Why do we need a Religion for People?

Religions offer people things that they need:

• community
• meaning
• guidelines/advice
• forgiveness
• possibility to support a greater cause (be it charity or mission)

However, religions often come with a lot of baggage which is useless, outdated, or even dangerous:

• morals that do not reflect people's needs
• morals that are chauvinist, racist, sexist or discriminating in other ways
• morals that are sometimes even unlawful and in contradiction with rules a society wants to live in (e.g. mission by violence)
• creation myths and stories about spirits, gods, etc.

First observation: It is possible to get the advantages of religion without getting the disadvantages. Many religions are currently evolving that way, but we can go more directly. Do better.

Furthermore, religions do not offer some things which are actually needed:

• guidelines and advice do not take into account the different living situations of different people in our time.
  
• guidelines and advice do not take into account that people with different character/personality have fundamentally different ways of thinking and have to be talked to in somewhat different ways (e.g. everybody is open to reason and is open to emotion, but some are much more specialized in one of the both)
• guidelines and advice are necessary, but in specific situations can contradict each other: in this situation, people need to learn to find their personal dividing lines to make balanced decisions.
• guidelines and advice can sometimes also seem to set goals to high to reach: then, people need help to develop the abilities to behave according to their principles; good intentions are not enough, we need abilities.

Second Observation: Most religions have high demands on the moral behavior of their followers, but they don't provide enough support to people to actually overcome their weaknesses and find a lifestyle that does not hurt other people and makes themselves more happy.

A Religion for People has to help people, not bother them; it has to empower people, not prescribe their lives; it has to improve society, not create dividing lines. This is what our effort wants to achieve.