Jesse Ventura, the famous, professional wrestler and one term Governor of the state of Minnesota (where I used to live) once said that he thinks, "Religion is a crutch for weak minded people". I totally agree. 
    Now I offer an equally enlightened approach to understanding religion from the other side of the equation. This is just further insight. Not instead of, but added to and formed as a result of thinking about what he said... 
    I think that weak minded people are a crutch for religion. There would be no religion at all if weak minded people didn't keep leaning on it as their crutch. Therefore, it is actually the weak minded people that religion is leaning on and on which it is keeping going. Take away weak mindedness in people and religion has no place left to lean on. I don't want to be so arrogant as to claim to know the absolute truth (supposing that there maybe actually is one, a point we're not even sure of at all) or any such nonsense like religion does, but I'm all for helping bring awareness to people and inviting them to actually think for them selves. If weak-mindedness is the symptom, and if just believing is the disease, then the cure must be found somewhere in the act of inviting others to think. If it's not used, it will get abused. (entry added 20030802_0706)