A disease (bacterium, viral organisms, etc.) infect a host and begin using the resources found inside that host to make more of itself. Without a host to provide sanctuary, a disease cannot continue to exist for very long, and will quickly die. Further, the primary singular unit of a disease- that is, the individual disease carrying organisms- have absolutely no capacity to think on its’ own... and, really, on its’ own, it poses no threat.

Now, religion: The basis of religion is to try to get as many people to join the fold as possible, much like a world-wide game of "Hungry-Hungry-Hippos". The "host" would be a particular community in which a particular religion is trying to gain popularity in. The "carriers" (missionaries, or whatever they may be called) travel from house-to-house (cell-to-cell) searching for potential converts. After a good number of converts are made, the overall resistance the community has to the religious influx gets weaker, and the religious dogma itself spreads faster, as it has new carriers to spread the infection.

Now, some communities are completely immune to current strains of religion. A strong orthodox Jewish community would immediately reject any sort of attack by a Christian organization. The Christian invader wouldn’t have any luck trying to gain a foot-hold in the heart of the community, so it would begin its’ conquest with neighboring communities, gaining a stranglehold there, thus weakening the immune system of the poor Jewish center caught right smack-dab in the middle of a festering pit of Catholics. Eventually, as the Christ-loving propaganda perpetuates, that little Jewish community will toss aside their Torah and begin saying their Hail Mary’s.

Each generic religious practitioner has no mind or will of its’ own, just as a disease is designed to follow a set instinctual guideline for its’ continued existence. All commands are sent down from up above (no pun intended), and the mindless drones carry out the plan, preaching "Jesus Saves!" and "Resistance is futile!" or whatever is necessary to infect another person (or, worse yet, an entire household).

There is a vaccine to this unnatural assault. It’s called intelligence. You’d be surprised as to how far a little bit of thought can take you. Now, I have nothing against joining up with a certain religion. What my beef is with are those that follow a certain faith with absolutely no thought behind their faith. After all, any higher power that would bother to purposely create man would NOT just want a bunch of ass-kissers taking a bite of bread and a sip of wine every Sunday before they go home to watch football. If that’s who your God is, then your God is pretty insecure.

Diseases have been with man since the dawn of time, and so has religion. Disease is a destroyer of bodies; religion is a destroyer of minds. But, just as a disease can be used to make a vaccine to protect the body, so too can spirituality be used to protect the mind. Just keep your damn "Dianetics" to yourself.