RE: Religion is about control. Thinking for yourself is the only true freedom.
I don't follow any religion but I'm all for it if it's a method for someone to become a better person. But I don't really see that happening in the world. Also, my grandmother is insanely religious and based on the stories she tells me about numerous people who go to the same church as she, those people didn't succeed for sure. Cursing other people, spreading lies, gossips 24/7, backstabbing friends and the list could go on.
Also if religion is the ONLY thing(forever) that keeps away a person from going around doing horrible things... that's another story... (even worse if the religion "tells" him/her to do it)
There is a quote about this in True Detective:
Same goes for those who don't go around punching innocent people randomly just because of the laws. You don't do such thing because it is wrong, and not because of the fear of some jail time.
YES!!!!!!! EXACTLY!!!
It's only 'wrong' because of particular religious belief via tenants that say it's wrong that we have been taught which now seem to be universal knowledge because we're simply human..?. It's not wrong in the Middle East to stone people etc. Or even to enslave people in the Sudan! I think some miss that fact and think that we would still think certain actions wrong in the West had we never been a Christian Nation. You should listen to the psychological explanations by Jordan Peterson about what the religion actually means biologically and psychologically to us. It seems like some dismiss religion too quickly and maybe understandably due to a negative personal experience with institutional religion. But I think there's much more to it.