This is a really good point, and one that I think a lot of non-religious people don't get. Organized religion is first and foremost a community. It's friends an

This is a really good point, and one that I think a lot of non-religious people don't get. Organized religion is first and foremost a community. It's friends and neighbors being kind to each other. It can turn toxic when that community is used to abuse people, impose bigotry, and demand blind loyalty. But that's not fundamental to the concept, and indeed many religious people and church groups don't do that. I grew up in a very tolerant, progressive Episcopalian family, for example. As a teen I went to a summer church camp where the theme for the entire week was sex and how to approach it with tolerance and wisdom. If you want to understand and guard against the awful parts of religion, you need to understand the good parts that make people participate in the first place.