Religion is the perennial pandemic. It has done more harm, directly and indirectly, than any disease or calamity that humanity has suffered.
It continues to do so.
The female sex certainly suffers disproportionately compared to the male. However, religion affects us all.
Religion has no rational basis and their is *no* evidence for the deities whose words & commands it dictates that its delusional adherents must follow. Indeed, any objective critical examination of religion will provide more evidence of the improbability of any 'omnipotent deity' or other gods. No intelligent person who is able to free themselves of religious conditioning will come to any other conclusion than that such beliefs are delusions.
Yes, some people take comfort from their belief. Most use it as a hypocritical excuse. - Good is to be an do as their mythical 'all knowing' leader has suppsedly dictated. Bad (or 'evil') is to be or do what they have supposedly declared to be such.
In fact, as you correctly state, religious edicts emanate from the minds and mouths and hands of human beings, almost if not exclusively of the male sex.
Disastrously, human beings are relatively easily susceptible to conditioning. This reality is further exacerbated when a community or society, as all are, is subject to the control of a privileged group with might and/or wealth to promote those who do their bidding and punish those who do not.
Science has shown us that any group of human beings that exceeds around 30 in number must institute some form of organised hierarchy in order to operate. Inevitably, then, our very existence facilitates our conditioning to particular rituals, actions, narratives and beliefs. This fact also causes the tendency to reject those who are different, particularly if that difference manifests in an alternative understanding, philosophy, or idea about the merits or otherwise of the social mores and traits - including religion - of any social grouping.
Not only ought the 'church' and state be separate but the church ought to have no status beyond that of any other 'club'.
In 2022, the notions of 'divine right', 'holy books', 'the word of '"God"' and such are as absurd as belief in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny or Russell's Teapot.
The fact is that, as you so clearly portray, these notions continue to victimise, harm and destroy the opportunities and freedom of the female sex to live without discrimination; without enshined barbarism; without sentence to particular life circumstance; without slavery; without control over their own bodies; and without determination of their own destiny on equal footing with the male sex.
Religion is the major contributor to this sad and immoral situation. It and its officers and institutions do not deserve respect. If it ever had one, it is now long past its use-by date.
