Organized Religions – Why they bother me?

The reasons people cling to religion are fear, superstition, tradition, and security. You really don't need an organized religion to tell love is good, it's very obvious. Religion is stupid and outdated. Religion is very useful when you have screwed up and need some unseen figure to blame your bad luck and poor choices on.

Every religious system tends to accumulate superstitions as peripheral beliefs. Take prayers for example, it is rank superstition, nothing more. People who believe in the power of prayer are no different than people who believe in the power of crystal balls, horoscopes or lucky rabbit’s feet. The belief in prayer is just like any superstition. Walking under a ladder is not "bad luck". Neither is breaking a mirror. Neither is seeing a black cat. Statistics prove that a broken mirror has zero effect on your life. In the same way, statistics prove that God never answers prayers. Oh and faith healing, I don't even want to get started about it.

And why they bother me? - Only because of their irrational beliefs through an organized religion have caused prejudice, racial and sexual profiling, and discrimination.

If your only meaning in life comes from faith, I'm sorry you're in for a disappointment. You really don't need religion to guide you anywhere. I always hear this from the other side “"I have seen first-hand the power of prayer."  Well I'll give an example; the mother of Virginia Tech shooter Seung-Hui Cho had for years sought help for her troubled son. The Washington Post reported that the members and pastor at One Mind Church in Woodbridge were going to help get rid of what the pastor called a "demonic power." Months later he shot 32 people and himself in the worst shooting rampage by an individual in U.S. history. For some reason prayer didn't work there, did it?

While there are some religions that have either tacity or actively promoted some science, they all draw bounds that are dogma-based, saying "no matter what you discover, it can't prove our beliefs wrong."

Growing up, I was forced to defend an omniscient real estate broker who (literally) promised the land of Israel to the Jews. And what that has done to the middle-east, I’ll leave it your imagination.  you're offended, so what?! To suggest that one person may not say something because it will cause offence is a blatant violation of the concept of free speech. As Richard Dawkins described it, taking offence is the only weapon the religious have left.