Before I begin here, let me preface this by saying that I am a Christian, and do believe very strongly in God. I believe that Jesus Christ died for my sins, and that He is coming back one day (maybe soon?) to take all His faithful to Heaven.
That said, I'll vent a little frustration with my faith.
My wife and I have some friends who believe VERY strongly; they're VERY devout.....their beliefs could even be considered puritannical. Their faith is very basic....there are no gray areas; God is in control, so He'll take complete care of you...just leave everything to Him, and all will be right. Now, that's a fine ideal, right there. Let go and let God, basically.
I admire them for the strength of their faith....they study the Bible all the time, have raised their kids in the faith (to the exclusion of all others, even science, where it conflicts with their faith...they believe, as do others I've met that, for example, the Earth is only a few thousand years old. There is no such thing as evolution. Man and dinosaurs existed together. There were no cavemen. Their kids are homeschooled, by the way, so they have no access to other ideas or frames of reference), and believe strongly in Chrisian outreach and evangelism.
My problem with them is that they will not accept other views. It's not that they can't...they simply won't.
They have their beliefs, those beliefs are the right ones, and that's all there is to it. There's no point in arguing, because they're right and that's that.
And, if you don't see things their way, and think EXACTLY as they do, you're just not worshipping God the correct way (to put it politely, you're going to Hell).
They have terrible contempt for not just other faiths, such as Islam or Buddhism (which is understandable, considering their perspective) but even other denominations of Christianity. And I'm not talking about "Oh, those dumb Catholics (Baptists..Presbys, whatever)." I mean utter, dripping contempt, because those denominations don't see and do things, according to my friends, the "way they should". They don't "follow what the Bible says." The Bible says this, and that's the way it is...the Bible says that, and there's no debate, because there it is, right there on the page. They "need to follow what God tells them, and they don't. They make it up for themselves."
Now, this would be a fine argument, if not for that fact that I've heard it from other people of other denominations, too.
My problem with religion (specifically Christianity, but this holds with all faiths, really) is that we all read the Bible, sometimes even the exact same translation, and get different things out of it. In my denomination, I might think it's just fine to have an organ, piano, or even a brass band play in the church. Other denominations (one is the Church of God, I think it is) read the Bible and get that this is wrong...that there should be nothing but the human voice raised in the sanctuary with no insturmental accompaniment whatsoever. The Bible is so subjective....we all know this, though.
We all read pretty much the same Bible, perhaps different translations, of course, but bascially the same, and we all think we're doing it right. But which of us? We can't ALL be right, can we? In the Bible, God gives us directions for our religious and everyday lives and how to worship him properly. I read it and say,"okay..here's how to do it.." and I set out to follow those directions...some else reads the same passage and says "okay..here's how to do it..." and sets out down some other path.
Who's right? Who's wrong? Who knows? God. We'll find out when we die if we were right or not, I suppose. I'd like to think I'm on the winning team, but I may not be, you know? You may or may not be, yourself. Just don't be like my friends and have utter contempt for others who don't see things your way...it's religion, and the gray areas are vast. We, as Christians, all worhsip the same God. For me, that's enough.