Religulous

I have often struggled to define my religious beliefs. I am a Hindu but Hinduism is not really a well defined religion. I have wondered if God does really exist. If he does then why is there suffering in the world. Why does God not destroy all evil? No religious person in this world will have a satisfactory answer to that irrespective of religious affiliation.
The truth is that religion is a man made institution. The major religions of this world were created by men who claimed to be special. And history is proof that they actually were. This does not mean religion is bad. Religion can help people lead a moral and happy life. Something that is being lost on our generation that believes only in one religion - Materialism. Semitic religions like Islam,Christianity and Judaism tell you about heaven and hell. Heaven being a utopia which you can attain by leading a moral mortal life. Hell being a terrible place reserved for those who have lived an immoral life. The veracity of the existence of heaven and hell cannot be verified since nobody is supposed to come back from these places. If anybody ever claimed to have been there and come back to earth, then his statement would negate the premise of the existence of these microcosms since they are supposed to be final destinations without any escape routes.
Indian religions like Hinduism and Buddhism however believe in reincarnation, where you are reborn again and again until you live a perfectly moral life and then you attain Nirvana, and I am not talking about Kurt Cobain's band. Nirvana is freedom from rebirth. Or in other words a ticket to a permanent seat in heaven. People of these faith believe that if you sin in your life then you will be reborn as an animal or under more unfortunate circumstances. But if you lead a moral life you will be born into a good family and have a happier life ahead. Therefore religion uses fear and greed to make people follow it's tenets. Of course there is no evidence of this philosophy too. Some people claim to remember their past lives but there is no solid evidence to support such claims.
Most people think of God as an all powerful being that is sitting in heaven and watching over them. That probably the only thing that the major religions of the world agree on. On all other issues they violently disagree. It is this very definition of God that becomes the foundation of atheism. The atheists argue that if there is such an all powerful god somewhere then why is there suffering in this world. Why can't God create a world in which everybody is happy? Why is there poverty,crime,corruption and terrorism in this world? Why does God not put an end to all this? People ask themselves all these questions and obviously there are no satisfactory answers to these questions, prompting more and more people to call themselves atheists or rationalists(a more elitist term).
People of any religion consider themselves to be superior to people belonging to another religion. Atheists consider themselves superior to people belonging to any religion. This is a basic human tendency to feel good about yourselves. People find satisfaction in comparing themselves to others they consider less accomplished that themselves. Happiness is basically feeling good about yourself. This feeling occurs when one feels that he has accomplished something. That accomplishment may be something meaningful like achieving a major professional goal like completing a project. Or may be a personal goal like wooing the partner of your dreams. Or sometimes it can be something as crass as the satisfaction that I am going to heaven. I am more moral than others and people not subscribing to my faith are inferior to me. Also, one of the most satisfying feelings is to help someone. Religious fanatics think that they are helping people by proselytizing them. And therefore obtain great satisfaction that makes them even more inclined towards being religious. Karl Marx hit the bull's eye when he said that religion is the opium of the masses. That is exactly what it is. Religion is an intoxicant like opium when followed without questioning. They both make you feel good. Plus religion comes free unlike opium. Therefore there are much more religion addicts in this world compared to drug addicts. Incidentally, all religions either prohibit or discourage intoxication by chemicals like alcohol or tobacco. While on this subject let us look at the followers of 2 major religions in India. Muslims are prohibited to drink alcohol but allowed to smoke all they want, Sikhs are prohibited from smoking but can drink without guilt. This is an example of what being religious has got us, it gives us a choice in which way to die, lung cancer of liver failure. Don't get me wrong, I love my Sikh and Muslim friends. All I am trying to say is that both these religions would have discouraged against intoxication of any kind, but man just interpreted them so that he could have some kind of intoxication while renouncing another kind for the sake of piety.
Religion is the personal relationship between man and God. Before going any further let us define what is God? Is he the master of the universe controlling everything that goes on in this world? No, most certainly not. Atheists always ask that if there is a God then why is the world not perfect. In a perfect world everyone would be happy. Everyone would be equal. This means that everyone would be as happy as everyone else. Therefore everyone would lead the same life. Everyone would react the same way as others. Thus, the ideal world for an atheist would be full of robotic, emotionless clones that maintain equanimity in all situations. This would be like if everybody was a robot. So if you are an atheist, is a world full of robot clones what you want? I think most atheists would disagree with that. Actually the Bhagwad Gita which is a sacred book for the Hindus does urge people to become equanimous and consistent in all situations. But then why does God not make us that way in the first place? If such a situation were to happen, we would all cease to be 'human' as we are right now. This just shows how human oriented the concept of religion is.
Religion is a man made institution. All religious texts are a reflection of the thinking of the men and women(if any) who wrote them. I honestly believe that the people who came up with these religions had good intentions to begin with, but somehow every religion got corrupted. Religion is a man's personal relation with God. We must first define what is God. God is the collection of your core beliefs about everything that you consider to be ideal. In other words, God is your conscience. This is a subset of the stereotypical definition of God as an all powerful being. This definition is accurate for the most part, except that God is just as powerful as you want to be. The power of god is just your own will power and hard work. If you follow your heart, your conscience, your values, then you will attain a blissful state which is heaven. But if you get influenced by greed and sensual pleasure then your life would be dedicated to having temporary bouts of sensual pleasure but would be miserable for the most part, and that is hell. Heaven and Hell are just subsets of your own life. So just lead a moral life and be happy.