Lil Debe

Pastors can make all that money because many of them are basically salesmen. They take the charismatic style, which is based on them and not on scripture. They get people fired up and feeling good ("It's going to be a great year! God is with you!"), and people pay for that. I've seen studies that compare donations, in the same church with the same pastor, using charismatic v. scriptural styles. Donations are significantly (like 50-100%) higher with the charismatic style. People just want to be entertained and made to feel good about themselves.

Rational/irrational
Regarding this, I would think that to be religious is the only rational choice. I think it was a mathematician who looked at it this way: If there is a God, then I'm saved; if there isn't, no harm done. Therefore, I think the typical cost/benefit analysis would lead one to conclude that being religious has more upside than otherwise.

Faith
The whole point about faith is that either you have it or you don't. You look at all the evidence, together with personal experiences, and you either say "I'm in" or "I'm out." I'm personally in because I like the evidence. The wisdom in the sayings, so many of them, is just so spot on that it rings true. One of my favorites parts of the Bible is excluded from most copies, the apocrypha. The apocrypha isn't really part of the Bible because it's not considered scripture. It's like a laundry list of what to do and what not to do in life, just about every sentence literally starts with "Do" or "Don't".

That's why people who have faith have such a hard time explaining why. There isn't any specific reason, or secret piece of evidence. In fact, I think God wants it that way because it's the only way to separate out real believers. If he literally lived on Earth, everyone would believe in him.

There are holes in the doctrine, people misusing it (in my opinion), people ignoring it. But the decision to follow it or not, essentially to forgive the holes or not, is, in my opinion, the exact issue of faith. If you have it, you are ok with the flaws, if you don't, you probably aren't.

Science
Science is obviously cool, but I don't think it's really a faith. Things can be proven, and they are either proven or not. I personally think science is a gift from God to allow us to improve our lives. Don't get too caught up in that statement, it's just a basic belief that doesn't interfere with what I think science's boundaries or goals should be. In other words, I don't mingle the two in my head. There are so many pieces of evidence that it seems like it's a puzzle meant to unraveled; little things like the number e, doesn't it appear all over the place? I think I've read that the shape of a nautilus's shell, the brown part of a sunflower, and all kinds of other things can be described with e. My take on that is that I first of all believe that God created the world, and that all these little coincidences lend weight to the idea that there is a Unifying Theory...and who better to create such a theory than God?

Poverty--the real problem
In my opinion, poverty is pretty much the sole problem facing the world today. People who live in poverty can't afford to attain professional skills, or learn news. They also don't have anything to lose. I'm pretty sure the vast majority of crime is based on poverty, either directly or indirectly. A direct result would be a robbery (robbing because you don't have enough money). An indirect result would be to commit crimes because you don't like your environment and either you don't see another way out, you don't care about your future since your present sucks, or you don't know any other way to behave since you were raised in a criminal environment.

Once people have things of value to lose, they become a lot more cautious.

Government
Goverment absolutely sucks, but it's a necessary evil. The old Repulicanism ideal, small self-sufficient villages, is a thing of the past. To manage cities, states, and nations, we need a government. Some of the problems we have are accountability, and the fact that there's always more money, no matter how bad they screw up. They could bungle all the laws this year, but next year's tax revenues will still be there.

Answer to WWJD
I just saw the questions you asked. I personally feel like religion should adapt to my life, it's supposed to be a source of joy, not a job. If I feel like sleeping in on Sunday, I don't feel guilty. Regarding others, I'm of the opinion that they can do any non-harmful activities they want, basically the current legal status, but I don't like it when they look outside themselves and monitor others. Since there's no clear answer, or law, and they are operating on an interpretation, I don't think it's right to fault others for not following their interpretation.

This is the same as my view on the deeds issue. I think that the actions spoke about in the Bible come when people feel moved to do them. In other words, on a certain day I may feel like donating to the church or volunteering at a soup kitchen (plenty in Chicago in winter). And I think faith without deeds is sufficient. On the other hand, I do not think that deeds without faith is sufficient (e.g. I volunteered every Saturday, church every Sunday, 10% of my earnings were donated, now let me in--I did what I was told).