world, and yes, in some places, some form of religious activity is actually doing constructive work, saving lives (see Africa and some charities of religious origin). But in the rest of the world - not so much...so sad.
How do you deal with being an acknowledged Catholic, and yet you see and hear what the leaders have been up to for the last few decades (at least - that's what we are beginning to see - what went on before...?) and you somehow continue in your blind ignorance? What is it that, somehow, allows you to justify being part of a group that endorses child abuse on a global scale, uses slush funds to keep people quiet, has most likely been involved in the deaths of a great many people, and more?
The Catholic church is just one example. The Protestant one is another. They have dirty secrets that are all coming out, slowly, as more people finally talk about it. The 'survivors' of this systematic abuse are damaged goods. Some cannot cope, and they may well have suicided, and some may have managed to bury the past, but it is still there, and will be carried with them to their graves.
Those 'good, christian' values are proven to be wholly false, time and time again, and yet you still want to be a part of it? Why? I cannot answer this, and I am sick of hearing the pathetic excuses...
I find that this is something that I cannot resolve, and if you actually thought about it (which I don't see much of...), I doubt that you would, either. It is as if you are, today, part of a far-right Nazi group, applauding Adolf Hitler, and saying that you thought he was a 'decent man', or some such drivel. A large part of the world has woken up to the insanities that Nazi Germany inflicted on it, so for people to still be applauding the lunatic that started it says a lot about them and their own 'issues'. The same applies to Communism and Socialism - they are proven, with case after case, that they are one of the worst inventions of Man! And yet, they still have those simple-minded fools that follow them...
So it must be with any number of these religious institutions. They are supposedly all set up to be the 'one', the 'perfect one', so how is it that all fail so miserably, and yet still have followers - some with only a few, but others with many millions of followers?
If the main ones fail, then they all fail. They are all flawed, and yet people continue to worship. It is truly a crazy world. Here we are, in what is called the 21st century (using the conventional time frame) and yet we have so many people who are struggling with living in their version of the 12th century, or even further back.
It is difficult to take each religion apart, as there are so many, and, as I have mentioned, I am no real expert in any of them, but if you are truly in the 21st century (socially and mentally) then how can you somehow accept that a prehistoric mentality should somehow be given some lee-way, or you are somehow expected to bend over and accommodate their delusions? This is your country, so why are you making allowances for some newly-arrived Neanderthals? If these people cannot behave in your world, then why are they there? Why are you having to make some form of allowances for them? They are the ones who need to adapt to your world - not the other way around!