And who created religion? Humans.
It will always be flawed, greedy, violent, bigoted, sexist and down right ridiculous at times,
I would go a step further and say religion MUST be ridiculous in order to function correctly. If religion was based on reason and logic, there would be no way to seperate believers from non-believers.
but it can also provide comfort,
Yes, but it's a false comfort, essentially the placebo effect.
togetherness and a value system,
The "positive" side of bigotry, in other words.
whatever I might think of it. I am in no position to judge.
On the contrary! Both you and I ARE in a position to judge, and we must judge, because otherwise religion obtains a monopoly on the conversation of meaning and truth, and when they get a monopoly, whatever crap comes out of their mouths becomes true, if there is no one to contradict it.
And I only speak of certain institutions. I personally would not lump Buddhism, as an example, in to the "nasty" category.
Buddhism certianly isn't as nasty as Christianity or Islam, but that's not to say it's without fault. The Dalai Lama, for example, ran a very oppresive theocracy in Tibet.
Religion is not to be confused with faith. Religion is an institution, faith is a spirituality. It is a shame that one is accused of being synonymous with the other.
Loup
I wouldn't conflate faith with spirituality either. Spirituality can be quite a good thing. Faith, on the other hand, enables religion by encouraging gullibility. Reason demands evidence. Faith, to quote Mark Twain, "Is used to believe in things that you know damn well aren't true".
