Daddy, Junior and the Holy Spook

This post is not a tribute to Kancha Illiah although I concede he was a man with thoughts and experience worth respecting. This post is my reflection on why I do not believe in the institution of God. I shall, at times, refer to the 4th Earl of Russell's arguments.
The primary reason for not believing in God has been the extremely religious atmosphere I've been brought up in. I come from a typical middle-class family which traces its roots to the poorest yet most religious part of India. Religious, not in the bigoted, but rather in the too-devoted-to-care-about-others manner. Religion has never been enforced on me but at the same time has been a constant companion in my formative years. At the age of 8, I knew more Hindu myth and prayer than the average 18 year old in India. With the imbibing of religion in my childish mind, the institution gained a follower. Premature celebration, religion. Apostasy had to follow, for the rational mind makes its choices based on reason and logic, rather than epics that run for 100,000 verses.The sweeping statements end here.

Religion, as Marx(of the Karl variety; Groucho was too busy with women and comedy to notice) defined it, is the 'Opium/Opiate of the masses'. Scholars of tremendous learning have connoted this statement to correspond to their own thoughts on the institution of religion.I, in my capacity as a person of very limited learning but a decent amount of exposure, am of the opinion that religion is too interweaved with the populace and their daily life for it to be given up as a whole. At the same time, it is an insidious poison that spreads in the veins of society, corrupting the path of the pathbreaking. His Beyond-Human-Greatness (HBH) Russell has stated that religion has only enforced the morality of a few on a whole. The contemporaneous example that springs to mind is of the Hindu fundamentalists. Religion is a force both adhesive and divisive.In the present time, it is almost quotidian to hear about some conflict in the world whose roots are latently entrenched in religion. From where I can see, the view suggests that its divisive.It led to the greatest exodus in human history.It divided sons of the same father and led them to fight for decades altogether. As HBH Russell believed, religion has done nothing for man but curb his spirit,royally screw his life and deny him his right to indulgence.So much for religion.
Now for God. If I were to refer to Hofstadter, it'd be an endless loop of 'God Over Djinn'(I don't expect anyone to get this reference). God, in the Biblical sense, is the creator of the earth and the heavens. This is one of the arguments that everyone, ranging from evangelists to saffron clad men selling Bhagwad Gitas in the Bangalore Rajdhani Express, has tried.The fallacy is obvious.If you possess the power to create,you ought to be have been created. It becomes what is defined by Hofstadter as a 'strange loop'. Loopy Loopy God Thou Art. God, in the eyes of the rational HBH Russell and Thomas Paine, is a creation of man.Man, in his height of Godless glory,created God to make modesty a continuing virtue.The virtue remains while the sanction of God is proliferated at an exponential rate. The institution has benefited the few of power. His Holiness Pope Leo X is alleged to have said: "It serves us well, this myth of Christ". Myth it sure is,Leo. Myth becomes legend. Legend becomes History. History becomes Scripture. Scripture becomes code. Houston, we have a problem.
In all,I believe George Carlin said it the best: "Religion is bullshit".
In a totally unrelated vein, I detest works of literature that have self-help motivational messages. Those are for dweebs.