Does religion offend you?

[Fininho]

Religion does offend me a lot.
Religion DIVIDES people; kills friendship; destroys family harmony; blocks brain development!
CHEATS CHILDREN.
Promotes parasitic living.
All those vicious evils of religion should be taken very seriously and a worldwide effort to discredit it should be a daily occurrence!

[The Magic Pudding]

I'm listening to a program about a couple being prosecuted for importing and using RU486, an abortion drug.
An old law was used, it had never been used before to prosecute a woman.
Anyway the couple was found innocent.
The obligatory christian right to lifers were there, not happy that their will had been thwarted.
These guys offend me, trying push their twisted ancient morals on the rest of us.

I have heard christians doing good work amongst the poor and no, spreading the word doesn't seem to be their driving force.
These guys don't offend me at all.

That nose has got me worried, I think I need a wider brimmed hat.

[Fininho]

LOL!
Sorry about the nose...
I try not to sneeze while posting.

[karadan]

Certain aspects of religion offend me greatly. I get offended when I hear of people being judged by religious people as soon as they find out they aren't religious. I get offended when people come to my door and tell me I'm going to hell (a rare occurrence, I must say). I'm offended by the fact that millions of kids around the world are born into indoctrination before they have a chance to spread their intellectual wings. There's too many facets of religion which piss me off to write here although I will say, all the religious people I know personally are some of the most selfless and genuinely good people I've ever had the good fortune to know.
There's plenty about religion which does not offend me in the slightest.

[Fininho]

Good points.
But ALL religions have a venomous sting, depending only on number of adherents.
As soon as a religion attains to the official stardom in a given country, evangelisation by force ensues!
My warning about [ANY] religion is to avoid supporting it with cash!

[jduster]

Yes it does.

Every part of my body detests it.

[Asmodean]

It does more injustice to its followers than it does me. So no, I wouldn't say it offends me, it does, however, annoy me.

[Fininho]

It does more injustice to its followers than it does me. So no, I wouldn't say it offends me, it does, however, annoy me.

I like that point of religion doing more harm to its own supporters.
Quite true.

[tunghaichuan]

I wouldn't say that religion offends me, but it does worry me. Especially now that fundamentalist/evangelical Christians are getting more and more into politics. Many of them would rewrite history to make the US a Christian nation and turn it into a theocracy. And I do not want religious people making decisions for me as to what I can and cannot do.

Another concern I have about Christianity is that they are compelled to convert non-Christians by any means necessary, usually by force or some sort of coercion.

I have no problem with what people believe and if they want to believe their delusions more power to them. When religion spills over and affects me and others who don't want to be affected then I have a problem with it. Then it offends me.

[Persimmon Hamster]

It does more injustice to its followers than it does me. So no, I wouldn't say it offends me, it does, however, annoy me.

I like that point of religion doing more harm to its own supporters.
Quite true.

I'd suggest that measuring harm(/injustice), no matter how you define it, is too complex of a business to be able to make such an absolute statement.  Would not harm to anyone affect society to some degree--a larger equation of which you are, unavoidably, a part?

I generally find hypocrites offensive.
I find offensive those that would treat others differently from how they themselves would want to be treated.
I find offensive those that would rob another of their human right to happiness and freedom.
I find offensive those that would commit acts I would view as inhuman or irrational--whether in the name of religion, as traditionally defined, or of any other entity/agenda/belief/whatever.

I have observed that many individuals plainly guilty of the above claim to subscribe/belong to a religion, as traditionally defined.  I have concluded based on evidence and experience that religion, as traditionally defined, often fuels or is easily misconstrued as sanctioning such behavior.

But the concept of religion itself does not necessarily offend me.  If you listed specific religions, I might be able to provide my own subjective ranking of them on a scale of likelihood that any of its members might commit acts I would consider to be offensive, but I don't know how much use that would be.

re·li·gion
4 : a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith

faith
1 a : allegiance to duty or a person : loyalty b (1) : fidelity to one's promises (2) : sincerity of intentions
2 b (2) : complete trust
3 : something that is believed especially with strong conviction

By the above, "religion" could certainly be defined as something, and could take a form, which I could hardly consider offensive and which I could easily find myself subscribing to.

[LegendarySandwich]

I don't know if religion offends me -- certainly, some aspects of religion offend me, and some religious people offend me, but religion itself? No, not really -- although it does scare me. Religion is very dangerous to the world, and it needs to be stopped (peacefully, of course). But the very idea of religion doesn't get my heart racing or anything.

[elliebean]

Religion, no; religiousity, sometimes.

[Islador]

Religion itself irritates me because it promotes blatant falsehoods but when it comes to the religious themselves my opinion varies from person to person. Some religious people are lovely but others are complete bastards. It all depends on how much they allow their views to be guided by their religion and which of their religions beliefs they choose to follow.

[Gawen]

Religion is an affront to the entire human race. For me, religion is personally offensive in act or word; a deliberate act that causes disrespect to anyone that doesn't hold a particular flavour of those doing the disrespecting; an intentional slight and/or insult to all humans.

[trexshinigami]

Religion offends me.  I see it as psychological abuse, at least for the young who only know what they have been taught.  It makes a lot of money, doesn't pay taxes, interjects into peoples private lives where it has no business, and priests are getting away with abusing children.  This all offends me a lot.  

I know people find peace in religion and maybe some good things do come from it ( although I cant think of any), but until religion is truly separate from the government I have to live with and until it is held under the same laws as everyone else, I will find it offensive.

I find religious people who are actively trying to interject their ideals into other people's lives offensive too.  I hate feeling like I'm being judged, I take serious offense to that.