When is a belief not a belief

I find it hard to swallow all this religious business. Don't get me wrong, people are always looking for a good excuse to not take responsibility over something - but religion..pah.

I understand throughout all the holy handbooks that the underlying principle is love and kindness. Unless, of course, you happen to follow a different holy handbook.

So i have to ask myself this...

Taking into account that for the majority of people, religion is just down to where you are born. That's right. Your strictly held beliefs are in nature, random.

It depends on what family you are born into, where that family is in the world, and what religions are on offer around those parts.

No cognative choice in general. Muslim begat muslim, christian begat christian and so on.

So, the irony being - that the belief in the big bang, is usually something you discover, and then choose to believe in it. Whereas with religion you are told and gently brainwashed into it - with no choice in that matter whatsoever. Unless you escape or grow up.

It seems to me, that religion should be a free choice, rather than something that is forced upon you. Religiorape. Before you know it, you have a god being forced into you at a moments notice.

The randomness of the big bang, vs the randomness of the where you are born dictates what religion you follow.

You dont see many zen buddhists in Iraq for example. I wonder why?

The only good lads in religion are Zen Buddhists, no god - buddha was not a god, but a man. A set of psychological puzzles in the shape of koans to mull over. Stretch our indolent brain a little. That's a good thing.

Moral guidelines we need, but they dont have to have the power of a god behind them to exist and work. We seem to absolve ourselves of moral responsibilities these days. The Catholic Church having a meeting to decide what to do with a glut of paedo-priests. "Yes, what shall we do with those naughty fellows? Any ideas? Anyone?"

Idiots.

Plus, i've never seen any other corporation (yes, religion is nothing but a corporation in my eyes) - need money continuously - despite being the richest people on earth. Where's that eye of the needle when you need it eh?