| Why should I pay even a penny to support some religious organization?

I don't think it usually works out that way. If you
buy a bottle of honey marked "pareve" it's probably
$3.99... or $5.79... or something like that. The non-
marked bottle is not going to be $5.78. You're not
*really* paying for the mark.

On the other hand, declaring purity or blessedness
*has* always been one of the central rackets of
religious establishments. Buying blessings is well
established in the Catholic church, for instance. As
with plumbers, priests can drive the price up by
controlling the number of licensed blessers. Kosher
law can also serve as a form of protection racket
for the people who don't dare allow the proverbial
black cat of treif [non-kosher food] to cross their
path.

Given that sort of thing, maybe you feel strongly that
religion is destructive, like the "new atheists" who think
scientific materialism will save us and that religion has
caused all wars? In that case I could see why you
wouldn't want to risk supporting religion mongerers.

Personally I find that view to be a particularly
naive and simplistic brand of homemade religion. If we
reject religion then aren't we practicing the same
approach of taking sides against an "other" that
religion is faulted for?
Modern technophiles are hoping to save their necks by
cheering for the right team, just like some religious people
are. In that sense science becomes another superstition.
The most notable difference is that the science followers
aim low. Religious people often hope to know God and view
their lives as being dedicated to that work. Science
followers hope only to extend their lives and discover
a more delicious flavorant to put on popcorn. They
accept a simplistic, concretist view of reality and
essentially subscribe to the irrational view that whoever
dies with the most toys, and pleasurable experiences,
wins. The great danger with science followers is that
they fervently believe themselves to be immune to irrational
belief. (There are an awfully lot of people who say
they believe that when they die, that's it. They are their
body. Their soul or thoughts are mere chemical reactions.
There is no meaning. We're just vehicles for DNA to
reproduce itself, floating around on a rock in the universe.
Yet those same people spend a fortune to pick their funeral
trappings and gravestone. When we see such fancy caskets
used by ancient Egyptians we say the silly fools thought
they were taking their worldly comforts to an afterlife.
But us? No. We're rationalists. We just like a good casket.

I buy kosher salt. I like the big flakes. It sprinkles
better. My other requirement with salt is that it
not contain additives of aluminum, cyanide, or any
other idiotic thing that someone thought would be
clever to include. Interestingly, kosher doesn't seem
to necessarily mean without toxins, in this case. It
just means the flakes are big.