Why do religious sometimes irritate me?

The other day I spent time at a party where there were a number of religious people! In the end I find them irritating unless we can find some other graounds for common interest. They are often nice, intelligent kind people but there is something which worries me.

Perhaps it is in the end that religion, certainly those derived from the old testament beliefs are about man's vanity. Probably man is appropriate rather than human. They exist in a world where man is humble before god BUT god created man in his likeness. What this does is to elevate man above all other creatures on earth. So the faith justifies the superiority of man above all others, so feeds mans vanity.

We have the spectacle of Anglican bishops flocking to the Church of Rome because they don';t want to have women bishops, what greater outporing of man's vanity could you expect. This is all done in the name of religion. Added to this as the wonderful claim that the chosen book, whether it be the New Testament, the Old Testament or the Koran are really the work of god so cannot be questioned. But god has only given this status to man so we can lord it over others, whether the be mice or elephants.

Perhaps the animist religions are less susceptible to this vanity of man but I must admit to some ignorance of these faiths, similarly Hinduism, but it seems to have some difficulties with caste system, creating superiority amongst humans.

Is it it related to the difficulty we have of accepting that we have no purpose and are just an accident. We just want to think that man is more important than a flea or a tree. So a belief in god who has made us makes us important and feeds our vanity. One has only to watch or listen to those who have climbed the tree of organised religions to feel the vanity they exude, even when expressing humility before god, there is very little in their attitude to their fellow man.

It is OK to believe if it makes you a better person and for some that might be true but when it turns into a crusade against others or even a belief in your own self-importance it it is the slippery slope to arrogance , which should always be avoided