The following is an excerpt from the book How to Quit Church Without Quitting God - 7 Good Reasons to Escape the Box - Copyright 2002 by Marten Zender - reprinted with exclusive permission from Starke & Hartmann, Inc.
http://www.starkehartmann.com/

Whenever someone tells me that they "got religion," I send them a sympathy card and a coupon for Pepto Bismol.  Religion is the enemy of good digestion.  This is not to mention what it does to your social life.  First, religion takes away your peace by making you worry all the time if you've done enough for God.  Then it takes away your fun, because you are certain God is watching your private thoughts on a giant screen.  God can't believe how bad you are.  You're an ill person.  "A sicko," God remarks to a nearby angel.  Then He shakes His white, hairy head; strokes His long flowing beard; and wonders aloud to those at His right hand: "Where did I go wrong with (INSERT YOUR NAME HERE)?"

Religion is a bad thing, even in the Bible.  In Acts chapter 17, the apostle Paul is in Athens when some toga-clad pooh-bahs invite him to address them on Mar's Hill.  (This is the same place and the same time Paul said, "God does not live in man-made temples.")  The first thing Paul says is:

Gentlemen of Athens, my own eyes tell me that you are in all respects an extremely religious people.  For as I walked through your city looking at your shrines, I even found one altar on which were inscribed the words, TO GOD THE UNKNOWN.  It is this God who you are worshipping in ignorance that I am here to proclaim to you! (Acts 17:22-23)

 

The Greeks has several grand and terrifying deities who demanded constant invocation and sacrifice to keep them appeased.  Paul knew there was but one God Who was now conciliated to mankind through the work of His Son, and so he was not complimenting these people by calling them "religious."  See how Paul, addressing them, equated their religion with ignorance. . .

The Greek word translated religious in this passage is deisidaimon.  Paul spoke and wrote in Greek and this is the word he used.  Deisidaimon is a two-part word: deisi = dread and daimon = demon.

Drop the weapon, I'm just the messenger.  This is the Greek speaking, not me.  I am innocent of the Greek language and was not alive when any of this happened.  It is nonetheless etymologically true: To be religious is to dread demons.

Isn't it a good thing, to dread demons?  Not in the sense presented here.  Demons are busy today turning people from God; it's their chief goal.  The craftiest among them accomplish this, not through obvious evils, but through the agency of religion.  They introduce subtle lies about God beneath the glow of stained glass; they reduce Christ's accomplishment to a challenge with the gentlest of twists. . .

The truth about the relationship today between God and man is found in 2 Corinthians 5:19:

God was in Christ, conciliating the world to Himself, not reckoning their offenses to them.

 

Religion (see footnote) does its utmost to assure people this isn't so.  Religion says: You must still work hard to please God in order to atone for your offenses and rescue yourself from eternal torment or never-ending death . . .

The religious person is constantly working; he has to be good enough to get into heaven and stay there.  Never does the thought enter, I am dreading demons . . .

Martin Zender
http://www.starkehartmann.com/

 

EVERYONE should get this book. . . WOW!

 

Footnote:  You'll also want to know what the word "religion" means in English.  It is derived from the Latin root, "lig," which means "to tie or bind."  This, along with the Greek definition, should convince anyone that "religion" is a bad word.  Knowing now that religion binds instead of frees and inspires dread rather than happiness, there is no need anymore to say, "I feel bound by my religion."  It's a redundancy.  Just say, "I am religious," and your Latin friends will know that you are in trouble.  Those who know anything about knots will rush to untie you.  M. Zender

 

. . . so Gospelogic.com exists to untie knots.