I've seen religions work beauty in many people, filling their lives with enrichment, meaning, and the motivation to be good people. A lot of people need that in their lives, answers, hope, and reason.
Like anything, there are awful people involved too, who twist teachings or are just plain ignorant. If we didn't have religion, those types would still be around, perverting some other code of conduct for whatever their reasons, so I definitely don't blame the whole for the loud minority.
For me, it's just not fulfilling. I've grown up Catholic, and for a long time I did my best to abide by its constructs. The last few times I attended mass, it was just going through the motions, marking off the ritual checklist. It became a chore, with nothing produced once it was completed.
Of course this went alongside my current explorations of morality, and what that means to me, which hasn't really stayed inside the lines of Catholicism. I'm not saying it's necessarily wrong or bad, I'm saying I need to figure it out for myself, and odds are I won't be going back.
I'm pretty sure there's some higher power involved in the world. I don't think it's the Christian concept of God, because frankly the depictions of him are inconsistent at best and contradicting at worst. As far as death and "the other side," I don't know what to think. I've witnessed some strange things over the years, and either science can't explain it yet, or it's something we're not meant to understand as humans.
In my lifetime I've been exposed to a few different Christian sects, all of which are variations on the original, so I'm very sure they are not the community I'd partake in if I ever sought one out.
I'd really like to learn more about non-Christian faiths, like Islam, Hindu, Muslim, and Buddhist practices before I write off religion completely. It would be close-minded not to.
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