The joys of religion. I'm not sure where I stand on this one, as I would probably classify myself as an atheist. However, should the proof ever arise of any form of deity or spiritual belief to be true, then I would happily convert. The idea of religion itself is a fairly basic one - give people something to root for. Give them a all-powerful being that gives meaning to the lives of those who have no purpose and hope to the hopeless. It has been a little corrupted mind you; as always, people in power grasp at any straw to keep the masses in line, and religion is a large a part of that as it has always been.
Simply put, there are 2 types of religious people - those which preach, and those which teach. Preachers enjoy shouting about their beliefs from the rooftops, condemning all others for not following the way that is so clearly laid out to them, in some cases resulting in a more serious outcome - a nice example here is the religious opposing abortion due to it being "murder". These people are not to be approached, and should be avoided if possible. See the man who went into an abortion clinic and murdered most of the people there. Pro-life my ass. But I digress.
The second - teachers - are much more reasonable; instead of forcefully shouting their way into your head, they accept the fact that humans are different, (What a Twist!) and so will naturally have differing beliefs. They may also preach their opinions, but will actually listen to counter-points and are all around reasonable folk. That is not to say they are any less devoted to their way of life - I don't think there's a person alive that could convince some of these people to change.
The key difference here is respect. Respect of other people and the differences they hold to you. It's not an easy thing to manage, and in many ways religion can give those who lack it the strength to gain patience and respect for others. Sadly, not everyone has managed it. There still remain a large percentage of our society who struggle to attain this achievement - this is excusable. However, what isn't is those who don't bother to try. The ones who decide that they're always correct, that they always have the moral high grounds and most importantly, the "correct" beliefs. But here's the actual twist; there is no "correct" belief - that's the beauty of beliefs, they don't have to be justifiable. You just have to believe in them.
