Why does it seem like everyone is so against religious people these days?

[Sherbil]

I dislike religion on a philosophical/scientific level. Anytime you start telling yourself that you can justify something based on faith alone, you can stretch that to justify anything. That's the inherent problem with almost all of the major religions, particularly Christianity in the US.

I know many people who are otherwise wonderful, but their religious beliefs include gay people being unacceptable and having arrived at their sexuality due to a series of poor life choices. There are studies that contradict their beliefs, but they choose to believe them anyway. Or the people who believe hitting their children is okay because "spare the rod, spoil the child" despite numerous studies stating that hitting children causes defiance and lower self-esteem. Or the ones who think transgender people aren't real at all and they're just confused people bringing their own problems on themselves, despite studies to prove otherwise. You get where I'm going with this.

Religion is just too convenient a vehicle for the personal prejudices of different groups of people. The good it has done does not outweigh nor excuse the bad things that have been condoned in the names of various gods. I consider myself a somewhat spiritual person of ambiguous beliefs, but I could never be part of religion as we know it today, nor would I want to marry somebody who was. We would be fundamentally incompatible.