What exactly is invalid? The idea of the human mind that it is autonomous and with the need to be free is not your instinct to rebel against a God but to rebel against the world. Religion is seen as an establishment in a sense that it controls people and it's not a club. If we eliminate the world religion, and we replace it with common sense, then it's not a denomination anymore, it's a way of living. Now a smart-ass came along and said that they could use the name of a God to control people but individually it's irrelevant, YOU decide what common sense is to you, and you use common sense to make SENSE of the world around you. Eliminate the myths and stigma of anecdotes from 3000 years ago and simply see religion is asking you to be a better person, as long as that's all your take away from it, you're doing fine. No need to avoid eating meat, to avoid all sexual pleasure, just be a better person damn it, it's not that hard.

The basic premise of religion is control but if you disregard the full idea that you need to take orders for you to not kill, no dishonor your mom and dad and be a peaceful person then religion is not a bad thing. You see people blame God for 100% of the things that MAN has done. We create war, follow money with blind eyes into a dark alley and then actually have the audacity to say something like "if there is a god, then why is there world hunger?" And all of this with no regard for the collective fault of our own. I don't mean to say that religion fixes everything but more and more everyday we get sucked away from religion and if you look out there today, things don't look so great. Religion is a way for people to congregate, obviously there are a lot of bugs but none as terrible as stablished governments, so why give it such a bad rep? It's like if you were a child and you broke your mom's favorite china plate and you said that it was God's fault for letting it fall and not yours for pushing it over the edge.