Do religions cripple intellect?

Tom, Since rereading the FOC for about the seventh time, it finally and fully dawned on me JUST HOW MUCH religion cripples the intellect and the study of the self. I had always thought what religions tell people was just plain stupid, but that was more a by-product of my early family upbringing than any serious self-examination. The interesting thing is that since I began to study the self many years ago, which I was forced to do because of a series of personal and emotional crises, I have had so much more freedom of thought to undertake this endeavour without any worry of going to hell and other such nonsense.

Why is it that people would be so stupid as to believe in the devil and other such rubbish, when there is absolutely no proof of such an entity.

I have had some idiots try to tell me that because they are saved and part of a religion, they could go out and commit pre-meditated murder and other violent crimes and still go to heaven, whereas people like myself because we do not go to church and don't believe in their nonsense are ultimately going to hell, irrespective of the way we live and how much we study ourselves. The absolute absurdity of this must surely make people question these brainwashing doctrines. Kind regards

paul

The very purpose of "religions" is to keep people misinformed and scared to the greatest extent possible. Religions totally mis-represent GI as if it was a complete idiot with no sense of logic whatever.

Promoting the mentality of "you-can-get-away-with-anything-if-you-worship-our-idol" seems to be a method to maintain misery on Earth indefinitely. Most conflicts, wars, fanaticism, terrorism etc.. are direct results of people ACCEPTING narrow-minded (religious) leadership and ADOPTING its ridiculous beliefs.

It is all about the Freedom of Choice isn't it?

Tom