Whether a religion is important or not, it is a personal thing i believe.

Religion to me represents a hope, or a light of guidance or a belief you can say. But the origins of religions through many generations and centuries might have been mis-interpreted by the people who are spreading them which could be a reason why things that happens today happened.

I don't want to say which religion is good and which is bad. To me, they are all the same at the basic core level.

I am not much of a religious person, i wouldn't want to take the way of having to live my life out of a book or having it to dictate my life. We are born to live our life whether it is good or bad and we learn and adapt to it. From there on, we will create our own life stances, views and our own set of rules to obey by.

Not that i think that it is the right way, but the higher power created us with brains so that we can think and evolve right? We are all being thought the few basic rules early in life and we get along from there on, along the way we use our senses and conscience so that we act correctly and logically and learn from the mistakes we make.

Most people nowadays will just base everything they read from their religion without understanding it and living through it. Life sometimes might be harsh but no guidebook will get you out of it.

For example, on things like gravity and planets and life in general, you can say the higher power created them but science on the other hand can explain otherwise. It just depends on what you belief and you will never be able to find out until the day you died (and you won't be able to tell anyone when you eventually find out)

You are so going to get a lightning bolt up your ass...jus kiddin

As i said, whatever you believe in will take the rest of your natural life to find out and whether your decision is right or wrong is only regrettable by you yourself.

So that is life for us, whether it sucks when you think about it or you find it interesting. It is what it is, a mysterious subject that is unfathomable and there is no 1 direct answer that is applicable to all scenarios. You will only find the answer when you can tell it to no one.

That's the thing... as you say and i quote "you have to think about your after world @ upon death @ hereafter" and i agree it is a choice you have to make now and not a last minute pick and hope you have a place somewhere in the afterlife.

So what i say in the beginning that religion is some sort of a hope for people who believe in it is partly right and in a bad way to say, you will only find out if what you believe really brings you to where you want to be after you passed away.

I am not saying that human does not need a religion, people should just believe in what they believe in whether it is a religion or their own self beliefs. Religion gives you hope when all hope is lost but to me i don't feel it is right to embrace a religion only when "shit hits the fan" hoping that a religion will give you an exit path. You have to embrace it from the start and live through it and understand the ulterior meanings of what you learn it.

Which is why, to answer your initial question. The existence of religion doesn't bother me at all, i respect and honor the people who is religious and i also would try to understand the people who is a freethinker and is not tied to any religions. When people from each side starts dissing at each other whether it is religion against another religion or whether it is non-believers against religious people is causing problems that the world don't need which i think is pretty much what this thread is going to become sooner or later.

Lighten up We are still in the midst of a holiday, let's leave the brain mashing issues until we are back to work.