Like one of the greatest philosophers in the planet said, I think, "Religion is the opium of the people." It is so said because when one is attached to some religion, s/he has an attachement with that religion as it would be to opium or any drugs. When one is addicted to the drugs, it would be very hard to get out of it. When I was very young, I got to read a small booklet of Bible. It was designed in a way that would help young mind to accept the Christianity. I, or my young mind, stumbled upon a phrase, "if you want to go to heaven, you must have faith on Jesus, because Jesus is in the gate of Heaven and only he lets in to those only who has faith on him." Bah! I then thought that Jesus God was selfish! (No offense to Christians, I like the character Christ and I like his being selfless in his real life). And really, how can "God", if he ever exist/s be so selfish? Why one has to have faith on HIM to go to the heaven? Even for a Nepal aama buwa, they treat all their children alike, they have so much love for all children, regardless of their children's attitude to them. How can a man be God-like but God selfish-man-like?! I don't have much interests on organized religions; however, some are philosophy rather than religion. I like the teachings of the Buddha. Buddha taught science, not hypocrisies. His teaching primarily focus to accept something objectively, not blindly. At some point in his life, even Einstein, despite his being Jewish, has praised Buddha for his philosophy. There are several teachings of Hinduism that are really very philosophical and deep. I still remember that on my religious brothers said that there is Einstein's formula in Veda--not as E=MC2, but in different words...I don't know how accurate it is....Similarly my physics teacher in Nepal told the class that the derivative is right there Veda, too. He told us that he read that himself...Now I am skeptical if that Newton guy just rediscovered what was already in Veda... So much to talk about religion (as philosophy), but I think it is imperative (at least for me) to be objective about them and try to enlighten ourselves. Even if we are to observe religion as religion, "religion is not what we profess, but what we practice."