What are your religious views?

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That's a good way to look at it and probably a lot closer to the crux of things than most dogmas.

Thank you. And yes it is, ever since living this way it's so much easier for me to sit back and accept. No red face, cursing, putting someone else down. It's all pointless really, the older I get anyways.

I just want a full belly and a good night's sleep nowdays. I could care less about how society acts and what's acceptable or for that matter how my behavior is.

I guess I'm a Unitarian Universalist. I'm also a deist.

Agnostic atheist. Antitheist at times.

Usually I either identify as a Universalist (not a Unitarian) or a secular Zoroastrianist. I don't like saying "atheist" because it makes some people see me as pretentious or anti-theist. I believe that as long as a person uses their religion as an incentive to improve themselves or the world, then it's fantastic. I only criticize instances when religion is used as an excuse to do horrible things, i.e. bombing abortion clinics or 9/11. I also think that the radical liberals in the political world sometimes give the religious a few too many privileges, especially when it comes to Muslims. But, eh, that's just my opinion. In short, I don't like subscribing to any radically polar label. I'm not an atheist or a theist. I'm not a liberal or a conservative.

Agnostic. Which god is more real than the other? No one can really answer that impartially.

I do, however, find religion fascinating: how many arrive into similar conclusions despite being separated by a fricking ocean. How it simultaneously pushes people to either do extraordinary acts of kindness or mass violence. How some followers are very open minded, yet others are utterly xenophobic.

Confessional Lutheranism, specifically the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod, which is a Christian Denomination. I am a staunch conservative, both theologically and politically.

I'm a Missouri Synod guy myself, but I tend to lean toward the left.

The reason religions are so similar in effect across cultures is because they all serve similar functions--they promote social solidarity and contribute to the success of the culture.

Sometimes cultures need charity and benevolence; sometimes they require hostility and extreme measures. Either way, religion is an effective tool to manipulate and motivate the people to fulfill an end.

The question is why is it so compelling to some? Compelling enough to override rational thought (when the time is right).

Bloody effective tool. Must be a lot of psychology behind it.

I want to peacefully criticize your faith:
1. How do you dare call yourself Catholic when you deny the catechism and the Bible?
2. You call Jesus your Savior while believing works get you saved. Also, Mary called Him her Savior too, and you still call her sinless. How does that exactly work?

You'd want to look at it from the mystic perspective as well at this point to really answer that question. Belief, used often, has incredible effects on a person's disposition, their sense of what options they have or don't have, and it goes all the way up toward - for those intensely devotional - mystical experiences and visions (with and without actually 'seeing' in that sense) which usually cough up particular gems and revelations from a person's subconscious that they can make use of in daily if they're sharp enough.

Obviously you hope the person is practicing a religion of peace and self-refinement, otherwise whatever progress it would give them cuts back against itself and the benefits are kept in equilibrium with the loses.

Also more speculatively there's something to be said of the so-called magical side of it as well; the idea that a person might, at least in their own private sphere, bring in all kinds of influences they need when they need them simply by giving their subconscious a big enough queue that they need them and their subconscious doing a heck of a lot better at either collapsing wave functions or pulling down data from the unmanifest than we ever could. If the universe actually does accomplice individual will (many would perhaps prefer to say Will which is something slightly different in its context) then it would explain why the preference.

Unfortunately if you try analyzing this one from the purely Marx angle it just won't work - the impetus will still be obscured from sight. Suffice to say the problem is better phrased like this - cynical politicians and leaders hijacked an already pre-existing religious impulse and framework rather than the myth necessarily following that from the top down all of it was it was drafted to control the masses. Some forms of monotheism clearly were bent heavily that way but various forms of animism, pantheism, and polytheism seem to be more based on early observation of environment and I think that's where you see it in its more raw form.

Opening with "how dare you" is not a peaceful way to criticize someone's faith. Also, why are you criticizing it anyway? Do you think you'll change their mind or something?

Because Christianity is at it's best when it's adherents can question doctrine. My own Lutheran faith wouldn't exist if Luther hadn't questioned post Medieval Catholicism.

I believe that the creative energy of the universe is in all living things

To be honest I'm not entirely sure anymore. I was raised (non-Lutheran) protestant Christian, and I still very much like the core idea of Christianity (i.e. God being loving to the point of self sacrifice), but on the other hand a lot of Christianity in western culture kind of rubs me the wrong way. It is, at once, too self-assured that all of the answers are contained within their particular way of looking at a collection of odds and ends written a very long time ago (not to knock the Bible, there are some very good pearls of wisdom in there if you know where to look), and too ready to dismiss the spirit of the message for the letter...

The way I look at the world lately seems almost more in line with a sort of mystical agnosticism... I can't claim to know for sure what is out there but at times I can almost feel it. I definitely believe in the existence of something outside our current understanding but the nature of it escapes me, if that makes sense. At times I've had dreams that seem to be precognitive or have the distinct feeling of being less of a dream and more of a message from... somewhere. It's hard to explain.