Is researching into religion a waste of time?

[Sal]

Doing research into, say, the works of Shakespeare is a useful venture if you wish to learn about how a play is made, or about how one constructs a work of literature, or as a snapshot of the time period, or what sort of commentary on that time period was being made in those plays. Doing research on Shakespeare under the assumption that his works are non-fictional and relevant to how we live our lives today is a terrific waste of time. It is precisely the same with religion.

Yeah, but at least the stories in Shakespeare's plays would be more engaging and interesting than the Babble.