St George's Day Rant

Today is Shakespeare's birthday and also St George's day. St George, the slayer of dragons and patron saint of England. The flag of St George is worn by English teams and the red cross on a white background is supposed to raise patriotic fervour wherever it is waved. Now according to what i have read, St George was born in Turkey in the third century AD, he lived later in Palestine and became a Roman soldier. He was a Christian and was tortured and later beheaded because of his faith. What has any of this to do with us? and what is the point of patron saints anyway? It strikes me that there are so many of them that the title becomes pretty meaningless, rather in the way that titles handed down by the royals are.
George was sanctified - is that the right word? - for his resilience to torture and his refusal to accept the Roman version of God or Gods. They knew they were right of course as did he and so the whole thing was really a futile argument with George bearing the brunt of the process.
Religions cannot lose can they? What they offer is a plethora of jam tomorrow, and in exchange for payments today, and there is never a shortage of customers. People have been prepared to die for believing in the invisible man and the paradise that is offered in exchange for their wordly misery. Poverty is supposed to be a christian value. Do the poor not realise that it is only of value to the wealthy, in whose interest the organised religions grew? Of course they don't. They are told from birth that suffering is good for the soul. It is even better for the coffers of the church.