Why is there never a box for "none?" Or maybe "irrelevant?" Or "N/A?" There should be an N/A box!
I pretty much choose to live my life as if this crazy, divisive concept called "religion" doesn't exist. That's hard for most people to wrap their minds around. I spent a lot of time questioning and pondering and studying. Among more scholarly texts, I've read translations of the Bible, the Koran, and the Bhagavad Gita. I took a couple of religion classes. After it was all said and done, I wasn't able to come to very many conclusions. I don't know which (if any) religion has it right. I suspect they all have some things right and most things screwed up six ways to Sunday. Mostly, I think that the larger purpose of existence and all of the stuff that comes with it is just too big for my little brain to tackle, so I don't tackle it anymore. I figure I'll either just end or be surprised when I die. Either way, that's irrelevant to the here and now. Instead, I leave religion to the religious folks and I focus on observable, quantifiable type subjects.
I do tend to distrust organized religion, though, and I think that people who come up with their own ideas are more likely to be onto something than people who follow a bunch of set-in-stone rules or adhere to a set of unshakable beliefs. To me, organized religion seems to be too open to corruption by power-seeking types and too likely to lead to war and other atrocities, so I find myself very wary of anyone who thinks his or her tradition is 100% on-the-money and downright frightened of anyone who takes those beliefs into the voting booth or even into the workplace.
So I guess my attitude is "to each his own." I think everyone is entitled to believe as they choose, but I don't think anyone is entitled to try to try to change the beliefs of others -- especially by influencing public policy. I'm big on the separation of church and state. If I had my way, people would leave their emotions and thoughts about religion in their minds, homes, and religious institutions and not let it muck up the rest of the world. Unfortunately, religious people tell me it is impossible to compartmentalize like that and to separate themselves from something that is so deeply ingrained in their personalities, so I don't think I'll ever get my way.
