Good for you.
I'll stick with the science of preventing and repairing DNA error, tissue decay and so on.
Discussion
My man!
Religion really gave a bunch of humans brain damage. Good thing I quit it.
That's alright. I see religion as any other ideology or opinion. Some people are wrong and assholes about it, some are wrong and are OK humans who just let others be. And the same for those who are right.
Well, I on the other hand see religion as a major problem. Teens being kicked out of their homes for coming out as nonreligious, men and women getting brutally murdered just for being atheist, priests raping kids are things I can't possibly accept. Also science denial, or straight out prosecuting people for practicing it.
I agree, but I choose to equalize it with any other opinion, because that's what it is.
The problem is not the opinion itself, but the act of taking it it to the extreme of justifying acts of aggression like the ones you describe, which we have seen with all sorts of opinions, not just religious ones. People kill other people for supporting a different sports team - no need to even invoke what happens with other more "serious" political or social opinions.
Removing the "specialness" of religious opinion in social, legal and political matters is how we solve the problems you describe with religion.
There's absolutely nothing special about a religious opinion. Respect for religion must stop exactly at the same point I stops for any other opinion.
Here’s a rational explanation of reality.
We live in a Universe, it may be real or it may be a simulation.
How it was created, why, by who, or if it was created, we can never know while we only exist within it.
For those that are uncomfortable with agnosticism, we can create a belief system.
A belief system constructed thousands of years ago has significantly less validity than a belief system created with todays knowledge and resources.
Problem lies in the fact that those man-made belief systems are forced onto others every fucking day and I'm tired of it, Mike.