That’s just it. Some people really want to believe there’s a way out from endless suffering, and point to religion like we wouldn’t find something else to propagate suffering with. The horrible truth that fedora-tippers shrink from is that religion is an intrinsic aspect of the human condition that will never, ever go away. We even have completely secular cults now. Arguably Scientology isn’t secular because they believe in insane shit like space ghosts (because Scientology is just a rip-off of Mormon space lore) but we do have completely non-spiritual, non-supernatural belief systems that are functionally religions (talk to someone who firmly believes in Bigfoot or that the moon landings were faked and tell me they’re not in a religion). We have medical conspiracy cults like Anti-Vaccine and Chronic Lyme Disease, wellness cults like intermittent fasting (which is literally just anorexia plus sophistry) and semen/fecal retention, and the deliberate degeneration of corporate America into cults—my last job had quarterly meetings that included a chated incantation (of our mission statement) and selected readings from the founder’s book followed by a speech about the lesson we can take away from that reading.

We’re born with a race, sex, and gender. We are not born with a religion.

Religion can safely be dropped and one huge cause of so many conflicts can go away. It wont solve 100% of the problem, and we will still fight over stuff we can’t control but it’s still worth it to try even for a partial win.