I know people who believe in one or more gods, but who do not consider themselves part of any religion. They did their own thinking and decided for themselves that there is a god (or gods). They also explicitly decided that the religions they know of do not fit their beliefs or ethics. I respect that.

Yeah, there's a lot of baggage in this country around religion. Don't argue with anonymous strangers on the internet if you don't want to get aggravated.

I've been there. I grew up catholic and attended a religious school that taught me theology and catholic philosophists.

Often when I saw catholicism criticized with bullshit I tried to inform people of their mistake. Honestly, catholicism and the catholic church have enough verifiable shit that we could spend days just listing them out in detail, to make up issues just waters down the real problems and gives them an out.

Like most ways people organize themselves within larger communities, religions may not start from a desire to do evil but they can help people in power get away with violating the rights of others. My perspective on it isn't too far from the "love the sinner, hate the sin" idea that shows up now and then in theist circles. At the same time, I see individual believers as a big part of the problem because they prop up religion of all kinds with their resources, votes and a crowd of relative innocents for the most dangerous elements to hide behind.

As someone who lives in the US, it's incredibly frustrating to see how religious groups use their influence and sometimes blatantly break the law because they know that it'd be political suicide or a public relations nightmare to try and call them out for it. I see a tremendous waste of resources in the form of churches (or temples, mosques, etc.) and people who spend anywhere from a few hours a week to the majority of their lives engaged in worship-related activities. The organizations get tax exemption, believers may receive extra accommodations (typically but not always in the workplace) and questioning any of this provokes a knee-jerk reaction from a lot of people who are either believers themselves or have been convinced that seeking equality by revoking those unearned benefits is persecution. Some of these issues are much smaller than others but it all adds up like the raindrops that become a flood.

I hate the effect that religion has on us even when practiced by the most well-intentioned. If it magically disappeared tomorrow, I believe we'd all be significantly better off. There would still be rape, murder and atrocities of all kinds but we wouldn't have priests getting quietly shuffled between communities when victimized children get a little too vocal or suicide bombers steeling their nerves with a final recitation from their holy book before pushing the button. It'd be one fewer way to shield the worst of humanity from the reality of their actions and one fewer substitute for the meaningful work toward a better future that prayer isn't.