Now, before someone comes to my house and murders me for what i said, let me explain :)
Sorry for the simplistic nature of this text, but i'm an engineer, i don't like beating around the bush
I see religions as a set rules. Ok, maybe not rules necessarily but some stuff that you should be doing in order to get saved from something, or to have something in exchange. What we all feared through the years and will always fear, is what happens to us after we die. Now every religion has come up with their own answer to this question, followed by a set of guidelines to achieve a better future after your death. I know that some religions such as Buddhism do not relate to this, but mostly do.
Religions have been very useful :
You i like religions up to a point.Years ago , people have not been at the same ethical level as they are today. People were rapists, murderers , and much more. And of course there's still this kind of people now, at least now it is generally NOT accepted to be a rapist like it was many years ago. Reason for this let's say development of ethics in people was religions. It was religions which has pushed people into accepting or declining a situation. For Christianity it was the 10 amendments for example.
Why i don't believe in any religion :
First of all, not believing in any religion does not mean that i believe a religion is fake, or it is not based true facts. I simply do not care, and here's why
Reading let's say the book of religion " X" one will find him self agreeing to some pages of the book , and not agreeing to others. And indeed all religions to some extend teach about loving each other, and respect among's each other. But they all have some pages, which me , or you will personally agree or disagree on. After all we're all people , we all share our own opinion. I truly hope that none believes a 100% of Christianity for example as it might be rich of messages of love, but at the same time it is full of other wrong messages which I personally couldn't disagree more. So if one would say i agree to some pages and I disagree to others, then he would be cherry picking what he likes from his religion , and in a way creating his own religion. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that
Given the above statement, if one was to cherry pick what he liked from his own religion, and ignore other "pages " from his religion, why not jump straight into moral philosophy ?
God may or may not exist, i truly don't know but either do you or anybody else . And why bother to spend so much effort into discovering if an individual ever existed ? What's the point if Allah or Jesus or John or whoever existed ? They all taught some stuff, mainly love and some other things. Just take all the teaching that you agree on and follow them as a person. Evolve as a person, read about other religions, and understand that the pages that you may read on your religion and agree on, you will find in all other religions.
Stop living in fear on what will happen to you after you die. Or you will otherwise will always be a prisoner of your own fear