So your objection to religious thought is based primarily on an objection to the most hidebound and rigid forms of religious thought

But as I said to Amos - show me an example of where some religion has changed its core theology because someone convinced them that there was a better theological model.   

N.B. that I'm talking here about something core to the theology, like the nature of the deity (-ies), life after death and other bedrock stuff.   Religions change all kinds of other things - liturgy, ordaining women, positions on slavery, gay marriage, etc, in accordance with social conventions of the time.   But the core tenets of the major religions haven't changed in a thousand years.