What do you loose if you follow religion?

Loose everything if anyone follow a religion other than Islam.

The ability to think for yourself,

to solve problems on your own,

to look at the world through clear eyes and so much more.

You could lose your life.

If someone tells you facial hair, river stones, avoiding pork or wine is important on a cosmic scale or has any meaning to force that could create a universe, they are tripping.

If they say, the greatest force in the universe needs your help to avoid insult ot injury, walk away.

You waste a lot of time on pointless rituals, restrict yourself from harmless and fun activities, and your moral compass becomes misaligned.

Not to mention you piss off all those other gods for following the wrong religion.

How do you choose which Religion? If you get it wrong you are in trouble according to most religions.

That as apart from the fact that most religions contain teachings that are immoral. People just tend to ignore the rules that make them uncomfortable.

Self respect and the respect of those nearest and dearest to me. I've never been gullible and don't intend to start being so any time soon. Religion is man made nonsense.

You lose your one and only chance to live your life in the real world. Face reality head on and accept it for what it is, instead of entering into fantasy land and living a life in one big delusion.

You lose your Critical Thinking ability...

Actually you'll have lost that if you DO follow a religion.

“I think that it is really a matter of 'critical thinking' ability. Religion simply cannot withstand the glaring light of critical thought... it just evaporates... poof. It's very simple, really... even though it's taken me a very long time to figure this out. I have been guilty of 'projecting'... 'anthropmorphizing'. I used to think that 'critical thinking' was an innate human ability. I thought that since I did it, then everybody could do it... and DID do it.

I was badly mistaken. Critical thinking is NOT an innate human ability. It must be LEARNED... and in order to learn it, you must have the capacity... the potential... to learn it. Unfortunately, it seems that most (around 85%) of the adult population of the USA does not even know what critical thinking IS... much less actually know how to actually DO it. Part of the problem has to do with the US public education system... it is designed to create 'employees'... not 'thinkers'. It is even possible to get an advanced college degree... even a degree in one of the 'fuzzy' sciences... and STILL have not heard of 'critical thinking'. Unless you have an advanced degree in one of the 'hard' sciences, it is very unlikely that you will possess any critical thinking skills. In other words, apart from the 'hard' sciences, anyone who manages to acquire critical thinking skills does so IN SPITE OF their schooling... not BECAUSE of it. The rest of the problem seems to be related to intelligence. There have been around 40 studies over the past 80 years which revel a statistically significant INVERSE correlation between intelligence and religiosity... in ofher words, the LESS intelligent a person is, the MORE likely that person is to harbor supernatural (religious) beliefs. Conversely, the MORE intelligent a person is, the LESS likely that person is to harbor religious beliefs. From my observations, the CAPACITY (potential) for learning critical thinking skills does not even EXIST until you get up around an IQ of 125 or so.

While it took me decades to figure this out, religious leaders have been aware it for centuries. The Luther quotes serve as an example of this... but he certainly was not alone in this view:

"Reason is the greatest enemy that faith has; it never comes to the aid of spiritual things, but... more frequently than not... struggles against the divine Word, treating with contempt all that emanates from God." ~ Martin Luther

Religious 'shepherds' KNOW that their 'flock' (sheeple) are scientifically ignorant and incapable of critical thinking. They KNOW that they find 'scientific' sources' to be intimidating and incomprehensible. These puppet-masters KNOW that their flock (victims) will seek their 'knowledge' from 'trusted' sources... the very-same puppet-masters. When the sheeple hear things like 'scientists claim that humans and apes shared a common ancestor, in the distant past', they experience 'cognitive dissonance'... this information is in conflict with the 'truth' that they have believed for their whole lives. So... where do they go to resolve this cognitive dissonance?... Scientists?... NO! They go to their 'trusted' sources... the sources who KNOW that they have been taught WHAT to think... they have not been taught HOW to think. Sources who KNOW that they can lie, obfuscate, misrepresent with impunity... with absolutely NO RISK that their minions will seek out independent, peer-reviewed corroborating information.

Where this nonsense comes from is an INDUSTRY (Christianity) whose BUSINESS it is to create whole generations of adults who are, at once, gullibile, irrational, willfully ignorant, self-deluded, intellectually dishonest, droolingly stupid and hypocritical... and willing to tithe 10% for having their cognitive dissonance held in check through regular doses of holy bullshit.

They do their jobs very well indeed.

Here's the key thing to understand... a 'truism'...

1) religious 'belief'... the internalized certainty that specified myths, superstitions and fairy-tales are congruent with 'reality' CANNOT WITHSTAND the glaring light of 'critical thinking'.

2) over 85% of adult Americans profess religious 'belief'

3) THEREFORE, at least 85% of adult Americans have not applied critical thinking to their religious 'beliefs'.

My religion? Nothing. It can be pretty much summed up with the simple sentence "don't be a douchebag".

Notice there was nothing about a deity in there? No? Well, please notice that, as groveling isn't even required. It's actually frowned upon.

Common Sense and Money.

Is this Pascal's Wager? You lose if you picked the wrong religion.