The thing that annoys me about most organised religions...(god rant)

[Lorena_Palin]

See, most organized religions tend to annoy me greatly, and I NEVER have been able to be a true believer in anything- not Christianity or other book religions, no Buddhism, not wiccanism, not Hinduism, not Daoism...nothing

My problem with all of them is they tend to view the basic feelings as "wrong" in some way.

I mean in religions of the book all your basic drives are labeled "sins" and god is viewed as this separate entity way up in heaven- or even when he isn't up there, he is viewed as separate- something distinctly not human.

Now, from what I've encountered with eastern religions, it is a similar idea. While your earthly feelings may not directly be "sins" they are viewed as things that separate you from "nirvana" or zen.

And this bugs me, because those drives, those feelings, those "sins" those things that supposedly separate us from god and that god like state...well aren't they the things that make us who we are? Without jealousy, lust, anger, pride, paranoia, depression, joy, ecstasy, gluttony, disgust, love, compassion- and all the rest of it what are we?

God is supposed to be the universe, our creator, and an answer to the question "Who are we"...well...we can look at our selves and have an answer. That's god. Humanity is god. The good, the bad, the ugly, the pretty, and everything in between.

I'm sick of people trying to pull a god that doesn't exist out of thin air and worshiping it just because it is something else just because they are dissatisfied with their fellow humans and with themselves.

[Kurt]

You are perfectly correct, when you say that the only place God can be found is within ourselves.

All those desires you listed (like food, sex, shelter, money, honor, power, knowledge etc) are nothing but a tool to take us to the truth.
One must experience everything, otherwise how can a person make judgments about things they have not experienced. It is said, that what cannot be attained, cannot be named. So one must go through stuff to understand the true nature behind them.

Those desires you have listed can be summed up as the ego.. in other words our will to receive pleasure for ourselves.

In today's world we see 7 billion people acting in this selfish way, which causes nothing but trouble. The worldwide society has become so interwoven and interdependent of each other, that we see the results for instance in the fall of the global economy.

It is normal that you are sick of all that religious stuff around. Religions only tell you basic things like what to do and what not to do. The meaning is hidden, as we can only perceive with out limited senses and the way they are tuned.
Also, religions have become a tool for control... for power.. this is nothing but the same will to receive pleasure for one's self.
Religions have become dogmatic. They 'force' people to do things. Our families, societies, etc. impose religions on us.. Although, there can NOT be coercion in spirituality.