Much evil has been done throughout history in the name of religion, so I'm not real big on this topic. And too many people have taken this wide ranging scattering of religious texts and interpreted them in ways that are judgemental or hurtful to other people.
I was raised Catholic, and most of the people I knew who were associated with the church asserted that if you weren't catholic, there was no way you could go anywhere but purgatory or hell. The rules about purgatory were a little vague. An example; if you were a little baby and died before you could be baptised and were not old enough to understand religion, then due to original sin you would go to pergatory. Or if you were some kind of native on some obscure island and had never had Christianity introduced to you.
Thankfully, while my Mom was a practicing Catholic, she did not believe that and told me so early on.
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Originally Posted by Xnguela
Wouldn't it be nice to have something to believe in, though?
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Not necessarily. In World War II there was a tribe of people on a south pacific island who came to be known as the cargo cult. Allied planes flew over their island and mistakenly dropped food and supplies. The planes flew over on such a regular basis that the tribe began to worship the great silver bird that brought them food. Hence the name "cargo cult."
These people were all too willing to worship the thing that dropped the food, much like people have worshiped the sun and other phenomena in the past. My opinion is that there is a part of the human psyche that yearns for a higher power to believe in; that the idea of a purely random, chaotic existence is too scary for the mind to accept easily.
I embrace the chaos, and understand that the only true source for order in our random world starts with me. Which is why the only religion I believe in is the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.