Orac, you say,"... religion is not something one aspires to it is something one sinks into."
Orac, I ask: Are you of the strong opinion that all "religion" is evil? Do you assume that all religionists are evil people? lacking in intelligence? common sense and the like? Or what is your opinion?
BTW 1, I do agree that some religions are destructive. SO are some sciences and the knowledge they open to us. Both are powerful forces for good, or evil.
All forms of creative human activity lend themselves to be used or abused by us. By good and generous people, they will be used to serve the greater public good. However, by greedy, wealth and power-hungry self-serving people--people who don't know and don't care about anything but what helps them get power and the wealth it brings them--it will be used to serve their ego-maniacal whims.
BTW 2, let us not forget that some of the first scientists were also religionists. To name just a few great names: Copernicus (a Christian monk), Galileo, Father Georges Lemaitre (who, in 1927, gave us the BIGbang theory), Faraday, Max Planck (quantum physicist), Nicola Tesla (AC electricity).
