How to tell a real freethinker

[radorth]

They describe things which are unverifiable, have little or no explanatory value, and tend to fare poorly under empirical examination. Worse, religions tend to dogmatize, so outdated and incorrect descriptions of reality tend to become frozen in time, and even become objects of idolization and worship themselves (e.g. sin and atonement in Christianity).

Well said. I get your drift, but IMO religion is in too many ways the enemy of spirituality, as Jesus and apostles said in so many ways. ("Your traditions make the word of God void.")

Paul says an even more extraordinary thing, i.e. "The strength of sin is the law." He is saying that trying to obey the law for its own sake will make you sin the more.

Yet does the religious person's fear of eternal punishment and the belief that nothing is hid from an omniscient God have a positive moral effect? Probably. We saw what happened in Communist countries where all such fears were removed. At least 70 million people died young, being worked or starved to death, or simply murdered, all in a period of 60 years. You see unspeakable brutality in the French Revolution where Robispierre & co. erected a statue labeled GODDESS OF REASON to worship, in a previously Catholic church.