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I think this is the problem; you define religion as a belief in God which appears to be a man made definition, while I take my inspiration from the Bible, which after all is what I follow. The Bible defines religion like this :
“If anyone considers themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongue [quarrelling, swearing, gossiping, trouble causing] he deceives himself and his religion is worthless.
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress [of whatever race, creed, colour, gender, or appearance].
And to keep oneself from being polluted by the world [keeping up with the joneses, avaricious, selfish, etc.]”
Adolf Hitler, Robert Mugabe and any other despot you can think of may conform to mans definition of religion (a belief in God), but they do not conform to the Christians understanding of religion. Try comparing what those people have done and then compare it with how the Bible says we should live our religious life and you will see the difference.
Oddly enough there are many atheists who do conform to the religious life style and it goes to show how close many non-religious people are to being Christians.
I am not religious by your definition neither do the tyrants around the world conform to the Christian definition of religion. Therefore according to the generally and incorrectly understood definition of religion I am NOT religious by your standard or criteria.
Personally I think true religion is totally different from what we see of Bin Laden and I think a good example would be the way a loving mother treats her child. For me that exemplifies true religion perfectly and the murderous religions that we see around the world are really false cults.
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