Why do I say to question everything? Because anything or anyone put on a pedestal is a danger to a secular society.

"Government oppressed the body of the wage-slave, but religion oppressed his mind, and poisoned the stream of progress at its source. The workingman was to fix his hopes upon a future life, while his pockets were picked in this one." UPTON SINCLAIR, The Jungle

A glaring example- Thomas Aquinas agreed with Aristotle that a woman is a by-product of a defective seed. The male semen intends to produce a complete human being, a man, but at times it does not succeed and produces a woman.

So here you have two brilliant people who have compartmentalized and are controlled by dogma in one field yet at times have given us brilliance.

Not unlike St Augustine and Aquinas who both agree that apostates should be killed, but Aquinas wanted them burned at the stake so they could scream out in agony for Christ forgiveness. And Augustine's writing were used to launch the Spanish Inquisition, but also led to a Just War Doctrine and Aquinas added to it. The UN adopted it with very few revisions and removed the religious references. And I stand in awe of it's wisdom as it came from 330 to 1120 AD.

I believe the study of religion is important for it still holds unwarranted power over us. Religion seeks to codify and make holy the worst humankind has done to each other as a tool for oppression. It exposes our worst nature, was recorded, and passed down as sacred. Yet with all of this power, the Enlightenment has put a stake in the heart of Bronze Age myths. To forget our past is to empower future demi-gods. We must try to reason these people out of unreason.