Morality and religion.
Just so that we can go back to first principles, let's work through some definitions.
Morality (from the Latin moralitas "manner, character, proper behavior") is the learning process of distinguishing between virtues and vices. Generally speaking, morals are basic guidelines for behavior intended to reduce suffering in living populations.
A religion is a set of beliefs and practices, often centered upon specific supernatural and moral claims about reality, the cosmos, and human nature, and often codified as prayer, ritual, and religious law.
As someone who has superficially studied any number of religions, I don't find them to be particularly "simple." Nor do I find morality to be simple, nor do I find the two easily divorced from one another.
The problem I have with religion, or morals, are people who use them to bludgeon others with the parts that they pick that are convenient to what they want to do. This can apply to Islamic terrorists or the Christian right or the secular left.
As a simple example, I find it absurd that there are so many people who profess to be Christians who believe in the death penalty. Then again, I find it equally absurd that those that are the most against the death penalty are quite often so in favor of on-demand abortions. These are difficult questions. It would seem to me that those "Thou shall not kill" is both a religious and a moral absolute. But many, if not most, of the population (and the present state of laws in this democratic country) disagree that the two are either completely right or completely wrong.
