"An organized panic about death" - Dylan Moran,
Irish comedian
Largely centers around the fetishistic worship of an invisible sky
fairy, who will send you to be tortured for all eternity unless you love him/her/it. Apparently gives free licence for child abuse,
war and acts of terrorism, as well as being an insufferable bore at dinner parties.
Having studied
world religions for
three years as an undergraduate, I personally conclude religion to be an organized panic about death. I would have had an equally productive
time conversing with a paranoid schizophrenic, and it wouldn't have cost as much.