Religion in my opinion is just a way of telling people what is right and what is wrong. I'm not religious but I respect people's faith in something greater then us. But regarding all the dogma (and this is directed toward Christianity as much as Islam and any other religion) that religious people try to live by, I like to think of it as believing in Santa, not as a comparison between Santa and a God, but in the way that children will behave in fear of their name being written in the nasty list. To me, it works the same with religion, it's purpose is to scare people into behaving and following moral principle rather than acting on instinct like animals. That kind of reasoning works really well with educated and sensitive people, who are able to perceive when those principles go against their very humanity. It becomes a problem when idiots that are slightly more intelligent than other idiots use their own interpretation of religion to convince them to work in their interest instead of following simple, good/bad rules. Islamist Fanatics come to mind because they are the most active ones right now but to be fair, if christian extremists were given the power like Islamists have in the middle east, there would be as much stupidity involved, I'm thinking crusades and all that shit. When I see these people protest with signs against gay rights, I'm pretty sure they would go way further if they were allowed to. Thankfully our modern society and rules are separated from religion and we are able to contain this kind of nutjobs. It's is not the case in the middle east, where people that we, as western, see as reasonable, are oppressed to the point that they can't express their opinion in fear of retaliation (now comes to mind Spanish inquisition...). There's been so many modification, human modifications, and interpretations, through the thousands of years since modern religions were created, that you can't reasonably follow any of them without questioning the application of its rules in today's world. It's like a vicious parent telling his kid Santa won't give him presents unless he throws rocks at kids who don't believe in Santa. I might be oversimplifying because like so many people, on reddit and everywhere, I lack information or am too lazy to find the right ones, so take this comment with a grain of salt.