Biggest Single Dislike Of Religion?

I have a soundtrack from a movie about Joan of Arc called "The Messenger" It's awesome.

The Catholic Religion can be crazy.... a saint holds her eyeballs in a plate...

I've always experienced it as an outsider looking into a vast sea.

Why did Guadalupe make you so angry?

And how come they (just about always) always support powerful, conservative political governments? Who go about their war mongering ways with reckless abandon? Hmmm?

The gathering of indigenous people to inculcate... the arrogance of that, and the results of that. Plus, naturally, my own resentments, explained elsewhere here. At the time, I was just had loosened myself from all that, and was 'in transition', re my emotions.

Well, Daniel Berrigan was a priest, if I remember. And there was some revolutionary theology in latin america.

All tamped down now, lots and lots and lots of cardinals named lately by a few popes, the named are hierarchical favorites. (I'm decades out of it all, but I watch once in a while.)

Yes. And very much frowned upon by the Vatican, osso.
I recall the not-all-that-long-age pope's visit & his strong statements about the evils of birth control. To some of the poorest of the poor.
Honestly!

Well, I could go on and on. But.. I've known many good religious people. I was saying, back there, what was my biggest single dislike.

Agreeing with you.
So have I known many good religious people, osso. They've been a huge force in the peace movement here, like in the anti-Iraq invasion demonstrations a few years ago. And also in many, many other human rights campaigns. They are some of the strongest supporters of the rights of asylum seekers in Oz ... they have been wonderful.
It's the often out of touch powerful, conservative "big wigs" I'm referring to ...

Nods.

Well, late here. G'night, kiddo.

Good night, possum.

Goodnight Lady Ossobuco....

What a childish question; based on an entirely childish premise.

This is akin to asking, "What don't you like about the color blue?"

Predictably, all of the responses have to do with the practice of religion and not religion itself.

This is the same sort of childish argument that might be directed towards lead:

Lead is used in bullets; bullets kill people; I don't like lead.

I don't think your analogies hold. Both "blue" and "lead" can be thought to have "existence" for all observers. The problem with "religion" from a non-believer's standpoint is that it is entirely synthetic and has pernicious aspects which affect them . A better analogy might be to compare the effects of drug use on non-users.

My serious answer is that my single biggest dislike is the sense of entitlement that is a reoccurring theme in religions.

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Entitlement to what?

Name something, anything.

In politics, I've heard American, British, and Australian conservatives reference their country's "Christian heritage." The subtext is simple: The land we stand on is ours by providence of God.

In biology, religion is what makes people think humans are something other than animal.

Etc.

Need more examples? I bet if you look at any conflict where religion is involved, and you'll find at some integral level themes of entitlement.

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Well said!

Yes, an inept analogy at best. One being a collection of superstitions with a long history of destructive effects; the other being a frequency range of electromagnetic radiation that has the human perception/convention of similarity.

Humorously (if nothing else) should you ask Mrs. Chumly about blue she will likely go on at length about how blue affects her, where she would use blue, where she would not use blue etc; but should you ask Mrs. Chumly about religion, she will likely shrug her shoulders disinterestedly.

So what's the alternative to this view? I'm thinking of Jefferson, who in the face of attempts to change his secular government into one in which Christians are free to worship as they please, he said "infidels of all denominations" would be free. He ended up getting his way.

Jefferson was a sort of animist. I guess this calls into question the definition of religion.

That nature rules with indifference to us.

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So if religious people realized that, they would understand that nature hasn't given them any special rights to ownership.

That's an aspect of aristocracy. Your rights are based on and defined by the intentions of the monarch... who rules by divine right. In that way, your property rights are rooted in God's will. Piss off the King, and your entitlement disappears.

You can take the European out of the middle ages, but you can't take the traces of aristocracy out the 21st century conservative perspective.

I asked a student of a Southern Baptist seminary what the difference is between Baptists and Methodists. I was surprised by his answer. He said that the only way to understand is to see that the real difference in the religious world is between liberals and conservatives. Liberals of all religions have more in common with each other than they do with the conservative members of their own religions.