In our haste to attack other religions for being wrong about their tenets, beliefs, or what they call their god, its easy to lose sight of the important stuff. Religions have many of the same themes.
First, kindness to others. I've never seen a religion whose (original) texts preach hate as a central ideal. (Intolerance off to the side, on the other hand...) Religions in general seem to have been made to make people better, and to bring out the good side of the world.
Second, a better world, usually one after death. There's always a better world out there, though it's not always attainable. Attaining a place in said world is a goal of many religions, though some, such as Ancient Greek or Ancient Chinese mythos, reserve it only for the gods.
Third, an enlightened being who serves as a "perfect human", or is supposedly perfect. This is obvious, I guess, as without a non-human at the top of the food chain (Or the Great Chain of Being, if you'd like to call it that) a religion isn't a religion, but a philosophy. I suppose there's more separating religion from philosophy (several degrees of fanaticism, perhaps?) but that's one of the major parts.
Fourth, fundies. No religion would be complete without your super-strict fundies who besmirch the good name of the religion for the world, and make it look crazy and warlike.
I'm sure all of this is obvious stuff. But today, I had a bit of a revelation.
Hair.
I can't think of a single religion that DOESN'T want you to do something with your hair. That is, obscure it, chop it off, grow it out, whatever.
Okay, I'm bored of finding images now. But it's proof that if there is a god out there, binding all religions to the same central things, that god wants us to DO SOMETHING TO OUR HAIR!
So go out and, err, do something to your hair?
Also, no rapture, show's over, sorry guys. False alarm.
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