I'm basically a utilitarian. "What's useful here?" I see
  religions. I see where they have their best utility. So, that is
  what I emphasize about them. I don't have one at present, but I
  can see their usefulness. I think war and politics and murder
  are ridiculous. Yet, people find themselves in wars, engaged in
  politics, and committing murders. But because people are
  judgemental of those things being morally wrong, they need to
  justify - to tell a story to convince someone "Hey, well, no,
  what I did is correct". They'll use WHATEVER they can to try to
  justify it; to make a bad thing seem good. Religions are handy
  excuses for bad behavior. I've seen the Sciences used as handy
  excuses for bad behavior. But the bad behavior would have
  happened regardless of the excuses used. This is how I see it.
  -- Then again, I'm far from a pure utilitarian either. It's just
  that aspects of it are worthy of consideration. I don't think
  you can aggregate utility among all peoples universally, but
  each must be taken into consideration within their own
  worldviews.

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