sloanstar1000 : That's a general claim to be making, and it's not true either. Indoctrination happens in both religious and non religious contexts. You also have people who are either religious or nonreligious who won't think for themselves, but that is not related to whether they are religious or not . You have to remember that many great mind in the past (and even today) have some type of belief in God. In fact some are motivated to think critically because of some belief in God, so religion is not a causation to less critical thinking, though I can understand you might thinking that if you have experienced many examples of religious people not being critical thinkers.

play4fun : You're right, I was wrong to imply that religion was the only source of indoctrination, Nationalism and Religion are the main sources of indoctrination on this planet, and I don't care much for either of them. I also know that many great critical thinkers have been religious, though I think most religious critical thinkers tend to compartmentalize their religious beliefs. Terms like "god" and "religion" aren't very specific terms, so it's a very general topic anyway.

If there was no religion, then the world would look pretty much the same as it does now. There would be many cultural differences, but nothing would really change on a global level.

More people have died in the name of someone's God(s) than for any other reason in the history of mankind, including disease and famine.

And all these churches, synagogues, mosques, and other places of worship scattered around the globe. There's one on every street corner, some small and meek, others grand and enormous. What if we used these buildings not to seek answers from a deity, but to find the answers to all the difficult questions that we possibly can. We could have a moon base right now, for crying out loud! We might have cured cancer by now! (... and just think of the full-dive immersive VR games...) And not just scientific answers, but social and economic ones too... we might have a better government.

These are just two of the reasons that I denounced religion, coming up on 6 years ago now. I don't hate anyone who is religious, but I think the world would be so much better off without religion. Just like a Christian might say "hate the sin but love the sinner", I prefer to say "hate the belief, but not the believer".

Well without the religion there would have been less wars and pointless murders, but not saying that it's all because religion but it had a huge part in some pointless wars. I'm no religious fellow so don't really want to say more, because there is always someone who takes these things too serious and might offend or something. Peace and good bye.