it is indeed more accurate to say that religion as we know it is backward crap..that we have been barking up the wrong tree. Sheldrake is going in an entirely different direction..where I have long suggested. full and free investigation of life to prove what is.
if there is god we should be able to prove it..or else prove whatever is there. that is my argument all along.
what we know of christian/Judy/Islam, hindu et al.... is that they are mostly crap, despite whatever good they may contributed to.
doctrinally and by representation of the gods they say they know they are violent, murderous, criminal, genocidal, elitist, backward, hierarchical and priest dominated, sexually perverted and limiting of human spirit and material and scientific development
It's not enough to just dispel the belief in religion.
It doesn't mean anything if you still don't know anything about life.
Because religion isn't really based on god. It has nothing to with god. It's based on the backwards way that people live. People's lifestyle and ego is their god.
So the majority lives backwards whether they have any religious beliefs or not.