Saying “maybe people are the problem” is reductive and unhelpful. But I agree with you broadly, religion is just a system or a tool, it can be used for good or evil.

To judge if religion is a good system or a bad one, we can use a cost benefit analysis. This is what we have been attempting to do in this thread.

But when it comes to sensitive subjects like religion, many people have a tendency to avoid, overlook, and deny the associated costs.

Anti-science, misogyny, etc may be bad independently of religion, but they aren’t independent of religion. Religion is a source of these problems.

You can imagine a hypothetical religion that is simply a “social club” or whatever, but here in the real world religion comes with baggage.

Religion is why my cousin’s children have never seen a doctor in their life. Religion is why my gay friend in high school tried to kill himself. Religious indoctrination has led to lifelong shame and trauma in many of my friends.

And this was just from a “moderate” sect of Christianity- the millions living under fundamentalist religion have it even worse.

What you said is all true, but you are ignoring the negative aspects of religion.

Religious influence, both on their followers and on government, is anti-science, misogynistic, and anti-LGBT.

Religions are funded like pyramid schemes, with the most desperate and vulnerable as their victims.

Religious indoctrination is child abuse.

Chrono Trigger has all the elements done right- 10/10 music, 10/10 art style, RPG and battle systems that were innovative for the time and are still fun to play today.

But I think what sets the game apart as a timeless classic, a masterpiece, is its deep themes of existentialism. Marle has has a fake persona and a mistaken identity, yet we can still see her real self. Crono, as an avatar for the player, is sentenced to death and spared in the last moments. Robo, after being freed from his original programming, asks “Is this what it is like… to die?”

And that’s all just in the first act.

The ideas of Sartre, of Nietzsche, and perhaps most of all “Being and Time” by Heidegger were presented in a way that my 10-year-old self could comprehend and enjoy. But it’s not dumbed down for children, my 30-year-old self can still find deep meaning in the narrative and themes.

Plus, time travel is cool.

I would start with MLK, collected essays, no one writes about protest more eloquently.

A Peoples History of the United States by Howard Zinn gives a great broad overview.

Death in the Haymarket by James Green is a great history of the first decades of the labor movement.

Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Leadership in Turbulent Times goes in depth on LBJ and the civil rights movement.

On the Duty of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau for the classic philosopher’s take.

We’ve Got People by Ryan Grim details the successes and failures of the movement in the last decade.

You should educate yourself on the history of protest. The media has always been a serious impediment. There was never an “entire population” uniting or a “simple goal that others could get behind”. It was always extremely difficult. It often looked hopeless. Many people were killed in the streets, and others were brave enough to replace them.

Overall I think feeling helpless in the face of monumental challenges is normal. But closing your eyes and telling yourself “nothing can ever change, so why bother” is self-soothing and pathetic.

Things can change, and you can be a part of that positive change if you put in real effort.

What are we gonna do, vote?

“If voting changed anything, they’d make it illegal” - Emma Goldman

In the last 100 years, protest movements have given us women’s suffrage, workers rights including the weekend and overtime pay, gay rights, civil rights, etc. History shows us that we can have positive change, but it’s not as easy as just voting.

We can see right now how protest movements are moderating the Democrat’s support of Israeli war crimes.

But don’t you feel a responsibility to the rest of the world?

Say if, for example, your tax dollars were funding an ongoing genocide and starvation campaign, wouldnt you feel a bit responsible to change that?

Imagine the returns if that wealth was invested in education and healthcare instead of yachts and empty luxury housing.