I've got a long list of gripes with religion but I suppose these are the first 3 that come to mind.
1) Nearly all religions claim to be the sole source of truth:
"We know how life began" and "We worship the one true God". So many religions claiming the same thing and often recycling the details (messiahs,apocalypses,afterlife). What about all those religions and Gods which have long died off? They had no more evidence of their truth than present religions yet people believe it.
2) Ignorance and subversion of scientific knowledge & discovery, critical thinking and human rights while championing unquestioning devotion, faith and subservience:
Whether it's Galileo or Darwin, any revolutionary ideas which displace man as the center of the universe will be met with hostility. Religion wants us to be unquestioning followers; it's telling that none of the three big monotheist religions have any mention of intelligence as a quality to be sought out...it's always faith.
It is utterly ridiculous that God, the Supreme Being and creator of the Universe would create men and demand them to worship him ceaselessly, groveling at his feet daily and begging for forgiveness of their sins (even though he created your sins as well as a Hell for you to suffer for them). If God is all knowing, all seeing and all loving he knows the moment you are born whether you are going to Heaven or Hell...what kind of sick being would create people knowing they would be destined for such eternal damnation?
3) Religion is shielded from criticism and protected from rational inquiry.
Regardless of the country or time period the commonality is that religion is protected from the sorts of inspection that other institutions are subjected to. This is achieved by many different means including fear of a God who demands obedience and punishment of death for outspoken criticism. In more recent times it is the cry of "intolerance" or "racism" from religious leaders whenever their faith is held up to scrutiny. This protection has over time allowed some religions to become corrupt and filthy rich.
I would like to see a day when religious belief is treated like any other belief and is not entitled to make any unverified claims. It boggles my mind that the average religious person will spend a great deal of effort researching and verifying claims made about a car before buying it yet will accept the first religion that comes along despite none of the claims holding up to any inquiry.
Anyway, that's 3 out of...100 things
