It's great that you tied this is with an earlier post you made elsewhere. I was supposed to leave my thoughts on that, but I'll comment here instead.
We share the same exact sentiments regarding religion. It was a very useful tool before, but I feel it has served its ultimate purpose. With advancements in human understanding, the notion of religion may seem a bit outdated. It used to be that it was the only source of knowledge, but now it can't seem to accept the fact that science has taken its place.
I do agree that it's current purpose is to bring joy, peace, comfort, among many others, but on the flip side, it's also being used to foster division, disagreements and other negative things that seem to counteract its benefits. There's a balance that can be struck there, but unless the figureheads can't see beyond their petty competition, it'll just be an endless cycle of non-progress.
Heh, isn't that the truth. For me, the main thing I dislike about (most) religions is they are built on concepts that are not designed for change and are not to be questioned. If you go to any Christian church here in the U.S., you'll probably see they have a tenants of faith. Essentially, these are the things you are not to question if you are to be part of their community. The way we learn is by questioning everything and only loosely holding on to whatever stands up to scrutiny. To gain knowledge, we should purposefully try to disprove our own thinking and the ideas of our communities. Only then can we know what's closer to truth.
Thanks for the comment, Jed. I hope you're doing well.
YES. Very well put. Challenging preconceived notions is truly the way to go. We can't just discover something and be satisfied just because that's what we're told. If anything, that's the main enemy of learning. I hope that one day, the human mind would evolve to a point that it's wired to question everything until a definitive conclusion is presented.
I am :) I hope you, your family and the guys at Foxy are doing great as well.