Religion

Religion gives me hives.

To me, religion is nothing but the bureaucracy of spirituality. It's rules and regulations dreamed up to keep people in line, not to bring them closer to God.

Take Mormonism. They're not allowed to drink tea or coffee, because they're caffeinated. (Some mormons wiggle around this rule and drink soda, because soda is not specifically mentioned in the Book Of Mormon)

I fail to see how partaking of caffeine will keep me from becoming spiritually enlightened - or how abstaining from it will make me closer to God.

I think Religion is inherently good ...It was created as a vehicle to understanding spirituality. Kind of like a user manual and customer support for a computer, religion has a users manual (Your religious book of choice - Torah, Book Of Mormon, plain old Bible, etc) and the customer support - the priests/priestesses/annointed ones etc that you call upon to help you figure out the user manual.

What I object to are all of the insane rules created by religions (not God). I'm currently reading a book the Jehovah's witnesses gave me, entitled "Questions Young People Ask" It's a Q and A format book, with questions ranging from "Why does God let bad things happen?" to "Is Masturbation Harmful?"

Masturbation isn't mentioned in the Christian Bible. (A fact this book clearly states in the body of one paragraph.) Yes, there is that reference to Onan spilling his seed - which was him having sex with his dead brothers wife, but pulling out at the last minute so that he failed to get her pregnant.

Somehow, the religious leaders got from that or some other obscure passage in the bible that masturbation is wrong and should never be practiced. The Jehovah's Witness book I have says this about masturbation:

"Since masturbation is not directly condemned in the Bible, does that mean it is harmless? Absolutely Not! Though it is not classed with such gross sins such as fornication, masturbation is surely an unclean habit"

How do they know? Aren't they supposed to be teaching God's word, and not mankind opinion?

I think religions should go back to teaching spirituality and helping people become kinder, more loving souls....Not by putting their noses in issues that aren't even covered by their religious book of choice.