I've long felt that many organized religions (esp. the more fundamental varieties, and I'm not just talking Christian) enable a particular sort of intellectual/ethical laziness. The appeal is that once you join up, you no longer have to make ethical or moral decisions all on your own, you no longer have to think through your beliefs and your experiences and determine right from wrong. You just look it up in The Big Book of God-Sez and then you know what you are supposed to think, and then you don't have to worry about it any more.

When it comes to difficult, important questions, I would much rather trust my own judgment and make my own mistakes than play Follow The Leader. Too many Leaders I've seen have an agenda of narrow self-interest, or worse, of hate.