They cannot be more wrong. Religion is not exactly about a God, who, for want of anything better to do, created the world, peopled it with humans and assorted animals, set up enough obstacles to made a peaceful life impossible and then sent down a couple of characters to preach peace and brotherhood.

Religion was born out of the need of human beings to feel secure. All of us want to free ourselves from the fear of the unknown, that haunts us from the day of creation. None of us know what tomorrow would bring, or even the next few minutes. Thus it is essential to have an all powerful God at hand to take care of things while we are busy at work or asleep.

Of course, God took care of things rather well. Apart from sending a prophet, son of God or avatars, he got some to write the scriptures on how to live an ideal life without causing much harm to fellow beings or the environment. He was also careful to place dire warnings against transgressing any of the edicts. So far, so good.

Trouble started when some men chose to break every rule in the book and got away. They also started to fight among themselves and claim that their faith was the only true one. None of these people realise that religion encapsulates the sum total of mankind´s efforts at building great civilisations. It is a pity that ill informed people are trying to mould the teachings of various religions to fit into their short term goals and leaving the entire humanity at risk of extermination at the hands of some misguided fanatics.