Vector: I should not have dismissed the possibility. In my experience lutherans were pretty mild compared to a lot of the independant fundamentalist christain/baptists and some of the pentacostals.
Freformschooler: I probably was raging in 1 of those posts you saw in that thread, I saw red that da from a couple of posts. But they were what I believe, even if I didn't express them very well. I have a lot of things to hold against religion, both personal and founded on my ethics and reason.
In addition to the potential for evil I mentioned before, the methods used by religion often don't mesh with my ethics and point of view regarding the mind. The others here have mentioned some of them, brainwashing, indoctrination of children, etc.
While everyone else is sharing their personal religious stories... you know how people talk about the innocence and joy of their youth? I never had that. Long story short, my father was a deacon in an IFB church/cult. He was extremely abusive and had the full and unquestioning support of the congregation. It took my mother 16 years and him committing attempted murder to get us away from him when I was 6. He never went to prison and is still a respected member of his church and community. Then there was the time a youth pastor strangled me a few years later and that is the last time I have been to a church for anything other than weddings. There is more and worse, but that is probably already to much to talk about. I was very religious as a kid and I read through the bible for a long time to prove that all that horror was wrong, but what I found supported it, encouraged it. I had to reject it completely, there was nothing left for me in faith except for fear, pain, anger and hate. I threw myself into a quest for all knowledge, not just religous meaning. It took years, but I found that morality didn't need a shaky religious foundation. It is somewhat difficult for me to articulate exactly what I believe. I am far past hate and fear but still occasionally subject to anger, pain and rightiousness. Emotion can both obfuscate and elucidate my expression. Plus I am writing this on my phone and have no spellcheck and a crappy keyboard. And I see a lot was written while I wrote this... crap.