Religion has convinced modern society to consider not only the well-being of humanity: what God wants and our place in Heaven or Hell in the afterlife (Sutter). Religion, even though it has billions of followers, is based solely on what only a few prominent religious figures have said. For example, Islam was founded by a man named Muhammad, who communicated with God and became a prophet. No one saw either him or the angel who visited Muhammad at that time, however, when Muhammad came down from the mountain where he was praying and began to spread the message, people who had previously been polytheists converted to Muhammad's new religion: Islam . Throughout Muhammad's life, as depicted in the movie “The Message,” many people became Muslims simply because they were told that Muhammad was a prophet, a messenger of the “one true God.” This action of becoming a Muslim simply because, from what others say about Muhammad, appears to be blind faith – having no fact that there is a God, yet believing with all your heart that there is one. Personally, I have no qualms about religion or the people who practice it, no matter what religion. What I struggle with is how religion is the basis of an individual's decisions, slowing progress in improving our nation and the world. Religion, in my eyes, has two original purposes. Its first aim was to explain the unexplainable, such as how humans were created, where animals came from, and other similar questions. The book of Christianity, the Bible, attempted to answer many of these questions with the information then known. Over the years, however, many scientists have disproved what the Bible claimed as truth, such as the controversial actions... middle of paper... of the Orists, while Muslims consider Americans evil because, in their eyes , , our culture disobeys the word of God and is destroying the true meaning of religion. Almost all wars in the history of our world in which religion has been present have been started or finalized with a religious vision. Once again, I emphasize my tolerance for religion as a concept, however, religion as it exists today is causing many more problems than it solves and, in itself, is preventing our country and the world from progressing towards a to be truly peaceful and our people to be compressible and acceptable. Works Cited Kosmin, Barry and Ariela Keysar. “American Survey of Religious Identification.” Trinity College, March 2009. Web. 7 April 2010. Sutter, John. “Philosopher: Why We Should Abandon Religion.” CNN (2010): n. page Network. April 7 2010. .