The annoying thing with religion is that each has a body of good principles which serve to lure new believers, and then after that it's: "Now that you've learne

The annoying thing with religion is that each has a body of good principles which serve to lure new believers, and then after that it's: "Now that you've learned all the good stuff that actually makes sense, here's more 'good stuff'" and then they proceed to teach arbitrary principles and even harmful ones that sometimes completely contradict the actually good principles. Example: "Don't kill your neighbor." Hey that makes sense, let's become Christian! And then later you read in the Bible that "if your neighbor does X or Y, KILL HIM WITHOUT MERCY!" As for the problem of inconsistencies in the Bible, the usual response is that you need someone to sort it out for you... But what's the point of having a reference if a big part of it is bullshit and you need someone like a priest to sort it out for you? And then you lose your self-determination... As for the arbitrary stuff, one good example would be "Don't work on Sundays", though I admit that's not a very popular one anymore. I think it's normal that everyone holds some arbitrary beliefs without good proof but it's appalling when a MASSIVE amount of people standardize on a common body of arbitrary beliefs and then collectively "refute" your rational objections (oftentimes by refering you to "authoritative" sources like the Bible, and then you can never win against "Bible lawyers").